Andhra Pradesh   

AU ventures into emerging areas

Sumit Bhattacharjee

In tune with the growing demand for specialised courses, especially in the engineering stream, Andhra University has launched a string of new courses covering various emerging areas.

Justifying the move principal of Andhra University College of Engineering, Allam Appa Rao, says, "Today employers all over the globe look for students who are skilled in certain areas. Research and development has become part and parcel of every industry and there is tremendous thrust in this sector. So, unless one is professionally trained in specialised areas it would be difficult to stay tuned in the global race for excellence. Keeping this in mind we have introduced a couple of courses at the M.Tech level like nano technology, bio-informatics and M-planning."

Bio-informatics

It is an emerging field that deals with the application of computers to the collection, analysis, manipulation, presentation, and sharing of biological data. In simple terms it can be defined as `converting data to knowledge'. "It is estimated that the field is going to be a 50 to 500 billion USD industry shortly. The stakes are high in this sector. This is a multi-disciplinary area that covers a lot of subjects from pure biology to computer programming.

The university also got a sanction of Rs. 2 crore from University Grant Commission to make it a centre of excellence. The centre will fuse with the department of nano technology and collaborate with S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences on the research front. The department has already embarked on a research project with leading endocrinologist G. Sreedhar to study the phylogeny of BchE (butryl cholenoestrase) a protein that has a role to play in diabetes.

Nano technology

This inter-disciplinary course has begun this year at AU. The university also happens to be the first to start a postgraduate course in the country. According to Prof. Allam Appa Rao, nano technology is considered not only to be an emerging area but it is also futuristic.

M-planning

The masters programme in planning was introduced by the Department of Architecture. It is a self-financed course with special focus on environmental issues. The subject areas cover topics like land use planning, natural resource management, infrastructure planning, urban management, environmental economics, environmental impact assessment and policies legislation and technologies.

For M-planning one has to hold a bachelor's degree in architecture, civil engineering or planning. As far as bio-informatics and nano technology are concerned, all B. Tech students from any stream of engineering except civil engineering can apply. The qualifying element is the score in GATE.

Though admissions for this year is over B.Tech graduates can look for the next year and login into

www.andhrauniversity.info for more information.

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