HP to spruce up Manipal campus

BANGALORE: Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) has signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with HP India Sales Ltd for enhancing the campus experience of students and to support creation of 'a Center of Excellence in Pharmacogenomics' at Manipal Campus.

Speaking on the occasion, D.A.Prasanna, Member Board of Management Manipal, said, " The campus computing initiative includes setting up "Hotspots" on the campus; new Imaging and Printing solutions and creating a Network Management Lab at Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT).

The high end computing center is expected to evolve into a innovation center in alliance with HP expertise and the center is expected to come up on a one lakh sq. feet of land in the campus complete with new age technologies, he said.

Said Balu Doraisamy, President, HP India, "We are pleased that MAHE has chosen HP to enhance the on-campus computing experience of its students. We look forward to furthering the relationship in the education sector by deploying HP technology that will be easy to use, enhance teaching experience and help in cultivating as strong learning environment at the universities."

As per the deal, HP would design and set up wireless (Wi-Fi) hot spots across the Manipal campus enabling Internet access whether through handheld or other mobile devices like Laptops. These initiatives will enable students to work in a mobile environment and enhance adoption of mobile solutions.

He also said that they plan to set up a campus-wide Network Management Lab that monitors and manages the entire "Manipal" network. A unique course in being designed on Network and Systems Infrastructure Management whose curriculum is based on the ITSM global standards. This would allow the MIT students for 'hands-on' project opportunity, to work on HP's 'Open View' technology and enhance industry-academy participation.

For Imaging and Printing solutions, Manipal Press is working towards adopting HP's "Indigo" technology, which will be incorporated in the syllabi of MIT, which offers Printing and Media Engineering at Manipal.

Besides, the MoU also includes leveraging HP technology for their Center of Excellence (CoE) in Pharmacogenomics, a new medial research initiative by KMC Life Sciences Center, which will research new pharma and biotech products, using genomics platform. CoE will deploy HP's high performance servers, data storage devices, scientific software and professional consulting services for their complex genomic research analysis.

The project duration is expected to vary from 3-5 years and the first phase of the project is expected to cost Rs 5 crores.

CIOL Bureau