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Cisco Enables Next-Generation Learning Experience at BITS Pilani

Tuesday March 26, 2013 , 2 min Read

Largest and first-of-its-kind in India; enables student-faculty collaboration within and beyond the campus walls by connecting 11,000+ students and 700 faculty members   Bangalore, India: March 25, 2013 – Cisco today announced that Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani, one of India’s premier independent universities, along with BITSAA International, its global alumni community, have successfully deployed the immersive, high-definition Cisco TelePresence®  videoconferencing and Cisco WebEx® technologies as part of a cross-campus technology initiative named BITSConnect 2.0. Set to transform the learning experience through unparalleled campus-connectivity, this platform is aimed at creating a dynamic and collaborative learning environment by connecting classrooms through a MPLS – based data network.   Custom-built using Cisco TelePresence technology, the new virtual lecture facility will offer immersive, high-definition visual communications — enabling all students, regardless of location, to collaborate and participate as if they were in the same room as one another and their professor.  The initiative will benefit over 11,000 students and 700 teachers and provide them with access to business leaders and guest lecturers located around the globe, enabling collaborative research and interactive learning a routine part of their lives.      Highlights •         The largest and first-of-its-kind in India, this deployment will increase collaboration, foster innovation, enhance productivity, and streamline administration. •         Using the new Cisco Telepresence facility, BITS Pilani is offering 14 specialized electives to hundreds of students across its three campuses. •         BITS will also utilize the Cisco® Capture, Transform, Share (CTS) video platform to enable professors to record lectures and make those lectures available for replay. This provides access to key content from any location and at any time, increasing the value and reach of each lecture and classroom discussion. •         The technology provides an enhanced learning experience to students, through collaboration with students and faculty from other campuses – on an average; eight classes are conducted every day. •         BITS will be able to bring experts from across the globe for guest lectures, workshops, and other academic pursuits and students from all the three campuses can have real time interaction with the experts.  •	BITS plans to leverage this technology for campus placements and faculty recruitments. Cisco has a history of developing unique solutions for educational institutions and a strong corporate commitment to improving the quality of education. Through the Cisco Networking Academy™ program, the company’s 21st Century Schools initiative and numerous engagements with nongovernmental organizations whose aim is to boost opportunity through education, Cisco has helped multiply the impact of technology on millions of students and teachers around the globe.   Supporting Quotes Bijendra Nath Jain, vice-chancellor, BITS Pilani, “BITSConnect 2.0, which is built on Cisco technology, comes at a time when the Institute is on its way to become a top research-led university in Asia. This joint University-Alumni initiative will provide seamless integration of all campuses; create new avenues of research collaboration and knowledge sharing among faculty, students and researchers worldwide. BITSConnect 2.0 initiative will further strengthen industry linkage and enable remote placements with minimal travel costs to prospective employers”   Prem Jain, chief mentor, BITSConnect 2.0, “BITSConnect 2.0 heralds a new era for technology-enabled education in India. It has the capability to bring speakers from anywhere in the world almost alive into the classroom at BITS and open endless possibilities for pedagogy and research. In 2002, BITSConnect 1.0 aimed at making BITS Pilani’s infrastructure the best in India. As an eclectic group of volunteers from the university join hands with members of our global alumni community for the second time, we are confident that this new initiative will be a big step towards achieving our joint goal to have our alma mater among the top research-driven institutions in Asia by 2020.”   Minhaj Zia, director, Collaboration Sales, Cisco India & SAARC,  “BITS Pilani is one of the leading institutes in India focused on imparting quality education and creating a distinctive environment for research and innovation. While they have been on the cutting-edge of technology use for years, this initiative is taking that to a new level and will foster new methods of collaboration, enrich the in-class experience, and help better utilize school resources.”   Dr. Rahul Banerjee, Professor of Computer Science, Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, "Immersive Telepresence is just the starting point of the highly interactive multi-site collaborative learning environment at BITS Pilani. The next logical step is integrating it with 3-d holographic projection and manipulation technology."   Supporting Resources: •	For more information please visit the Higher Education, Cisco Education and Cisco Connected Learning pages. •	For more information on additional technologies being used, please visit Cisco TelePresence and  Cisco WebEx. •	Read the Cisco Education Blog and Collaboration Blog. •	Follow Cisco Enterprise, Cisco _Mobility,  TelePresence, CiscoEDU and CiscoHigherEdu on Twitter. •	For more information about Cisco TelePresence news and activities, visit the Video Blog. •	Wharton School recently unveiled ‘Cisco Connected Classroom’ to showcase the power and impact technology can have within educational institutions. •	Cisco also introduced Cisco Education Enabled Development (CEED 2700) solution recently.  CEED 2700 is a collaborative video interaction solution based on the cloud that will allow efficient delivery of skills and educational development courses.   RSS Feed for Cisco: http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/rss.html   Tags/keywords: Cisco, BITS, Classroom of the Future, Higher Education, Distance Learning, Video, Telepresence, Collaboration, Webex, Connected Learning, Education,   About Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani BITS Pilani is a premier independent University in India with 4 campuses at Pilani (1964), Dubai (2000), Goa (2004) and Hyderabad (2008). BITS Pilani employs 700 full time faculty and has 11,000 on-campus & 19,000 off-campus students. BITS has been accredited by NAAC with the most coveted „A‟ grade in University accreditation. BITS Pilani has been a pioneer in the Indian higher education landscape with a world-class benchmarked curriculum and the largest industry-university network. The institute is one of the most selective in the world with a <1.5% admit rate. Intake is administered through an online exam called BITSAT. For more information, visit http://www.bits-pilani.ac.in/.   About BITS Pilani Alumni Association (BITSAA) BITSAA International is the global all-volunteer alumni association for BITS Pilani representing 50,000+ alumni in 90 countries. It engages in charitable and educational activities by creating endowments, granting scholarships, rewarding teaching and research, enhancing the personal & professional lives of its alumni and promoting the general development at all BITS Pilani campuses. In the past decade, some of its key projects have been to network the campuses (BITSConnect), enhance the quality of education (Embryo, OLAB), promote entrepreneurship (NVC, BITS Spark, BITS2Startup), promote rural education and employability (Atmanirbhara), support professional development of alumni & students (BITS2MSPHD, BITS2IAS, BITS2BSCHOOL) & promote Brand-BITS (LPBP, BGM). For more information, visit: www.bitsaa.org.   About Cisco Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. For ongoing news, please go to http://thenetwork.cisco.com. Cisco products are supplied in India by the channel partners of Cisco Systems International B.V., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco Systems, Inc

Cisco today announced that Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani, one of India’s premier independent universities, along with BITSAA International, its global alumni community, have successfully deployed the Cisco TelePresence, videoconferencing and Cisco WebEx technologies as part of a cross-campus technology initiative named BITSConnect 2.0. Aiming to transform the learning experience through campus-connectivity, this platform is aimed at creating a dynamic and collaborative learning environment by connecting classrooms through a MPLS – based data network.

Bits

Custom-built using Cisco TelePresence technology, the new virtual lecture facility will enable all students, regardless of location, to collaborate and participate as if they were in the same room as one another and their professor. The initiative will benefit over 11,000 students and 700 teachers and provide them with access to business leaders and guest lecturers located around the globe, enabling collaborative research and interactive learning a routine part of their lives.

Highlights

  • The largest and first-of-its-kind in India, this deployment will increase collaboration, foster innovation, enhance productivity, and streamline administration.
  • Using the new Cisco Telepresence facility, BITS Pilani is offering 14 specialized electives to hundreds of students across its three campuses.
  • BITS will also utilize the Cisco® Capture, Transform, Share (CTS) video platform to enable professors to record lectures and make those lectures available for replay. This provides access to key content from any location and at any time, increasing the value and reach of each lecture and classroom discussion.
  • The technology provides an enhanced learning experience to students, through collaboration with students and faculty from other campuses – on an average; eight classes are conducted every day.
  • BITS will be able to bring experts from across the globe for guest lectures, workshops, and other academic pursuits and students from all the three campuses can have real time interaction with the experts.BITS plans to leverage this technology for campus placements and faculty recruitments.