SSIE to benefit from new agreement with Indian university

A new agreement with an Indian college will open new opportunities for Binghamton University, and specifically the Department of Systems Science and Industrial Engineering.

In June, leaders from Binghamton University and India’s Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) committed to a new memorandum of agreement that will strengthen ties between the two schools.

Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Donald Nieman and VIT Chancellor Govindasamy Viswanathan signed the agreement that reaffirms a partnership with the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science that started in 2010.

The agreement will lead to a 3.5+1.5 program through which students can earn a bachelor of science degree from VIT and a master of science degree from Binghamton. It also will support future research collaborations, such as labs to develop technology for autonomous vehicles.

Professor Mohammad T. Khasawneh, SSIE department chair, recently visited VIT and has had interest from students there who want to learn more about systems concepts, problem solving, soft computing concepts and computational tools for various types of systems. The skills learned through SSIE studies can be utilized in a variety of industries, including healthcare and manufacturing.

“Indian students from various engineering disciplines in their eighth semester typically only have to do their capstone projects, unlike our students here who have to do the capstone and maybe three or four additional courses,” Khasawneh said.

“What we have discussed is that, instead of students spending their eighth semester at VIT, they would spend it here at Binghamton. During the semester, the same project they would do in India as a requirement, they would do with our students. At the same time, they will take three graduate courses as part of our master’s program.”