Panel 1: Excellence in Education (10:45 am 11:45 am)

Moderator Prof. Akhlesh Lakhtakia (Pennsylvania State University)

Panelists Prof. Brij Agrawal (Naval Postgraduate School)

Prof. Devesh Kapur (University of Pennsylvania) Prof. V. K. Mathur (University of New Hampshire)

Prof. G. N. Pandey (Arunachal University of Studies)

Panel 1: Excellence in Education Agenda (10:45 am 11:45 am)

Opening Statements (5 minutes each 25 min) 1045: Akhlesh Lakhtakia Opening and Introduce Panelists 1050: Brij Agrawal 1055: Devesh Kapur 1100: V. K. Mathur 1105: G. N. Pandey - Akhlesh Audience Participation (25 min.) 1110: Q & A Closing Statements (1 min. each 5 min) 1135: G. N. Pandey - Akhlesh 1136: V. K. Mathur 1137: Devesh Kapur 1138: Brij Agrawal 1139: Akhlesh Lakhtakia Summary (5 min) Akhlesh Lakhtakia

Prof. Akhlesh Lakhtakia

Excellence in Undergraduate Education

Current Educational Practices

Excellence in Undergraduate Education

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Emerging Technologies Extremely diversified Extremely expensive Thrive on innovative ideas Require:

Foundational-knowledge base Integration across STEM disciplines Organizational skills Socioethical contextualization Communication skills

Excellence in Undergraduate Education

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Supplementation:

Excellence in Undergraduate Education

For complex problems, students must learn: to identify intersecting disciplines to acquire necessary knowledge base to synthesize an acceptable accomplishment to assess needs for further progress to contextualize the accomplishment

Excellence in Undergraduate Education

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JITE Experience Spans > 1 science/math disciplines Single-member Team-based Apportionment of tasks Deadlines Oral/written reports

4 Crucial elements

Excellence in Undergraduate Education

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Crucial Element No. 1 Not all information be supplied to students Students will search text books search extracurricular books, research literature search the web interview practitioners undertake site visits

Excellence in Undergraduate Education

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Crucial Element No. 2 Introspection and reflection by students Students will keep a journal of activities and ideas prepare a statement of personal growth

Excellence in Undergraduate Education

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Crucial Element No. 3 Socioethical contextualization Students will reflect on relevance of projects to their political unit and culture the world ecology, sustainability & diversity

Excellence in Undergraduate Education

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Crucial Element No. 4 Dispersal of acquired knowledge Students will create project websites write for newspapers and magazines participate in local, provincial and national conferences publish in peer-reviewed journals

Excellence in Undergraduate Education

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Expected to accommodate: Nanotechnology Information Technology Biotechnology Neural Engineering Future wide-scope developments

Excellence in Undergraduate Education

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Excellence in Undergraduate Education

Instruction Research

Panel: Excellence in Education Prof. Brij N. Agrawal

Education IIT BHU/BENCO 1960-64 IIT Roorkee 1964-66 McMaster University 1966-67 Syracuse University 1967-69 Experience 1969-1989 Communications Satellite Corporation/International Telecommunications Satellite Organization Research and participated in the development of communications satellites Wrote first textbook of spacecraft design Adjunct Professor-George Washington University and University of Maryland !989- Naval Postgraduate school, Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Adjunct Professor, Stanford university Started Astronautics Program Founded Spacecraft Research and Design Center Founded Adaptive Optics Center of Excellence for National Security

Key Ingredients for Excellence in Education

Focus of Fundamentals Good oral and written communications, critical thinking, and teamwork

Education Current and responsive to industry and society For graduate education, faculty should have excellent research programs

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Focus of Fundamentals

Education is lifelong process. Educational institutions

should build foundation for students to build new knowledge in future.

Fundamental knowledge gives confidence to do research and develop new technologies.

It becomes a habit to understand fundamental of any situation. Even in administration it helps to analyze key fundamental problems and find solutions for it.

Faculty should focus on fundamentals both in classes and in examinations.

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Good oral and written communications, critical thinking, and team work

At job, need to participate in meetings, making

presentations, convince others on your ideas Write reports, memos, technical papers, proposals Need to work in a team and to be a team player How to give this education? Give assignments to write reports and make

presentations Give team design projects

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Education Current and responsive to

industry and society Technology is changing fast. The education should be current.

So the professors should be encouraged to learn new technologies and update teaching materials. Professors should be given time and resources to achieve it.

Education should be responsive to industry and they are being prepared for them. It requires good relationship between faculty and industry.

Education should be to make engineers realize that their basic responsibility is to serve the society. Making money is important, but should not be the only motivation.

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For graduate education, faculty should have excellent research programs

Should have Centers of Excellence: Graduate courses requires state-of- art knowledge by

faculty. High quality thesis work both for MS and Ph.D. can not be

accomplished without excellent research program by the faculty.

Able to attract good professors and grow young faculty into researchers. For the Reputation of the institution.

Faculty promotion should be based on teaching plus research, publications, new labs, etc.

Faculty should be rewarded for good research.

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Prof. Devesh Kapur

Prof. V. K. Mathur

My Remarks Indian universities failed to make worlds top 200

according to QS World University Rankings released on September 10, 2013 from London.

IIT- Delhi, the countrys premier institution, comes in way down at No 222. In the list of the top 50 universities in Asia, IIT Delhi is at 38.

It is needless to say the entire Indian university system needs improvement.

The biggest asset of any educational institution is not its buildings, equipment or even books, but its alumni. They are the role models and beacon of light for the future generations. Indian universities should learn to use them as effectively as American universities do.

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Prof. G. N. Pandey

My Thoughts Need Multi-disciplinary approach to teaching,

research, industry-institution interactions, etc. Focus on entrepreneurship among faculty and

students. Learn from world-class institutions to develop:

Academic structure Challenging and rewarding milieu for faculty growth Laboratory facilities with global standards Library facilities including e-library Recruitment support and global placements Active alumni association with global visibility Global focus

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Panel 1: Excellence in Education(10:45 am 11:45 am)Panel 1: Excellence in EducationProf. Akhlesh LakhtakiaCurrent Educational PracticesEmerging TechnologiesSupplementation:Slide Number 7Slide Number 8Slide Number 9Slide Number 10Slide Number 11Slide Number 12Slide Number 13Excellence in Undergraduate EducationPanel: Excellence in EducationFocus of FundamentalsGood oral and written communications, critical thinking, and team workEducation Current and responsive to industry and societyFor graduate education, faculty should have excellent research programsProf. Devesh KapurProf. V. K. MathurMy RemarksProf. G. N. PandeyMy Thoughts