A memorandum of understanding (MoU) for Indo-US Inter-university Collaborative Initiative in Higher Education and Research was signed during the visit of Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh to Washington DC on July 20. In this land mark agreement six leading American universities, including the University of California campuses at Berkeley and San Diego, Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, and State University of New York at Buffalo, which are ranked among the best universities of the world, will join with Indian institutions led by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, ISRO, and Department of Science and Technology to enhance science and engineering education in India over Edusat.  Three of the leading technology companies in the world, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Cadence, will be funding this Initiative.

University leaders, corporate executives, and the Secretary of Space, the Secretary of Science and Technology, and the Indian Ambassador to the U.S  all gathered last wednesday in Washington D.C. for the signing of a three-year Memorandum of Understanding, immediately following which, they were warmly greeted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Blair House, across from the White House.

This MoU will bring the best of American university professors to Amrita. Amrita will deploy and manage its state-of-the-art e-Learning platform for delivery of interactive multimedia enriched lectures. The Professors from these Universities will take classes for a semester or two. These classes will be aired using ISRO's EDUSAT to over 250 professional colleges in India.  The DST will design the curriculum and multimedia-rich course materials.

Visiting U.S. faculty will also be encouraged to explore research collaboration with participating institutions in India. The U.S. universities have also agreed in principle to make teaching materials available on a non-exclusive basis for a new digital content library being created by AMRITA for future students.
 
The program will focus initially on engineering and computer science, information and communication technologies, but courses will also include materials science, biotechnology and bioinformatics, nanotechnology, medical sciences, and others. 

SignatoriesFrom the Indian side

Dr. G. Madhavan Nair, Secretary, Department of Space, Government of India & Chairman, Indian Space Research Organization
Prof. V. S. Ramamurthy, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India
Dr. P. Venkat Rangan, Vice Chancellor, Amrita University. 

>From the US University side

Hunter Rawlings, President, Cornell University, Ithaca,
New YorkShankar Sastry, Director, CITRIS, University of California at Berkeley
Gretchen Kalonji, Director, International Programs, Office of the President Oakland, California
Frieder Seibel, Dean of Engineering, University of California San Diego
Pradeep Khosla, Dean of Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Satish Tripathi Provost & Executive Vice-President, University at Buffalo, New York Mark
Hans, School of Dental Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio 

Corporate Partners

Irwin Jacobs, CEO of Qualcomm Inc
Ravi Venkatesan, CEO, Microsoft India
Deependar Saluja, Corporate Vice President, Cadence Design Systems

For more details please have a look at 
1. University of california http://www.calit2.net/articles/article.php?id=644
2. AMRITA University http://www.amrita.edu/news/us-mou.htm
3. NewKerala http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=8301
4. The Hindu http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/19/stories/2005071906211200.htm
5. Economic Times http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1180461.cms
 
------------------------------
Manju Vijayakumar
AMRITA University
Amritapuri Campus Library
Kollam, KERALA

__________________________________________________
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A memorandum of understanding (MoU) for Indo-US Inter-university Collaborative Initiative in Higher Education and Research was signed during the visit of Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh to Washington DC on July 20. In this land mark agreement six leading American universities, including the University of California campuses at Berkeley and San Diego, Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, and State University of New York at Buffalo, which are ranked among the best universities of the world, will join with Indian institutions led by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, ISRO, and Department of Science and Technology to enhance science and engineering education in India over Edusat.  Three of the leading technology companies in the world, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Cadence, will be funding this Initiative.
University leaders, corporate executives, and the Secretary of Space, the Secretary of Science and Technology, and the Indian Ambassador to the U.S  all gathered last wednesday in Washington D.C. for the signing of a three-year Memorandum of Understanding, immediately following which, they were warmly greeted by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Blair House, across from the White House.
This MoU will bring the best of American university professors to Amrita. Amrita will deploy and manage its state-of-the-art e-Learning platform for delivery of interactive multimedia enriched lectures. The Professors from these Universities will take classes for a semester or two. These classes will be aired using ISRO's EDUSAT to over 250 professional colleges in India.  The DST will design the curriculum and multimedia-rich course materials.
Visiting U.S. faculty will also be encouraged to explore research collaboration with participating institutions in India. The U.S. universities have also agreed in principle to make teaching materials available on a non-exclusive basis for a
new digital content library being created by AMRITA
for future students
.
 
The program will focus initially on engineering and computer science, information and communication technologies, but courses will also include materials science, biotechnology and bioinformatics, nanotechnology, medical sciences, and others.
Signatories
>From the Indian side
Dr. G. Madhavan Nair, Secretary, Department of Space, Government of India & Chairman, Indian Space Research Organization
Prof. V. S. Ramamurthy, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India
Dr. P. Venkat Rangan, Vice Chancellor, Amrita University.
>From the US University side
Hunter Rawlings, President, Cornell University, Ithaca,
New YorkShankar Sastry, Director, CITRIS, University of California at Berkeley
Gretchen Kalonji, Director, International Programs, Office of the President Oakland, California
Frieder Seibel, Dean of Engineering, University of California San Diego
Pradeep Khosla, Dean of Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Satish Tripathi Provost & Executive Vice-President, University at Buffalo, New York Mark
Hans, School of Dental Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio
Corporate Partners
Irwin Jacobs, CEO of Qualcomm Inc
Ravi Venkatesan, CEO, Microsoft India
Deependar Saluja, Corporate Vice President, Cadence Design Systems
For more details please have a look at
1. University of california  http://www.calit2.net/articles/article.php?id=644 http://www.calit2.net/articles/article.php?id=644
2. AMRITA University http://www.amrita.edu/news/us-mou.htm http://www.amrita.edu/news/us-mou.htm
3. NewKerala http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=8301 http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=8301
4. The Hindu http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/19/stories/2005071906211200.htm http://www.hindu.com/2005/07/19/stories/2005071906211200.htm
5. Economic Times http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1180461.cms http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1180461.cms
 
------------------------------
Manju Vijayakumar
AMRITA University
Amritapuri Campus Library
Kollam, KERALA
__________________________________________________
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