Agilent Technologies, which provides test and measurement solutions to the communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis market, has announced the Agilent Technologies All-India Best B-Tech Project Award for engineering students in India.
This contest will identify two hands-on-engineers across India who will be sent on an all-expenses paid one-month internship at Agilent's best-in-class facilities in the US or UK.
Kewal Khanna, President, Agilent Technologies India Limited, said, "The initiative takes forward Agilent's values of supporting education and talent development in the country. It aims to ignite the spirit of innovation among budding engineers in India."
"While Indian engineers have made their mark in software, they are yet to make an impact in hardware development.
A majority of global investments have traditionally been directed towards cutting-edge development in electronics and hardware," he said, adding, "To capitalise on this, India will need many more hands-on engineers rather than copybook ones. Agilent is working to correct the imbalance, by incentivising hands-on-engineering as the learning model among the leading engineering institutes of India."
Open to B-Tech and dual degree (B-Tech and M-Tech) students doing their projects in electronics and telecommunications, the contest entails evaluating the projects as part of their mandatory curriculum to identify the winners.
Participation in the contest is through invitation only. In the first year, institutes that are being invited include Indian Institutes of Technology, Birla Institute of Technology-Pilani, NITs and DCE among others. The list will be expanded in subsequent years.
Commencing in January 2005, the contest will involve two rounds of short-listing -- first at the institute-level to be done by the faculty of participating engineering colleges, and the second by an independent jury.
The five-member jury will comprise leading scientists, engineers and technocrats of national and international repute.
The final round of the selection process will be held in New Delhi on June 24, 2005, where all the short-listed students will participate.
