IIT-K starts diploma course on Geodesy to teach students how to measure the Earth

The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT-K) has announced the launch of a new course - Diploma of IIT (D-IIT) in Geodesy which is the science of measuring the Earth.

The D-IIT programme will be offered by the department of civil engineering in three broad areas. These include - Geodesy, navigation and mapping and remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS).

The science of Geodesy has applications in monitoring earthquake, volcanic, landslide and weather hazard recognition and response; soil health, water resources, and drought surveillance; climate change including monitoring the polar ice cover; oil spill clean-ups; GPS timing and autonomous vehicle development.

With the support from the government's department of science and technology, IIT-K has recently established the National Centre for Geodesy (NCG) with Professor Onkar Dikshit, from the Department of Civil Engineering as its coordinator and supported with the experience of Dr B Nagarajan (Chairman, National Geodesy Programme) and Prof Balaji Devaraju. The NCG is the first of its kind in the country to support education and research in Geodesy.

Chairman Board of Governors, IIT-K, Dr Radhakrishnan said: "The D-IIT programmes launched at IIT-K will raise the national capability in Geodesy and navigation and mapping besides impelling advance data analytics into remote sensing and GIS."

Director, IIT-K, Prof Abhay Karandikar said: "Geodesy is an area where well-qualified technical human resources, research activities, and geodetic infrastructure are required at the national level."

He said: "The NCG has been established to enhance expertise in Geodesy and allied areas. The Centre's primary aim is to act as a hub of excellence in teaching and research in Geodesy, both at the national and the international level."

He further said: "The area of Geodesy, has wide-ranging applications from vehicle navigation, location-based services involving search and advertisement to solving broader issues related to climate studies, military applications, and large-scale mapping of natural and agricultural resources and disaster studies."

The new course will be open to candidates from different backgrounds with requirements as for the M.Tech/MS(R) programme of Geoinformatics with specialisation in civil engineering.

However, for the D-IIT programme, the GATE requirement is waived for working professionals.