The Department of Computer Applications (BCA), Royal Thimphu College in collaboration with Thimphu Tech Park (www.thimphutechpark.com)organized an Industrial tour for the BCA students to Bhutan’s First Tech Park on 10th April’2014. The main purpose of the visit was to provide the students with first hand exposure to the IT sector in the country. The tour was conducted to give the final year BCA students a clear picture of the status of IT in Bhutan and job prospects in the IT sector. The Tech Park, being the leading organization in this sector in Bhutan, provided this very useful support to the RTC students. The tour was divided broadly into two sections. The first half included introductory talks by Mr. Somnath Chaudhuri (Faculty, Dept. of IT, RTC) and by a final year RTC student on the final year projects and subjects or tools related to them. Then, Ms. Sonam Choden, the Office Manager of Thimphu Tech Park/BITC, presented on the roles and responsibilities of Tech Park in the promotion of IT in Bhutan. There were also presentations from two developers of the SELIES Company, Mr.Arpan and Mr. Thanka. Tech Park Officials stressed in their comments that fresh IT graduates can play an important role in the development of IT in the country.

The second half of the event provided students and faculty with a tour of the Tech Park's Data Centre, its setup, maintenance and application. This provided a practical look at how the network servers and the data are maintained in a secure and efficient manner. The event ended with an interactivequestion-answer session. All in all, this varied event enriched the BCA students' understanding of the Tech Park and it’s functioning as well as the role of IT in Bhutan's present and future.