December 7, 2005
Purdue joins Indian network for higher education and research
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University will take part in the Indo-U.S. Inter-University Collaborative Initiative in Higher Education and Research that will be launched Thursday (Dec. 8) at the presidential palace in New Delhi by Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.
In this agreement, Purdue joins 19 leading American universities, including Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley; and in India, Mata Amritanandamayi Center's Amrita University and the government of India, for active collaboration in higher education and research.
Also signing the agreement are Princeton University, Yale University, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the University of Washington, the University of Texas at Austin, the State University of New York at Buffalo, Cornell University, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of North Dakota, the University of Maryland, the University of Michigan and the University of California campuses at Los Angeles, San Diego and Santa Cruz.
Three international corporations – Microsoft Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and Cadence Design Systems – will also be part of the network.
"The program holds great promise of taking advantage of the tremendous synergy between the United States and India, making it possible for American universities to use their faculty to teach and guide research at hundreds of colleges and universities in India via Amrita University's e-learning setup and India's exclusive educational satellite, EDUSAT," said Venkat Rangan, vice chancellor at Amrita University in India, who was a former computer science professor at the University of California, San Diego.
The program will include advanced technology areas, such as engineering and computer science, information technology, materials science, biotechnology and nanotechnology, health sciences, management sciences, media and other areas. The program will also introduce U.S. faculty to potential research partnerships in India.
The United States university delegation includes distinguished academic leaders such as Venky Narayanamurti, dean of engineering of Harvard University; and Frieder Seible, dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. Nagabhushana Prabhu, professor and interim head of industrial engineering at Purdue, is representing Purdue's dean of the College of Engineering, Linda Katehi, at the agreement signing.
Writer: Kim Medaris, (765) 494-6998, kmedaris@purdue.edu
Sources: Prashant R. Nair, senior lecturer of information technology and media contact at Amrita University, r_prashant@amrita.edu
Nagabhushana Prabhu, (765) 494-5421, prabhu@purdue.edu
Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu
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