Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Former director of IIT Bombay, Prof. Devang V Khakhar said that the important aspect of research is creativity, i.e. developing new models and theories to quantitively describe observed behaviour and apply them to address the needs of society.
“The key to technology is to invent, design, and build complex systems/ products within the framework of Science, Arts, and Economics. Innovation means invention to meet or create the customer needs with continuous improvement,” he said while addressing the two-day “PMRF Annual Symposium-2024” hosted by IIT Indore on March 3-4.
The technical sessions included plenary talks on Cutting-edge Research, Academic Pedagogy for the future, Doing Science in India and (As a Woman), An enviable journey with experiments, Indian Knowledge Systems & its current day relevance, what it takes to be a good teacher?, and Research across borders: Prominence and Productivity were delivered by eminent speakers.
The second day of the symposium featured talks on technological advances such as Functional Design of Sustainable Aircraft Engine, Astronomy from ground and space, Managing career, role, and technology changes, Translational Research, and IP & Patenting in Academia. Addressing the symposium, IIT Indore director Prof Suhas Joshi said, “It’s a challenge to enhance the students’ learning experience as they find erstwhile methods of teaching need to be revisited.
From this perspective, NEP 2020 has helped in evolving a system which is designed to provide a framework of various avenues where the students can get to choose and pursue their own interests”. He particularly highlighted the unique initiatives of IIT Indore such as the Makers Space course, offered to the first-year UG students, where curiosity connects creativity.
This course has generated a lot of interest amongst first-year UG students where the emphasis is laid on designing a working model for their final project besides several minor projects. Apart from the above initiatives, IIT Indore is also thinking of introducing a course on system engineering where students would be required to think of the wholeness of the system rather than a part.
The Prime Minister's Research Fellows (PMRF) Scheme has been designed for improving the quality of research in various higher educational institutions in the country. With attractive fellowships, the scheme attracts the best talent into research thereby realizing the vision of development through innovation.
The institutes which can offer PMRF include IITs, IISERs, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru and some of the top Central Universities/NITs that offer science and/or technology degrees. The candidates are selected through a rigorous selection process and their performance is reviewed suitably through a national convention. To date, 3688 researchers have been granted PMRF of which 36% are women researchers.
