C-DAC and AICTE Join Forces to Boost High Performance Computing Education in India

New Delhi: The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to foster human resource development in High Performance Computing (HPC) and allied technologies. The MoA was signed by Prof. T. G. Sitharam, Chairman of AICTE, and Col. Asheet Nath (Retd.), Executive Director of C-DAC Pune and Corporate Strategy, in the presence of S. Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and other officials from MeitY and the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

Key Initiatives Under the MoA:

1. Master Trainer Programs: These programs will train master trainers to enhance their teaching skills in HPC and related technologies. The trained master trainers will subsequently educate faculty members to teach students in their respective colleges.
2. Quality Improvement Programs: These programs will enhance the subject expertise of faculty members from non-Computer Science streams in HPC and allied technologies.
3. Courses on SWAYAM: HPC courses will be offered on the Ministry of Education’s SWAYAM platform, providing free online courses in various disciplines to learners across the country.
4. Industry-Aligned Courses: HPC-related courses will be designed to meet the current and emerging needs of the HPC industry.
5. C-DAC Developed HPC Learning Platforms: C-DAC will offer HPC learning platforms like PARAM Shavak and PARAM Vidya through AICTE to nominated institutes.

The MoA aims to drive sustainable human resource development in HPC and allied technologies, foster innovation, and meet the evolving needs of both industry and academia.

S Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY, noted, “The HPC-aware manpower development activity under NSM will now reach a wider audience in engineering colleges across the country. This will help build HPC-related capability in the technical workforce, making them ready for the industry.”

Prof. T. G. Sitharam, Chairman AICTE, emphasized, “With the signing of this MoA between AICTE and C-DAC, we are taking a significant step towards creating a robust ecosystem for High Performance Computing (HPC) education in India. This initiative aligns perfectly with the goals of the National Supercomputing Mission and the vision of NEP 2020, ensuring that our technical education system remains at the forefront of global advancements.”

The National Supercomputing Mission (NSM), a flagship program of the Government of India executed by MeitY and DST, aims to build capacity and capability in HPC across the country. AICTE is tasked with planning and coordinated development of the technical education system in India. To meet the NSM goals, C-DAC and AICTE are collaborating to proliferate HPC education in AICTE-affiliated colleges.

It is anticipated that 2,500 faculty members from around 1,000 engineering colleges across India will be trained through 50 Faculty Development Programs (FDPs). These trained faculty members will then teach HPC-related topics to approximately 50,000 students. To generate interest among engineering students in HPC, awareness programs will be conducted in 1,000 colleges, reaching out to 100,000 students. Additionally, 50 units of PARAM Shavak – ‘Supercomputing Solution in a Box’ by C-DAC – will be installed in AICTE-affiliated institutions, providing students with hands-on experience using supercomputers.