Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Mar 27: With an aim to boost faculty members and researchers, the five-day-long online Faculty Development Program (FDP) on ‘Cognitive Skills and Design Thinking’ began here at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar today.
The inaugural session of online training programme was inaugurated and presided by Director NIT, Dr. Prof. Rakesh Sehgal who was the chief guest on the occasion. He said it is a new type of course which we are offering to the faculty and research scholars of the J&K and Ladakh.
“These sessions will generate an environment of inventions and design thinking in the minds of our youth,” he said.
Dr. Sehgal said it is the need of the hour to conduct such online courses on cognitive skills. If foundational cognitive skills are working efficiently and accurately, and then learning process gets good to start off.
Registrar NIT, SK Bukhari said the program aims to boost the overall teaching-learning process for both faculty and researchers of the institute. “Such session will give exposure to our faculty and research scholars to new dimensions in the education field,” Bukhari said.
The session was later addressed by Prof. M. F Wani who delivered the inaugural speech said the course is new in its kind in the respect that it pertains to every walk of life and shall be helpful in nurturing the environment for creativity and innovative designs.
The five-day-long course is sponsored by AICTE (Faculty Development Cell) and HoD- Information Technology Dr. Shabir Ahmad Sofi is the coordinator and convener of the program.
While Dr. Prof. M. A Tantray from Civil Engineering, Dr. M. Mursaleen from Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Shaima Qureshi from Computer Science & Engineering are the course coordinators for the program.
In November 2020, NIT Srinagar and AICTE New Delhi NIT Srinagar had executed an MoU for conducting training courses for the benefit of J&K and Ladakh UTs, as per of the MoU four online Faculty Development Programs for the AICTE Approved Institutes, academic colleges, and Universities of UTs of J&K and Ladakh during the month of March 2021.
On the inaugural day, around 100-120 participants from J&K, Ladakh, and other parts of India participated in the virtual program.
The second and third sessions on course overview and application design in sensor networks was hosted by Dr. Shabir A. Sofi and the fourth session on ‘Patents in Design’ by Dr. M. Ahsan Chishti, Associate Professor, Central University of Kashmir.