In an effort to bridge the gap between academic education and changing industry demands, Intel India has announced the selection of 10 tier-two institutes to be cultivated as centers of excellence (COE) to prepare university professors and students for a new paradigm of software development.

This initiative, which is a part of Intel's World Ahead Program that aims to transform lives in developing communities through technology access, Internet connectivity, and education, aims to give students a hands-on experience and training in adapting to real-world applications.

The 10 institutes that Intel India has chosen under this initiative are - College of Engineering, Guindy; Harcourt Butler Technological Institute, Kanpur; IIIT, Bangalore; IIIT, Hyderabad; IIIT, Pune; Kalasalingham University, Krishnan Koil; PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore; Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology & Research Academy (SASTRA), Thanjavur; Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai; and Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum.

On this occasion, Manav Subodh, Higher Education Manager, Intel Technology India said, "The objective of this initiative is to educate today's science and engineering students and developers to architect, develop and debug the next generation of software applications for modern, multi-core platforms. We hope that through continuous interaction with Intel mentors, students would be better prepared to face the demands of the industry in their future workplaces."

According to Intel, the selected institutes would be established as centers of excellence to mentor other smaller institutes so that maximum number of educational institutes is geared for new technologies in the future.

The 10 selected institutes would enjoy a number of benefits, including they will mentored by a senior Intel technologist for the next two years, and equipment grant worth $150,000 will be given to them for lab use.

Besides, Intel will conduct training sessions and workshops to introduce computer science students and teachers to programs. It will also provide course materials, 10-20 core2duo PCs, laptops powered by dual-core processors for instructor use in the classroom, as well as licenses for Intel Software Development Products along with access to forums and technical support.

Meanwhile, with mentorship from Intel technologists, the 10 selected institutes aim to change their existing curriculum on computer architecture and start the new course by August this year. And this on-going Multi Core University initiative aims to change the curriculum of close to 150 engineering institutes by the end of 2008.