Pune Mirror
May 17, 2016

Pune institute has installed supercomputing systems in 25 technology education centres in the region; they are also offering internships to students

With an eye on providing students in the North-East with advanced technology and computer knowledge, the Pune-based Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has been setting up supercomputing centres at technical institutions in the region to promote highperformance computing (HPC). For the first time, the institute has also started internships for the students in order to harness talent and manpower in the North-East.

"The Param Shavak supercomputing system aims to provide computational resources with advanced technologies to perform HCPs on a larger scale for scientific, engineering and academic programmes. North-Eastern students were lacking such facilities and we want to provide them with experience. Thus, we have started to extend these facilities in the region. The system has already been deployed in 25 institutes" said Professor Rajat Moona, director general of C-DAC.

"I'm looking forward to the internship as this will help me get hands-on experience on actual supercomputing working methodologies which are lacking in the North-East region. It will also help understanding HPC better," said Manas Jyotidas, a student of thr Institute of Advanced Studies in Science and Technology in Guwahati, who has come to Pune for the internship.

Archana Kumari, from the Indian Institute of Information Technology in Guwahati, has also joined the internship programme. "We lacked infrastructure in supercomputing and were deprived of practical experience. The establishment of Param Shavak and such internship programmes will help immensely in terms of understanding HPC and gaining experience," she said.

The supercomputer would be used as a tool for carrying out modelling, simulation and data analysis of modern research and development methodologies in multiple science and engineering domains. Research scholars and students can obtain swift modelling and simulations results of real life complex problem statements in a diverse field of applications.

Dr Gautam Barua, mentor director, Indian Institute of Information Technology Guwahati said, "Initiatives such as internships and deployment of the supercomputer are commendable. The new system will also be very useful for teaching."

TELEMEDICINE IN THE NE

A large number of projects have been initiated by C-DAC for the development of the North-East, one of them being telemedicine. Through telemedicine, the distance barrier between specialised hospitals and patients is overcome using of telecommunication and information technology to provide clinical health care from a distance. "At C-DAC, we want to connect primary healthcare centres (PHCs) to specialised hospitals. We have already initiated three such projects in the region. Connectivity is a major issue in the North- East. We have connected several villages to PHCs, which are subsequently linked to city centres with specialised medical facilities", said Moona.

North-Eastern students were lacking such facilities and we want to provide them with experience