Recently, the International Relations Office (IRO) at YeshwantraoChavan College of Engineering, Nagpur, organized an IETE-approved one-week international faculty development program (FDP), titled, “21st Century: Recent trends, challenges and future roadmap for transitions in technological generations”. The FDP was successfully conducted with huge takeaways, as informed by Dr. ShubhangiRathkanthiwar, Dean, International Relations, YCCE, and Convener of this FDP.

According to Dr. Rathkanthiwar, the IRO has been striving toward bolstering the innovation ecosystem at YCCE from a global perspective. The FDP engaged presentations on the aforementioned theme from prominent intellectuals, academicians, and industry experts from around the world such as the USA, Austria, Australia, Botswana, Bangladesh, Kuwait, and India. The FDP was designed to serve as a common platform for fostering cogent interaction and networking between Indian faculty members and prominent international speakers. Solving the 21st-century challenges necessitates the development of cutting-edge technologies involving various disciplines of engineering and science. The FDP aimed to provide attendees from diverse disciplines with broad perspectives and a vision for enhancing their research and development activities.

The FDP was graced with eminent stalwarts around the world who presented state-of-the-art and future roadmaps for transitions in technological generations in various disciplines. The list of speakers included Dr. Krishna Vedula, the executive director, Indo-Universal Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE), and an emeritus professor at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, USA, Dr. James Conrad, a professor at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte USA, Dr. AviralShrivastava from Arizona State University, USA, Dr. DigbijoyNath from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Er. Nitin Birla from Kuwait Gulf Oil Company, Dr. Rajeev Shore from the University of Queensland, Australia; Dr. Shamim from Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh, VishveshKoranne from Purdue University amongst others. Dr. David Haney, Codebase, USA, and Er. Sachin Maske from Botswana enlightened the audience with recent trends, challenges, and scope for research to prepare the roadmap for fast transitions in technological generations in the 21st century. Dr. Sanjay Kallapur, from the Indian School of Business, revealed the strategies to develop a world-class educational institution in India. Some of these included enhancing academic collaborations with best-ranked global institutions, the importance of insightful roadmaps and action plans, the SWOT analysis, competitive analysis, hiring the best faculties, diversifying the staff to foster innovations, focusing on research, improving engagement levels with faculty, students, and staff, increasing incentives to well-performing faculties and staff. He also shared the contributions he made to the top universities in the world, including Harvard University, USA, Purdue University, USA, National University, Singapore, and ISB, thereafter.

Dr. HemantPendharkar, from the University of South Florida, put a strong emphasis on Mathematical Sophistication. This followed wonderful sessions by budding scientists including Dr. AnishaKalra, a scientist at Infineon Technologies, Austria, Dr. ShashwatRathkanthiwar from North Carolina State University, USA, and Dr. ChetanRalekar from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. Dr. Kalra walked the attendees through her entire academic journey. She discussed the importance of a range of curricular and co-curricular activities she picked up during high school that instilled an extraordinary confidence in her during every stage of her academic journey which finally helped her transition to a career in a global leading industry. Dr. ShubhangiRathkanthiwar highlighted his roadmap for transitions in technological generations in the field of gallium nitride semiconductors which are poised to enable next-generation power electronics, radio-frequency electronics, and ultraviolet optoelectronics. Dr. Ralekar discussed important aspects of applications of machine learning in medical image processing.

The FDP was inaugurated by the chief guest, Dr. Ramesh Agarwal, an eminent professor from the University of Washington, St. Louis, USA. The inauguration was graced by Dr. S. L. Badjate, The Chairman, IETE, Nagpur Chapter. Dr. UdayWaghe, Principal, YCCE, congratulated Dr. Rathkanthiwar for successfully organizing the FDP encompassing multidisciplinary aspects, and urged the participants to develop a deeper insight into the technological transitions foreseen in the next decade. He delved into the importance of machine learning and artificial intelligence and suggested that these fields will penetrate several technologies in the next decade. While Dr. ArvinderKaur gracefully anchored the inauguration, the formal vote of thanks was given by Dr. UjwalaGhodeswar. In the valedictory session, Dr. ManaliKshirsagar addressed the attendees on how this FDP is an important step towards the internationalization which is the need of an hour as far as National Education policy 2020 is concerned. Dr. Rajesh Thakare, Co-convener of FDP, proposed vote of thanks.

Collaborating across different disciplines is unarguably the need of an hour for Indian researchers to meet the challenges of the 21st century. The FDP helped the attendees update their multidisciplinary knowledge, give vent to ingenious ideas, and get involved in academic collaborations at national and international levels. More than 450 academicians, researchers, and industry persons from 12 different states of India and various countries participated in this FDP. Dr. Meenal Kale, Dr. Tejaswini Panse, Dr. Amoli Belsare, Dr. Sarala Adhau, Swati Nitnavare, Prof. Yogesh Kherde, Sushil Chavan, Chetan Mahatme, Pradnya Jadhav, Shweta Tiwari, Mahesh Pawar, Dr. Prachi Palsodkar and Ajinkya Edlabadkar were the organizing committee members. Dr. Tejaswini Panse, Prof. Atish Peshattiwar, and the technical team of this FDP smoothly executed the FDP in an online mode over the Zoom platform.