Chandigarh, September 16
Chances are, it is the snazziest place in town to learn computers. And considering the style and environment, may be the most economical too.
The Chandigarh Administration’s SPIC Microsoft Centre of Excellence at Punjab Engineering College inaugurated by the city Administrator a fortnight ago, is all ready to take on its first batch of students tomorrow.
Starting its classes, the centre is focussing not only on good quality, but also on economical computer education for the city’s college and university students.
The Department of Information Technology, (DIT), UT, set up the Society for Promotion of Information Technology in Chandigarh (SPIC) which then roped in Microsoft for a joint collaboration and this centre of excellence was born.
The short-term courses which the centre offers include Microsoft certified system engineer course, a computer awareness programme, Microsoft certified database administrator, Microsoft certified solution developer, web designing, programming in C, Microsoft visual basic and MS office. Other than these some other courses are also on the anvil keeping in mind the varying demand of city students. As an introductory offer the course are going to be priced at anything from Rs 6,000 to 17,000.
The trainers employed at the centre are also Microsoft certified programmers. ‘‘This place is new and we are looking forward to this job. And it’s an open system here. Since some of these students might be working during the day, there will be classes in the evenings. And some of us will also be developing software and that can be as challenging and satisfying as teaching’’says a faculty member of the centre.
Developing advanced computer software is the other major thing the centre will be doing for government, semi-government and private companies. The centre engineers are looking forward to developing complex software for use in various organisations.
And how does the centre differ from PEC’s computational lab? ‘‘The CCL in PEC is working on a large amount of data collection and processing projects and not so much on software development. Here since we have the Microsoft technology with us, the kind of software that we will provide will be highly advanced and helpful in solving very complex problems which large organisations are faced with,’’ informs one of the centre’s engineers.
The centre which is located at PEC is also being given day to day attention by the Director, Information Technology, UT, Mr Vivek Atray, who spends at least an hour everyday at the centre.
‘‘The centre is open six days a week and initially we are focussing on the classes getting underway. The courses are the best among the various options available to city students and computer professionals,’’ he says.
With state-of-the-art laboratories, workstations, classrooms and bright blue decor, this place certainly makes it difficult to believe that its a part of the dull grey buildings of PEC.