THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Imagine a medical student sitting at Medical College Hospital (MCH), Thiruvananthapuram, seeking guidance from an expert at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences on his research paper. How about a doctor here seeking a second opinion on a biopsy from world-renowned experts from UK or the US?
All these are going to become a reality, with the MCH here getting selected to be a part of the National Knowledge Network. In fact, the Medical College here is the only institution in the State to be included in this country-wide network in the first phase. The National Knowledge Network would bring together all the stakeholders in science, technology, higher education, research and development to play a greater role in facilitating e-learning.
An integration of greater dimensions will be taking place by the development of the National Knowledge Network, an ambitious recommendation of the National Knowledge Commission. ‘’With its installation, the hardware necessary for the integration of intellectual resources of India into one large collective knowledge repository, accessible to its most refined brains at the click of a mouse, will become a reality,’’ said Dr C Jayan, nodal officer of the project at MCH.
The entire network will seamlessly integrate with the global scientific community at multiple gigabits per second speed by sharing of high-performance computing facilities, e-libraries, virtual classrooms and very large databases. Applications such as countrywide classrooms will address the issue of faculty shortage and ensure quality education delivery across the country.
The high bandwidth is delivered to the participating institution at the edge of the network free of cost. The responsibility of setting up a robust network that can utilise the potential of the network is the responsibility of the institution. The Medical College here already has such a Local Area Network installed, which was recently extended to the newly-commissioned superspecialty block and OP block. The project to set up such a network in SAT Hospital is awaiting sanction from the Government.
‘’By promoting trans-disciplinary approach and facilitating interactions between the wisest and the youngest minds, this network will produce a quantum leap in meaningful medical research in Thiruvananthapuram Medical College,’’ said Dr Jayan.
Once connected, all the institutions in the network would exchange content, data or information with speeds of the order of gigabits per second, coupled with extremely low latencies.
The Commission has selected 15 prestigious institutions across the country for the first phase of networking. About 70 institutions will be connected in the National Knowledge Network over a period of time.
rajivg@expressbuzz.com