Hello,I am a teacher of Computer Science, from India.

Last week, i was witness to a great event which could change the face of higher education in India. For a teacher, this is a remarkable milestone. Last week, my institute, IIITMK, situated in Trivandrum, the south west-tip of india was connected through a "virtual private network" to Nagaland University in Dimapur, Nagaland. Dimapur is on the north east tip of India, some 3800 kilometres away. The idea of this link is to teach students in Dimapur by conducting lecture sessions in Trivandrum. We will use material provided by the National Programme for technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL). NPTEL is a joint programme of all the Indian Instt. of Technology and the Indian Instt. of Science (these are the best and the most advanced schools of engineering in india). Thus, students in Nagaland will get to learn from the best teachers in India, without having to leave their homes.

This technologically profound project, the brainchild of Prof. Srivathsan, the Director of IIITMK, is the first of its kind in India. It has the potential of bringing education to everyone in India, at an affordable cost. It will help us to avoid all the corruption, mismanagement and apathy with which the current University system in India is suffering. And, like Prof. Srivathsan says, it will transform the current examination oriented system to a learning oriented system. If that happens, ours will soon become a great country. It will in fact be the first time when Rabindranath Tagore's dream will come true -- "Where knowledge is free and the head is held high"

There is hope for the education system in India.

partha

It is more than a month since I joined IIITMK. How do I feel about it ? The first few days of course went in discovering this lovely sea side city. It was also an experience getting used to a new work place, new colleagues, new culture. Once the euphoria has died down, it is time to take stock and look ahead.

I noticed that in this one month I did not pick up a quarrel with anybody. I did not have to scream at anybody or bang the desk in pent up anger. Which speaks a lot about how I feel here, and about this place itself. This place is not without flaws. But these are flaws which people are sincerely trying to correct. This is such a great contrast to the four years of torture I faced in our JNTU colleges back home. How can one set of people be so methodical and professional, and another set of people be so incompetent and foolish ? How do these JNTU colleges survive and make money, in spite of all the chaos which they create and nurture, and all the dumb people they have recruited ?

I hope this feel-good mood will last for the rest of my stay here. I hope I will never have to show the other face of 'dynamite" Partha to these people. Keep your fingers crossed and taped.

partha

Here is my new coordinates....

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Dr. S. Parthasarathy          |           mailto: drpartha@gmail.com
 Indian Instt. of Information Technology and Management - Kerala
Park Centre, Technopark
Kariavottam P.O.
TRIVANDRUM 695 581 -- India
Phones : + 91 - 471 - 2700965 , 2700947
WWW-URL: http://www.iiitmk.ac.in/~drpartha/
My personal news bulletin: http://drpartha.mindsay.com/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It is almost certain now. Partha  will join soon Indian Institute of Information technology and management kerala (IIITMK) at Trivandrum. IIITMK is a small institute filled with great intellectuals. This is in sharp contrast to the private engineering colleges which Partha has seen. All these were big institutes, filled with people with small intellects. At last, the torture is over.

Partha's new address and contact details will be posted in this blog soon.

partha

I just came to learn something awesome about a friend of mine.

J Sifakis was a friend and my senior colleague at INPG Grenoble where I went to do my doctorate. He did his "these d'etat" in 1979, just a year before me. He was a real bright guy. But I did'nt know how bright he really was, till a few days ago.

A few days ago, while scanning the web I came across this incredibly big news. Sifakis was awarded the Turing Award for 2007 by ACM. the Turing Award is like the Nobel Prize. There is no  Nobel for Computer Science. Turing Award is the Nobel of computer science.

It gives a great feeling to recall that I worked, lived, walked with great scientists like Sifakis.

partha