A LOCAL university part-nered with a multinational technology provider to integrate the company’s products and solutions to the school’s computer engineering curriculum.

The University of San Carlos’ College of Engineering is also the first school in the country and in Asia to benefit from the Nortel Technology Solutions Academy (NTSA).

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The NTSA is an initiative by the company, which was first implemented in the United States, to foster relationships with colleges and universities through the incorporation of Nortel technical training courses into the school’s existing curriculum.
College students who benefit from the training are also considered as “ambassadors” for Nortel.

Nortel country manager for enterprise Armando Pascual said the move is in line with the company’s thrust to help the society keep abreast with technology developments.

“(When people are aware) of the technology, it will be easier for them to learn about it,” he said yesterday during the signing of the memorandum of agreement.

Pascual said that having USC as its partner for the NTSA program is a “good fit” since the university have invested heavily on technology, equipment and facility for their students.

As part of the terms of the partnership, Nortel will provide the university with training courses on data communications, voice over the Internet protocol (VoIP) and unified communications.

Instructors are also required to be certified either as a Nortel Certified Technology Specialist or Expert on converged Internet protocol solutions.

Nicanor Buenconsejo Jr., dean of the USC engineering department, said the partnership is also part of the university’s plan to make its programs more relevant to information and communication technology (ICT).

“The (NTSA) is just the beginning,” he added.

However, Christine Bandalan, who chairs the department of computer engineering, said USC has already implemented various programs in line with ICT that helped their students become more competent.

This includes the annual open source conference and robotics competition that was initiated by the university since 2005. (DME)