REVOLUTIONARY TECHNOLOGY: Governor T.N. Chaturvedi inaugurating phase 1 of the VTU MegaNet Project in Bangalore on Wednesday. Also seen are (from left) Director, SatCom, ISRO, A Bhaskaranarayana, VTU Vice-Chancellor K. Balaveera Reddy and VTU Regist rar M.S. Shivakumar. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: With the launch of the first phase of its ambitious "MegaNet" project here on Wednesday, Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) became the first in the country to network all its affiliated engineering colleges using satellite and terrestrial technologies for online education, secured examination, efficient administration and knowledge collaboration.

The mega network, launched by Governor T.N. Chaturvedi, will connect all the engineering colleges under VTU to a central data centre, from where content will be delivered and online examination conducted. This network will also allow VTU to administer, collaborate and provide other services. The project will be implemented in three phases over a period of 12 months.

The Phase-1 centralised data centre infrastructure is currently located at BSNL with an Ethernet WAN port of 10 mbps. This will be available over the web to all engineering students, who have 2 mbps access links to the Internet, across the university.

Implemented in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), BSNL, IBM, Techvoyant and Excelsoft, and conceived by VTU's e-Learning Centre at Mysore, the MegaNet project in its second phase will feature state-of-the-art infrastructure to conduct online examinations of all courses offered by VTU. The examination results will be announced almost instantaneously.

Besides, the Phase-2 closed user group network infrastructure is expected to make administration across various colleges and VTU efficient. A closed video conferencing system will be established to conduct training, counselling and administration. Other value-added services such as SMS / IVR-based automated students' result verification system, skill assessment tests, employability enhancement tests and video-based placement opportunity service will be provided in Phase-3 of the MegaNet project.

The total project cost is about Rs. 40 crore, with Rs. 22 crore contributed by VTU, ISRO and engineering colleges. VTU has sought Rs. 18 crore financial support from the State Government.

University Vice-Chancellor K. Balaveera Reddy said the MegaNet would make VTU and Karnataka a reference for other States and universities to emulate. He said VTU had already made uniform classroom and EDUSAT-based education a reality across the State. "

The VTU, Dr. Reddy said, had arranged a single examination for placement of 50,000 engineering students across the State. A committee had been formed with college placement officers and people from the industry as members. Sixth semester students could take this examination, to be held simultaneously across the State. Scores in this examination will be a big factor in recruitment.

He said VTU had established training and placement centres and entrepreneurship development cells. To improve communication skills of the students, VTU proposed to set up web-based Language Labs in the colleges, he added.

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