Andhra Pradesh - Vijayawada   

Top research centre in Vijayawada soon

VIJAYAWADA: The Velagapudi Ramakrishna Siddhartha Engineering College (VRSEC) here has been selected for setting up a Centre of Relevance and Excellence (CORE) to provide industry-relevant projects and courses for students in the field of telematics.

The Rs.36-crore project will get funds mostly from the industry and partly from the Central Government, and will be open for use to students from all engineering colleges in the State and also from other parts of the country.

The primary objective of CORE is to encourage potential engineering colleges to grow vertically in focused areas and bring about structural changes in technical higher education by giving paramount importance to industry relevance. CORE will focus on telematics, as it is going to be the most dominant field with the automotive industry, which is all set to witness more dramatic and rapid progress. It will offer industry-centric projects and Ph.D. programme to eligible students from all the 330 engineering colleges in the State. The establishment of the centre is part of a grand plan that has taken shape to realise the goals set in Vision 2020 of former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, whose aim is to transform India into a developed nation. As part of this, several missions were formulated, and, consequently, Mission REACH (Relevance and Excellence in Achieving new heights in educational institutions) was launched under the leadership of the Technology Information Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

VRSEC convenor P.L.N. Prasad told The Hindu on Sunday that the facility will be constructed in a vertical model to create nearly 25,000 sq. ft of area with world-class ambience. Land will be allotted at the open ground available at VRSEC itself. VRSEC principal K.R.K. Prasad said that the TIFAC has already handed over the permission letter for setting up of the centre.

K. Sriramakrishna, professor and head of the department of ECE, would be the coordinator of the CORE. He said the Government will extend support for three years only and that the centre will have to achieve self-sufficiency by then. “With so much support coming from the industry, the centre will see rapid growth. Agilent Technologies, a US-based firm, is funding Rs. 29 crores in the form of hardware and software. Local industries like Efftronics is also extending their support,” said Prof. Sriramakrishna.

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