Invitation for the Inaugural Function . An Education Grid link is being established between Trivandrum in Kerala and Dimapur in Nagaland. RailTel Corporation of India will provide the bandwidth for this link in the Railways Optical Fiber Network. This is the first point to point educational collaboration in the country using terrestrial link. It will be the longest link in India spanning over 2,800 Kms. The link is to be inaugurated on 12th July 2008 and will be used by both the institutions to offer joint educational programmes and capacity building in different subject areas.

IIITM-K's Education Grid development has been paralleling the development of content under the NPTEL (National Programme in Technology Enhanced Learning) that is being executed by the IITs and IISc. While NPTEL develops content, Education Grid provides a disciplined way of using such content in the education and capacity building programs in the colleges, affiliating universities and institutions. Further, Education Grid systems and processes are well developed to facilitate innovation in content and web resources development, in designing/deploying effective instructional methods and instruction/evaluation management that nurture and support better quality in our higher education. With some adaptations it may also be implemented for quality school education.

The two-day symposium and workshop will include distinguished lectures in frontline areas of computer science and programming models, computer science & IT education, and a hands on workshop on technology enhanced learning for college teachers, instructors and anyone else interested IT enhanced science and engineering education. This workshop will be on 17th and 18th of December, 2007 and will be at JRD Tata Auditorium, TCS, Technopark, Trivandrum.

IIITMK signed an MoU with Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) to for joint e-content development and offering technology enhanced eduction to provide high quality open learning programs in advanced topics such as Computational Chemistry, Scientific Computing, Computational Sciences, Advanced Informatics and Technology Enhanced Learning. IIITMK along with IGNOU will explore opportunities for education and training of teachers employed in the engineering colleges and higher educational institutions leading to the award of proficiency certificates and certified instructors in specific subjects and offer Post Graduate Diplomas in Technology Enhanced Learning. Under the MOU, as a first step, IIITM-K and IGNOU will be offering a joint Portal-based Certificate courses and Post Graduate Diploma program in the area of Computational Chemistry using the already developed Computational Chemistry Portal (www.compchem.in) and Education Grid of IIITM-K. The course contents will be developed under joint supervision of faculty members from IGNOU, IIITMK, with the help of selected experts from IITs, IISc-Bangalore, University of Hyderabad, Pune University and others.

IIITMK has signed an MOU withNNagaland Universityyto collaborate, develop, innovate, establish and commission various systems, processes and conduct capacity building exercises related to effective deployment and practice of technology enhanced learning and teaching methods using NPTEL content in the BPUT and its affiliate colleges. It is aimed at improving the quality of education offered in the colleges very substantially. Under the MOU,Nagaland University and IIITMK will work jointly to Establish the Education Grid systems and processes across theNagaland University and its affiliate colleges. The two will launch capacity building programs in theNagaland University and its colleges targeted at training the teachers and staff in the effective use of technology enhanced learning and teaching. This is the first time Education Grid of IIITM-K is being deployed for a technical university in the country.

Digital Empowerment Foundations' Manthan Award jurors had selected the Kerala Education Grid initiative for the award. Manthan Award is the Indian Chapter of the World Summit for Information Society (WSIS).  This award is given to several initiatives in India that have showcased imaginatively and practically bridging the digital divide through e-content and its use.

The Kerala Education Grid by Prof. KR Srivathsan of the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Kerala aims to create a network of educational institutions across Kerala and eventually the whole of India. It has already setup a core of four resource centers across Kerala.

Soft Computing is a discipline that deals with the design of hybrid intelligent systems, which is in contrast to classical hard computing technique. A consortium of computing methodologies that provides a foundation for the conception, design, and deployment of intelligent systems and aims to formalize the human ability to make rational decisions in an environment of uncertainty, imprecision, partial truth, and approximation. Fuzzy Techniques play a remarkable role in soft computing and this workshop concentrates more on role of Fuzzy systems in real world applications.

The workshop is intended to apprise the teachers and management of the engineering colleges in Kerala and Tamil Nadu on the ways by which they can use the authentic e-content being developed by all the IITs and IISc under the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning. The colleges stand much to gain from the e-content being made available under NPTEL with e-learning systems and instructional processes being developed under the Education Grid initiative of IIITM-K .