IIIT-B to set up more centres

BANGALORE: Information technology (IT) educational institute Indian Institute

of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B) promoted jointly by the Karnataka

Government and the IT industry is planning to open centres in Mysore, Dharwad

and Mangalore.

Addressing a press conference IIIT-B chairman N. Vishwanathan said, the

planned centres will serve as sub-branches of the IIIT-B located at

International Technology Park Limited (ITPL), Whitefield near here. He also said

that, currently the location at ITPL was temporary and that they have sought the

government to give 100 acres land to establish a campus. As part of future

plans, IIIT-B will launch a doctoral programme and at present it is offering

only the post-graduate courses in IT. A course for practising managers and a

summer programme for engineering college teachers are also being formulated, he

said.

The Government of Karnataka has committed a grant of Rs 10 crore in the

estimated Rs 50 crore project while the industry has contributed Rs 8 crore. The

institution was set up in 1999 for providing 18 months IT training for graduate

engineers. Companies such as Novell, Cisco, Sun, Microsoft, IBM, and Adobe have

programmes at the institute where students work on separate real-life projects.

IIIT-B currently with 136 students plans to increase its strength to 200 - 250.

It is also planning a summer course for 50 lecturers from 91 engineering

colleges in the country.