with Potential for Excellence in the Field of Lasers and Optoelectronics Sciences" in March 2002, and provided a grant of Rs. 5 crore that was used to establish a Centre of Excellence in Lasers and Optoelectronics Sciences (CELOS). The Centre later merged with the International School of Photonics. The department offers postgraduate programmes leading to the degrees of MTech (Opto Electronics and Laser Technology) and PhD. Department of Computer Applications The Department of Computer Applications (DCA) was established in 1994. It offers a Masters in Computer Applications programme with the financial support of UGC and the Department of Electronics, Government of India. Research areas include information security, simulation and modelling, cryptography and coding theory, language computing, algorithms, pattern recognition, Web mining, applications of graph theory, image processing, data mining, networking and software engineering. The department also provide MSc Computer Science with Specialization in soft Computing from 2016. The aim is to prepare the students with both theoretical and practical foundation in soft computing. The curriculum includes exposure to the current technologies like Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, AI, Big Data Analytics etc. Department of Computer Science The Department of Computer Science (DCS) focuses on academic programs in Information Systems, but also includes research on high-speed computing, human-computer interactions, information security, networked embedded systems, natural language processing, software engineering, and very-large-scale integration. It was instrumental in establishing the university computer centre and the CUSAT Intranet. The department offers postgraduate programmes leading to the degrees of MTech (Computer & Information Science), MTech (Software Engineering) and MTech (Computer Science with Specialization in Data Science & Artificial Intelligence), MSc Computer Science ( Artificial Intelligence & Data Science) and PhD (Computer Science / Computer Engineering or Information Science). Research laboratories include: 1. Artificial Intelligence & Computer Vision Laboratory (AICV) 2. Bioinformatics Laboratory (BI) 3. Cyber Physical Systems Laboratory (CPS) 4. Natural Language Processing Laboratory (NLP) 5. Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL) Faculty of Engineering School of Engineering, Thrikkakara The School of Engineering was established in 1979 to offer part-time MTech programmes in the major disciplines of engineering (Civil, Mechanical, Electrical and Chemical Engineering) for practising engineers in and around Cochin. In 1995 the School introduced BTech programmes in Civil engineering, Mechanical engineering, Electronics and Communication engineering, Computer Science & Engineering and Information technology. Safety and Fire Engineering was added in 1996 and Electrical & Electronics Engineering in 2003. In 1981 the School added PhD programmes. ,