Computer Society of India (CSI)

The seed for the Computer Society of India (CSI) was first shown in the year 1965 with a handful of IT enthusiasts who were a computer user group and felt the need to organize tteir activities. They also wanted to share their knowledge and exchange i lso wanted to share their knowledge and exchange ideas on what they felt was a fast emerging sector. Today the CSI takes pride in being the largest and most professionally managed association of and for IT professionals in India. The purposes of the Society are scientific and educational directed towards the advancement of the theory and practice of computer science and IT. The organisation has grown to an enviable size of 100,000 strong members consisting of professionals with varied backgrounds including Software developers, Scientists, Academicians, Project Managers, CIO’s , CTO’s & IT vendors to just name a few. It has spread its branches all over the country. Currently having 488 student branches and rooted firmly at 73 different locations, CSI has plans of opening many more chapters & activity centers in smaller towns and cities of the country. The idea is to spread the knowledge, and provide opportunities to as many interested as possible. Keeping in mind the interest of the IT professionals & computer users CSI works towards making the profession an area of choice amongst all sections of the society. The promotion of Information Technology as a profession is the top priority of CSI today. To fulfill this objective, the CSI regularly organizes conferences, conventions, lectures, projects, awards. And at the same time it also ensures that regular training and skill updating are organised for the IT professionals. Education Directorate, CSI helps physically challenged citizens by providing training ‘Punarjani’. CSI also works towards a global approach, by seeking out alliances with organizations overseas who may be willing to come forward and participate in such activities. CSI also helps governments in formulating IT strategy & planning. Representing the Indian community in the International Federation of Information Processing (IFlP) since 1974. Representation in all the technical Committees and some of the working groups of IFIP. CSI has also organised IFIP sponsored events and conferences in India. Reciprocal membership agreement with the British Computer Society and the Australian Computer Society and the IEEE Computer Society. Being closely associated with Students the Society has developed a well-established net-work of “Student Branches” all across the country. CSI has 488 student branches with more than 90,000 Student Volunteers across the nation. The activities conducted for the Students associated with the Society include lecture meetings, seminars, conferences, training programmes, programming contests and practical visits to installations. CSI has a strong Educational Directorate based at Chennai which undertakes activities related to Certification of professionals related to the latest technologies. Its recent initiative of distance education in the Business Domain areas offers technology enabled learning supported by personal counseling & expert advice. In an ever changing environment, CSI offers professional counseling being a great need of the hour. And this is done by being in close contact with it’s young members through various events, conferences, symposia to name a few. CSI regularly organises SEARCC Programming Contest, Alan Turning Quiz, Discover Thinking Project Contest, On-line Programming Contest etc. for the students.