The on-line application process for the Indo US Engineering Faculty Leadership Institute was initiated on February 1, 2008. This Institute is being conducted at the Global Education Center of Infosys Technologies in Mysore from May 20 to July 18, 2008. Interested faculty members were required to submit an on-line application as well as submit a Commitment Form to be downloaded from the website. There was an overwhelming response from more than 1,300 applicants for more than 2,400 seats for the 21 courses being offered, by the deadline of March 5, 2008. Successful applicants from among these are being selected for about 650 seats available. The selection emphasis will be predominantly on applicants who have the potential to be trainers in the regional workshops planned for fall 2008. Applicants who cannot be accommodated at the Summer Institute will be offered seats at the regional workshops.

A large number of faculty from several colleges are already making plans attend the Indo US Engineering Faculty Leadership Institute to be held in Summer 2008 at Mysore at the Global Education Center of Infosys Technologies. Details of the planned workshops are available under “Coming Events” on this website. Krishna Vedula was in India from December 13, 2007 to January 1, 2008 in order to provide information about the workshop as well as obtain inputs from engineering faculty, engineering college administrators, business leaders, government leaders and leaders of engineering education in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Gujerat, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. During this trip, Krishna also devoted considerable time working on arrangements for the Summer Institute, and in setting up a process for recruitment of faculty participants for the Leadership Institute.

Recommendations from the first Forum in Mysore were developed further at the second Forum in DC. Action Planning Forum II was held at the National Academy of Engineering, in Washington DC on August 29 to August 31, 2007, and was attended by 108 participants (24 from India) including 18 members of the business community. Dr. Chuck Vest, President of National Academy of Engineering (on video), Kris Gopalakrishnan, CEO and MD of Infosys Technologies (on video) and Dr. Frank Huband, Executive Director, ASEE, welcomed the participants. President Robert Dynes of University of California and Dr. R. Natarajan, former Chairman of AICTE gave keynote presentations. Dr. R. Buckius, Asst. Director for Engineering at National Science Foundation, Dr. Satish Kulkarni, Science and Technology Advisor to the US Embassy in India, Dr. Daniel Hastings, Dean of Undergraduate Education at MIT, Dr. Daniel Hodge, Associate Executive Director for ABET, Desh Deshpande, Founder and CEO of Sycamore Networks, and D.H. Shankaramurthy, Minister for Education, State of Karnataka were distinguished speakers. Dr. James Melsa, President and Dr. Sarah Rajala, President-Elect of the ASEE gave concluding remarks at the end of the Forum. Participants at the Action Planning Forum II recommended that several regional Indo-US Engineering Faculty Institutes be created as nodes for collaboration and for achieving the broader vision of the Collaboration. Potential programs to be offered at these Institutes were proposed and discussed. The states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have offered to host the first two pilot Institutes. Other states that have shown interest are Gujarat, West Bengal, Rajasthan, UP and Kerala.

The recommendations of the IUCEE Action Planning Forum were included as one of the projects to be supported by the Pan IIT organization. Presentations based on these recommendations were made at the Global IIT Convention at Santa Clara in July 2007 to various groups. A large number of IIT alums expressed support for the work of IUCEE.