National Convention for Academics and Research (NCAR) 2010
With the increased penetration of the computing tools and techniques into modern science and technology, education and technological research are faced with the challenges of not just teaching the conceptual models of S&T but also equip, train and enable students, researchers and industrial work force to handle these in the furtherance of their goals and objectives. An important challenge to this happens to be the ready availability of such tools, ability to study and modify them suitably to the evolving scientific and technological tempers at both individual and institutional levels.
Towards fostering this scientific and research temper, enabling and empowering the individuals, Free Software Movement of India (FSMI) is organizing the First National Convention for Academics and Research (NCAR-2010) on the theme of "Computing Freedom in Education, Research and Technology", with special emphasis on STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The convention aims at spreading awareness of Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FOSS / FLOSS), provide for a platform for sharing of experiences and views in its use in Academia/Research communities and to foster a collaborative approach to education in developing and improving educational aids including software tools.
It is estimated that more than 1000 Researchers, Academic personnel from various national universities and organizations like IITs, IISc, IIIT's and other state level Engineering Colleges and Universities from all states, Industry and Government bodies and public sector organisations will participate. The conference aims to focus on the FOSS based research and evangelisation of the same. The FOSS paradigm gives us an opportunity to emerge as a serious research community with global co-operation. This would enable the bridging of the gap between research-industry and societal demands. An integration for research between academia and industry is not up to the mark as it is in the case of developed nations. This conference shall also provide space for Industry to place their requirements before the researchers to facilitate the reach of the academia and institutions at large.
The convention will focus on a wide range of topics through dedicated track sessions on academic and research areas like scientific computing and visualization to Indian Language technologies and application specific domains of Mobile, GIS and the like. In addition, it will also host demonstrations, exhibitions, and tutorial sessions for providing hands-on training.
The convention is being organized by FSMI and hosted by Swecha in association with TalentSprint.
About FSMI:
Free Software Movement of India (FSMI) is a not-for-profit organisation which is a national coalition of various regional and sectoral free software movements operating in different parts of India. FSMI was formed at the National Free Software Conference - 2010 held in Bangalore in 20–21 March 2010. FSMI is a Pan-India level initiative to propagate the idea of free software and popularize the usage of free software. One of the aims of FSMI is to take Free Software and its potential to all classes of computer users including academia, researchers and technologists, and to cater to the demands of Indian society across the digital divide.
About Swecha:
Swecha is a not-for-profit organization in Andhra Pradesh that has evolved as an organisation of researchers from industry, academia and users of computers who respect computing in freedom. Swecha OS is a working example that provides a computing solution to a population that understands only Telugu there by work in bridging the gap between the computer technology that exists predominantly in English and the Telugu-speaking community of India. The journey so far has been one of the most exciting stories in the history of the Free Software Movement around the world.
