Background

The 1980’s saw the electronics and computer revolution reaching the shores of India. A major player in this field was the Govt. of India, through its specialized agencies—the Electronics Commission and the Dept. of Electronics (DOE). DOE decided to establish national CAD Centres with four geographical regions as the focal points for promoting CAD activities in India. The centres were established, and funded jointly by DOE, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The Eastern Regional Centre of the aforesaid programme was established at Jadavpur University, one of the pioneering institutions in Eastern India and started functioning in the year 1985-86. The Centre has recently broadened its spectrum of specialisation, in addition to CAD and related activities, by including frontier technologies like:

• Geoinformatics
• Multimedia & Animation
• Computer Programming
• Cyber Security & Forensics

Objective

During mid 80’s, the awareness in the field of CAD/CAM was at its infancy. Few educators and researchers with limited expertise in this specialised field were available and the situation in the industry was even worse. This dearth was rewarded by establishing nationwide four CAD Centres and the Eastern Regional Centre was decided to be housed at Jadavpur University. The main objective behind setting up this centre was creating awareness in the fields of CAD, CAM and CAE, eventually expanding to Geoinformatics/Multimedia/Computer Programming/Cyber Security; and promoting activities in these spectra by organizing workshops, short-term courses and through consultancies.

Achievements

During the initial phase, the major thrust was to create awareness on CAD methodologies for industry personnel, researchers as well as faculty members. The computing facilities including structural analysis software and other CAD related packages were made available to the registered users. It also offered numerous short-term courses in various emerging fields since its inception; and has trained more than 10000 researchers, academicians, professionals, and students in various technological fields, who have been successful in implementing their training to their work areas. Our students are working in many esteemed Government and private organizations, even in abroad. A number of projects from the industry have also been successfully completed. The centre has arranged many workshops, seminars, conferences, and corporate trainings in its areas of expertise. During the last 35 years, it has remained the most prestigious institutions in Eastern India for promoting CAD and Geoinformatics related activities. The contribution of CAD Centre in the field of Geoinformatics has been recognized in 2020 by the Indian Society of Remote Sensing (Kolkata chapter), the oldest Geoinformatics community of India, closely associated with ISRO and IIRS.