Bengaluru’s RVCE & Cisco launch CoE for Internet of Things

By Nandita Singh

BENGALURU: As part of Country Digitization Acceleration Program for India that includes a range of initiatives spanning Digital India, Skill India, Make in India, Start-up India, Smart Cities and Cyber Security, Nasdaq-listed ICT major Cisco launched a (CoE) for Internet of Things (IoT) at the RV College of Engineering (RVCE) in Bengaluru.

Jointly launched with RVCE, the CoE is located at the RVCE campus in Bengaluru, and was inaugurated on April 3, 2017 by Gaurav Gupta, Principal Secretary at the Department of IT, BT and S&T, Karnataka, along with VC Gopalratnam, SVP-IT and CIO - International, Cisco. It will provide next generation of students the digital skills and training necessary for 21^st century knowledge economy jobs, addressing the skill gaps that India needs to bridge to transition to digital economy.

The CoE is slated to offer several technology courses ranging from one to four weeks to six months to a year tailored to suit the requirement of students and working professionals. Short-term courses will be available on weekends and evenings during the week. On completion of the course, students and working professionals will receive credential certificates jointly given by RVCE and Cisco.

The specialised curriculum will comprise live and video-based learning and involve the application of technologies to real issues in collaboration with local industry and government bodies. Experts from RVCE will complement this curriculum and deliver training on digitisation and IoT and encourage innovation in industries including transportation, energy, agriculture and manufacturing.

A faculty of 45 has been identified to deliver the courses, first of which is scheduled to commence from first week of May 2017, informed Dr K N Subramanya, RVCE Principal in an interaction with media. “The Center has the batch capacity of 30 learners and can run 2-3 batches simultaneously across 8 modules covering the high interest areas of Industrial IoT, RF, and embedded systems among others that constitute a fundamental grounding in the technologies that will be on the rise in the coming years.

The basic idea is to put in a cross-disciplinary system with respect to the 5G and IoT-led era that India is set to enter. “This CoE is a first step in creating a capacity for transfer of digital skills, and in a year’s time an incubation center for startups will follow at the CoE to expand the initiative,” said Gopalratnam of Cisco adding “We are thrilled to work with RVCE and the government of Karnataka to launch a generation of problem solvers who will innovate, think like entrepreneurs and lead in a Digital India.”

RVCE has strong industry links with over 50 leading IT companies having engaged in developmental activities with the college. “We also have behind us the experience of running a Flexible Electronics CoE with support from Ministry of HRD and World Bank and look forward to scaling this IoT program in Karnataka to enhance employability and entrepreneurship,” said Dr Subramanya.

Over the next five years, the Centre’s specialized curriculum will prepare up to 10,000 students from 50 colleges across Karnataka for careers in the digital economy and help India increase its pool of highly skilled technology professionals. The Centre will also support the training and re-skilling of mid-career professionals in the private and government sector.