Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and the University at Buffalo (UB), State University of New York extended their decade-long partnership by signing a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to further expand and deepen their collaboration. The MoU was signed by Dr. Satish Tripathi, President of University at Buffalo, and Dr. Venkat Rangan, Vice-Chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, at the Coimbatore campus of Amrita on October 29th, 2015.
The new MoU enabled the universities to continue offering their two very successful dual-degree masters programs in Management and in Embedded and Automotive Systems. The MoU also introduced a student exchange program and a new twinning program designed for undergraduate students. The student exchange opportunity was outlined within the context of the innovative Live-in-Labs® program (experiential learning in rural India) where a team of international students and a team of Amrita students collectively work on challenges faced by rural communities in India. The agreement also introduced a 3+2 twinning program where engineering students could study for three years at Amrita at the bachelor’s level and continue their studies at the master’s level at UB for an additional two years, earning a B.Tech degree from Amrita and an M.S. degree from UB.
In addition to the existing dual degree programs, which have benefited many working professionals from several companies, such as Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions, Hewlett Packard, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), there have been extensive collaborations between faculty of the two institutions since 2005. Faculty collaborations have included joint conferences, symposiums, and workshops as well as joint research projects in engineering, management, social work, and mathematics.
Dr. Satish Tripathi, President of University at Buffalo, has been instrumental in developing and nurturing collaborations between Amrita and UB. During his address to the senior faculty of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Dr. Tripathi remarked, “Of all relations that the University at Buffalo has with universities in India, our partnership with Amrita has been the most successful one.”
