Working towards a research-led education
SHYAM RANGANATHAN
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One way to attract the best minds to teaching is to develop world-class research institutions, says Shiv Nadar, chairman and Chief Strategic Officer, HCL Technologies.
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“The Research Centre also brings students to work with the current cutting-edge tools, and gives teachers an opportunity to show their abilities.”
Photo: Kamal Narang
Useful initiatives: Shiv Nadar, chairman and CEO, HCL Technologies.
India’s potential has been much celebrated but higher education especially in science and technology has languished to an extent. Research output from Indian universities and the number of Ph.Ds churned out are much lower compared to other countries. In this context, many feel that the marriage of research with higher education will be extremely felicitous.
Shiv Nadar, chairman and Chief Strategic Officer, HCL Technologies, says, “Education institutions need to be dovetailed with research centres. There is not enough motivation or compensation for the best in any field to take to teaching. But, by establishing world-class research centres, and with the help of consultancies from the government and the private sector, the best minds can be attracted.”
This is the basic philosophy behind the SSN Research Centre, established at the SSN Engineering College, he says. The Centre has tied up with the Centre for Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP) to conduct pure and applied research in various domains. In addition to the research that goes on in the college itself, students are encouraged to perform research as interns at the Centre on some of the problems like providing green streetlighting, new materials, etc.
K.G. Narayanan, director, SSN Research Centre and member of the SSN Research Advisory Council, says the idea is to involve students in research on socially relevant and cutting-edge research. He mentions the ‘Green White Light’ project in which students have developed a Light Emitting Diode (LED)-based streetlight which can produce the same illumination as a typical streetlamp but with much more efficiency and less power consumption.
Currently, a pilot project has been initiated at the college to test the working of the streetlights with respect to the conventional streetlight, with the aim of extending this all over the campus in time.
Mr. Nadar says that the point of these projects is not just to develop a useful technology. The Research Centre also brings students to work with the current cutting-edge tools, and gives teachers an opportunity to show their abilities. “By looking at research-led education, we are bringing back the pride in teaching. This will result in some of the best minds choosing a teaching career, which will in turn bode well for students and higher education in India as a whole,” he says.
Although Mr. Nadar is ready to accept that the Centre is only taking its first “baby steps,” he is happy that quite a bit of external funding has already been received from various sources for research projects. In a few years, he says that the Centre could be a world-class institution attracting over 50 interns and many researchers.
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