THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Education Minister M.A. Baby has said that the State Government would establish a Thiruvananthapuram Engineering Science and Technology Research Park (TREST Park) at the College of Engineering, Trivandrum (CET) here.
He was inaugurating the 70th anniversary of the CET on the college premises on Tuesday.
Baby said that the park would be modelled on the IIT Madras Research Park. The park will act as a link between industry and faculty on the research needs of the former. The establishment of such an institution was one of the major recommendations of the committee headed by IIT Madras Director M.S. Ananth appointed by the State Government to study issues related to the engineering education in the State. The park will be apart from the Centre for Engineering Research and Development announced by the State Government for the CET in the Budget. Baby said that the committee had found that the number of persons joining the faculty of engineering colleges after completing their PhD was very low.
Law Minister M. Vijayakumar shared his disappointment at the function over the non-allotment of an IIT to the State by the Centre. Even the present Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during his previous tenure, had assured an IIT for the State, he said.
Kerala University Vice-Chancellor A. Jayakrishnan, in his felicitation address, said that the engineering colleges in the State should have a humanities department also. He said that the present technological education was not holistic in nature. The Education Minister honoured former KSIDC Chairman and Managing Director S. Peer Mohammed, one of the surviving members of the first batch of the college, with a ‘ponnada’.
Technical Education Director Kuncheria P. Issac, College principal J. Letha, organising secretary B. Anil, PG faculty dean Cherian Scharia, UG faculty dean G.L. Valsala and student representative T.K. Naveenkumar also attended the function.
trivandrum@epmltd.com