IIT- B To Develop Research Networking

Mumbai: Students of the Indian Institute of Technology - Bombay (IIT-B) are working hard in order to develop research networking. As per sources, the institute has already initiated with the work, by creating research profiles of their students - a research engine as they call it - where details of students of research, patents and publications have been put up.

The main objective of the catalogue is to be one-point source for accessing information on students research interests, current working area, publications, patents, contact details and any other relevant details. Students can register and update information through their internal login credentials and the portal can be viewed by anyone, anywhere. VSK Murthy Balijepalli, General Secretary academic affairs, post graduate programmes, said that this is the beginning of what they hope will be a platform for student research activities across universities.

He also mentioned that soon, students outside IIT-B can create their research profiles and students with similar research interests can be added as research friends. He said that they are also planning additional features such as research-based games, and news. Moreover, already 40 postgraduate students maintain and update profiles on the website http://gymkhana.iitb.ac.in/academics/research/. It will soon be opened to undergraduate students. Students who have put up their profile on the portal tout it as the next big thing.

According to a statement issued by Vedanta Pradhan, a master’s student, who has put up his profile, this is first IIT to experiment with such a format. If things move in the right direction, this will become as big as Facebook or any other networking site for research scholars. He also added that once more and more research scholars start accessing it, it will lead to several collaborations.