VISAKHAPATNAM: In a step to give education in the field of oil and gas segment a fillip, Indian Institute of Petroleum and Energy (IIPE) signed an MoU with Texas A&M University (TAMU). The primary objective of the pact is for faculty and student exchange programme and to take up collaborative research. The MoU was inked by IIPE director VSRK Prasad and Debjyoti Banerjee, professor at the department of Mechanical and Petroleum Engineering, TAMU. The tie-up was announced at Andhra University campus here on Tuesday.
“Through this MoU, the institute aims at enhancing the technological, social and cultural bond among the two nations. Students can also have an opportunity to go to TAMU for research projects. Soon, we will sign many more MoUs. Another MoU with University of Houston will be inked in February,” said Prasad.
Addressing the media, professor Banerjee said, “The whole idea is to foster a research environment in addition to academics. One of the things in the MoU is that the students from India can go to the Texas A&M to see the cultural diversity and know about the local industries. They can get to learn the American perspective of doing research.”
As the university had already been doing various programmes with IITs, there are 10-15 students from IIT taking up programmes in the US and now the IIPE will be a part of it. India has numerous reputed institutions from where students go to the US for higher studies. TAMU felt that India will be a good place to do undergraduate research.
It will be like an internship programme for two months, depending on a student’s interest in a particular field and will be only for those in the second and third year. There will be a coordinator to engage the students with the professor.
“Nano technology in petroleum is coming up in a big way. Hydraulic fracturing is a huge concept in the US and it made the country an exporter of oil and gas from an importer. India has big potential which is yet to be tapped. For IIPE, there are also opportunities in big data, artificial intelligence and autonomous drilling, which have become new-age topics in this filed,” Banerjee said.
“With low gas prices worldwide, there is a push for developing the technologies that can help companies lower cost. These can benefit students in research collaboration,” he added. He hoped that the MoU would benefit both AP, a major hub for IT, and the TAMU, a petroleum hub.
IIPE campus to come up at Vangali village
The government has made available an area at Vangali in Sabbaravaram mandal, for setting up the campus of IIPE. Prasad said negotiations were on with the APIIC for construction of a compound wall. Finalisation of the architecture was also put on fast track for which tenders had been floated. Till the permanent IIPE campus is ready, IIPE will operate at AU College of Engineering campus.