AMRITA-ISRO SATELLITE BASED EDUCATION & RESEARCH NETWORK

[Guest guest]

OM AMRITESWARYAI NAMAH

 

Historic Launch of AMRITA-ISRO Satellite-Based Education & Research

Network for the New Millennium

 

In a very short period, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amma's Deemed

University, has emerged as a vibrant and value-based inter-

disciplinary university offering professional courses in engineering,

management, IT, medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, computer

sciences and journalism. Headquartered at the 380-acre Ettimadai

Campus in Coimbatore, Amrita University also has campuses in Cochin,

Amritapuri and Bangalore.

 

Saturday 15 May, 2004, Amrita University is launching a major

initiative through a public-private-academia partnership: the Amrita-

ISRO Satellite-Based Education & Research Network for the New

Millennium.

 

This network, which is the first of its kind in India, will connect

the four Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham campuses, enabling, for example,

management students from Coimbatore to sit in on lectures delivered

to IT students in Bangalore, and Medical students in Cochin to avail

themselves of discourses given to engineering students in Amritapuri,

etc. The satellite link can also be used to foster cutting-edge

research in multi-disciplinary areas such as bio-engineering.

 

The initiative will also allow leading experts from around the world

to easily speak to students, academicians and researchers at multiple

locations across the country. This launch can also be seen as a

precursor for the nationwide satellite-based rural-education

initiative being pursued by Amrita University.

 

Amma has graciously given Her consent to launch the initiative by

addressing all those gathered at the four different Amrita campuses

through the satellite link. This historic moment will commence on

Saturday, 15 May 2004 at 10:30 a.m., with Amma delivering Her address

at the Amritapuri campus. The initiative will be inaugurated by Padma

Bhushan Dr. G. Madhavan Nair, the Chairman of ISRO and the secretary

of India's Department of Space. Dr. Nair will be accompanied by the

vice president and director of Cognizant Technology Solutions, Mr.

Mohan Narayan and Dr. Vaidya Nathan, respectively, as well as Mr.

Jayaramakrishnan, the vice president of Tata Consultancy Service

(TCS).

 

Addressing the launch at the Coimbatore campus will be Dr. V.S.

Ramamurthy, secretary of India's Department of Science and

Technology; Mr. Brijmohan Lal, the chairman of Hero Honda; Mr. B.V.

Jagadeesh, the CEO of Netscaler USA; Dr. Aravind Bharadwaj, the head

of the advanced engineering department at Ashok Leyland; and Mr.

Himanshu Singh, the executive director of Cadence. At Bangalore, Mr.

Balu Doraisamy, the president of HP India, and Captain Krishnan Nair,

founder and director of the Leela Group of Hotels, will be the guests

of honour. And in Cochin, Dr. S. Banerjee, the director of Bhabha

Atomic Research Centre (BARC), and Mr. B. Rajaram, MD, of Konkan

Railway, will grace the occasion.

 

This unique partnership will synergise the core competencies of

Amrita (education and research), ISRO (space technology), Cognizant,

HP and Cadence (technology solutions).

 

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Amma Sharanam