IBM to launch 75 new Centers of Excellence across engineering colleges in India
By siliconindia   |   Monday, 21 June 2010, 21:23 IST
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Bangalore: IBM announced that it will be establishing 75 new Centers of Excellence (CoE) at engineering colleges across 60 cities in India. In 2009, IBM had set up over 75 such CoEs across the country and today's announcement will take the total number of CoEs around the country to 150 by end-2010. These new CoEs will be spread across 20 states and will be selected from the top 300 engineering colleges in the country. The IBM CoEs are aimed at creating a platform for the development of software skills among the students and also gives them the opportunity to acquire new skill sets around 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 in colleges, IBM also plans to bring its Global Entrepreneurship Initiative (GEI) to some of these colleges. This initiative helps start-ups capture new business opportunities by providing access to technology resources from IBM. "Under this concept, the company aims to work towards creating a bridge between the industry and academia by creating a program where industry can use the CoE set up and the certified resources in the college to create innovative software projects and proof of concepts," commented Himanshu Goyal, Country Manager - Academic Initiative, Developer Works & Globalization, IBM India. IBM's Academic Initiative, under which these CoEs are being launched, has been ensuring certified and industry-ready software professionals, hitherto producing nearly 10,000 certified candidates from the various CoEs. The number is expected to increase by 6000 certified candidates in 2010. The program will mentor students and enable them create commercially viable projects that can tap market opportunities. Through its GEI program, IBM will select few projects based on their feasibility and provide guidance to take them to market and build sustainable business for the inventor/entrepreneurs. Last year, the CoEs were launched at several engineering colleges in the states of Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan, among others. The CoE is an outgrowth of IBM's Academic Initiative which covers more than 2,000 colleges and universities around the world -- a global model committed to driving evolving open standards-based IT skills. Under the initiative, IBM partners closely with the local government and academia to create an enabling environment by allowing access to IBM software, course materials, training and curriculum development, helping India become an innovators' nation by investing in skills development and technology enablement, empowering future workers with the right skills to be able to compete in the larger global workforce.

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