E-Foundry Cells opened in institutes across three states Dr. B. Ravi, Institute Chair Professor Indian Institute of Technology Bombay Metal casting offers a range of career opportunities to engineering and polytechnic students, in foundries, tool- rooms, suppliers of various materials and services to foundries, as well as original equipment manufacturers spanning virtually all sectors. While IT, financial and other services have emerged as preferred employers, manufacturing continues to be the main driving force of the economy. Hence there is a need to enhance the interest and employability of students in the manufacturing sector, especially those directly or indirectly related to metal casting. With this goal in mind, E-Foundry Cells have been opened in three engineering institutes and two more are planned in Gujarat, M.P. and Maharashtra. These include SGS Institute of Science and Technology, Indore; DKTE’s Textile and Engineering Institute, Ichalkaranji; BH Gardi College of Engineering, Rajkot; CSP Institute of Technology, Changa; and SV Engineering and Research Institute, Pandharpur. The inauguration of the E-Foundry Cells were coupled with teacher training courses in ‘Casting Design and Simulation’ conducted by the host institute in collaboration with IIT Bombay. In total, over 300 teachers from about 140 engineering and polytechnic institutes were trained how to make their courses more interesting, augment laboratory experiments, define meaningful student and research projects, and engage with local industry. Each institute was provided a set of high quality course material including DVDs of lesson videos and animations, presentation slides, and books related to the subject. The learning resources are freely available online and can be accessed at E-Foundry (http://efoundry.iitb.ac.in, or Google efoundry). Since January 2013, the site has clocked more than 180,000 page-views by 30,000 visitors from all over the world. While India accounts for over 75% users, others are from USA, Brazil, Germany, Turkey, Italy, Australia, UK, and Mexico, all of them major producers of castings. Within India, the largest number of visitors is seen from Mumbai, Indore, Kolhapur, Pune, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara and Kolkata, all of which have foundry clusters. The most powerful feature of the site is a facility for online simulation of casting solidification. Users can upload a 3D model of casting and within a few minutes, view its colour- coded temperature profile. This enables identifying hot-spots, which require feeding; and cold-spots, which require proper gating. E-Foundry members have simulated 3500 castings during the last six months, which can be viewed in simulation gallery. Teachers hold the key to unlocking the potential of their students and directing them to meaningful careers, including those related to metal casting, which requires young talent to grow and become globally competitive. This requires empowering the teachers first, by providing them adequate training, high- quality course material, and institutional support. The E-Foundry initiative of National Knowledge Network mission is showing teachers and students that metal casting is an interesting and useful field to pursue. E-Foundry teacher training programmes at Changa, Indore, Pandharpur, Ichalkranji and Rajkot conducted in July-Sep 2013.