Resulting from an agreement between the Indian and French governments, the concept of worldwide academic cooperation has come a step closer with the commencement of regular `distance education` workshops between the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and the Toulouse University Network in France. Known as FICUS (the French-Indian Cyber University project), the President of the Republic of India and representatives of the French Ministry of Research attended a workshop on 16th January, and took part in live interaction.
The primary aim of the FICUS project is to create a (cyber-)platform devoted to information exchange between India and France within the fields of research development, education, training, transfer of technology and the dissemination of knowledge on a long-term non-commercial basis. In the first phase, the project will concentrate on developing and delivering a set of post-graduate courses on applied mathematics. It is envisaged that this will progressively develop into an Indo-French consortium encompassing a wide range of disciplines and courses at different levels. Further information is available at http://ficus.ups-tlse.fr/inauguration/.
Key to the project is the provision of ad hoc satellite connections between the two universities, using the Europe*Star 1 satellite. Trial workshops began in May 2002, using DVB/MPEG2 duplex links between the campuses. Other academic establishments within the footprints can also view the workshops, and for those without satellite equipment, sessions will also be available streamed over the Internet.
Prof. Mohamed Masmoudi, FICUS project manager in Toulouse said "Without satellite communications, it would have been impossible to create such an educational programme between the two countries, due to the poor quality of terrestrial circuits. Reliability of our weekly videoconferences is critical, due to the complex subject matter and the nature of the academic process. Europe*Star has proved to be an ideal partner for this programme, particularly in the professional and responsive manner in which last minute changes to capacity bookings have been handled".
David Ch'egnion, Europe*Star`s general manager, added "We`ve been working on this with Toulouse University for some time, so it`s good to see these long-distance workshops have been a success, and have now become a regular educational service. We wish the project success in both continents, and look forward to its evolution into other academic subjects".
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Europe*Star is a satellite owner-operator, offering capacity on its geostationary communications satellites. The company leases whole and fractional transponders on a full-time and occasional use basis, for use with a broad range of satellite communications services including television, Internet, telephony and corporate networking.
Brought into service at the start of 2001, the innovative Europe*Star 1 satellite has five highperformance beams covering Europe, Southern Africa, the Middle East, the Indian subcontinent and South East Asia. Its Europe*Star B satellite provides additional capacity for markets in Central and Eastern Europe.
An Alcatel company, Europe*Star is headquartered in London, with regional marketing offices in Cape Town and New Delhi. Europe*Star also operates its own mission control centre in Toulouse, for tracking, telemetry & control of the satellites.
For more information visit http://www.europestar.com.
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