The Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIT) – Allahabad has been set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, as a nucleating Institute in Information Technology (IT).

The IIT promotes the development of all areas of IT and its applications to the highest level of excellence through extensively networked educational, research, and developmental programs. It will establish links with industry to bring the best professionals in IT and its application areas, computer science, and communication technology capabilities to solving any problem relevant to the country from a scientific, strategic, commercial or societal point of view.

The courses offered by the Institute are designed to match the best practices in IT provided anywhere in the world. The facilities and the learning environment in the Institute will be the best obtainable in the country. All courses are designed with the latest technology in mind. Some may be suitable for online self-study; in others, a degree of instructor-led sessions would be necessary.

The courses offered by the Institute include – The regular B.Tech Programme, Post Graduate Programme, Off-Campus Training and Education, Short Term Training(On Campus), Consultancy, IT Services, and other linkages with industry.

The IIT will create a network with the other regional institutes, including IIT Kanpur, Universities at Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Lucknow, and other national and international institutes to support its research, development, and academic activities. The Institute has focused on growth, maintenance and implementation, knowledge-based product and service delivery, and business and consultancy projects in the IT area.

The IT is operational from the academic year 1999-2000 with a 4-year graduate program in IT. The contents of the program are similar to that of B.E/B—tech degree programs.

Mission

The mission of IIIT, Allahabad, is to be a unique and world-class nucleating “Apex Centre of Excellence” in information technology and Allied Sciences for enhancing India’s technological strength in IT and becoming a pace-setting institution for other similar institutes to be established. The IIIT seeks to derive its strength from a linkage with sound Indian traditions of centuries past and sets out to create knowledge-based resources in regional languages. It has the mission to train and educate, at certificate, diploma, undergraduate, and post-graduate levels, engineers of outstanding ability who can become leaders and entrepreneurs in the IT industry and profession. It will carry out advanced research and development in leading-edge areas in hardware and software, which can be helpful over a long-term basis. It will also help develop and promote national and international linkages by way of adjunct faculty, partnership in research, student exchange, credit transfer, and joint degrees. The IIT will work for the creation and development of databases and associated software and courseware for all applications to ensure the future availability of newer software technologies for English, Hindi, and Indian Languages. Research and Development

The IIIT is undertaking cutting-edge research focused on those areas that could have tangible applications in the immediate geographical and social milieu. It is striving to persuade industry leaders, such as SUN, IBM, MICROSOFT, SILICON GRAPHICS, MOTOROLA, INTEL, and others, to set up advanced state-of-the-art research laboratories within the Institute; recently, SUN has donated equipment and software to the Institute worth Rs—one crore. The Institute will take up R & D in typical areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Automatic translation from one Indian language to another or English, Bio-chips, Fiber Optic communications, Database systems for water, sanitation, health, and agriculture, Development and organization of legal knowledge; Fuzzy systems; Legal Informatics (Commercial Educational, Governmental, Administrative); Natural language processing; Nanotechnology; Neurocomputing; Neuro-Fuzzy systems; Quantum computing and Robotics, speech recognition and Visual perception. The Institute has established many laboratories, for example, General Labs (Physics & Electronics, Digital Electronics and Microprocessors, Communication and Computer Programming) and Specialized Labs (Advanced computing-parallel & distributed, multimedia technology, digital signal & image processing, artificial intelligence and robotics, nanotechnology, digital communications, CAD, Neurocomputing, and fuzzy systems); and research Labs are being established in due course. Besides, projects are evolving for Indian Railways and Surface and Water Transport Ministries to apply IT in their varied operations. To encourage young engineers, the Institute is awarding five Merit-Cum-Means Scholarships for the students of IIIT. Allahabad Bank has also instituted five scholarships to promote IT education. (PIB Features)

Source: Press Release
PIB
Date: July 25, 2000