Indo-US engineering education collaboration meeting

Bangalore, June 15 (UNI) An Indo-US Engineering Faculty Institute will soon be in place to encourage more US students to take interest in engineering studies and to enhance the engineering faculty in India.

The decision was taken at a brain storming session recently held at Mysore campus of Software major Infosys. The Faculty Institute would aim to help improve the preparedness of a large number of faculty in the engineering colleges in both the countries to address the needs of the global economy, according to a release issued on the Mysore forum meeting held recently.

The four thrust areas of the Institute would be curriculum and delivery, quality and accreditation, research and development and innovation and entrepreneurship.

''Cross cutting themes for these thrust areas are industry needs and global relevance'' the release said and added another outcome could be the development of an Indo-US Engineering Student Network for facilitating student internships and interactions as well as providing students access to high quality learning materials. The Student Network would be linked to the Global Student Forum currently sponsored by American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and International Federation of Engineering Education Societies (IFEES).

Mysore forum was attended by representatives of the ASEE and the newly formed Indo-US Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE) and it's goal was to develop an action plan for improving the quality and global relevance of engineering education in both countries.

The participants were concerned with the lack of interest in science and engineering in the US, the inadequate preparation of engineering graduates in India, the shortage of students pursuing PhD programs in engineering in India. The need to encourage and support women and under-represented minorities in engineering careers in both countries that also observed in the forum.

They discussed several successful and promising models of collaborations which have potential for scaling up. The preliminary recommendations from the Mysore Forum would be developed further at the second Forum which will be held at the National Academy of Engineering in Washington DC on August 29 to 31, 2007, the release added.

UNI