CHENNAI: An unlikely partnership could provide a major fillip to scientific research in Tamil Nadu.
Leading US engineering school Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) on Wednesday announced that it will, in collaboration MARG Swarnabhoomi, set up a premier research centre in the industrial and services township state.
The Institute of Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS), which will be launched on Friday, will conduct research in sustainable energy in its first phase and later focus on nanotechnology, cognitive radio communications and molecular and cellular biology, Virginia Tech president W Steger said at a press conference attended by MARG Group chairman and managing director G R K Reddy.
Virginia Tech planned to tap into the trend of American and European universities opening campuses in Asia by setting up the first campus of an American university in Tamil Nadu. It deferred the project pending the introduction of the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operation) Bill in Parliament and decided to set up a research centre for now.
The 6,000sqft campus will come up in Swarnabhoomi's
SEZ off ECR, 75km from Chennai. A lead scientist with experience of more than 10 years will head a team of postdoctoral researchers and students at the Centre. "We have hired two scientists so far, one of whom is a Virginia Tech alumnus," a Virginia Tech official said. "In three years, we hope to appoint 28 staff members."
Academics believe the centre will benefit Indian researchers.
"Virginia Tech is known to be a good engineering institution," Several IIT students have gone there and done well," IIT- Madras director Bhaskar Ramamurthi said. But he noted that nowhere in the world does industry fund research in a big way unless it is for purposes of business.
"Both in India and the US, most research is funded by the government," he said. "If the proposed centre gets industry funding, that will be a good sign. But they are likely to have fixed targets."
Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com