Indian Space Varsity Takes Wings In August

India’s first space university is all set to take wings in August seeking to groom tailor-made experts to fuel the country’s satellite and rocket programmes.
”August middle is our target”, said G Madhavan Nair, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which is setting up the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) and expected to meet the high technology requirements of ISRO.
It would initially operate from the campus of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre at Thiruvananthapuram, a lead centre of ISRO, which will create a full-fledged infrastructure for IIST on a picturesque site in Ponmudi near the Kerala state capital in about two years.
The Institute, which offers technically tuned courses in space science and technology, has already attracted some of India’s bright minds encouraging India’s space agency.
”The response is really good. Original plan was to take from the so called extended list of IIT JEE. But we could see large number of applicants from the main list of IIT itself”, Nair told in an interview.
ISRO sources said around 150 students were expected to be enrolled in aeronautical and avionics engineering and integrated MSc in space sciences in the first academic year.
Nair said ISRO came up with the idea of setting up of the institute as it was faced with a “very alarming situation” in terms of attracting the right talent for India’s space programmes.
”Most of the students who come out of IIT and IISc etc..they go to either Management, IT or abroad. So, they are not available to the Indian scientific community,” Nair said.
The IIST students “will be taught in propulsion, aero dynamics, navigation, guidance, sub-systems, avionics, control systems and so on”, he said. “So, that way, as soon as they come out of the Institute, they will be usable by us”.
ISRO has totally subsidised the education and the students passing out of the IIST are required to serve the space agency for five years. If not, they would have to pay the bond amount.