IBM to set up 75 new centres of excellence in Engineering colleges

Updated on: Tuesday, June 22, 2010

IBM today announced establishment of 75 new Centres of Excellence (CoE) in engineering colleges across 60 cities in the country.

The announcement was in addition to 75 CoEs set up last year, taking the total to 150 by the end of 2010 and spread across 20 states. These CoEs would be at engineering colleges selected from top 300 institutions in the country, IBM said in a statement here.

The IBM CoEs are aimed at creating a platform for the development of software skills among the students and also give them the opportunity to acquire new skill sets IBM software as well as help them develop world-class business solutions. In addition to extending high-quality education on emerging technologies through these CoEs, IBM was also planning to bring its Global Entrepreneurship Initiative (GEI) to some of these colleges. This initiative helps start-up capture new business opportunities by providing access to technology resources from IBM.

Himanshu Goyal, Country Manager-Academic Initiative, Developer works and Globalisation for IBM India/South Asia, said ''Apart from providing training, certification and software which is free of charge to these colleges, IBM plans to take the CoEs to the next logical level of converting them into Incubation Centres, to bolster software skills and ensure industry-ready professionals.'' Under this concept, the company aims to work towards creating a bridge between the industry and academia by creating a programme where industry can use the CoE set up and the certified resources in the college to create innovative software projects and proof of concepts, he added.

Last year, the CoEs were launched at engineering colleges in Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.

IBM to set up 75 new centres of excellence in Engineering colleges

More Education news