Carnegie Mellon Faculty to Support E-Learning Program in India
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Carnegie Mellon Faculty to Support E-Learning Program in India

Six American universities, including Carnegie Mellon, have signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with India's Space Research Organization (ISRO), its Department of Science and Technology, India's Amrita University, Microsoft India Pvt. Ltd., Qualcomm and Cadence to support and participate in an e-learning educational program that virtually connects four learning centers in different states of India. The EDUSAT program, developed by ISRO and Amrita, will focus on improving education in India in the disciplines of computer science, engineering, information technology, electronics and communication, manufacturing, bioinformatics and healthcare.

In addition to Carnegie Mellon, university partners in the U.S. include the University of California, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at San Diego, Cornell University and the University of Buffalo. The universities have agreed to encourage their faculty to participate in the distance-learning program allowing them "to use their teaching and research material and related content for inclusion in the digital content library being created for future use by students."

"The proposed program holds great promise of taking advantage of the tremendous synergy between the United States and India, and makes it possible to build a truly ambitious education system in advanced technology areas for the growth of the nation [India]," the memorandum states. "The program also ensures quick and simultaneous delivery of lecture sessions to undergraduate and postgraduate level college and university students and for teachers training all over India using the ISRO satellite network and to the e-learning facilities at Amrita."

Provost and Senior Vice President Mark Kamlet signed the MOU on behalf of Carnegie Mellon during a July 20 meeting in Washington, D.C., with India Prime Minister Mammohan Singh.

Bruce Gerson
July 21, 2005



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