Mumbai: 'Share and share alike' is what the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) is spreading across the message to reach out to the smaller engineering colleges to share their expertise with lesser-known institutions across the country under a pilot project.

Shedding the snobbish tag of the IITs, IIT-Bombay has been the frontier to start an e-outreach programme which was set up in 2005. According to the programme, teachers and students of regional engineering colleges would be able to tap into the knowledge base of the country’s premier institutions.

Dr. Mukta Atrey, project coordinator said that, "In order to experience the IIT methods of teaching, we under this programme, train teachers at various engineering colleges."

At present 800 teachers from 22 engineering colleges across the country are upgrading their teaching skills in computer programming.

Supported by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the teachers are linked to the IIT Bombay by the EDUSAT network of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Both the faculties, that is, IIT Bombay's and the participating teachers are linked by a two-way video broadcast facility.

The IIT approves of a course coordinator, which will supervise tutorial and laboratory sessions for the participating teachers.

The lectures conducted by the IIT faculty would be recorded and released under the open source model so that other teachers and students can freely use the same.

"Depending upon the success of the pilot project, which is meant for the teachers and students of computer programming would be extended to other branches of education as well," says Dr Atrey.

Apart from upgrading teaching skills, efforts are on to reach out to students from other institutions as well.

Students in the final year of computer science, under the Ekalavya programme, can sign up for guidance in their projects.

An interactive platform of an online Ekalavya portal, set up under this programme, brings together students and mentors who can guide them in their project work.

Aiming for a free exchange of knowledge and ideas, the Ekalavya portal makes considerable contribution to society by placing all relevant academic material in the open source.

Under Project Ekalavya, students with Bachelor's in Engineering, Master's in Computer Applications and Information Technology from Indian colleges can register online to work under an e-Guru.

A maximum of five students is allotted to each group and is then asked to submit an original project proposal or choose one from the pool of available project ideas.

After the approval of the project, the group furthers its efforts with a mentor drawn from industry and academia while many are former IITians themselves, to guide them in executing the project.

The education institutions where the students hail from would also have to appoint a coordinator to oversee their performance.

The projects students have worked on so far include the fun-sounding chess games and city route planner on mobile phones to more mundane exercises like ERPs for schools and colleges and stock-trading systems on cell phones.