UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Soundar Kumara is one of three instructors that will be teaching a course on “Data Analytics with Applications to Health Care” at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, India, in early 2017.
Kumara, Allen E. Pearce and Allen M. Pearce Professor of Industrial Engineering at Penn State, along with R.P. Sundarraj and C. Rajendran, professors at IIT Madras, submitted their course proposal to the government of India under the Global Initiative Academic Networks (GIAN) program.
The proposal was approved and the course and is intended for senior-level undergraduate, graduate and health care and computer science/analytics professionals.
“Global health is one of the challenges the world is facing and health analytics is vital in addressing this problem,” said Kumara. “I am happy that the Indian government approved this course proposal to train Indian students and researchers in this important area.”
The course will cover foundations of data analytics, the nature of health care data, and descriptive and predictive health analytics.
“Penn State and IIT Madras are leading institutions in their respective countries and attract some of the best students and faculty,” said Sundarraj. “That is one of the key reasons I am interested in teaching this joint course. I am also thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute by talking about my area of expertise, information systems.”
The GIAN program is aimed at tapping the talent pool of international scientists and entrepreneurs to encourage their engagement with institutes of higher education in India. The goal is to augment the country’s existing academic resources, accelerate the pace of quality reform, and elevate India’s scientific and technological capacity in the global economy.