Reinventing Information Technology

Updated on: Sunday, February 06, 2011

University of Petroleum & Energy Studies (UPES) and IBM have signed a definitive agreement that will reinvent the Information Technology (IT) education in India, at the graduation level. They are coming together to launch a series of new, futuristic Bachelor of Technology (B Tech) courses which are industry-aligned.

As a part of the agreement, UPES and IBM India will partner to up-skill students by introducing ‘B.Tech in IT courses’ on the technologies which are in most demand in the IT industry and the emerging growth industries of Oil & Gas, Retail, Healthcare and Insurance. In addition, the courses will focus on addressing the skills demand for experts in the areas of Open Source Software and Open Standards, with live industry relevant projects for the students.

The four full-time ‘B.Tech in IT courses’ to be offered in the first phase of this agreement, include specialisations in:

·Oil & Gas Informatics

·Mainframe Technology

·Cloud Computing & Virtualisation Technologies

·Open Source Software & Industry Vertical Domain Open Standards

The Innovation Centre for Open Standards (iCos), an online platform, will be the underlying framework for the engagement between IBM and UPES for the delivery of the courses. The IBM iCos platform links students' project based learning with IT industry mentors and subject matter experts. The platform will work as a support tool and will be seamlessly integrated to the UPES faculty to deliver the courses to the students.

Dr Parag Diwan, vice chancellor of UPES says “IBM and UPES share a common goal - to ensure that the next generation of students have access to the right curriculum and delivery model, that will help them be more competitive when they enter the workforce. This agreement opens up the modernization of IT and Computer Science education as well as their applications in different vertical domains.”

UPES will deliver the course from their Dehradun campus, using all the learning models such as face to face, on-line, state of the art lab facility, print based, self learning.

Alok Ohrie, director of Systems and Technology Group, IBM India/SA says, ‘Academia, through initiatives like these, can help students to enhance their learning by bringing together the best of the traditional curriculum and current trends in technology specific course materials – which will help build smarter skills. It’s a whole new thinking, and a cutting edge approach to technology meritocracy.”

Reinventing Information Technology

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