pune the maharashtra institute of technology mit has entered into an exchange programme with the germanybased rheinisch westfalische technische hochschule rwthaachen university of technology selected students will now be able to undertake postgraduate degree courses in engineering at the german university every year mit is the german universitys second partner after the indian institutes of technology iits the first batch of 10 students from mit will be sent to aachen in germany next october for a foursemester masters degree in one of three engineering courses automotive software electronics and telecommunication prof pd chidgupkar director software finishing school mit said while education is free in germany students will have to bear the operational expenses food and lodging which will come to 906 dm rs 20000 per month students can howver take up part time jobs in the university campus prof chidgupkar said prof vishwanath karad founder and director general mit said there would be a reciprocal threemonth visit from german students to mit to undergo specialised training in information technology vlsi very large scale integration architecture and design and gis geographical information systems he said the aim is to establish close industryinstitute linkages which would identify specific needs of the industry and provide solutions through training and consultancy centres at both ends prof chidgupkar said both the mit and rwth will jointly interact with industry in both countries and identify their requirements based on these requirements a totally industryfocused curriculum will be designed for various training programs mit has already started discussions with the indian unit of german auto major mercedes he said nine core areas for joint research have also been identified disaster management low cost housing watershed and drinking water management applied research using gis platform webenabled business management high performance component development for internet applications networking and communication methods applied research using cadcamcaerapid rototyping tools and material science