C-DAC TO SET-UP INDIA ARMENIA CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE AT YEREVAN

Times of India
July 17 2009

PUNE: The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and
the Ministry of External Affairs have signed an agreement to set up of

India-Armenia centre of excellence in Yerevan in Armenia.

The centre to be created by C-DAC with assistance from the Government
of India includes deployment of Param supercomputer and training to
nearly 1,000 IT professionals every year.

On Monday, Divyabh Manchanda, additional secretary (Eurasia), Ministry
of External Affairs, GoI and Rajan T Joseph, Director General, C-DAC
signed an agreement for setting up this centre.

Under the terms of the agreement, the Ministry of External Affairs,
Government of India, has identified C-DAC as an implementing agency
for establishing high performance computing (HPC) centre with Param
supercomputer for collaborative research in the areas of computational
fluid dynamics, bioinformatics, weather forecasting and evolutionary
computing by scientists, researchers and academic users.

Besides, an exchange of experts and training of Armenian professionals
in India and Armenia for managing the technical infrastructure
installed under the project and training of trainers and students at
the centre of excellence will also take place.

Manchanda said, "This centre is proposed to be a major facility for the
development of human resources in IT not only in Armenia but also in
the entire Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region. It will
offer fundamental and advanced IT courses of C-DAC to the students
of Armenia."

A training programme for six months will be imparted to the trainers
and faculty identified by Government of Armenia in India at C-DAC’s
training facility in the city.

Joseph said, "The establishment of this centre of excellence will
help Armenia take advantage of the developments in the field of IT,
right from the grassroots level to the highly complex arena of HPC. The
centre shall serve as a core building block and a catalyst to enable
widespread reach of high-quality research and education in Armenia."

The IT centre will have the state-of-the-art data centre with HPC
infrastructure, hi-tech computer labs and lecture theatres, e-learning
with video conferencing facility and a rich library.