CHENNAI, 21^st October 2021: Indian Institute of Technology Madras and Monolith Research And Training Labs are going to launch an advanced diploma program in Virtual Reality to be offered in both online and offline mode.

The course would be open for anyone with an engineering background including students currently enrolled in engineering degrees anywhere in India. The Applications will be available from November 2021 and the first batch will commence from January 2022. The course will have an annual intake of 50 students.

Virtual reality (VR) is a powerful technology in which the human senses are artificially stimulated. Using computer programs, VR technology allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment to experience, feel and touch the images of past, present, and the future.

An MoU towards this collaboration was signed recently between IIT Madras and Monolith Research And Training Labs an associate company of Monolith.Asia, a leading Japanese media communication technology company. The MoU was signed by Prof. Devendra Jalihal, Prof. Devendra Jalihal, Chairman, Centre for Continuing Education (CCE) - IIT Madras, and Mr. Yathirajan Varadharajan, Director, Monolith Research And Training Labs.

The course is being coordinated by IIT Madras by the Centre of Excellence on Virtual Reality and Haptics, set up under the ‘Institute of Eminence’ initiative of the Government of India.

Highlighting the unique aspects of the program, Prof. M. Manivannan, Department of Applied Mechanics, IIT Madras, said, “Virtual Reality is inherently a practical and an interdisciplinary course. Offering such an experiential and interdisciplinary course online is quite challenging. Both IIT Madras and Monolith have taken this as a challenge to offer this course for the first time in India.”

The key objective is to serve the increased needs for professionals who are highly skilled in Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality (XR) and Haptics technology. The course is offered as a part of IoE-CoE on VR and Haptics at IITM which is India's first Research and Product Innovation centre for XR and haptics technology, also known as Experiential Technology Innovation Center (XTIC.org).

Further, Mr. Yathirajan Varadharajan, Director, of Monolith, said, “Experiential and Immersive technology is rapidly developing and transforming key industries from architecture and engineering to healthcare and media production. Various studies and research papers on immersive technology suggests that it has the potential to boost the global economy by US$ 1.5 trillion by adding 23 million jobs globally including new jobs that do not exist now or by enhancing the existing jobs by 2030. This economic growth is under a threat due to the lack of availability of skilled resources for employers across the globe.”

Mr. Yathirajan Varadharajan added, “Our MoU with IITM strengthens Monolith’s vision to create a learning path in emerging technologies and provide visibility to employment opportunities present across the APAC region for its learners.”

Graduates of this course will have potential job opportunities in sectors such as IT Companies, animation industries, architecture, and engineering industries to healthcare and media production. This advanced diploma program shall be available for students/freshers with minimum bachelor’s degrees or for working professionals who are aspiring to upskill in immersive technologies.

More common technologies adapt XR technologies to provide stunning visual experiences to users. Recently product development, visualization, learning, and development have seen a major push to advance and enable remote development and visual experience to the user.

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