The Amity Academics Staff College at Amity University Haryana started a six-day Online Faculty Enrichment Program from 21st June to 26th June 2021. The program was inaugurated by Dr RA Mashelkar FRS, Founder Chairman National Innovation Council and former Director General of CSIR in the august presence of Chancellor Dr Aseem Chauhan, Vice Chancellor Prof PB Sharma, Vice Chancellors of Amity Universities in India, Deans, Heads of Institutions, large number of faculty members and 180 registered participants from various universities and institutions from across the country.
Delivering the Inaugural Address Dr RA Mashelkar, Eminent Scientist & Former Director General, CSIR shared his insightful thoughts on “The Paradigm shift of Innovative Integration of Education, Research and Innovation.” He said, “Teachers are architects of the future of the country. To remain relevant you have to learn, unlearn and relearn throughout your work life. Integrate the joy and excitement of research and innovations into teaching and excite the imagination and intuition of the students and prepare them for the science and technologies of tomorrow.”
The other notable keynote speaker in the plenary was Prof. Syed Ehtesham Hasnain, Honorary Professor, DBEB, IIT Delhi and National Science Chair of DBT in Biological Sciences and former Vice Chancellor of University of Hyderabad and Hamdard University. Dr. (Mrs.) Pankaj Mittal, Secretary-General, Association of Indian Universities talked about the importance of ABC concept of Lifelong learning, Blended & Hybrid system of learning and also highlighted the benefits of the National Credit Bank idea proposed by the NEP- 2020.
Dr Kumar Krishen, a former Lead Technologist of NASA Johnson Space Centre explained the I3LP concept and invited the teacher participants to walk into the exciting journey of exploration of education and research excellence during their stay in the universities.
Dr. Aseem Chauhan, said, “Teachers have to play a pivotal role as leaders in their domain areas and should work as mentors. For this they need to regularly upgrade their knowledge base as well as technology Skills. Much of this upgradation should be self motivated. Teachers should have the capabilities to adopt advanced technologies and should have the willingness to experiment with innovative technologies to improve learning outcomes.”
Addressing the gathering Prof P B Sharma, Vice-Chancellor, Amity University Haryana said, “We need to take full advantage of the digital transformation to radically reform the teaching learning environment. Teachers and technology together shall create a bright future for humankind. He invited the teaching community to work with passion and pursue endless frontiers of research and innovations as also integrate the advances in research in their classroom teaching.”
Dr. W. Selvamurthy, President of Amity Science, Technology and Innovation Foundation, Dr. Ajit K. Nagpal, Chairman Amity PACIFIC Forum, Lt Gen V K Sharma, Vice Chancellor, AUMP (Gwalior), Dr Raman Jha, Vice Chancellor, AUJH Ranchi, Maj Gen B S Suhag (Retd) Prof. Padmakali Banerjee, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Vikas Madhukar, Dy PVC, Prof Gunjan M Sanjeev, Director, International Affairs, Prof. Rajendra Prasad, Director, AIB, Prof. I. S. Thakur, Dean Environment Sciences, ASEES were also present together-with 180 faculty participants who had registered for this maiden Faculty Enrichment Programme from very many universities and institutions from across India.