Admissions to NID may be made online

Bangalore, Nov 10 (UNI) Admissions to the National Institute of Design (NID) may soon be made online and a final decision would be taken on December two when the management met in New Delhi, its Executive Director Dr Darlie O Koshy said today.

Talking to newspersons here, he said ''the management has proposed introduction of 'Design Aptitude Test' online so that students interested to seek admission in NID can take the test sitting at home.'' Claiming that the response for the course had increased by 30 per cent since the Institute was started six years ago, he said the response was 1:15 initially, but this year it was 1:50 which meant that for every seat available, over 50 applications were received.

Dr Koshy said that as part of an ongoing linkage with the growing IT/R and D sectors in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai belt, the R and D campus in Bangalore would be launching a new Post Graduate Programme in Design for Digital Experience. ''This course rivets the focus of talented young designers on enhancing human experience in the context of designing products. The subjects covered include information kiosks, hand-held communication and navigation devices, other e-products and services like e-health, e-banking software applications and digital libraries, in the fledgling digital, electronic domain.'' The Bangalore campus would also offer Post Graduate Programme in 'Design for Retail Experience' shortly. The programme would have an integrated approach in designing products, systems and spaces to accommodate multi-sensory experience in retail and visual merchandising and it would be in the context of enhanced user experience.

Dr Koshy said ''the programme offers a challenge to redefine boundaries, understand consumer lifestyles and aspirations to visualise and create new concepts for an outstanding shopping experience.'' He said the NID had been recently listed by Business Week as one of the 25 leading design institutes across the world.

NID Senior Ergonomist and Research Group Head Dr Soumyajit Ghosal, who was also present, said the Institute had been working on six national projects, including one for Hansa. However, details could not be revealed as the projects came under classified list.

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