Name: Dr. Madhu Gupta
Faculty/Rank: Full Professor
Department: Electrical & Computer Engineering
College: Engineering
Office phone: 594-7015
Other phone: 594-5718
E mail address: gupta@mail.sdsu.edu
Proposal title: “On the Potential for Establishing a Student Exchange Program with Universities in New Delhi, India”
Country/ies visited: India
Institutions visited: University of Delhi, IIT Delhi, IIT Roorkee
Dates of travel: December 16, 2004-December 29, 2004
Number of student participants:
Previous IP proposals submitted and grants awarded
(list titles, countries and dates):
Have all required reports been submitted? yes
Other funding for this activity available/applied for:
Proposal Abstract (75 word maximum):
1. During my trip to New Delhi, India from December 16th to December 29th,
2004, I spoke with a large number of people to determine the possibility of
establishing a student exchange program with a local institution for SDSU students,
and specifically College of Engineering students. The people I spoke with included:
(a) Faculty at University of Delhi, South Campus, New Delhi.
(b) Instructors at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, New Delhi.
(c) Students from University of California, attending University of Delhi on
an exchange program.
(d) Students enrolled in engineering programs in New Delhi area who might participate
in the exchange program from the other end.
(e) Faculty and administrators at Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, where
I had the most extensive, day-long, substantive discussions on the subject of
student exchange program.
2. Some of the most important observations based on my visit are as follows:
(a) We could learn much from certain currently existing programs. There is an
on-going exchange program at IIT, Delhi with the University of Massachusetts,
Amherst, under which students go in each directions every term; this is an “experimental”
program, with only two or three students participating. There is also an existing
program at University of Delhi, (and also at Jawaharlal Nehru University in
Hyderabad, India), with the University of California, that is more established
and sizable, but it takes students from all nine campuses of the University
of California to populate it.
(b) The length of a semester, or “academic term,” ranges around
15 - 16 weeks; any arrangements making use of their existing instructional programs
need to be of corresponding duration. Designing a shorter program requires either
a summer or a custom designed course, and cannot be justified without a larger
number of participants.
(c) The biggest hurdle in making the program reciprocal (wherein students from
both sides go to the other side for studies), is the cost of travel to, and
housing in, U.S. for a semester; this cost exceeds the cost of the entire college
education in India and is not affordable for most students.
3. The most extensive and promising discussions were held at IIT, Roorkee,
in four meetings that took up the entire day (10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on December
27, 2004). These included
a. meetings with several individual faculty members;
b. a meeting with the Head of the Department of Electronics & Communications
Engineering along with half a dozen senior faculty in his department;
c. a one-hour meeting with the Director of the Institute (formerly the Vice-Chancellor
of the University) along with two faculty of their Department of Electronics
& Communications Engineering; and
d. a meeting followed by a tour with two faculty members, of the facilities
(laboratories, dormitories, dining area, athletics, library) of the Institute
that could be used by exchange students from San Diego.
A large number of issues were touched upon in these meetings, including:
• undergraduate vs. graduate student exchange;
• travel and local arrangement responsibilities;
• on-campus housing and boarding;
• costs;
• program length and schedule;
• motivations of the institutions on each side;
• success measures;
• potential program size and number of students;
• possible trial programs;
• features of the programs likely to be found most attractive and most
discouraging by participating students on each side;
• potential show-stoppers;
• administrative arrangements;
• sequence of steps to go through for putting the program in place;
• existing or potential custom courses that might be offered to SDSU students
at the host institution;
• possible forms of one-way programs desired by each side (if an exact
reciprocal program is not feasible);
• constraints of time and degree requirements on each side;
• areas in which each side had something unique to offer; and
• key people to involve on each side.
Where do we go from here:
1. I am in touch with a number of people I held discussions with (primarily
by e-mail).
2. I am awaiting replies from some people to specific questions.
3. I need to down select to one institution to focus my time and energies on.
4. I need to prepare a proposal that will appeal to institutions on both sides.
5. This proposal will be reviewed by my counterparts in the selected institution.
6. I will be talking to students here about a potential program to gauge interest
in it.