CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts -- Microsoft teamed up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Tuesday to create a "virtual campus" featuring remote access to laboratory instruments, online aid in mentoring and tutoring, and Web-based museums.
MIT said Microsoft will give it an estimated US$25 million over the next five years to create technologies for the virtual campus, called I-Campus. The goal is to provide better education and better facilities over the Internet, MIT said in a statement.
The funding, which is separate from the $20 million gift that MIT received from Microsoft's chief executive Bill Gates in April, will be used to expand the university's Shakespeare Electronic Archive and design an educational system for the global classroom established last year by MIT and The National University of Singapore.
The classroom delivers graduate engineering education across 12 time zones. The funds will also help MIT's Aeronautics and Astronautics Department's experimental use of distance collaboration in design courses.
In addition to the money, Microsoft will also provide software support and research staff for the projects, while the university will contribute faculty and students.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.
