siliconindia | | September 20179With the opening up of economy and steady growth as well as project based funding in academia, a small number of faculty members started interaction with industry directly more in developmental work than in researchlaboratories. This is the backdrop on which I see a brighter prospect of Industry-Academia interaction in fu-ture because it is not based on phi-lanthropy but on strong technological need of the corporate world.On the part of academic institu-tions also it was a steep learning curve even though Indian academia particu-larly those in higher learning institu-tions like IITs, IIMs had a large part of their faculty trained abroad, who were well aware of Industry interac-tion of higher academic institutions but were unable to translate it here due to lack of environment. With the opening up of economy and steady growth as well as project based fund-ing in academia, a small number of faculty members started interaction with industry directly more in de-velopmental work than in research. Initially, there were very few success stories. However, the few one's had their multiplying effect and today we can see an ever increasing number of faculty members in these institu-tions involved with industry in both research and development. Does that mean that we are very successful in industry academia in-teraction today? Not Really. The rise of the curve is steep but it is yet to reach a point where it can be claimed that the industry-academic interac-tion has got a perceptible impact in the growth of Indian industry. Natu-rally the question arises, what is the way forward? One of the popular beliefs is this,industry should play an active role in deciding curriculum and syllabus which will bring more relevance of the student learning the industrial reality. I am particularly, not an approver of this belief. The aim of education in these higher insti-tutions is not skill development, but it is rather thought development with some amount of practical skills. The pace of obsolesce is so fast in indus-try today that if we make the curricu-lumon the basis of industrial inputs, the students will be at deep sea after a couple of years when he/she finds that all he/she has learnt is irrelevant and has changed. Hence in today's scenario, to my opinion, there should be more emphasis on "Fundamentals' to improve the `learn ability' of the student. Let me explain it further, In today's scenario, it is not important what or how much you have learnt, it is important whether you have learnt `how to learn yourself', because the skill to pick up new technologies will keep you always relevant. Hence, the industrial interaction should be used as examples in the learning process rather than replacing core learning with it. This might sound paradoxical but in the long run this is what more beneficial to the industry rather than having readymade finished products in the form of trained manpower.Finally, the philosophy of learning `how to learn' with hands on learning experience having deep fundamentals is the strategy adopted by IIT Ropar. We have developed curriculum in which fundamentals, hands- on learn-ing and societal engagements along with industry connect is augmented to make engineers of tomorrow. I am sure with the right mix and balance of these factors; we will be able to make the technologists of 21st century dedi-cated to the service of the society and the nation. Prof S.K Das
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