India's first space university is all set to take wings next month to groom tailor-made experts to fuel the country's satellite and rocket programmes
BANGALORE: India's first space university is all set to take wings next month seeking to groom tailor-made experts to fuel the country's satellite and rocket programmes.
"August middle is our target", said G Madhavan Nair, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, which is setting up the Indian Institute of Space Science and
Technology (IIST) and expected to meet the high technology requirements of ISRO.
It would initially operate from the campus of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Thiruvananthapuram, a lead centre of ISRO, which will create a full-fledged infrastructure for IIST on a picturesque site in Ponmudi near the Kerala state capital
in about two years.
The Institute, which offers technically tuned courses in space science and technology, has already attracted some of India's bright minds encouraging India's space agency.
"The response is really good. Original plan was to take from the so called extended list of IIT JEE. But we could see large number of applicants from the main list of IIT itself",
Nair said.
ISRO sources said around 150 students were expected to be enrolled in aeronautical and avionics engineering and integrated MSc in space sciences in the first academic year.
Nair said ISRO came up with the idea of setting up of the institute as it was faced with a "very alarming situation" in terms of attracting the right talent for India's space
programmes.
"Most of the students who come out of IIT and IISc etc..they go to either Management, IT or abroad. So, they are not available to the Indian scientific community," Nair said.
Bangalore-headquartered ISRO gets 70,000-plus applications annually from students of other institutions, from which it's able to short-list around 1,500 by way of written tests.
"In the final selection process, we are not able to get even 200. On an average, we require about 300. This has been a very alarming situation. We don't want to dilute on quality", the Chairman of the Space Commission said.
Nair said this "difficult process" actually becomes a real hunt for talent at the country-level. "We cannot take the marks given by institutions and engineering colleges. We are forced to conduct our own test and finally we get only a handful of people. So, this is not a very healthy situation.
"So, we thought we need to plan something unique; catch the students right at the young age itself, at the plus-2 level (12th standard)", Nair, also Secretary in the Department
of Space, said.
"They will be taught in propulsion, aero dynamics, navigation, guidance, sub-systems, avionics, control systems and so on", he said. "So, that way, as soon as they come out
of the Institute, they will be usable by us".
ISRO has totally subsidised the education and the students passing out of the IIST are required to serve the space agency for five years. If not, they would have to pay
the bond amount.
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