At 2nd BW Businessworld Engineering Excellence Conclave had its first panel discussion on “Engineering Education & Future Generation Technologies: Who Powers Whom?” with moderator, Prof. Rajesh Khanna, Dean of students’ Affairs, IIT Delhi. He began the panel discussion with certain areas like change in curriculum, technology’s role which will be covered during this session.
Prof. Khanna addressed the brilliant suggestion by one student at his university. He said, “Engineering education needs to cover engineering basics instead of focusing only on specification.” and added, “We need to solve simpler problems like curriculum designing and updating with time.” The session proceeded with the thought-provoking ideas of panelist, Aditya Berlia, Co-Founder & Pro Chancellor, ApeejayStya University. He put forward a question in front of everyone, “Is education leading the industry or the industry is leading education?” He also mentioned ‘role of professors in the education system’.
Dr. Rupamanjari Ghosh, Vice Chancellor, Shiv Nadar University talked about the ‘Organic Revolution’ in this field. She also recognised the importance of knowledge by saying, “Core knowledge is important for the adoption of new knowledge”. While defining the future of engineering, she focused on flexibility in the system and multidisciplinary education. She also said, “Learning is enjoyable when it creates curiosity and self-driven learning.”
Whereas Dr. Kunwar Shekhar Vijendre, Chancellor, Shobit University emphasized on Innovation. He said, “Innovation will happen when we know what the problem is and If engineers are the creators, we need to provide them with a platform as they need to be supported. On the contrary, empowerment has been replaced by employment.”
“Earlier, engineers were implementing, producing and innovation to create new technology but now it has changed,” said Madhu Chitkara, Vice Chancellor, Chitkara University. Coming up with the solution, she mentioned Ed-tech start-ups. Till 2012, around 2400 start-ups were established under Ed-tech. Every year, approximately 200 start-ups are coming up with ed-tech.
The session was concluded with Prof. Rajesh Khanna’s words, “Academia is important in the system as it the driving it.”
