IITs are no more than 'glorified' engineering colleges: UGC Chairman

IITs are no more than 'glorified' engineering colleges: UGC Chairman

The University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman, Dr Ved Prakash has said that the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are no more than “glorified engineering colleges”.

Dr Prakash while emphasizing upon the importance of universities, said he was miffed at not receiving any research proposals for Singh-Obama initiative from the universities and the same had to be awarded to an IIT.

Thr UGC Chairman said since universities were not coming forward so the initiative had to be awarded to IIT (“IITs ko majboori mein dena pada”) for execution in the wake of country's “prestige”.

“IIT, Kya hai IIT. (What are IITs?). Glorified engineering colleges. University aur IIT mein zameen aasman ka antar hai (University and IITs are poles apart),” Prakash said.

He was all praise for Union Government’s ambitious Rs 22,000 crore project Rashtriya Uchchtar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) and said Punjab stood to gain hugely from it. “I am sure you are going to pick up a major chunk,” he said.

Prakash said that Universities were far more important than IITs. Universities had a higher intake of students, reported Indian Express. 

Source: http://www.indiaeducationreview.com/news/iits-are-no-more-glorified-engineering-colleges-ugc-chairman/11597

Author Workshop by Elsevier Photos

Please go to the link below to see the recording of the session. You can also share this link with your faculties and students.

https://reedelsevier.webex.com/reedelsevier/ldr.php?AT=pb&SP=MC&rID=55954377&rKey=f464177ce6e52f9f

Free Webcast on How Librarians are raising researcher's reputations

Presenters:

Chris Erdmann, Head Librarian, John G. Wolbach Library and Information Resource Center, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics 

Chris is a published author in the areas of digital libraries, library UX, interactive technologies, bibliometrics and data visualization.

Heather Chisholm, Programme Manager for Collaboration and Student Centric Streams,Information Technology and Service Department, Imperial College London
Heather works on platforms that support collaboration and Web 2.0 technologies, and her interests range from semantic technology and data science to mobile apps.

Wouter Gerritsma, Subject Librarian - Plant Sciences, Wageningen UR (University and Research Centre) Library
Wouter is responsible for research support at the library, including research assessments on the basis of bibliometric analyses for all of the university's research units.

Topics:

• Establishing researchers' identity and authority
• Sharing and collaborating remotely
• Collecting, annotating and storing bibliographies
• Developing international visibility
• Applying academic networks and profiles, such as Mendeley, ORCID and Scopus

Format:

Registration is required for this live 50-minute webinar. It will be broadcast internationally and includes time to ask the panelists questions. Questions for the panel can be submitted in advance during the registration process. The webinar is a complimentary event and part of Elsevier's Library Connect program for academic, health sciences, corporate and government librarians.

Source: https://wikis.library.tamu.edu/display/ERAnnounce/2013/08/30/Elsevier%3A+Invitation+to+a+free+webcast+on+Sept.+12%3A+How+librarians+are+raising+researchers%27+reputations

Author Workshop with Keith Lambert

AUTHOR WORKSHOP WITH PUBLISHER KEITH LAMBERT

To better understand the publishing process for scientific journals, SFIT LIRC had hosted an  Author Workshop with the renowned publisher - Keith Lambert on September 11, 2013 between 3.00 pm to 5.00 pm.

Students of M.E. Part 1 and Part 2 and senior faculty members attended the workshop, making the total count of participants to 56.

Keith Lambert is an Elsevier Publisher for Mechanical Engineering Journals. Prior to joining Elsevier in 2009, he has more than 30 years experience in both book and journal publishing across many scientific disciplines. As part of the company’s continuing programme providing scientific publishing workshops for early career researchers, Keith Lambert has hosted similar events for future authors in the United Kingdom and Germany.

This workshop covered the following topics in depth:

• An introduction to scientific publishing
• The peer review process
• How to write a scientific article
• The impact factor and other quality measure
• Open access

Duration: 

2:00 hours

Book Review: The Facebook Effect

The Facebook Effect

by DAVID KIRKPATRICK,
NEW YORK/RANDOM HOUSE/2010

From the title, it suggests on what is the book about, a familiar term "Facebook", the site we usually login at least once in a day.

The story-line revolves around how Facebook evolved from a Harvard dorm room experiment to a successful company having almost a billion of active users, the struggles of keeping the company stable, about its competitors, about its strategies, failures etc. It makes us realize that nothing is achieved without pure hardwork, determination and a focused way to reach your goal. It also shows Mark Zuckerberg's ability to handle the company well, make it financially viable without compromising on the quality of the product, to remain steady despite failures, believing in the concept of the company and make it so successful.

Also, it gives opinions of Facebook by its investors, stakeholders, management team etc. and gives an insight about the lives of people involved in making Facebook what it is today.

Reviewed by Manan Meghani - FE 6

UoP initiates new online MCQ exam

20-mark test to speed up evaluation

UoP initiates new online MCQ exam

Results of digital test will be made available immediately, ensuring more transparency

As part of a newly-introduced credit system, management students of University of Pune (UoP)-affiliated colleges will now have to take a multiple choice question-based (MCQ) online examination of 20 marks for every subject taught in their courses.  This move by the varsity is expected to increase evaluation speed and bring transparency into the proceedings. Students will be able to see their scores immediately after finishing the examination, and a student will also get a second attempt in the next semester, in case of failure.  Dr E B Khedkar, Dean, Faculty of Management, UoP and Director, D Y Patil Institute of Management, explained, “Twenty MCQ questions will be asked for 20 marks, which students will have 25 minutes to complete. Considering this year’s academic calendar, we will schedule the first such exam in October.”  Dr Parag Kalkar, Registrar at the Sinhagad Management Institute (SMI), said, “A special programme will be designed for this. Students will be asked random questions out of a question bank. A buffer time of five minutes will be given since some questions might need calculations to be done,” adding that different machines will have different sets of questions.  “The exam will be conducted on UoP’s server. While internal assessments are conducted by colleges, one part of the external assessment will be quick, since this online exam will give immediate results,” said Dr Apoorva Palkar, promoter, MERC Institute of Management. Meanwhile, students seem to have welcomed the decision. Vikram Gawde, a first year student of DYPIM, feels it will help in preparations for the semester examination.  “Although this will be just a 20-mark objective test, I will have to study for it before the final examination. It will give me a clear idea about where I stand and what is important,” he said. Another first year student, Amay Tambe of SMI, spoke about the transparency it will bring.  He said, “The immediate results will help me find where I went wrong and what I should take care of when I appear for the written examination. In case of the latter, no student is in the mood to go back and refer to the questions they get wrong when the results come out.” UoP’s new credit system has been designed to ensure continuous and comprehensive evaluation.  In an attempt to aim for international standards, UoP management students will be evaluated on online exams, projects, presentations, internships, journals, class participation etc. Every semester, six subjects will be credited with 100 marks each, out of which 50 marks are reserved for the regular written examination, 30 for the internal assessments and 20 for this online examination.   Taking it online   ►  20 multiple choice questions   ►  25 minutes to finish the test  ►  Questions to be randomly generated from a question bank  ►  Results to be out immediately after exam  ►  A student can re-appear for it in the next semester, if s/he fails in the exam Source: http://www.punemirror.in/article/2/201308192013081910493651290c72dc5/UoP-initiates-new-online-MCQ-exam.html

Book Exhibition at Churchgate

Book Fair at Sunderbai Hall, Churchgate
Dates: 2nd August to 20th August, 2013
Time: 9.45 am to 7.45 pm
Discount: Upto 85% off

Organized by: Ashish Book Centre