...To the Drawing Board

As the demand for niche technology areas is increasing, tech-hunting CIOs are

giving a serious thought of going back to school–not for extra credits, but

for the tools to make their lives easier. Within India there are hundreds of

colleges and universities, which could offer access to research for the tech

hungry corporate world.

University research has traditionally been more about theoretical rather than

applied science. But an accelerating rate of practical innovation on campus–particularly

in IT–means that CIOs willing to invest their time would find the effort

worthwhile. On occasion, the payoff would be a new product or technology

suitable for internal use. But even if they don’t find something to run on

their servers or connect to their networks, CIOs would almost always glean

greater knowledge of what technology is coming down the pipe. And that

information can be valuable.

"It makes sense to catch them young and mould them to one’s needs.

Today there is a big gap between what the industry needs and what institutes

provide them with. The graduates who come out of colleges are not really

industry ready. And if only we would know how to mould them according to the

industry needs then it would give us a competitive advantage," says S N

Murthy, President and COO at Hyderabad based Intoto Software, an embedded

solutions developer.

Much of today’s information technology–everything from optical fiber to

the Internet–originated in academic research.

These innovations traditionally go through a lengthy commercialization

process, however, where companies take the concept pioneered at a university and

turn it into a viable product or service–and it can take years. But this

situation is beginning to change as a number of core technology companies are

seriously involved with academic institutions.

During the last decade a confluence of circumstances, including a decrease in

government research funding, the industry’s increasing need for innovation and

a greater percentage of applied research in the universities has pushed academic

and commercial interests closer together.

To bridge the divide between industry and the academics, the Government of AP

has set up the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) at

Hyderabad. It is an autonomous, self-supporting institution started in 1998 with

seed support from the Government of AP. A major goal of IIIT is to impart a

uniquely broad and interdisciplinary IT education of the highest academic

quality. This is achieved through an integrated curriculum that consists of a

diverse set of IT courses, interdisciplinary IT research projects, day-to-day

interaction with industry, preparation in entrepreneurship and personality

development courses.

"It is evident from the trends over the recent years that there are more

industry players operating in areas such as GIS and VLSI design. With

initiatives of the Central Government already taken, the trained manpower in the

niche areas is bound to increase.

There are also examples of Industry-Institute initiatives, which will meet

the challenge of talent needs. But the point to note is, in quantitative terms,

the suggested fields may not be requiring greater number of engineers in

contrast to the fields of application software or ITeS. For that matter today

any technological field will require more quality-based inputs rather than

quantity. "This phenomenon will be more pronounced in the future,"

explained Anne Dayakar, General Manager, HR at QualCore Logic Ltd, another

Hyderabad based company which is into the designing of semiconductor solutions.

To facilitate school-business relationships, most universities have industry

liaison groups whose task is to keep corporations involved in on-campus

research. Industry liaison programs use newsletters, conferences, and site

visits to provide companies with a broader look at the research conducted across

a university and to give members a chance to rub elbows with professors.

At Hyderabad’s IIIT, major national and international IT companies like

IBM, Signal Tree, Motorola, Oracle and Satyam are involved in the institution’s

academic program through their corporate schools on the campus. "IBM School

of Enterprise Wide Computing", "Signal Tree School of Excellence in

Software Development Methodologies", "Oracle School of Advance

Software Technology", "Satyam School of Applied Information

Systems" and "Motorola School of Communication Technology" are

functioning on this campus. Needless to say that all this effort hints towards

an acute need of the corporate world to get industry ready graduates.

"We have not partnered with IIIT instead Intoto has a sister concern

which is into training programs for specialization in embedded systems and

networking training courses, we work very closely with them. Some of our

engineers visit as external faculty imparting real hands-on training. This way

we are trying to bridge what the institutions and universities have left for

us," Murthy added.

In the quest for new technology, companies work with schools in three ways:

directly funding research; licensing a research-quality technology directly from

the school and funding graduate students or professors to start their own

companies. "Everything is driven by market demands. Students enroll

themselves in courses because of the job/career opportunities it provides. Some

areas like VLSI, etc. need very expensive tools for training and thus restrict

number of institutes or students," added Murthy.

Technology license



The cheapest way to actively benefit from university research is to license

a promising technology and make it commercially viable. This approach, however,

also takes the most internal effort, since a license is simply permission to use

or commercialize a research-grade application and usually requires significant

reengineering to make it enterprise-worthy.

"There is an unpopular belief that today’s four-year engineering

course can be more effectively covered in a two year curriculum. If this belief

could be popularized, there is room for designing more practice-oriented courses

within the overall scheduled course tenure. This however calls for more active

interaction between the industry and academia at the policy-making levels. The

future of technology lies in our innovative potential. This cannot be achieved

purely by theoretical inputs rendered at college," Dayakar asserted.

During the past few years, a number of universities in India have made a

concerted effort to align themselves more closely with the industry. "My

belief is that the science colleges that will succeed in this century are those

that learn to interact with a nonacademic world," claims Murthy. "It

is important for generating an inflow of new questions and ideas and providing a

link between our undergraduate and graduate students and the outside world where

most will find careers," he added.

Edging benefits



Dayakar also maintains that the need for a solid relationship with

universities has never been stronger. "But from a CIOs perspective we are

not looking out at say five years for technology. We want to implement things

that are up to speed. I don’t think many CIOs are in the R&D game. We want

to help the business today," he added. Although QualCore is working closely

with Vasavi College of Engineering at Hyderabad, Dayakar added that the biggest

benefit is having an advantage when it comes to hiring former students and

generally staying educated on emerging technology.

CIOs are always interested in what is coming down the pipe. And by keeping

themselves up-to-date with the research taking place in universities helps CIOs

keep their company on the leading edge.

Zia Askari



CNS