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Session Description

Free ticketed event
Description: The seminar will discuss the major innovations in curriculum development and institutional management at IIT Gandhinagar, which was established in 2009. IITGN’s five-week immersion foundation program for all incoming freshmen, which focuses on creativity, ethics, social engagement, physical fitness, communication and leadership skills, was recognized with a World Education Award in 2013. To promote critical thinking and an appreciation of the interdisciplinary character of knowledge, students take almost 20 percent of their courses in the humanities and the social sciences -- almost twice the proportion at other leading engineering colleges in India -- as well as compulsory courses in design and the life sciences. IITGN has instituted project-based learning across the board, both in curricular and extra curricular offerings. The Institute places great emphasis on globalization and diversity. Nearly a third of IIT Gandhinagar’s undergraduate students receive study abroad experiences. Nearly 15 percent of its faculty every semester are visiting faculty, both from India and abroad. To encourage interdisciplinary collaborations, the Institute has eliminated departmental silos and developed distinctive centers and programs in Archeological Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Cognitive Sciences, Design & Innovation, Safety, Society and Culture.

1. Vipin Kumar, Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of Washington
2. Achal Mehra, Professor, Humanities, IIT, Gandhinagar, India
3. Amit Prashant, Dean and Associate Professor of. Civil Engineering, IIT, Gandhinagar, India
4. Ramesh Gaonkar, Professor Emeritus, SUNY-OCC, Syracuse, New York

Speakers

1. Dr. Vipin Kumar

   University of Washington

   Prof. Vipin Kumar graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur, India with a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical engineering in 1970. After getting an M.S. and an M.B.A. from the University of Rhode Island, he worked in the nuclear piping systems industry for 10 years. In 1984 he entered MIT and graduated with Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering in 1988. Since that time he has been on the mechanical engineering faculty at the University of Washington at Seattle, USA. Kumar’s professional interests lie in areas of design, manufacturing, and technology transfer to industry, and in design education. Over the past 25 years, his research efforts have primarily focused on advancing the science and technology of solid-state microcellular polymers. He holds 31 patents and has authored or co-authored over 150 publications in this area. Prof. Kumar is a Fellow of the Society of Plastics Engineers. His research on microcellular polymers has been commercialized by MicroGREEN Polymers Inc., founded in 2003 by two former graduate students in his research group. The company has licensed the core technology from University of Washington, and currently employs about 160 people in Alrington, Washington. The first commercial product is a new light-weight, insulating, and eco-friendly coffee cup for in-flight service, which has been adopted by Alaska Airlines and United Airlines. The cup uses 50 percent or more recycled PET from used water-bottles, and is recyclable after use, making it a preferred disposable coffee cup. Prof. Kumar is a scientific adviser to MicroGREEN.

2. Achal Mehra

   Dr Achal Mehra is Institute Chair Professor of Journalism and Dean of Strategic Planning and Special Initiatives at IIT Gandhinagar. He holds a Ph.D. in Journalism from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, and a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He was assistant professor of Journalism (1983-1985) at the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, and Associate Professor and Director of the Communications Program (1989-2001) at Albright College, Reading, Pa. He headed professional training programs at the Asian Mass Communication Research and Information Center in Singapore (1987-1989) and was an editorial consultant to Xinhua in Beijing, China (1985-1986). Prof. Mehra is editor and publisher of Little India magazine, the largest-circulation Indian publication in the USA, and its online websites, LittleIndia.com and BiggerIndia.com, which have won 21 Ippie Awards from the Independent Press Association of New York. He is author/editor of several books on the mass media, including Free Flow of Information: A New Paradigm, Communication Development and Human Rights in Asia. His research interests cover Online Media, Media Management, Investigative Reporting, Media Law, Media Ethics, Media Freedom and Censorship, International Communications, Comparative Media Systems, Mass Communications and Society, Developmental Journalism, New Technologies, Communication Development and Human Rights.

3. Amit Prashant

   Amit Prashant is currently the Dean of Academic affairs and Associate Professor in Civil Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN). He completed his Bachelors in Civil Engineering from IIT Roorkee in 1997 and Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee Knoxville (UTK) in 2004. After doing one year of post-doctoral research at UTK, he worked at IIT Kanpur as Assistant Professor during 2005-2010. He has guided several postgraduate students in geotechnical engineering and constitutive modeling of soils, and published research papers in reputed journals and conference proceedings. He has been actively involved in academic leadership and research activities at IITK and IITGN, besides several consultancy projects and continuing education activities for industry and academia.

4. Dr. Ramesh S. Gaonkar

   Onondaga Community College

   Ramesh Gaonkar was Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology program at SUNY, OCC in Syracuse, New York. Presently, he is teaching as a Visiting Professor at Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad. He has a degree in Physics from Bombay University, and a degree in Electrical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; he received his Ph.D. from Syracuse University. Dr. Gaonkar's research activities were focused on integration of math and communication courses with engineering courses. He was a recipient of several NSF awards to redesign engineering curricula to integrate math and writing in engineering courses. He is an author of several microprocessor/ microcontroller books which are published in the U.S. and abroad and adopted as textbooks in engineering colleges internationally. He has given several seminars on designing of Embedded Systems at ASEE conferences and participated in a national television show on Engineering Education in India. He is a recipient of Excellence in Teaching awards from ASEE St. Lawrence Section and SUNY.