EU-India initiative will allow them to access lab facilities in Germany, Spain, Chennai, Madurai via internet.

Kanpur, October 11: Lack of facilities at their college laboratory should no longer be a hindrance for engineering students who were at a loss so far about where to try out their innovative ideas.

The European Union-India Cross Cultural Programme has taken the initiative to set up an International Virtual Laboratory in mechatronics. Under the initiative, four laboratories have been established at the Julius Maximilians University of Wurzburg in Germany, the University of Carlos III in Spain, Anna University in Chennai and Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai. This will allow students to control robots there and learn the basics of robotics, via the internet.

A road show in this regard was organised at IIT-Kanpur today at which project director Klaus Schilling was also present. Tele-education in robotics is the topic of the road show organized by the Julius Maximilians University in association with The European Union Delegation for India, the German Embassy in New Delhi and the Ministry of Science and Education in Germany.

Similar road shows will also be held at New Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Madurai, Chennai, Coimbatore and Roorkee.

Schilling said today that tele-experiments related to modeling, navigation sensors and control of mobile robots could now be done by students over the internet. He said once a student passes a test assessing his knowledge and interests, he would become a member of the International Virtual Laboratory. The student would be given a login name and password enabling him to perform experiments in any of the four labs over the internet.

The project director said the road shows would “demonstrate advanced technology aspects in tele-operating robot hardware in Germany from India via internet to support learning in robotics”.

Prawal Sinha, the Dean of Student Affairs at IIT-K, said IITs were already running virtual classrooms through which students from any part of the world could access the teaching at IIT classrooms.

But he added: “Virtual laboratory is a step ahead. It would greatly benefit students and also the client institution.”

Sinha said such virtual laboratories cost crores to establish, adding that “the EU-India initiative would provide best experiment facilities to the students at a very low cost.”

He said institutions or interested students could get a licence from any of the four laboratories to use the facilities.

M Salichs, a professor at the University of Carlos, said many experiments relating to construction of robots, climbing robots and personal robots could be done over the internet. “Students could even get theoretical knowledge and test questions apart from experimenting with real robots,” he said.

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In order to make India a knowledge superpower, there has to be major reforms in the education system first. To this effect, the National Knowledge Commission (NKC) will soon submit a set of 10 recommendations to the Prime Minister’s Office, including one on reforms in higher education.

According to NKC chairman Sam Pitroda, the Commission touched on issues like people-friendly portals; reforms in primary, secondary and higher education; protecting traditional knowledge base; and incentives to youngsters for innovations and entrepreneurship. "The recommendations will be finalised in 60 to 90 days and are at an advanced stage of discussion," he said at an interactive session organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry here on Wednesday.

Among the recommendations are GIS mapping of the country on a website; and setting up portals on water, energy, environment, knowledge network, higher education, intellectual property rights, traditional knowledge and health issues. "This will enhance our knowledge base and bring more transparency in government," Pitroda explained.

The chairman, however, said the recommendations on higher education may prove controversial. "When we spoke on reservations, there were all types of allegations against us. I anticipate a similar storm when we submit our recommendations. But we are not afraid to break barriers," he said.

The NKC is likely to suggest starting English lessons from an early stage, increasing the number of universities to over 1,500, more private participation in education, more regulatory mechanisms to improve the quality of education, and structural reforms in educational institutions. "Degrees issued in Bihar and Chhattisgarh are of no value whereas IIM and IIT graduates are considered the best in the world. Such anomalies need to be removed to realise India's true knowledge powerhouse," Pitroda said.

Pointing out that only seven per cent of children in the country go for higher education, Pitroda said: "We need to increase enrollment to 18 per cent in the next five years." He sought a target access to knowledge through eight main areas — "literacy, reservations, affirmatory programmes, libraries, languages, translation, networks and portals are the key areas". He said he felt India could create half a million translation jobs in three to four years if the government took the initiative.

Pitroda identified agriculture, health, small and medium industries, and traditional knowledge as areas for application of knowledge. Referring to the Foundation for Revitalization, set up in Bangalore to document 12,000 indigenous medical plants, he said: "More such independent efforts are required. We cannot leave everything to the government."

The Commission has five focus points — access to knowledge, concepts, knowledge creation, services and applications. "We intend to modernise these as per the needs of the 21st century, education being one little subset with the main focus on knowledge as a broader prospect."

India's foreign exchange reserves have risen to $ 150 billion from $ 2 billion in just two decades because it is seen as a knowledge powerhouse.

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The faculty of Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, would provide education via satellite to various technical and engineering institutes in Uttar Pradesh.

The project has got the green signal from the state government and a team of professors from IIT and Harcort Butler Technical Institute (HBTI), Kanpur, are busy giving final shape to it.

The faculty members will deliver lectures and answer queries of students sitting even at far-flung areas using video-conferencing technology, a member of the project and Head of the Department of Computer Science, IIT Kanpur, Phalguni Gupta said.

He said 15 engineering institutions of the state will be taken up in the first phase of the project out of which 10 colleges will be from the private sector and the remaining government run institutions.

Gupta said teachers of IIT and HBTI were preparing schedule of all subjects which will be directly beamed to class rooms of engineering institutions via satellite.

There are 210 engineering institutions in the state but there is a shortage of faculty with necessary expertise. As a result, students passing out of these institutions were faring well in competitive exams, he said.

A centre would be set up at HBTI, Kanpur for this tele-education plan and professors of IIT Kanpur senior staff members of other technical institutions would also be invited for delivering lecturers, he said.

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