The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Varsity launches nanotechnology course

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 13, 2007
ePaper

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Varsity launches nanotechnology course

Staff Reporter

Programme to commence this year with Rs. 10-crore CIPET assistance

ACHIEVERS ALL: Anna University Vice-Chancellor D. Viswanathan congratulates rank holders. — PHOTO: M. Vedhan

CHENNAI: Anna University has become the first institute in the country to introduce a masters' programme in nanotechnology, Vice-Chancellor D. Viswanathan said at the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering Technology (CIPET) here on Friday.

Delivering the convocation address, he said the programme would commence this year with a Rs. 10 crore assistance from the Central Government.

Nano-composite materials have a variety of applications, including solar energy, packaging and insulation.

The Vice-Chancellor later gave away degree certificates to the first batch of M. Tech. students to have passed out from CIPET, which introduced the postgraduate programme in plastics engineering in 2004. Use of plastic, a non-biodegradable substance, was on the increase.

In India alone, the amount of plastic used in a year had shot up from 1.8 million tonnes in 1995 to about 5 million tonnes currently.

Among the recycling possibilities it offered were `plastic roads', said Dr. Viswanathan.

The M. Tech. programme is being run in affiliation with the Anna University and would provide trained managerial-level manpower to the plastic industry, said a press note.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail