Programs of NRCFOSS-AU

The primary objective of NRCFOSS-AU is to help produce adequate number and quality of FOSS- trained Human Resources for our country. For this purpose, FOSS concepts and technologies will be introduced into the higher education and training processes and programs in the country, both in the formal as well as non-formal sectors.
Major activities of the NRCFOSS-AU Project are the following –

1. Human Resource Development in the formal sector-- introduction of FOSS in the Higher Education Curricula.
The following are some of the specific activities of NRCFOSS in this regard:

  • a) Introduction of FOSS theory subjects in the Computer Science and I. T. Curricula, initially as Elective courses or as clusters of FOSS Electives. NRCFOSS supports the universities in this task through syllabi preparation, teacher training, book writing, training material preparation, etc.
  • b) Migrating Educational and Research Packages and Products to their FOSS equivalents. Almost all departments in educational institutions use a range of software packages for educational and R&D purposes, and many of these do have their equivalents in FOSS. NRCFOSS helps the departments in migrating to these FOSS alternatives through conducting short term courses and training programs in them
  • c) Supporting the setting up of FOSS Laboratories for lab classes, student projects, etc. and providing FOSS mentorship to student projects.
  • d) Supporting for students and Visiting Scientist Programs for faculty to carry out FOSS work at NRCFOSS-AU.
for a list of universities and colleges who are working with us on this matter.

2. Human Resource Development in the non-formal sector – the FOSS Competency Certification Programme
NRCFOSS-AU conducts Examinations and issue Competency Certificates to candidates in a number of FOSS subjects and at different levels of their mastery. This will provide the potential recruiter with a dependable and vendor-neutral assessment of the FOSS expertise level of a candidate in a given topic. It enables working persons who are not a part of any formal educational institution to have his/her specific FOSS expertise evaluated and certified. These certificates signed by NRCFOSS-AU and Anna University Chennai are expected to serve as benchmarks of quality in this domain. While NRCFOSS does not presently conduct training programs for these Certificate Examinations, the same would be conducted on request from Enterprises, Companies, etc. on specific themes and topics.
Details of the Certification Program and how to apply for it are available at: Go...

3. Development of a FOSS-based CSE/IT Engineering Degree Program.
Many of the CSE/IT/MCA graduates coming out of engineering institutions in India today are considered "unemployable" due to the poor quality of education and training being imparted in most colleges in India. It is expected that this situation can be partly rectified by basing their education on the approaches, methods, tools and values evolved by the FOSS Movement – going beyond exposing the students to available FOSS Technologies and Products as is attempted in the University interaction program. This step will however require significant re-working of the regulations, curricula and syllabi of the degree programs, and this is proposed to be attempted in a few universities on a pilot scale to test this hypothesis. While some of the universities in Europe are attempting a similar step at the Post-graduate level, NRCFOSS believes that, in the Indian context, this has to be attempted at the undergraduate level to have a significant impact, especially on the unemployability aspect.
For details Click here...

4. Development of a FOSS Maturity Model for Departments/Institutions/Enterprises
There are many tools and metrics available for assessing the maturity levels of FOSS Products,and industry and users make use of them to judge if a given FOSS product would meet their requirements. Similarly, research tools have been reported recently for quantifying the FOSS-friendliness levels of countries, and using them ranks have been assigned to countries (France being the top rank, and India at the 23rd rank). No such tools however exist today for quantifying the 'maturity' levels of a given Department/ Institution/Enterprise as regards its FOSS usage, awareness, policies etc. Such tools and techniques are proposed to be developed in this project.
For details Click here... for a detailed note on this work.

5. Creation of FOSS Repositories and Banks
This activity is common to all the participating institutions in the NRCFOSS Project, and NRCFOSS-AU will also make its contribution with specific reference to the theme of FOSS in Higher Education.