 Good evening and sorry to hold you back after a long day's discussions, but we will keep it very brief. The objective here is to introduce you to a distinguished guest who is visiting us today. Professor Pradeep Verma currently works for MHRD in the national mission. In fact, he was one of the conceptualizers of the national mission. He has come to IIT Bombay primarily in the context of discussion on how to take the Akash tablet work for their future, but also about the other projects that are going on here. When I told him that we have this workshop going on and we have our 50 enthusiastic senior faculty colleagues who want to take computational fluid dynamics across to the country. So, I just thought we will have a small chat. Please feel free to I will request him to say some few words opening remarks on the nature of the work that he does and what is his own conceptualization of the dream over the next five years. Where does he want to see the Indian higher education system to go and then we would have a brief interaction, any questions from you etcetera and then we will wind up may be another 20 to 25 minutes I hope. So, by the way also let me tell you he is a teacher with a difference. He comes to teaching line from a huge work in Indian IIT industry. So, he used to dabble with large IIT systems. He was at one time head of Asia Pacific and Middle East for a company called Mises. I do not think many of you would have heard that. Mises was a high end banking software which before the emergence of things like Finackel from Infosys and iFlex before these systems even came up. Mises was the most used banking software in the world. He used to head that group here. But somewhere the teacher in him said I must get out. He has been teaching at Terry, has been teaching courses in management at IIT Kanpur, Delhi, MDM Gurgao etcetera. He is a primarily a management expert not an engineer like us. And as I said for last several years almost right from the conceptualization of the national mission on education using ICT he has been involved from the conceptualization to detailing and continues to be involved So, good evening. I as for Safarak said the intention is not to take up your time unnecessarily. I am primarily my main interest today is to hear from you your experience about this workshop and if there any questions about the national mission on education or about Akash. Akash have you heard about Akash? I do not think there is anybody in the world who has not heard about Akash by now. So much has been written and spoken about it. So Akash is that low cost access device which is being designed and manufactured in India by and for the government of India, the Ministry of HRD. It is a project that has been funded by the Ministry of HRD by this national mission on education through ICT. And Akash is the project that is now going to be handled by Prasafar Thakur Prasak Anand and IIT Bombay. So we have great hopes of our vision in the future regarding Akash being actually worked out and brought to reality here at IIT Bombay. Are you aware of the national mission on education through ICT? Are you aware of NME ICT? Some of you are. So that is great. So I will not waste or spend more time talking about NME ICT unless there are specific questions. This format of the workshop that Prasafar Thakur and his team are doing is something that is proved very useful and that is the feedback that we are getting from across the country in all the workshops that have been held. So I would like to hear from you what has been your experience. Basically I would like to thank you NME HRD and the entire team who is behind this project. Basically the main or the very prime, what we can say, we get the opportunity to interact with the very eminent professors from IIT. Otherwise we are staying at very remote places and from our busy schedule or our daily activities we do not get a chance to come to IIT and to interact with them for a period of let us say five days or six days and they are really stalwarts in their respective fields. So that is the very important advantage we see that we have got from this project. And the teachers who have already gone through this, either we have conducted two workshops at RA in lab thermodynamics and heat transfer. So teachers are really very happy and for last two workshops there were around 35 people, 40 people enrolled at my center. And coming to College of Engineering Pune and this time this is a computational fluid dynamics. It is a hot topic. So we expecting more than 40 participants in this time. So are you in touch with those teachers who go back to their colleges by chance? Do they touch base with you or their relationship is only transactional once they come? They go away. No, no. They are eager to attend the next workshop. So almost 90% of the people who attended thermodynamics, they came back for heat transfer. The only request from their side is that we had a workshop about lab thermodynamics heat transfer and this time computational fluid dynamics. So people from design stream are really expecting some workshop. So until you can carry back this feedback. So I have a question. You say that many people would have already attended in the past. Do you think it will be possible for us to ask them how they have used the previous courses? Yes, definitely sir. That whether the students benefited? Yes, yes, yes. They benefited or if they could significantly improve to their normal teaching methodology by attending this workshop? Yes, yes. At the end of the day that is what is important, isn't it? Yes. What about you? You yourself have been involved? Yes. Now when you teach courses at your place, you must have been doing it continuously? Yes, yes. Do you find that there is a subtle value addition to you yourself when you teach those courses? Yes, of course sir. I attended the workshop by professor Gayathondi. So that gave me entire different insight about thermodynamics. So whatever we are reading from the books and etc, etc. So entire different flavor he has like first law of thermodynamics. He had taught us very different way. Of course, every 100 percent we cannot transfer it to the students because whatever the kind of students we get they may not digest that kind of concepts whatever he taught us. But definitely now we can teach them in different aspect and there is a lot of improvement in our knowledge, in our teaching. So it helps a lot sir. It helps a lot. Please, thank you so much. I would just also like to mention now that he has let the cat out of the back, I was avoiding mentioning that we may be handling the Akash project because formally we had not. I am just told that today the minister has made an announcement in parliament that the project will be handled by IIT Bombay now instead of IIT. So what I wanted to tell you is one of the suggestions which I have made of course that we have to be discussed with Hemachari but I have discussed it with him that we are also expected to do field deployment test of Akash. Now one of our objectives is to try and put SILAB on Akash. The second objective is to give access to educational content such as video recorded lectures and other etc. etc. using Wi-Fi connectivity. Now one of the suggestions I have made is that each of the remote centers of this program which is constantly in touch with 50 other teachers and they themselves conduct these courses in their own institutions should be given 100 to 150 Akash tablets for actual field testing in one of the courses which they teach and preferably that course should be one of the courses for which you have coordinated here etc. etc. and then in that particular subject that you teach we would expect to use the Akash tablets in the context of enhancing the educational value and of course we will leave those there. What will be expected is during such workshops in future when they are conducted which will be during vacation time you will make those tablets available for participants of that workshop remaining academic year you can use them it's not a very large number but do you think you will be able to use them effectively any other comment yeah yeah. So just to add to what Prasad Fata said the objective of course is to help you in by giving the Akash tablet is to help you in your own teaching as he said but from our point of view one major objective is also to get feedback on the tablet. How have you used it what problems did you face and what is particularly interesting in a group like this is it's from different parts of the country so we want feedback on usage in different climatic conditions some of you are from places where it rains a lot some of you may be from places where it's there's a lot of dry heat say Rajasthan or something so in different climatic conditions how does it respond does it freeze does dust trouble it does high temperature or high humidity although we will have done all those tests in the lab it will go through a series of lab tests but actual usage is something else and that is what we want to understand also you might like to you know give it to some of your students for an hour or two hours because the way a student would use it is different from the way a teacher will use it a student may want to you know maybe play a game and see how it works or something so all that feedback is of great value to us and that we will set up a system where some kind of feedback form and all will be there but that my request to you is to enable us to get that feedback and that feedback will cycle back into the next development around it's critical thing that you'll the role that you will do I just wanted to give them the good news that we are planning to give them the amount of work that they will have to do will be specified later but then this is the standard IT style and they are all aware of it the quizzes will come after good lectures so another aspect is that we also want some students from your own company science and IT department in conjunction with you and other colleagues to actually develop additional applications additional contents etc that's why I suggested the number 150 that about 100 would be used in a course that you teach so those hundred units could be given to those students for that semester and we'll even put the attendance application please conducting application etc but 50 should be preserved for given to be given to the final year project students who will do projects on additional applications of content that's the idea so what was a content suggested is let's use this approach quickly to get some more feedback like our friend gave from the experiences of other centers like he's from Pune is there somebody here from some yeah my name is Karthik I am from Amruta school I connected thermodynamic workshop as a coordinator and I started my career I just want to add this point to what he said when I started my career even though I read M Tech with a good score I came out from my college I was stranded how to teach thermodynamics when I went to my colleagues or when to my senior teachers they said something but I'm not sure but because of this conference what we had in last June some of the new faculty who joined their profession they got opportunity to interact with person like 828 so they understand how to teach then the way in which they have to take a subject and those things are not available to few of us here and I think we have to appreciate and we have to vertical as a reciprocity of love we have to thank M. H. R. D. for giving this opportunity to the professions who are going to join faculty are going to join this profession and then some of the newcomers in other institutes thank you that makes an important point you believe that the newly recruited teachers could benefit the most because at the initial days itself they get some inputs you agree with that so maybe then when we select teachers for this workshop there's going to be the last fully funded workshop subsequently we are all reverting to a model of partial funding so I'm going to put all the remaining money I have to use on this that's why I suggest that some 2500 teachers etc could attend but spread this news large and why and maybe when we select people just instead of using first come first serve basis we could apply some criteria and you make you some feedback on what could be that criteria for example we could give priority to new teachers ordinarily we have been insisting that they should have two three years experience of having taught that course or maybe we can make a sort of balance between both you think that will be a useful any other comments please my name is Praveen Sarudeh and I'm assistant professor in R.C. Bhatt Institute of Technology Chirupur it is a actually in Bray it's a tribal area actually it's a north of Maharashtra and whatever the cycle level team is doing it's exactly that we required actually in that remote area we need such talented people that we need to listen there properly I have attended that Gautam Nisar's thermodynamics workshop and we feel that the person having a near about age of 60 has a stamina of teaching eight hours of non-stop and we feel that we should be like him and it's our comment that if that be like a Gautam Nisar that we should be like him that's a it's a very good thing that a clever team is getting out I would like to add to the point which he has raised it's not only the stamina it's a style of teaching also which is very important and I have attended thermodynamics I have attended heat transfer course and now attending the way in which the IIT professors deal with the subject I mean their methodology basically they go in a quite slow I mean slow fashion and they they are never in hurry to teach their name they never I mean disappoint the question to the person if he comes up comes up with a very maybe a simple questions even the simplest questions are answered enthusiastically by the teacher and that is the kind of quality which normally I mean after having a fight and years of experience also which way which we were missing I mean we were not having those kinds of qualities to deal with the questions or the methodology so I mean they are always cool and in a cool fashion they go ahead so it becomes very easy for us to digest the concepts that is very important thing which we learn from these workshops especially. When you attended from remote center you were using I think AVU for that interaction so from your experience there the audio visual quality of interaction etc was good enough for you. There was some problem with the audio actually that I have already talked to Mr. Madam and actually I mean there was kind of repetition in the voice but that can be taken care of I mean even it's a important point that you may what I propose to do is so far we have been having interaction with the faculty members of relevant courses what I'm planning is a two-day workshop specifically for the technical people that you are in so we'll call them here we'll give them TADA we'll house them here for two days and we'll have a intensive interaction with our video audio video team because there are small nuances which make all the difference and sometimes they don't take care of the proper equipment or proper setting so perhaps that remote training has not been working so perfectly most places were comfortable I asked this question because it has to be perfect at every place you see for those 30 teachers who assemble at your point your your place for them they are attending a course at IIT Bomb so they would expect because the same kind of clarity that if they were sitting personally so this is a important point that even if there is a problem with the audio at one place it is actually replicated everywhere yes yes so that is a good point and we'll definitely take care of it. I am Abdul Samad here from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh and I'm from Mufugamja Engineering College I wanted to say that particularly in Andhra Pradesh there are plenty of colleges like last recent seven to eight years back we are having more than five to six hundred colleges and many of the teachers like they are youngsters like so I felt that after like attending many of teachers these programs they are like learning a lot the methodology of teaching the method of teaching and all and apart from that I wanted to appreciate the introduction of that model which IIT Mumbai have introduced with that I can say that like a teacher who questions so all the person those who are related to this model they are like in a position to understand and they are learning a lot so I appreciate this model is helping a lot to all the teachers those who have attended. Thank you. I would suggest that you convince Mufugamja College to introduce model as a standard feature for managing all their courses that's what we do in IIT. But the important key thing is that you know a complete distance education where teachers talk from here and occasional questions are asked by people alone would not have been adequate it is proving useful because people like you are taking care of conducting the labs and tutorials in the afternoon because that is the group work which is done by those 30 35 people and you will agree that while I may learn something from a lecture but I assimilate it only when I practice some problems in the tutorial or do some lab experiment and those cannot be conducted in distance that is precisely the reason why I thought of this model where it's a mix of this conventional classroom model plus the best faculty members so you believe that the model is working that is your labs and tutorial sessions etc can be conducted we have been running another program you can think of it as a supplement to this kind of a course is called ask a question where we meet the students we have done it only in electrical engineering because electrical engineering department was the most enthusiastic of all to participate in this project students post their questions on a forum and the questions are answered in the forum but for one hour every day a one hour a week faculty members come in fact it happens every Thursday it might even happen tomorrow at 4 o'clock 4 to 5 by the electric engineers where the faculty members actually answer the questions posed by students and the students can it is also possible for students to ask live questions so both are possible so it is only answering questions of students and students can connect from anywhere using the same software a view do you think such a thing will be useful for mechanical engineering no not just two of them everybody everybody yeah and of course in the future as we go further in this the experts can come from various parts of the country experts are not restricted to IIT Bombay they can come from other IITs in 90s your own colleges somebody who is very good in fact one of the one of the points that we had I wanted to share this with you when I spoke to you or when I speak to you on 16 but the fact is this ask a question program can be conducted after all when you conduct a class you are actually conducting ask a question problem but can you do that for those 30 35 colleges from which teachers have come to you and can you use AVU we can help you in setting up the AVU mechanism and those colleges or students who have internet facility you can run an AVU session yourself so if some of you would be interested at least to try this out so not every Thursday or something but you can say once a month we'll try it on a trial basis so questions in let's say these three courses or whatever you may name them and you may say that students from those regions where they have AVU connection in fact it is not regional because once you have a AVU connection we'll identify you as a particular server class and then anybody in the country can ask you a question even I can ask you it would you be interested in running such a thing and it need not be a single teacher from a single college a few of you could come together and say okay let's say we'll answer these questions in either about from Monday or some other place another day but the idea is to spread this philosophy of greater interaction between students and teachers in fact Mr. Sinha had asked me to create a list of hundred teachers across the country out of nine thousand who have participated in our workshop so far who would be willing to come and as the students and ask you think such a possibility exists try and explore it when you go back and those of you are interested on the same model you put up your comment saying we're interested we'll carry it. So thank you very much thank you for spending and half an hour extra on this but we got some very useful suggestion and I take this opportunity to thank Mr. Pradeep for personally coming here and spending his time. Let's give him a big hand.