The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : KU nod for research centre

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 29, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

KU nod for research centre

G. Mahadevan

V. Prasannakumar will be the honorary director
It will manage and analyse spatial data

Thiruvananthapuram: The Syndicate of the University of Kerala has unanimously cleared the setting up of a Centre for Geo-Information Science and Technology, a centre of excellence that will manage and analyse spatial data for scientific and socio-economic purposes. Head of the Geology Department V. Prasannakumar will be the honorary director of the centre.

Kerala University Vice-Chancellor M.K. Ramachandran Nair said here that the establishment of the centre would give a qualitative boost to research and extension activities of the university.

“Coming as it does before the re-accreditation by the NAAC next year, the centre will play a critical role in the attempts by the university to get a better rating this time. The Syndicate has also decided to congratulate Dr. PRasannakumar for his efforts in bringing over the Centre. This is perhaps the single biggest project that the university has ever had,” he said.

The centre will initially function out of the building on the Kariavattom campus that once housed the Department of Biotechnology.

Later it will shift to the new block that would be added to the building where the Department of Geology is located. According to Dr. Nair, the varsity has plans to construct a new ‘science block’ at Karivattom to tackle the space crunch in many science departments on the campus.

The centre has put in place research programmes that will involve the Departments of Geology, Computer Science, Zoology and the Population Research Centre of the university.

“There is a two-tier mechanism for guidance and monitoring – one at the Kerala State Council for Science Technology and Environment level and the other at the University level – meetings will be held soon and formally the functioning will be launched,” Dr. Prasannakumar explained in a e-mail on Sunday.

The centre will aim to promote the creation, use and exchange of relevant spatial information resources. A training workshop – with experts from the Natural Resources Data Management System, a wing of the Department of Science and Technology – would be organised shortly.

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