Focus on Quality in Engineering Education: Teaching & R&D

Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IIT Madrasashok@tenet.res.in

Recommendations of

Kakodkar Committees on IITs

and NITs

July 27, 2013 Engineering Education Summit by Pan-IIT 2

Kakodkar Committee on IITs

� IITs have to become world-class Research Institutions• While retaining its position as best teaching institutions

� IITs to have significantly Enhanced Research funding• Have substantially enhanced Industrial collaboration

– Focus on technology development in Indian context– IITs to aim to become the World’s Best in a few areas: massively funded – Industry Government Ministries to set up their R&D Labs at Research Parks

adjacent to IITs

� By 2023: 20 IITs, 16000 faculty, 20000 UG students per year, 10000 PhDs graduates per year (up from 1000)

• Best UG students of any institute selected at the end of their third year for direct PhD (to complete their B.Tech. and carry out PhD at IIT)

• Best B.Tech. graduates selected as Trainee Teachers and pursue part-time direct PhD using largely video-network

• Industry personnel pursuing PhDs (part-time) using video network– Also Industry M.Tech entirely on Video network

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Kakodkar Committee on IITs (contd.)

� In future, IITs to be totally self-reliant in terms of its operational budget

� Revenue from enhanced fees, Industrial consultancy, R&D projects overheads, continuing education programs, corpus interest and grants

• Government funding only to students for scholarship: weaker sections and all research scholars

• Hassle-free loans to students towards fees to others

� MHRD continues to fund for Capital Expenses, Research Infrastructure

� Institutes to be fully governed by independent Board of Governors� Including Financial planning and Expenditure rules, faculty remuneration, fees,

number of faculty and staff• But in accordance with Government’s overall policy directives in terms of affirmative action,

technology directions

� Nurture Industry–Academia relationship to make India a world leader in knowledge economy� Encourage R&D personnel to become adjunct faculty

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Kakodkar Committee on NITs

� Early recommendations:� Trainee Teacher to build quality faculty at NITs� Early PhD Induction for III year UG students at IITs� Industry personnel to teach 25% of a course on video� Group Learning and Evaluation

� Pair NITs to IITs� Industry- Institute Interface defined� Special vehicle for NITs in North-East, Uttaranchal and J&K

� Identifying NITs at different stages• Essentially a teaching institute• A teaching institute with strong industrial interface• A teaching institute with strong R&D

� Strong yearly departmental and five-year institute reviews� Governance and funding

Quality in Teaching

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Committee for Technical Reforms for 500 Engineering colleges

�Pilot being attempted in 100 colleges from January�Leveraging ICT�Tasks

• Lectures & e-Content• Tutorials and Group Discussions • IT Courses on web• Assignments & Evaluations• Practice and Lab experiments• Peer Learning • Administration, accounts & record keeping• Teacher Training and Autonomy

July 27, 2013 Engineering Education Summit by Pan-IIT 7

Infrastructure I : Connectivity

� Fibre connectivity to each institute at the earliest

� While this is happening� Strong mirror server with available broadband

connection • along with wifi connectivity within college campus

� A DTH channel which pushes content to mirror server• live or stored files

– Cost at each institute: a few lakhs

� Identify public places (say next to play grounds or parks)� Provide broadband connectivity (preferably with fibre)

and wifi• and make it available to students on Aakash tablet

July 27, 2013 Engineering Education Summit by Pan-IIT 8

Infrastructure II: Access Devices

� Wide screen displays in a few classrooms� Planning Cameras for two way-communications

� Aakash IV as Access devices for students� 7” robust tablets from multiple vendors

• Bulk price at around Rs 2500 + ED + ST

� Distribution to each student through Colleges

� Exclusive market place for downloading applications� Set up security mechanism whereby applications can

be only accessed by registered Aakash tablets

July 27, 2013 Engineering Education Summit by Pan-IIT 9

Pedagogy I

� Live delivery of High Quality Lectures in class using video on high-speed internet � Placing the Best teachers in front of students� Controlled interactivity between students and Lecturer� Part of main curriculum (about ten lectures)

• where rest of course/ tutorials/ Interactions handled locally

� Interactive e-books� Textual content augmented with videos, animation, images,

quiz modules, dictionary, reference links for each section

� Group Interactive Learning using ICT tool� Small group (10-15 students) study together with or without

a tutor• using audio/ synchronous video view /text chat/ file sharing /

white-board like tools

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Pedagogy II

� Virtual Labs� A significant portion of curriculum experiments can now be

carried out virtually

� e-quiz and e-evaluation� Means to enhance the level of understanding of the student

• Objective/ exact answer: Computer-based automated evaluation • Subjective/long answers: evaluation by a tutor / introduce peer-

evaluation

� MOOCS� NPTEL (IITs) & IT industry plans CS courses� Microsoft pilots in several hundred Karnataka Colleges� MIT MOOCS

July 27, 2013 Engineering Education Summit by Pan-IIT 11

Portals & Depositories and e-Governance

� Public-Private agencies to build portals for� Storage and authentication of transcripts and records

of students (across all levels including entrance exam performance)

� Authentic, reliable information on accreditation statusof all educational institutions

� Information on certification and quality of school/colleges accredited by authorized agencies

� Repository of all student research thesis and project reports

� Computerization of College Accounts, administration, record-keeping

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Teacher Training and Autonomy

�Multiple levels of teacher training�Combination of on-line and small bursts of in-

person training

�Five levels of certifications

�Graded Autonomy�As more teachers get certified, academic

autonomy increases

�Also training for College Administrators

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Quality R&D and Industry

PartnershipIs there a learning from IITM Research Park?

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IITMRP conceived to address a national Dilemma

�Even as India’s economy grows rapidly

�and Indian Academic Institutes like IITs have created a niche in the world

� Industry is raring to go

�But�Weak academia-industry partnership

�Weak innovation and incubation eco-system

�Weak Product development ecosystem

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IITM attempts an answer: The Golden Triad®

Innovations thrive when faculty, students and experienced industry personnel interact in a formal / informal atmosphere

R&D

Personnel

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IITMRP Concept Created on

� a strong foundation of

� Industry – academia

engagements at IITMRP

for over 25 years

� Strong innovation culture

for 15 years

� Product Development

and commercialization

experience

A home for Industrial R&D Labs

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InfrastructureExtension of IITM Campus

� Target built-up space of 1.2 million sq. ft.� First tower of 400000 sq ft

operational from March 2010

� Incubation Area in First floor

� Conference facilities and meeting rooms on ground floor

� Amenities like food court, ATMs and a restaurant as part of the complex� transit accommodation by the

Ginger Hotels on top floor

� 100% Power back-up and centralized air conditioning and fiber optic connectivity

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But we did not stop here….

� We Innovated� we decided to Measure Collaboration

� Tenants obliged to collaboratewith IITM� engage with IITM in a variety

of ways� Need to earn credits

• Collaboration in Research &Engagement with Departments in IIT

� Tenants obliged to earn aminimum number of creditsper square feet of rented area

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Measuring Collaboration: Credit Points System

Tenant should have 100 / 150 credits per year per 1000 square feet leased area

Contribution expected to be much more

� Joint Research projects

� Technology development projects

� Consultancy

� Joint participation in large projects

� Industry personnel as Adjunct

faculty

� IIT students as interns

� During summer / winter / semester

� Industry employees registered as

part-time students

� At MS and PhD level

� Joint research guidance

� Technology Vision exercises

� Reports on Technology road-maps

and state of art

Activity Credits*

R&D projects to IC&SR (credits per Rs 1M) 200

Consultancy to IC & SR (credits per Rs 1M) 200

Royalty (credits per Rs 100k) 100

Sponsored Ph.D Students 100 per year

Sponsored M.S Students 75 per year

Adjunct faculty 200 per year

Teaching by Industry Personnel 2 per hour

Joint Ph.D guidance 100 per year

M.S/M.Tech guidance (per student) 75

B.Tech guidance (per student) 50

Part time employment for B.Tech students 2.5 per mnth

Part time employment for MS/Ph.D students 5 per month

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Financial Services:13%

IT: 16%

Telecom: 12%

Engineering Design: 26%

Industry forum Entrepreneurs:

3%

Shipping:1%

Power: 15%

Bio-Medical Device: 1%

DRDO ( Multi Specialty): 13%

and we got the variety

mapping IIT departmentdiversity

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Incubates

RTBI

Aaum Analytics

Uniphore Solutions

Invention Labs

ROPE

EPMCR

Myeasydocs

Dhvani Research

DesiCrew

And then there are IITM incubates

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and IITM- industry collaboration has started accelerating

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And products havestarted emerging

GramaTeller

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Slowly Overcoming Barriers

� Faculty� No incentives for collaboration with industry

• Does not count much towards promotions at IITs• Resistant from departments

� But excitement is building up with interesting work• Two-story apartments in 29 days• Push India’s 50% of power by 2030 using solar energy

� Students� Internship at Park is a great benefit

• Will like to get academic credit for some work– Like projects

� Industry: Credit push� Mechanism still not fully operational at IIT

• Departments reluctant to accept non-academic type

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We have just made the beginning

� Going forward� Build towers II, III and IV

• Total infrastructure spend on Park: Rs 385 Crores (including pre-op exp)

� Get about 150 companies in Park to carry out R&D with IITM• Contribute to development of a series of successful products• Contribute to several significant innovations towards Indian and World

market

� Incubate 25 companies every year out of IITM

� Lead in making a significant difference to India’s growth story

� Next few years at IITM and IITMRP would be exciting

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Proposed

Phase

II

Parking Building

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Energy efficient

� Roof-top Solar at 9 ft height: 1 MW�300 KW in current building

� Phase II�48V DC wiring for lighting and electronics

�Load Management for local grid supply-demand match during power-cuts

• Current approach just cuts solar power when grid fails

�Modular synchronized DGs to match load

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Lessons

� Industry R&D Partnership has given a new confidence to IITM�Whole variety of path-breaking efforts being taken

up• Builds a two-storey flat in 31 days• Nano-technology based water filter to be deployed all

over Bengal• HTIC: a series of affordable medical Instruments• India to have 50% of its energy from solar by 2030?• India to significantly address its problem of quality in

education in 10 years?

� What does all this mean to other engineering Colleges?

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Discussions

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