Asia pacific business review 2009-ahmad-3-13

© Asia-Pacific Institute of Management, New Delhi

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ScienceScienceScienceScienceScience,,,,, Engineering and Engineering and Engineering and Engineering and Engineering and TTTTTececececechnolohnolohnolohnolohnologggggy Educay Educay Educay Educay Education:tion:tion:tion:tion:InnoInnoInnoInnoInnovvvvvaaaaatititititivvvvve Pe Pe Pe Pe Parararararadigm Shiftadigm Shiftadigm Shiftadigm Shiftadigm Shift

S. Ahmad*

With an ever growing urge for developing technologies supported by scientific research and development toprovide complete solution to the problems faced by humanity than to depend merely upon ‘discovery by

chance’ the first change in paradigm came in the form of ‘problem based learning and research’. This ledto the introduction of ‘creativity and innovation’ in place of only creating human resources with right kind

of skill alone in the process of offering education and training to create and realize better opportunitiesbesides using the existing ones more optimally. These changes introduced the concept of ‘Knowledge

Economy’ setting a foundation of ‘Knowledge Society’ synergistically supported by the onset of informationand communication technology (ICT). Exploration of genetic details of human health started with the

considerations at microscopic level that needed additional support from basic sciences and engineeringsciences to help advance clinical sciences. This is where a great paradigm shift appeared on the horizon of

science and technology development in form of Nano Science and Technology. Size dependent physical,chemical and biological functions of a large variety of nanostructured materials, investigated so far, areindicating towards an upcoming revolution of great significance in the area of human health care by

considering the mutual interactions of nanoparticles, macromolecules and bio-molecules. These kinds ofparadigm shifts, introduced from time to time in the last century, impacted the way education and training

has been organized to produce right kind of human resources. Learning from the past experiences, an efforthas been made in this paper to foresee about the future expectations from education to meet the upcomingchallenges faced by human society by considering man, material and environment together as an integrated

system. Appropriate modifications in education and training system to generate creativity and innovationloaded human resources are essential for success in time to come. The related matters of future education

and training approach are considered in this paper in the present context.

Keywords: Technology Education, Innovation in Education, Nanotechnology

IntroductionWorld economy is fast changing to ‘KnowledgeEconomy’1 (Houghton and Sheenan, 2000) andtherefore skill trained ‘Human Resources’ (HR) andscientific and technological Intellectual Properties (IP)related to product and process development areconsidered two major assets of a developed Nationtoday. To keep pace with the faster growth of scienceand technologies, it is necessary to have equallyflexible system of education to meet the changingdemand patterns well in time. Rather the introductionof necessary changes in academic curricula andexposure to the experimental sciences should beplanned such that as soon as the demands of speciallytrained HR is raised by specific Industry, the same iseither met from a group of retrained HR or from somefresh group capable of handling the situations withcompetence. This could be done only by having aclose cooperation between academic institutions andIndustry in developing and implementing the basiccore curricula and job specific vocational programs.

Asia-Pacific Business ReviewVol. V, No. 1, January - March 2009pp. 3-13. ISSN: 0973-2470

*Former Vice Chancellor, Jamia Hamdard University, New Delhi and Former Director, Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute, Pilani, Rajashthan,India*E-mail: [email protected]

A critical analysis of today’s economic growth andrelated industrial developments reveals that for betterfuture, more emphasis must be put on ‘CreativeThinking and Innovation’ (Adams, 2005) than merelypreparing a work force by imparting training in variousdomains of skills. Devising ways and means to havebetter functional qualities of a product at lower costper function is only possible by using right kind ofscientific and technological knowledge base withcreativity and innovative approach asking for furtherimprovements. Besides, the recent developmentstaking place in the field of Nanoscience andTechnology (Joe Su and Dudas, 2004) are providingaltogether unexpectedly new opportunities to designand synthesize materials and develop componentsand devices to meet numerous kinds of challengingrequirements posed by the complex problems facedby human race. These nanosize assemblies of atomsand molecules are found to have very unusualphysical, chemical and biological properties whichcould be put to use in various fields of applicationscovering a wider range. Thus the upcoming

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Vol. V, No. 1, January - March 2009Asia-Pacific Business Review

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Nanoscience and Technology is forcing some kind of‘Paradigm Shift’ (Joe Su and Dudas, 2004) in ourattempt of understanding of man, material andenvironment in an altogether different but moreprofound way. This change in paradigm is certainlygoing to be considered in modern education and skilltraining program planning and implementation.

The challenges faced by the humanity today are solarge in dimension that the population of scientists,engineers and technologists from any one country isnot able to effectively address them alone (Hastings,2006; Cardon, 2008). Synergistic collaboration andcooperation among the domain knowledge expertsfrom different countries, from within as well as outside,is being posed as a necessary compulsion. Theseproblems to name few are like poverty and hunger;human health - cancer, HIV, tuberculosis and otherkiller diseases; energy demands growing constantlywith growing population; global warming and likethat which need our attention to prepare ourselvesadequately to solve them using science andtechnology developments of tomorrow. Side by side,globalization is growing due to better inter-connectedness reflected in expanding flow ofinformation technology, capital goods services andpeople. This is a force so ubiquitous that it willcertainly shape all other major trends in the world oftomorrow substantially and we have to take that intoaccount as we think about education and where thepeople who we are educating are going (Hastings,2006). Generation of wealth through the uses ofscientific and technology generated knowledge needsentrepreneurial skills (Cardon, 2008) of those whoseize the right opportunity to give shape to thecorresponding business developments. Honing ofthis important trait of those learners, who want tolead a successful business activity does needspecialized training involving not only the exposureof technological aspects but good amount of humanaspects throughout. An eye for right kind of humanresources combined with knack to motivate the fellowworkers to devote their full effort in promoting thebusiness objectives. For this right kind ofinterpersonal skill is equally important component oftraining (Cardon, 2008) to be imparted to the leadersat different levels.

Various issues related to the relevance of trained HRand intellectual property rights in modern businessdevelopment, necessary consideration of ensuingparadigm shift in technology development,Nanoscience and Technology created new dimensionadded to overall technology access are considered

here in this paper in order to appreciate the overallinteractions involved in ‘man, material andenvironment’. Possible efforts to be made in improvingthe existing forms of science, engineering andtechnology education are examined next under theassumption that the introduction of Nanoscience andTechnology is going to provide a very importantsynergistic link to handle future problems of humanityin a better manner. It will not be effective in caseresearch is not integrated with higher education meantfor invoking creativity and innovations among thelearners of tomorrow. It is noted in this study that thescientific concepts developed to understand basicbuilding blocks of materials at atomic level and theresulting behavior of bulk materials are not sufficientto handle the complex problems faced by human racetoday. Rather, considering materials synthesized bynanosize atomic and molecular species based buildingblocks to fabricate components and devices is a betterapproach to deal with such problems. This is goingto open up newer avenues of useful opportunitiescapable of providing better quality of life. Therelevance of proper education is highlighted heretaking various issues of future consideration.

Skill Trained Human Resource andIntellectual Property: Relevance inModern BusinessA sound scientific and technological knowledge basewith competent pool of human resources (HR)available in any country is necessary to improveeconomy and generate wealth. This would be morerelevant tomorrow as we are progressivelytransforming more and more into a ‘KnowledgeSociety’. Having realized the increasing importanceof intellectual property rights (IPR), its globalenforcement is considered significant in case ofproducts and processes that have potential forcommercial applications. Under these evolutionarycircumstances in coming times, IPR protection isbecoming necessary just after the conceptualizationof the creative ideas even before their innovativeimplementation. This is followed by realization ofcommercial products with the help of adequateinfrastructure, venture capital and skilled HR thatcompletes the establishment of starting a new formof regular business these days. From the angle of thehard pressed time constraints put by the demand andsupply schedules of a commercial activity,participation of global partners having requisiteexpertise is becoming almost inevitable to haveeconomically viable size of business. In this context,mutual sharing of IPR globally is becoming further




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more significant because of tight delivery schedules.

Availability of appropriate technologies and adaptableengineering education and research base supportedby requisite infrastructures is essential for standingin local as well as global competition in any modernbusiness today. The education system should befirst of all tuned to produce skilled HR that isdeployable on a variety of tasks involved in time-targeted manner. Right kind of skill training for theworkforce to match specific requirement is necessary.For this, application specific training modules mustcomplement the broad based schedules introducedin the earlier part of schooling and college levelexposures. A tailor made mix of general and specialpurpose training modules blended together to fulfillthe requirements of job specific skilled manpower isneeded in each case. Further, on job specializedtraining is a significant value addition to the existingbatch of deployed HR to adjust to the changed needsof the industry from time to time in a fast changingpace of business today. Another role of educationwhich is emerging very strongly is to foster creativityand innovation among the ‘knowledge workers’involved in providing cutting edge competition andpreparation for future excellence in the process ofserving the society in general. Thus, with evergrowing user’s demands, the entire system ofeducation and training should not only match inquality without falling short of needed skills of todaybut should also motivate the involved manpower totake care of future requirements. A static kind ofeducation and training approach will hardly sufficethe purpose any more. Merging of one disciplinewith many others resulting into multidisciplinaryconcept is becoming quite common today especiallywhen faced with finding complete solution to specificproblem in hand.

From ‘Discovery by Chance’ to ‘TotalSolution’ - A Paradigm ShiftIn modern science and technology developments, aperceptible change has started emerging in last coupleof decades. In past, most of the innovative conceptswere put to use without much regard for any specificorder. This is known as ‘Discovery by Chance’approach (Slowiczek et al., 2006; Hoffman, 1998). Inthis context the scientific principles derived fromcareful analyses of a phenomenon under observationwere tried for converting them into practically usableforms employing engineering skills. Once proven tobe applicable in some specific area that couldultimately mature into a related technology. In thisprocess, for a given concept one had to search for

some areas of typical applications where it matchedwith the demands raised there from. The technologies,so developed, were therefore very few in number andalmost independent of each other having very littleoverlap. With time, this number grew andsubsequently more inter-related features startedappearing. In recent past, this ‘Discovery by Chance’led technology growth has started transforming intoa ‘Complete Solution’ type of situation2. Here, arelatively bigger problem is attacked by dividing itinto a number of subcomponents. It is quite likelythat the solutions for some components of the problemmay well be feasible by employing the modified formsof readily available forms of basic scientific principlesand technologies involved. Part of the problems mayneed further extension of the existing principles andtechnologies. But it is quite likely that in a few cases,it may need development and search for altogethernewer concepts and related technologies belongingto the ‘grey areas’. Employing this ‘divide andconquer approach’ once the solutions of eachsubcomponent are available, finally, the completesolution is stitched from the component solutions bysuitable interfacing. Thus the present approach isultimately becoming holistic in nature. For elaboratinga bit more on this holistic concept, let us take theexample of developing a treatment of a certain killerdisease. The starting point in earlier times wouldhave been to identify and isolate few activeingredients from some known herbal remedies foundout empirically over a period of time in past and toconvert them into suitable drug preparations fit forhuman consumption. But in more recent times, thesearch for a cure starts from the disease side in termsof identifying cell and gene level malfunctioning asa cause. Those molecules, having appropriatetherapeutic properties, are thus looked for theknowledge base created from the experimentallyobserved cellular level impact of various chemicalspecies collected and scientifically investigated in asystematic manner. Thus, it is now becoming feasibleto synthesize a molecular drug with much bettertherapeutic effect for a specific disease. This kind of‘Drug Discovery’ in practice today is a rather morerational in approach even though it is time consumingprocess involving a series of animal and human trialsthat require substantial investment over a period ofa decade or so. But ultimately this is a relativelybetter method, as it looks into the root cause ofdisease at cell level as compared to those methodsbased on symptomatic or empirical observations madeon the patient used in earlier times. Pursuit of a‘Complete Solution’ approach is getting wideracceptability with better understanding of the




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diseases at cell and gene levels. In order to takeadvantage of this ‘Paradigm Shift’, commensuratechanges are necessary to introduce in the ongoingeducation and research programs so that the humanresource, so trained and knowledge wealth sogenerated respectively find better and befittingapplications in future. This approach is beingextended to other areas as well.

‘Nanoscience’ – A New Dimension of‘Paradigm Shift’In the beginning of 20th Century very intensive effortswere made in studying the structures of atoms andmolecules and their physical and chemical propertiesby employing the fundamental concepts propoundedconcurrently in form of Quantum Mechanics. Thesedevelopments were further extended technologicallyby developing the concept of chemical synthesisand technology of materials growth besides usingthem in many other fields. The discovery of‘Transistor’ in the early 50’s of the last century3

ushered in a new era of revolution relying upon awhole sequence of newer technologies that finallymerged into an integrated form of MicroelectronicsTechnology known today. This led to the successfulrealization of a variety of semiconductor devices andintegrated circuits3 starting with normal devicegeometries featuring in the range of few 10’s ofmicrometer in size. With continuous improvement inrelated technologies and better refinements introducedin image patterning, the present device geometries ofthese semiconductor devices are approaching thedimensions of few 10’s of nanometers. Theseintegrated circuits mostly developed in silicontechnology are popularly known as very large scale(VLSI)4 and ultra large scale (ULSI) circuits (Zhou,2003) wherein complementary metal oxidesemiconductor (CMOS) transistors are used as basicbuilding blocks. So much could be accomplished overa period of about last 50 years in past only due tothe commensurate development of high qualitymaterials and related fabrication process technologies.The comprehensive influence of Microelectronics hasnot only been confined to the fields of computerscience and information technology but it touchedalmost every walk of life subsequently. Theseapplications are getting further proliferated into theareas of cognitive sciences where the requirement ofon-line handling of larger amount of data andinformation at faster speed is asking for thedevelopment of still faster devices and circuits. Thisis slowly transforming the microelectronics intonanoelectronics domain. In this context of

microelectronics development, it is quite interestingto note that besides the fundamental studies carriedout on atomic and molecular species another veryimportant contribution was made by developingmaterial growth technology to have defect free singlecrystal semiconductors. This was necessary to realizea suitable platform to test the validity of transportproperties of electrons and holes in presence ofelectric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields predictedtheoretically. Of course, it took quite some time -almost five decades, to mature the fabricationtechnology to a stage where handling of one electronat a time in single electron transistor (SET) could bedemonstrated experimentally (Rasmi et al., 2005 &Feldheima et al., 1998). Because of rising demands ofhigh quality semiconductor materials especially incase of silicon, it is not a surprise to note that thetechnology that started with 25 mm diameter siliconwafers in early 50’s could now mature to market 25inches diameter wafers5 today (Hammond, 2004).

Thus, in last 100 years, it became possible tounderstand the behavior of atoms and molecules asbuilding blocks and their collective propertiesobserved in bulk materials which were subsequentlyput to use in developing electronic systems ofunprecedented performance. In order to translatethese concepts in practical reality, defect free singlecrystal semiconductor materials were grown from meltand or deposited epitaxially onto suitable singlecrystal substrate. Successful introduction of electrondonor or acceptor type impurities in elemental formin precisely controlled amount with the help ofdiffusion and ion implantation technique were veryeffectively used to modulate conductivities of highpurity semiconductors. Bulk material preparationcombined with epitaxial growth, pattering and impuritydoping thus provided a solid base for tremendoussuccess of Microelectronics Technology of today.

In a relatively recent past, it was observedexperimentally that when high energy atomic speciesemanating from a laser ablated source are allowed tocondense in inert ambient, stable clusters of variousdiameters are formed (Wilcoxon et al., 2006). Thenumber of atoms present in these stable clusters isknown as magic number following some specificsequence depending upon the nature of the speciesinvolved. In situ mass spectroscopic studies of theseatomic clusters demonstrated that these clustersbehave like artificial atoms or molecules. The sequenceof discrete energy levels arising out of quantumconfinement of electrons in such clusters is primarilydecided by their size or the number of constituent




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atoms or molecules present therein. This observationgave birth to another altogether new concept wherethese cluster are most likely to be employed as basicbuilding blocks in place of natural elements of theperiodic table. A simple model to understand thebehavior of such clusters was advanced where allthe atoms present in the cluster were lumped in ajelly like structure called ‘jellium’ (Poole Jr. et al.,2003). The total number of electrons available fromthe outermost orbital of each constituent atom isarranged subsequently in the quantized atomic orbitalswhere the nucleus is represented by all the nucleiand bound electrons put together. By applying Bohr’satomic model one could thus compute the discreteenergy levels corresponding to each clusters. Byusing this simplified ‘Jellium Model’ one could thusunderstand about their physical and chemicalproperties which in essence could be simply modifiedby changing their size alone. The strong urge toexplore using these atomic and molecular clusters inplace of regular atoms and molecules became thecause of starting a new discipline of science knownas ‘Nanoscience’. Unusual physical and chemicalproperties of clusters have been observedexperimentally. For example the melting point of goldnanoparticles is reduced to around 200 K which ismuch lower than the bulk properties of gold metal.Similarly the energy band gap of nanocrystallinecluster is function of its size. A series of theoreticaland experimental investigation carried out in recenttimes clarified a number of issues related to correlatingthe physical and chemical properties of these clusterswith the size which is in the range of few nanometerin diameter.

Instead of loosely bound clusters, another family ofcagey molecules formed by relatively larger numberof covalently bonded atoms together in a regulargeometrical form was also discovered concurrently.These large size molecules were initially discoveredas carbon fullerenes and nanotubes (Poole Jr. et al.,2003). Covalent bonding of six carbon atoms at thevertices of a hexagon observed in sheet structure ofgraphene was found to be responsible for forming avariety of structures like - seamless multi and singlewalled tubular (nanotubes), spherical cagey(fullerenes) and branching tubules when combinedwith additional pentagonal and heptagonalarrangements. These fullerenes and nanotubestructures investigated in case of carbon specieswere later on found to exist in numerous inorganicand organic species (Halford et al., 2005 & Bong DTet al., 2001). Such exotic nanostructured entities arenow proving to be useful building blocks for synthesis

of a large variety of newer materials withunprecedented properties. In order to extend thispossibility further for realizing composite materials oftechnological importance it was natural to explorecombinations with a large variety of polymericmolecules. Out of a large variety of configurationsconceivable of polymeric molecules, the family ofdendrimers (Klajnert et al., 2001) is found to beextremely useful. These nanosize molecules chemicallysynthesized can be put to use in special applicationsas they have almost spherical structures with nanosizevacant spaces inside and chemically modifiablefunctional radicals attached to a core in a tree likeconfiguration. These vacant spaces could be usedfor separating bigger size molecules from the smallerones as compared to the size of vacant space.Nanosize catalysts species inserted in these vacantspaces are reported to provide best possible catalyticactivity. Depending upon the specific requirementone can make part of the dendrimer moleculehydrophobic and part hydrophilic. One of the mostsignificant applications of these technologicallyimportant molecules – dendrimers is to use them for‘Targeted Drug Delivery’ (Svenson et al., 2005). Herea variety of chemical functionalization is easy tointroduce at different stages of organic synthesis ofthese molecules. Drug molecules intended for sitespecific delivery can be attached at such locationswhere they can be excited by external stimuli to releasethe drug molecules on demand. In addition, it is alsopossible to conjugate targeting and imaging moleculeson specific location of the spherical surface of thesedendrimers. These are employed in identifying thespecific location in the diseased cells and navigatingthe drug loaded molecule to reach the target besideshelping to confirm the reach of the drug molecules atthe targeted site by subsequent imaging technique.A number of conventional drugs have already beenconverted into this kind of targeted delivery modevalidating the basic concept6. Further work is goingon in this direction for optimal utilization of morenumber of drug molecules in treating difficult diseasesand thereby reducing the cost of treatment besidesminimizing the toxic effects of drug molecules as well.

In parallel, intensive efforts were being made in thelater part of 20th century to understand humananatomy and physiology along with the cause andeffect of human ailments by going into cellular andgenetic details. The concept of nanostructuredbuilding blocks – consisting of clusters,macromolecules and polymeric molecules, startedmaking silent inroads as the later experiments provedthat these nanosize structures are chemically and




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physically very active and therefore they could beconjugated with a variety of complex biomoleculesinvolved in the functioning of living organisms. Forexample, let us look at the conjugation properties offew nm diameter gold nanoparticles. Though gold assuch is a noble metal and chemically inert but a fewnm size gold nanoparticles get selectively attachedto DNA molecules having a thiol-group attached atone end (Ackerson et al., 2005). Similar conjugationexperiments were confirmed in case of macro andpolymeric molecules as well. This indicates towardsa very significant possibility where nanostructureswith appropriate chemical functionalizations can beselectively attached to a large family of complexbiomolecules which can be useful for targeted drugdelivery purposes. This possibility will certainly usheranother era of very important significantdevelopments in the area of human health care infuture. This is basically due to fact that biochemicalreactions taking place in living organism are sensitiveto changes taking place over a dimension of fewnanometers. A desired biochemical modificationbecomes feasible by using the interface propertiesestablished due to conjugation of nanoparticles,macromolecules and biomolecules. Early experimentscarried out in this area are highly encouraging to befollowed by more involved results (Kane et al., 2007,D. Lu et al., 2006 and Hughes, 2005).

A brief description of basic concepts of Nanosciencepresented here clearly explains the need of significantconceptual changes to be incorporated inunderstanding the behavior of living organisms atmicro level. This will certainly be a very a crucialdeparture from the earlier concepts developed in lastcentury.

Study of Man, Material and Environment- An Integrated ApproachWith the successful completion of study of ‘HumanGenome Project’7 it has now become feasible tocorrelate a number of genes with the disease historyof an individual. In the next phase efforts are goingon to map the influence of environment and the foodconsumed together to complete the entire make up ofhuman health (Torronen et al., 2006) and the completepersonality. It has been very well established by nowthat the micronutrients from the food we consumeinfluence a number of genes in every individualhuman being (Torronen et al., 2006). It seems to bequite feasible in future to assess about the requiredconstituents of the food such that the micronutrientsproduced during digestion match the requirementsfor ensuring the individual to have disease free sound

health. Such a food prescribed by the genetic detailsof an individual has been named as future designer’sfood in popular articles of future nutrition. Thediscipline which is currently being pursued foranswering these related questions is known as‘Nutrigenomics’. Complete mapping of the geneticeffects of a variety of micronutrients is presentlybeing carried out almost on the same footing as donein case of ‘Human Genome Project’. Extending thearguments in this direction further the influence ofenvironment is also under active consideration. Ithas been of late surmised that some genes whichwere considered to be as redundant entities are infact progressively affected by the overallenvironmental conditions. Some permanent changeshave been observed to take place due to continuousimpact of typical environmental conditions on theoverall health and behavior of the individual humanbeing (Butte et al., 2006). Though such influences arefairly complex but otherwise important to know anddetailed studies are going on to improve the livingconditions of the human beings on this earth.Sometimes, the chronic diseases which are otherwisealmost impossible to cure by conventional drugs couldonly be taken care of by controlling the diet andchanging the environmental conditions along with.Diabetes is one such example and there are quite afew more.

The situations arising due to complex pattern ofinteractions because of biomolecules present inmicronutrients and nanostructured species presentin the environment can be perhaps simplified bylooking at the possible interaction of nanostructures,macromolecules and biomolecules in association witheach other. One possible way to look at theseproblems appears to be through the integration ofNanoscience and Technology with Biotechnology.Of course, Information and CommunicationTechnology will be ultimately helpful in analyzingvast amount of data involved in such comprehensivestudies. From these considerations it seems imminentto consider all the three technologies – Nano, Bioand Info together. It is certain that the integral effortmade using these three powerful technologies togetherwill enable us to find out solutions of global levelproblems being faced by the human society.

Science, Engineering and TechnologyEducation – Inevitable ChangesIt has been a common practice in past to offer anumber of pure and applied science programs at underand postgraduate levels in the Universities. Appliedscience disciplines primarily grew to support




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engineering and technology programs specially meantfor industrial applications. The pure sciencedepartments provided necessary support to theapplied disciplines for their early growth but later ondue to mounting pressures the applied departmentsstarted growing on their own strength of researchand teaching. Though it had been easier to borrowconcepts from basic disciplines to applied ones andvice versa but there were no systematic efforts todevelop the basic and applied concepts required forsolving a particular problem together. However, inthe changed situation of looking for ‘CompleteSolution’ of a given problem being emphasized oflate, it is progressively becoming necessary to havea tailor made blend of disciplines from both thestreams involving expertise from a number of relevantareas as per requirement. For example, the concept of‘data mining and data warehousing’, originallydeveloped for market analyses and consumptionpattern predictions are currently being intensivelyextended to the area of modern form of drugdiscovery, management of health care and hospitalservices and similar other fields. Optimal solutionbased on proper use of knowledge bases availablefrom the related fields from the very beginning isbecoming a trend of the day. This is bound to be an‘Interdisciplinary Approach’ because of the wholeeffort is throughout ‘Problem Based’. The future teamof scientists and engineers working on a givenproblem will preferably be drawn from a variety ofrelated disciplines that are dictated by the specificproblem as the target. It is therefore necessary tokeep in view this ‘Paradigm Shift’ while developingcourse structures and training programs for HRdevelopment in future. This is a relatively moreinvolved form of technology development in thiscontext as the success here is a result of synergy ofknowledge components from various fields.

It has already been established in Nanoscience thatstable assemblies of few tens to thousands of atoms/molecules behave quite differently from theconstituent atoms/molecules or the correspondingbulk material form. Physical, chemical and biologicalproperties of such entities are quite sensitive to theirsize. Consequently, using a variety of the atomic/molecular clusters as building blocks, one could inprinciple synthesize materials with anticipatedproperties decided in advance (Ahmad, 2005). Theseclusters bond together through linkers to form latticesand composites. These nanostructures havingnanometer size dimensions are proving to be fairlyversatile building blocks not only fit for synthesizingmaterials with known properties but also interact with

a large variety of macro and biomolecular species ofmuch bigger sizes and complexities. Surface modifiedclusters conjugate with a variety of fullerenes,nanotubes, nanosprings, polymers and dendrimersand thus open up further scope to convert them inbioactive forms. This is one of the major motivationsfor pursuing nanoscience for human health careapplications through Nanobiotechnology.

Nanoscience, briefly described above, is not onlyexpected to make human life almost disease freebesides opening newer avenues of industrial andeconomic growth but it could also pose as a causeof mass destruction if not handled carefully (Nel etal., 2006). The future human life would be dependenton what happens in nanoscience and technologywith time. Major impacts are foreseen on our social,ethical and behavioral perceptions (Mnyusiwalla etal., 2003). Interdependence of human lives and theenvironment, once understood, may lead to improvedlongevity and health. In order to check on the negativeinfluences, regulatory mechanisms would be neededto handle the arising controversial situations. Forexample, a thousand year human life expectancy iscertainly going to raise a whole lot of social, ethicaland moral issues in the society. Participations ofgeneral public from different walks of life besideseducationists, sociologists, engineers and scientistswould be necessary to evolve useful solutions to theresulting conflicts (Sheetz et al., 2005). Mixed responsetowards consumption of genetically modified fruitsand vegetables is still a debatable question. Whatwill happen to the genetic treatment of diseases thatis presently being pursued very seriously? What isthe guarantee that an act of ‘gene silencing orexpression’ to meet certain biotechnological objectivesis free from other harmful side effects - poses a bigquestion.

In order to understand these complex situationsarising due to multiply interactive situations playingtheir roles individually and in synergy with othersimilar entities a comprehensive research programshould be evolved by making large number ofresearch teams available from different countries. Butthe overall success of such investigations to becarried out in these areas will be to a great extentdependent upon the availability of graduates trainedin related disciplines. So the academic programs atundergraduate and postgraduate levels will needdrastic modifications accordingly keeping always theimportance of interdisciplinary approach in focus.Besides class room activities of academic and researchinstitutions it is now becoming equally important to




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spread the general awareness to public – especiallythose areas which are having global impacts.Researchers from humanities, social science, liberalarts and other related areas should be encouraged toget involved in assessing the overall impact ofscience, engineering and technology developmentsin future from their own view point as the human lifeis an embodiment of all these factors put together inan integrated manner. The task of future education isgetting more and more interactive in nature. Studentsseeking higher degree can not remain passive traineesto learn some kind of skills and use them later in job.But the role of higher education of tomorrow is toencourage the students to be more creative andinnovative in searching for and offering bettersolutions to human life problems. Getting educatedfor quenching the intellectual thirst is attracting lesserattention from the learners as there are more pressinghuman problems to be taken care of.

Nanoscience – Synergistic LinkA fairly good understanding of the characteristicproperties of atoms, molecules and bulk materialsderived from them is available today in form of relatedscience and technologies. Today in light of theexperience gained in studying the unusually exoticbehavior of nanostructures it is imperative to studyin detail their possible interfaces established withmacro and biomolecules as a function of their internalstructures and functional units possibly attached tothem under different conditions. The nanostructuresare in reality hyper active due to large surface tovolume ratio. Nanostructured materials behave quitedifferently from the respective bulk counterpartbecause here almost every constituent atom residingon surface has dangling bonds making all of themchemically very active – ever ready to interact witha variety of other chemical species. Further, thephenomena of quantum confinement of electrons innanosize structures assigns discrete energy levelsthat are responsible to allow distinct inter leveltransitions during interaction with optical radiations.The typical optical interaction of a givennanostructure is defined in terms of exciton (electron-hole bound states) spectrum that is characteristics ofthe nanosize involved. Such nanostructures ofvarying size can be excited by one wavelength ofradiation resulting into emission of differentwavelength of radiation typical of each nanostructure.Such nanostructure prepared in precisely well definedform are known as quantum dots currently availablecommercially for medical imaging and diagnostics inplace of fluorescent dyes used earlier (Jin et al., 2008).

These nanostructures combine easily with enzymes,proteins, lipids and a whole variety of bio entitiesprovided right kinds of ligands are attached duringtheir functionalizations. Presence of these species inor around complex biomolecules needs detailed study- theoretically and experimentally. Entry of DNA orgene construct attached quantum dot inside a cellopens up a vital route of reproducible genemodification in plant and human cells. In plant cells,one could modify genes to make the plant speciesmore tolerant to environmental stresses and improvingthe yield. Transgenic plants are reality today. Similarpossibilities are being explored in case ofhumans.Taking example of intra and inter-cellularcommunications, existing in living organisms; theinformation carrying and manipulation properties ofnanostructures like atomic/molecular clusters,quantum dots, macro and bio molecules attempts aregoing on to explore them for their use in futurebiocomputing (Steve Farrar, 2006). Such biocomputermay be more suited for cognitive sensing that isclosest replication of human senses. Unlike layingmore stress on electronic speed, parallel processingof large data should be of more concern. Online dataprocessing and decision-making could be handledwell in such situations using biocomputingtechniques. By now, it is quite clear thatsemiconductor computing will be hardly adequate tomimic the natural processes involving human beingsand their intelligence. DNA computing (Zhang et al.,2005) is one effort being explored in this direction.Cell based computing system, once developed infuture and could be closer to the human system inthis context.

Environmental pollution and remediation are betteraddressed to by using some microbial species withrequired characteristics. The menace of environmentalpollution caused by agricultural and industrial wastesis assuming a serious dimension and needs specialattention. Search for a suitable microbe, which couldconvert such wastes into useful raw materials forbiotechnological industries, may be one area to gethelp from nanoscience and biotechnology –nanobiotechnology (Egudo, 2004). How to modifythe microbes through genetic engineering so that theconversion of waste into useful raw material becomescost effective - is a problem of future worth trying.Similarly, other large-scale problems like – bio-pesticides, fertilizers and micronutrients could alsobe efficiently handled by using right kind of microbesand their interactions under appropriate conditionsmediated by nanostructures (Glenda Kruss, 2008).Food technology could draw benefits from




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nanobiotechnology in near future to provide balancedfood meeting individual’s body requirements besidesflavor and taste. Protection of food grains and rawmaterials, like poultry, fish and meet products, frompathogen attack using fast responding high sensitivitybiosensors will be available soon. Such developmentswill provide solutions to various problems related tohunger and poverty in the world.

Education and Research – An IntegratedApproachOne could start sensing that we have to develop infuture a program of science, engineering andtechnology as a whole instead of individual subjectslike physics, chemistry, mathematics, life sciences andengineering8,9. The undergraduates should be exposedto the fundamental principles of science usingnanostructures as building blocks to realize materials,components and devices with desired characteristicsset at the design level. At master’s level, bifurcationshould be made into streams that are necessarilybased on the technologies to be used. At doctorallevel, problem specific research should be the criteriafor forming the specific teams and setting up oflaboratory facilities. In this approach, it is not onlyimportant to have the intra institutional integrationbut also the inter-institutional interactions dependingupon the broad classes of problems underconsideration. For certain problems - like HIV andcancer, an international collaboration is very muchneeded as the amount of efforts required in arrivingat a solution is of enormous dimension and the totalmanpower needed may be met only if it is handled ina multi institutional collaborative manner. Under theseconditions, a large scale networking of efforts as wellas resources is becoming unavoidable10. One team -howsoever smaller or bigger in size, perhaps couldnot do all that is required for arriving at a completesolution of the problem.

In one of the studies (Nafalski et al., 2001) conductedat the University of South Australia, Australia thetraits of engineering graduates were identified. Thebasic ingredients identified by the Australian teamare summarized in the following. The engineeringgraduates should use knowledge of sufficient depthto function effectively after entering into professionalpractice. In order to retain professional excellenceand pursuit of personal development program lifelonglearning should be the aim. By using logical andcreative thinking such a graduate should aspire forbecoming an active problem solver by workingindividually and working in a team. While dischargingthe professional responsibilities commitment towards

ethical actions and social responsibilities should bemaintained. Professionally effective communicationskills should not only be deployed in the professionalone but it must reflect also international perspectiveas well. In order to achieve the professional successthe graduates should preferably learn how to integratepractical applications of ideas and appropriatedecision making for efficient solution of a problem;retaining good vision along with awareness ofmeanings and values; inculcating inductive reasoningalong with modeling and simulations and be efficientexecuting ongoing plans and participating in newerchallenging experiences. Each of these observationscan be included in the academic curricula ofengineering education to train young graduatesappropriately.

ConclusionWith fast pace of science, engineering and technologygrowth, our educational system and research needup-gradations to incorporate the conceptual changestaking place. This could better be met by networkingat national and international levels. Introduction ofnanoscale scientific principles and their use in searchfor complete solution using engineering andtechnological methodologies is one of the better waysto succeed. Correlation of the size and constituentsof the nanostructures with their physical, chemicaland biological properties are the basic questions tolook for solutions. Global collaborations would rid usfrom the disparity of developed and developingcountries. Working on a basic principle of ‘give andtake’ than one-sided flow of knowledge and technicalknow-how, sharing of IPR will be easier due to willingparticipations. Under this changed concept ofeducation, training and research, the efforts made byexperts from different countries will be providingimpetus to faster growth, instead of fighting forcompetition. The speed of solving problems will befaster. Final products will be in the market earlier. Themanagement of production and distribution will bepossible in more efficient manner. Integration of Bio,Nano and Info Technologies will usher a new era,where the progress will be targeted not only toimprove the economic conditions but to aim forbetterment of human life. ‘Paradigm Shift’ messageshould be used to fix educational and researchpriorities to make our contributions timely andmeaningful.

In implementing the steps involved in ‘Paradigm Shift’,sustainability will be assured only by each country’sparticipation up to Government level. Once includedin the national plan, the policy framework and financial




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supports will automatically help in meeting the targetsset in each case. Active support and patronage fromUniversity Grants Commission, Planning Commissionand Ministry of Human Resource Development,Government of India, is essential to chalk out plan ofaction in the present context that could be executedat University level. This could also be seen that weare running in the early part of the Eleventh Five YearPlan period. In synchronism with the effort of UGCto revamp Higher Education in the country, someconcrete steps must be initiated on these lines of‘Paradigm Shift’. It is definite that some positive stepstaken at this stage in the directions indicated by‘Paradigm Shift’ will nucleate into a number of fruitfulprograms of global importance will emergesubsequently.

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