Virtual Labs is a mission-mode project initiated by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt of India. This is a consortium project of 12 leading technical institutions of India – IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Roorkee, IIT Guwahati, IIT Madras, IIIT Hyderabad, Amrita University, Dayalbagh University, COE Pune, and NIT Surathkal.

IIIT Hyderabad has signed an MoU with Telangana Academy for Skill and Knoweldge (TASK) to carry forward the outreach activities of Virtual Labs. According to the MoU, both parties will work closely to reach out to all engineering colleges in Telangana and improve the quality of engineering education in these colleges through the use of Virtual Labs and other technical training programs.

Currently, 150 Virtual labs with about 1500 experiments have already been developed and a large number of these labs are being used by about 150 colleges across the country. Usage pattern of these labs show that these labs are increasingly used ‘outside’ lab hours, which was one of the original motivations for this project.

According to Professor Venkatesh Choppella, Associate Professor at IIIT Hyderabad and co-PI of Virtual Labs, “Virtual Labs is a great initiative for the engineering education in the country. Not only will the students benefit from the access to laboratory experiments developed by the faculties of top technical institutions in the country, this project also has tremendous opportunities for research and development for open sources enthusiasts. This being an Open Source project, it provides open access to developers across the world to contribute to this project and build a world-class learning platform for students.”

According to Sujiv Nair – CEO Task virtual labs addresses the issue of lack of good laboratory facilities, as well as trained teachers, by making remote and simulation-based experimentation possible through the Internet and we are excited to partner with IIIT Hyderabad help spread the awareness and usage of these labs in Engineering colleges both in Urban and Rural areas across Telangana.