The School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indiana) is one of Indiana, USA’s premier, high-ranked urban public research universities and Computer Science institutes, known for its numerous educational opportunities and innovative information system designs. As part of the ongoing partnership between IUPUI and Krea University, students of SIAS participated in an information session led by the following senior faculty members at IUPUI: Mathew Palakal, Senior Executive Associate Dean and Professor of Informatics; Josette Jones, Director of Health Informatics and Associate Professor; Saptarshi Purkayastha, Director of Undergraduate Education and Research – Department of BioHealth Informatics and Assistant Professor of Data Science, Health Informatics; and Sarath Chandra Janga, Associate Professor of Bioinformatics, Data Science, Interim Chair – Department of BioHealth Informatics, and Interim Program Director of Bioinformatics and Biomedical Informatics Program. The faculty members shared salient features of the two disciplines – Health Informatics and Bioinformatics, its applications in the real world, teaching of the subject at IUPUI and the many benefits of partnering with Krea.
Category: General Topics
Krea partners with Busuu – world’s largest social network for language learning
Krea University and Busuu have stepped into a significant partnership in the field of language learning. The collaboration offers students of Krea the opportunity to learn with the award-winning pioneer in online and mobile language learning, from anywhere and anytime. Speaking about this pivotal partnership, Bernhard Niesner, Co-Founder and CEO of Busuu shared, “As a diverse country, India is already well-versed in the benefits of learning languages and is a wonderful market for Busuu to enter. We’re proud to partner with Krea University, to help its progressive student body gain skills in new languages – supporting them both in their current academic studies and their future careers. We look forward to working closely with Krea and adding value to its student body.” Busuu has 100 million users globally across 190 counties and guided by 10000+ professional language teachers. With promising training records across 250+ international organisations, Busuu provides accelerated language learning through AI. Busuu was awarded the ‘EdWard Wards’ for high-quality learning product by University College London among others. Students will be offered 1-1 private lessons, 24*7 worldwide access, customised lesson plans, seamless scheduling and advanced learning tools.
Krea University begins search for next Vice-Chancellor
Krea University’s current Vice-Chancellor, Dr Sunder Ramaswamy concludes his current term in June 2021 and has expressed his desire to return to the United States for compelling personal reasons. With deep gratitude for his contributions, the University has accepted his request.
Dr Sunder Ramaswamy joined Krea as its first Vice-Chancellor in 2017. Sunder has played a pivotal role in Krea’s success in the first phase of its journey. With his vast experience in innovative higher education in the US and India, he has put the University on a strong footing as it moves into the second phase of its journey.
Krea University has commenced the search for its next Vice-Chancellor. A Search Committee has been established to run the recruitment for this role with support from the specialist firm, Egon Zehnder to manage the search process. The University expects to complete the recruitment process by April 2021.
Further details are available here.
Dr Sunder will continue to function as the Vice-Chancellor of Krea University through the academic year 2020-2021, while the search is underway. He will ensure a smooth transition, and subsequently continue to contribute to Krea in an advisory and visiting capacity.
IFMR GSB’s student-led marketing committee launches ‘Prayatna’
Markaholic, IFMR GSB’s student-led marketing committee, along with the Graduate School of Business’ notable alumni, recently launched an informative marketing workshop series titled ‘Prayatna’. The committee’s first workshop featured Amandeep Singh Kochar – Business Director at VMLY&R, New Delhi and an alumnus of IFMR GSB. Having worked with well-known brands such as TCS, Fresh Marketing Idea, BrandAppZ.com, KRDS, and Brandmovers, Amandeep shared his own experience and ideas on marketing, business development, creative strategies, and more in his session – ‘Succeeding in the World of Direct to Consumer (DTC)’.
Moving forward, the committee plans to host a marketing workshop every fortnight for a couple of hours, in a bid to inform students about all the trending marketing job roles in the industry, spread awareness about all the necessary skills required to excel in the field, engage in discussion through various practical demonstrations and activities, and, ultimately, build a strong student alumni network.
IFMR GSB’s Analytics Club holds its first event of the year
IFMR Graduate School of Business (GSB) has always fostered an engaging learning environment not only through academics but also through the University’s several student-led committees and clubs. In the first of many, the Analytics Club at GSB conducted its first-ever event of the year – ‘The Commencement’. The Analytics Club advocates itself as a platform to help students learn more about data tools and techniques in the business world. The event, with around 40 students in attendance, included multiple quiz rounds and a few creative, number-crunching activities. The scoring of the event depended on the number of likes and votes each team earned via social media. Two teams – InPrecision and Byte-Bits – were declared the winners owing to their high cumulative scores. Moving forward, the club aims to further its mission of using data as a storytelling tool through several such events.
Business impact of AI & IoT
As part of the industry engagement series, we hosted Shalini Kapoor, Chief Technology Officer at IBM AI Applications and the first Indian woman Fellow at IBM India. Through a well laid out presentation, she talked about the adoption of AI. She articulated through real-life examples that AI is for all and not just for data scientists.
Inaugural Krea Professional Development Programme registers over 400 participants
In an effort to help develop and evolve professional expertise and skills of educators fit for the 21st century, eminent subject experts at Krea are hosting a series of interactive workshops.
The first in the series was a workshop on ‘Online Education in Trying Times: Ideas and Strategies’ by Dr Akhila Ramnarayan, Divisional Chair, Literature & the Arts.
Attended by more than 400 education industry professionals from across the country, this 2 hour workshop discussed ideas, strategies, and best practices for online instruction, engagement, and learning, imagining together how educators can work to fulfill the mission of school and college education in today’s world. Through the discussions, Dr Akhila explored how the Coronavirus pandemic might have reshaped education, and how educational institutions can rise to the challenge.
All participants actively discussed queries around interactive learning, management of practical classes in the virtual realm, innovative assessment methods and counselling interventions.
Dr Akhila demonstrated activities which educators could use in their respective virtual classes for enhanced engagement. She shared deep insights on strategies which could nurture emotional wellbeing of students. She also touched on the fact that to take good care of students, teachers needed to foremost take good care of their own selves.
The educators were highly engaged throughout the workshop and the Q & A session focused on conversations seeking empathetic modes of knowledge delivery through the online medium. As the curtains went down, the participating educators affirmed feeling equipped to use these new strategies and ideas in their upcoming classes.
‘Krea Professional Development Programme’ is a certification workshop which invites professionals to interact, engage and expand their skills, through workshops hosted by the fine academic minds at Krea.
About Akhila Ramnarayan
Dr Akhila Ramnarayan is Divisional Chair, Literature & the Arts, Associate Professor of Practice, and Curator, VENI, The Ideas Place, at Krea University. She is a writer, scholar, theatre actor, and trained Carnatic vocalist with a PhD in postcolonial studies from The Ohio State University (2006). She has worked at Pramati Technologies, Chennai (2013-2018), the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai (2011-2014), and University of Dayton, Ohio (2006-2011).
A key member of Chennai’s globally touring theatre company JustUs Repertory and founder member of performing arts institute Sahrdaya Foundation, she has received national recognition for theatre (acting) as the 2013-2014 awardee of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar.
Krea inks pivotal new partnerships
In line with Krea’s vision to develop well-curated purposeful alliances, the University has stepped into significant partnerships with the India-Oxford Initiative (IndOx), School of Informatics and Computing Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), and Northeastern University.
Krea University and the IndOx alliance will see both entities work together towards knowledge creation and knowledge dissemination in the areas of Sciences and Humanities. The first round of strategic initiatives is expected to commence shortly and will focus on areas of Gender Violence and Mental Health. Matched by the significant academic assets at both institutions and the ongoing ground-breaking projects at Krea in this space, these initiatives will find much needed acceleration.
Krea has also signed a partnership with the School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI), a leading University from the United States of America. IUPUI has recently launched an AI institute and will work closely with Krea on this initiative. The School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI is one of Indiana’s premier, high-ranked urban public research universities and Computer Science institutes, known for its numerous educational opportunities and innovative information system designs. The partnership, through its short-term immersive programmes, will open a world of opportunities for students at Krea who are seeking to make a Masters progression in Health Informatics or Master in Bioinformatics. Other collaboration areas include participation in current and new programmes, joint seminars and academic meetings, exchange of academic materials between the faculty at Krea and IUPUI.
Krea’s comprehensive university agreement with Northeastern University, USA involves collaborative efforts across teaching, research, cultural activity and joint development of ongoing and new curricula and academic projects among many other initiatives. It also includes but not limited to mobility of faculty, scholars and students between Institutions, faculty and staff’s professional development, student services and collaboration in academic publications and other materials of mutual interest. As an initial activity, there will joint initiatives between IFMR GSB and D’Amore McKim School of Business at Northeastern. Northeastern University ranks among the Top 40 research universities in the country and has made one of the biggest rankings leaps of any in the Top 100. The D’Amore-McKim School of Business has contributed significantly to this rise in rankings by redefining business education, boasting exceptional undergraduate and graduate programs focused on the future of work. It is accredited by AACSB International.
The collaborations at Krea aim to benefit multiple stakeholder groups including teaching faculty young researchers, and students from both institutions as well as think tanks and related organizations in India.
Yoga and Mindfulness Learning Program
SIAS students have an opportunity to be a part of a Yoga and Mindfulness Learning Program, by Carolyn Theresa Simon, an E-RYT 500 certified yoga instructor and wellness expert. The four session learning program will help students expand their understanding of mindfulness and practice yoga for anxiety and stress management, and deep focus.
Carolyn Theresa Simon is a Bangalore based wellness and food writer, fitness model and E-RYT 500 certified yoga instructor who enjoys finding stillness in movement. Initially drawn to yoga for its physical benefits, what made her fall in love with yoga were the immense mental and spiritual benefits derived from regular practice. She enjoys teaching all levels of students in different styles. Mindfulness, Ayurveda, Food and Yoga are topics she’s extremely passionate about and is working towards changing the world through yoga.
IFMR GSB student placed third in Trading Challenge
Siddharth Poddar, student of IFMR GSB, MBA Class of 2022 secured third position in Shri Ram Trading Challenge, an online mock-stock competition in which 2050 participants from various B schools were competing against each other on a virtual platform with Rs. 10 lacs as virtual currency, but with real stocks and live price movements. Participants were required to construct a virtual portfolio over a period of two weeks, from August 31 to September 11, and the individual with the highest portfolio value at the closing bell of the market on September 11 was declared the winner.
The event was organized by The Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi in association with Dalal Street Investment Journal.