IIT Kharagpur to invite professors, scholars from foreign varsities 11-07

IIT Kharagpur to invite professors, scholars from foreign varsities

The premier Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) will invite professors and scholars from foreign universities in addition to offering joint Doctors of Philosophy (PhDs) with leading global institutes.

IIT Kharagpur has recently launched the Shri Gopal Rajgarhia International Program under which atleast 10 professors from top international universities will visit the campus each year for few months.

According to IIT Kharagpur officials, every year around 30 global scholars will be invited for research activities at IIT Kharagpur. Currently the institute is engaged in discussions with various universities based in the United States (US), Australia, Europe and Japan for the purpose. Students of the joint PhD program will receive a doctorate from IIT Kharagpur and an international varsity. The students will pursue their studies at both the institutes. Moreover, there will be global workshops and other activities with the foreign university.

The joint program is expected to commence in January, 2015. At present, over 200 PhD degrees are granted by the IIT every year, which is expected to be increased to 400. The aim now is that around 25% of the PhDs should be joint PhDs. IIT Kharagpur will have foreign students at the campus studying for such joint PhDs, the officials added.

The institute’s alumni have also contributed in funding the initiative. According to them, lack of international exposure has resulted in IIT Kharagpur’s poor performance in global rankings. The new initiative will help IIT Kharagpur improve its ratings and carve a niche for itself in the international education arena.

In addition to student/faculty exchange programs, IIT Kharagpur is infusing a global element in its courses by offering micro-specializations with an international collaborator. IIT Kharagpur has already launched the International Summer and Winter Term (ISWT), under which students/faculty from India and overseas are participating. The subjects of the new programs are based on present-day multi-disciplinary topics of science, management, engineering and law. The program will offer an opportunity to students of other educational institutes to pursue short-term courses at IIT Kharagpur, which will be conducted by an international faculty. The program has been designed to provide a common ground for faculty as well as participants from India and overseas.

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IBM, IIM Bangalore to launch 'Tanmatra' 10-17

IBM, IIM Bangalore to launch 'Tanmatra'

'Tanmatra' Leadership Development Programme encourages women to take charge and create impact through the cross-industry program.

IBM today announced that it has collaborated with The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) and Catalyst India WRC to launch a cross-industry women’s leadership development program, ‘Tanmatra’ (means ‘potential’ in Sanskrit).

The program will leverage the best collective practical experience and research to prepare women for leadership in the Indian business community. The programme will also create a common networking platform for high-potential women. Open to organisations across the country, it will train a batch of 30 high-potential women across industries with at least 12 or more years of industry experience across a span of 10 months.

In this collaborative program, IBM is the knowledge partner, aligning to the organization’s focus on advancement of women as essential to successful business. Catalyst India WRC is the research partner, offering its research experts as part of Tanmatra’s faculty. IIM-Bangalore is the education partner, bringing to life a suite of high quality, relevant leadership modules led by world class faculty, for the cohort.

Tanmatra will be conducted at the IIM-Bangalore campus.

IIT Kharagpur, IIT Bombay, BITS Pilani join IBM's global academic initiative

IBM to introduce Cognitive Computing course to build applications infused with Watson's intelligence.

IBM today announced its partnership with Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, the Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata and Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani to introduce a Cognitive Computing course to empower India's university students to build applications infused with Watson's intelligence.

This first-of-its-kind in India, Cognitive Computing course will help students gain technical knowledge and hands-on expertise in fields such as natural language processing, machine learning and content lifecycle management that is required to develop new cognitive computing applications.

Co-designed by the Watson Group and leading academic experts in fields such as Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science, students who take the course will begin by learning through presentations and, discussions about Watson, studying its underlying technologies before switching to hands-on engagement with Watson.

Enrolled students will form a business team and together they will have access to their Watson instance via the Watson Developer Cloud. As a classroom, they will select an industry to focus on, such as retail, travel or healthcare, and work as a team to ingest relevant data into Watson and then train it. Ultimately, the students will break into sub-teams and develop prototype apps and a business plan based on their Watson industry of choice.

The initiative is part of an ongoing effort to up skill the students, expand and strengthen their understanding of Big Data and Analytics in order to meet the growing demand for highly skilled workforce- needed in today’s marketplace. IBM has been hosting Watson Case Competitions over the past year giving students a glimpse into the promise Watson holds to transform industry and professions.

In January 2014, IBM made a billion dollar investment to usher in a new era of cognitive computing. Over the past nine months, IBM has made some breakthrough discoveries and met significant milestones with new partners and clients across the world. Watson is a ground-breaking platform that represents a new era of computing based on its ability to interact in natural language, process vast amounts of disparate forms of big data and learn from each interaction.

Watson advancements has now client engagements across six continents and more than 20 countries, including India, South Africa, Australia, the U.K., Thailand, Canada and the US. Partners debuting new in-market Watson-powered apps in industries include travel, retail, IT services, healthcare and non-profits.

According to technology research firm Gartner Inc., smart machines, will be the most disruptive change ever brought about by information.

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