Dr R P Dubey, Pro Vice Chancellor, Dr CV Raman University, calls for establishing Research Parks in universities to bridge the gap between industry and academia
Institutions across the world are coming up with new ways of imparting education. How are you bringing innovation in pedagogy at your institute?
To come up with new and advanced ways of imparting education, a set of skills, habit of mind and subject knowledge is required. We are committed to create a conductive atmosphere in teaching, learning, research and practical extension of other activities with several new initiatives.
How important is it to have a strong academia-industry linkage for an engineering institute and what it means to the students?
Every industry linkage aims at providing a common platform for engineers, researchers and technologists to present their ideas, innovations and views in the emerging areas of engineering and technology. A strong academia-industry linkage means giving a strong academic insight through valuable participation towards the path of success for the students, scholars and faculty members.
For strong academia-industry linkage, institutes should have Research Parks in their campuses. Research Park is a place where research companies come and conduct research in partnership with academia. Innovative minds from the industry and academics meet here on one platform to exchange and create new ideas for bringing out technological advancements. Along with this, students work here to acquire innovations and skills with deep academic insight to possess a huge treasure ofknowledge. Classroom teaching, although essential is not enough to learn innovations and creativity.
“Research Parks offer platform for innovative minds from the industry and academics to exchange and create new ideas for technological advancements”
How can the gap between industry and academia be bridged? Please share some of the unique initiatives taken up by your institute.
In the present scenario, there is a huge gap between industry and academia. This gap can be filled up by establishing the ‘Research Park’ in the campus. It provides a common platform to both industry and academia for innovation, creativity, technology generation and product and process development. It is a means to convert intellectual capital of both the institute and industry into usable goods and devices. Moreover, it acts as a mechanism to build synergy between industry and institutes. Besides this, we can proceed through a collaborative curriculum development, laboratory development and other research development programmes in certain areas where both can contribute meaningfully and exchange the ideas.
We have signed an MoU with Microsoft for enhancing the course curriculum activities. Microsoft provided Office-365(A2) SKU for the faculty and students. We have facilitated industrial visits and tours for students for an exposure to industrial environment. We regularly organise seminars, workshops, techno fests, quiz, training programmes and other personality development, skill-oriented programmes to enable the growth of leadership qualities. We have been undertaking and guiding various state level and national level projects.
What is the importance of an incubation centre?
‘Success’ in the global market today means creating and applying new technology faster than one’s competitors. World winners are those who develop talent, technology, techniques and tools advanced enough to beat competition. So, an incubation centre is also as important as success in the global market.
