3 TN universities chosen for Obama-Singh award

Three universities from Tamil Nadu have been selected for project grants under the Obama-Singh 21st Century Knowledge Initiative Award for 2013. The grant recipients were announced at the U S India Higher Education Dialogue coinciding with the visit of Secretary John Kerry (June 23 to June 25) for the US India Strategic Dialogue in New Delhi.

The three universities from Tamil Nadu selected under the Indian-led partnerships include the National Institute of Technology, Trichy (partner university—University of Nevada, Las Vegas), Avinashilingam Institute for Home Science and Higher Education for Women (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis) and Annamalai University (Tennessee Tech University).

The Obama-Singh Initiative strengthens collaboration and builds partnership between American and Indian institutions of higher education in priority fields.  Each project will receive an award of approximately $250,000 that can be utilised over a three-year period, with the objective of cultivating educational reform, fostering economic growth, generating shared knowledge to address global challenges, and developing junior faculty at Indian and American institutions of higher learning.

The National Institute of Technology will pursue a project entitled “Cognitive based Curriculum Development Tool for emerging areas of Computer Engineering and Management Studies for Teaching-Learning Process.”  Avinashilingam Institute will research on “A Sustainable Response for Home Science and Higher Education for Women” and Annamalai University will work on the project “Tamil Nadu Energy Futures: Mapping Uncertainties and Remarks.”

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Barack Obama announced the Obama-Singh Initiative in November 2009 as an affirmation of their commitment for building an enhanced India-US partnership in education. Each government pledged $5 million for this endeavor, for a total of $10 million.

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