With the idea of giving something back to the land from which we have come from the TRANSFER OF KNOWLEDGE AND TECHNOLOGY TO ASSAM (TOKTA) was born. The aim of this project is to reverse some of the losses caused by the massive exodus of talented people from Assam and also to develop the region technologically. The goal is to transform a portion of the enormous brain drain into a brain gain. This project is modelled like the United Nations (UN) Transfer Of Knowledge Through Expatriate (TOKTEN) project. In fact sometime at a later date a formal proposal will be submitted to the UN to sponsor this project through TOKTEN.
This project started with a few informal lectures at Assam Engineering College (AEC) by Mr. Mrinal Baruah and Anirban Sharma in late 1994/early 1995. Mr. Mrinal Baruah gave a talk on Preparation for coming to US for higher studies . This was followed by a talk by Mr. Jugma Bora at AEC on Technology Treands in the U.S.A. in April of 1995. During this time a 3 day interaction program called Industry Institute Partnership program was organized by the AEC chapter of Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE). Mr. Jugma Bora attended this program and shared his experience on the collaborations between the Industry and the Educational Institutes in the U.S.A. This was followed by a talk by Dr. Subrata Goswami at AEC and the Central University at Tezpur on The Internet in the summer of 1995. In the winter of 1995, 3 more lectures were given at AEC. The first talk was by Mr. Mahesh Baishya on Airport Planning . This was followed a week later by a lecture on Artificial Intelligence by Dr. Jugal Kalita and on Client/Server Computing by Mr. Jugma Bora. All the talks at AEC have been given with the help of the AEC chapter of ISTE.
Besides the technical talks at AEC and Central University at Tezpur there has been an attempt at having lectures at other non-technical institutes. Mr. Sanjeev Bordoloi visited the Assam Institute of Management (AIM) at Chandmari, Guwahati. He gave an informal talk on Recent Trend in Teaching and Research Methodologies in Management to the faculty and the graduating class. The theme of his talk was about the importance of case-based teaching techniques and application-based research methodology. We are in the process of setting up talks at the other universities and colleges in Assam like Guwahati University, Guwahati Medical College, Cotton College, Jorhat Engineering college and Assam Medical College etc.
The nature of the TOKTA project is purely voluntary and therefore no salary or remuneration is paid to the individuals. Since most of us visit our home state Assam on a regular basis it does not take much of an effort to give a talk at some of the colleges and universities in Assam. The benefit that such a talk can give is enormous. Most of the colleges and universities in Assam don't even have a decent library or a process by which they can get access to the latest journals. So our talks may be their only hope of gathering knowlege of what the latest advancement is in the different fields. The experience that the people who have give talks has been very positive. They have been welcomed with great enthusiasm and the attendence at the talks have been great. There has also been a lot of interaction at these talks between the faculty, the students and the presenter.
Besides giving talks the TOKTA project has been successful in presenting in the summer of 1995 with software to AEC for the 486 PC's that exist in the Computer Aided Design (CAD) lab. These software have exposed AEC's students to some of the new technologies in the U.S.A. In the fall of 1995 a modem donated by Mr. Satyajit Dutta was delivered by Mr. Kaushik Kalita to AEC. This modem will help AEC get on to the Internet and in turn will expose the AEC students and faculty to the vast source of free information through the net. At present the TOKTA project is working on delivering a modem to Guwahati University to help with the University's effort for an Internet connection.
With all of the above achievements the TOKTA project has indeed succeded in exposing the faculty and students of some of the colleges and universities to the technologies in the U.S.A. At the same time this project has also succeded to a small degree in bring some of this technology to the colleges and universities. We therefore urge each and every one of you who are natives of Assam to spend some time in an Assam college or university the next time you visit Assam and if possible to give an informal/formal talk to the students and faculty. If you desire to give a talk please contact any of the persons below so that they can help you with the arrangements.
Contact persons:
For Assam Institute Of Management:
Sanjeev K Bordoloi
1221 Algarita Ave, #148
Austin, TX: 78704
e-mail: bordy@uts.cc.utexas.edu
Ph: (512) 440-7026
Jukti Kalita
72 Taylor Ave.
East Brunswick, NJ: 08816
e-mail: Jukti_Kalita@pcmailgw.ml.com
Ph: (908) 846-6617
For Assam Engineering College:
Jugal Kalita
5050 Copernicus Way
Colorado Springs, CO: 80917
e-mail: kalita@pikespeak.uccs.edu
Ph: (719) 574-3656
Mahesh Baishya
10 Karen Place
Edison, NJ: 08817
Ph: (908) 494-6816
Jugma Bora
22130 Victory Blvd, #A112
Woodland Hills, CA: 91367
e-mail: jbora@redwood.Candle.Com
Ph: (818) 703-0388
For Guwahati Medical College:
Jiten and Gita Baruah
19175 StillPoint
Brookfield, WI: 53045
Ph: (414) 782-7710
Number of visitors (since March 18. 1997):