INDIAN ENGINEERING EDUCATION - CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
| Author: | Loretta McKinniss |
|---|---|
| Event Date: | November 19, 2009 |
| Speaker: | Vedhathiri Thanikachalam |
| Speaker Affiliation: | National Institute for Technical Teachers Training and Research, Chennai, India |
| Time: | 3:30-4:30pm |
| Location: | FRNY B124 |
| Open To: | Faculty, Staff, Students and Visitors |
In the next 15 years, 150 million people are expected to join the workforce in India. The initiatives taken in 1991 to globalize the Indian economy have resulted in rapid growth of the software industry, the manufacturing industry, and the service industry. This has created more demand for engineers, managers, and technicians. Through private participation of entrepreneurs, the supply of engineers and other scientific personnel have increased to significantly. Considering the demand for designers, researchers and product developers, the private institutes are not able to meet the demands. Hence the Government of India has made massive public investments in creating new Indian Institutes of Technology, Indian Institutes of Information Technology and Research, Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, National Institutes of Technology, and Central Universities. The government of India has also opened the door for foreign universities to start programs in collaboration with Indian institutions in part to help address the acute shortage of competent senior faculty. There are many challenges in creating the research and educational infrastructure required to support the globalized Indian economy.
Biography
Dr.V.Thanikachalam possess a B.E. in Civil Engineering (1968) and a M.Tech in Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering (1970) from IIT Madras. He holds a Ph.D. in Filter Design from the University of Madras (1988) and a MS degree in Information Systems Technology from Indiana University, Bloomington. He is a Fellow of Institution of Engineers (India), a Fellow of the Indian Geo-technical Society, and a former Fulbright Scholar. He is currently a Professor and Department Head at the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research in Chennai, India. He was a nodal officer in World Bank assisted projects in Technician Education in India (1992 to 2007). His areas of current research are globalization of Indian engineering education, administration of engineering education, industry specific curricula in engineering, institutional development, and learning organizations. He has successfully completed externally funded development projects under the Asian Development Bank, UNDP, UNESCO, and the World Bank. He has conducted more than 200 faculty development programs.