Why not - Engineering or Science?

 

A senior colleague of mine brought my attention to an advertisement with the tagline "Why not?" by a company called Atomberg. Indeed a wonderful advertisement! But the discussion point was that Engineers and Innovators ask the question "Why not?" whereas scientists ask "why?". It is not true that Scientists do not ask "why not". In fact, only because scientists ask "Why not have the eyes in the back of the head? Why not have an ellipsoid soap bubble?", they have found answers to why the eyes are in the front of the head and soap bubbles are spherical in shape. The question "why not" plays an important role in science and engineering - and our pursuits in knowledge, in general. The only difference I see between science and engineering pursuits is that focus - Science's main preoccupation is that of understanding the world that exists around us, whereas, Engineering's preoccupation is that of making useful products for the human kind. I am hoping that I will be able to tease out more on the similarities between science and engineering in the upcoming posts. 

When are we going to change the way students learn?

I distinctly remember that no one taught me to use Word/Microsoft/.... or any other documentation tool. But today, these are there in the school curriculum. That is a good thing, right? At the outset, yes - but let me also show another dimension to it, which I think is far too harmful. 

It is good because, the world has moved Digital - our children need to be able to cope up with the these aspects, which is kind of very basic skills these days. I agree to this. However, does that mean we have to ask in the question paper something of this sorts: "We use _____ to insert pictures in word document (fill in the blanks)"?? You might have used word in your career - can you guess what should come in the blank space? I wouldn't be surprised if you cannot recall that - I couldn't too, and I had to open my word document to check what it is! We have learnt to use word - which is the most important thing. Remembering that there are tabs called "illustration", "smart art" etc., and "vomitting" it in the question paper serves no help - you agree with me, right? But what does the curriculum do these days? They have successfully brought these into "books" and students have to read through the books to know how to crack the exam. Is this of any value? No, because it does not help them to use word. It is just familiarity of words which has no value. Well, I would still be okay if this does no harm to the kids. Unfortunately, such bookish knowledge of practical skills only bore the children, so much so that, they hate schooling and eventually learning at all. Is that harmful - YES! When are we going to understand how children learn and create a space for them to learn joyfully? It is only when there is a passion in doing things (here, learning), excellence begins. We aspire for a country of self-reliance - which may remain words in white papers unless the curriculum changes!!  

2021 - Looking back

It has been long due to complete the looking back blog that I usually write. Had been waiting for something to happen - but that is getting prolonged, hence decided I must finish this. :-)

The January started normally, with care and trepidation as the world was seemingly trying to get out of the covid. The campus started functioning with half the strength. By February, arrangements were made for students to come to campus. March looked nice with students in campus - regaining the lost charm - yet the fear of covid breakouts did not die down. As the number of covid cases started to rise again, the educational institutes had to go into a lockdown mode (not just educational institutes, but the whole of Tamilnadu) again by the third week of April 2021. After a turn of events in Thanjavur, we got locked up in Dindigul during the entire lock down period - until June. May was the most difficult phase - about 4 loses of near and dear ones - including a cousin, house owner couple and a close friend’s father. Devastating it was - and the entire month had such horror stories from all corners. The entire human race went through a tough phase in this second wave which occurred between April - June 2021. Amidst all these, we didn’t give up conducting exams - with the justification that only then students’ future will be secured. So, exams went on up to August 2021. After a very brief breathing time, senior semester classes and PG classes started in October and the next semester went in full swing in November to complete the syllabus. By December, all senior year students were in campus and refresher classes  conducted. The semester came to an end in Jan 2022 with exams in Feb 2022 and the subsequent semester started in March 2022. It has been a race that we have been running to catch up with the old schedule of starting the odd semester in July…looks like it will take one more year to reach that. 

On the research front, DBT is still asking for one document or the other (and as on date of writing, we haven’t received sanction yet). No communication from BIRAC as well. My research is also taking a focus on AMR with a publication with a colleague and conference presentations in Inbix and Insyb2021 - all in AMR. 

The teaching-learning newsletter continues. 

In the family front - Family becomes bigger by one with the Birth of Vitharsan to Subee in March 2021. Viyan joins Yagappa school from June. November-December - sees ancestral blessings and plans to root the family gets more concrete. Gowri starts freelancing on educational content creation. 

Personal front - A teaming up with Ruban led to a series of discussions on design thinking. It was launched in the YouTube. 

On the ThinQ front - there was a rejig of the guiding principles . It was decided to remain a low-budget financial entity with no full timers supported by ThinQ. 

Entrance exams

About 20 years ago, when the TN government abolished entrance exams for professional courses (engineering in particular), i thought that was a stupid move. I thought entrance exams serve to establish quality. The age was young. In retrospect, i think my reaction 20 years ago was because it was during the preparation for the entrance exam that i understood many nuances in the concepts and learnt to apply them as well. I had the 'fortune' of attending a coaching class, which i think did a good job because i eventually got into a college of high repute - whether this is a correlation or a causation remains unknown though. These resulted in the notion that scrapping entrance exam was a bad idea. However, 20 years later, having seen at least some parts of the society - locally and globally - i cannot, but be amused by my ignorance at that young age. Let me elaborate. 

The central idea of entrance exams, as i see it, was to filter students to be admitted in the programme. That is, the number of seats available was far lower than the number of students competing for the seats. So, we needed a metric, for only practical purposes, to filter off candidates. Entrance exam score was the metric. However, now i realise how flawed this idea is because of the underlying notions in it: 

 (1) the current board exams are incapable of helping to select candidates for professional education, (2) the entrance exam is the perfect exam that can guarantee good  professionals, (3) if we get "sub-par" students, we, as educators are not interested in investing our time to help them achieve their aspirations.

The other aspect that i was sensitive to, but not a large extent was the accessibility of the coaching centers, which,in my case, played an important role. There are umpteen number of people who cannot afford a coaching centre for entrance exam. It has almost turned out to be the case that the probability of getting through the entrance exam with good score improves significantly with attending coaching centers. Is this right? Are we saying, as a society, we will encourage and support only those who are able to attend coaching centers? Are coaching centers imparting anything of educational value other than such exam preparation? Are we to stand and encourage such mechanisms in a society? 

20 years ago, i didn't have the maturity to think about these aspects. But i do now. Entrance exams are waste of time and resources. This should be invested in the foundational education system such that we groom tomorrow's citizens. 

Genomic Surveillance - SARS-CoV-2 Virus

The advent of technology has enabled the possibility of using genome sequences to understand and combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic that started in 2019. Genome sequencing is particularly helpful in outbreak analysis and intervention, identifying variants and their pathological basis of spreading and infection, and a host of other possible understanding and paving way for interventions. It has been more than a year since the pandemic affected several countries now. They have been coping up and investing in infrastructure development and attending to immediate needs to help people. But simultaneously, countries have also set up genomic surveillance because that, along with epidemiological surveillance is important for treatment strategies and to curb the spread. India too has set up its genomic surveillance consortium, INSACOG (http://dbtindia.gov.in/insacog) - in the late 2020s, which is helping scientists study the spread and infection of the disease. However, as of now, the number of genome sequences in GISAID (https://www.gisaid.org) doesn't seem to commensurate with the number of reported cases, particularly in India, and more specifically in Tamilnadu. See the figures below (data collected from GISAID as of 9 am on 03 May 2021). 

With the establishment of INSACOG and a good sampling strategy, I think the situation would improve in the coming days. I also hope that the government/research agencies will include more sequencing partners, improve clinic-academia partnership etc to improve genomic surveillance. 

Going forward, I think India should set up a robust genomic surveillance network to tackle any future endemic/epidemic/pandemic. A lot of thoughts and funds need to put into this in addition to investing in building up the overall public health infrastructure. 

Learnings 2020

 I think the important learnings over the last year for me was: 

1. One needs opportunity to showcase talent. 

2. People in positions of responsibility should create the opportunity for others intentionally. 

3. People in positions of responsibility should also create a "community" of interest groups. It is in being together we flourish! 

Year 2020

 Year 2020

The year 2020 got famous atleast a decade ago when Dr. Kalam, the former President of India articulated his vision for India to be achieved in 2020. 

The year indeed began with its own charm, as with any new year - lots of plans, dreams and hopes. The visit of Dr. Laksh from NUS as part of a research collaboration with a colleague at SEEE had spurred interest in newer perspectives of enhancing Teaching-Learning, The taking up of responsibility for coordinating IIE-B-2020,  Getting through with the DBT center for Bioinformatics proposal - these were some of the plans intertwined with dreams and hopes with which 2020 began. 

January primarily went in preparing for the DBT center presentation - submitting documents coordinating to find collaborators for the National Network Project etc. A hereculean task indeed. The presentation happened in February - I along with Dr. Thamotharan and Dr. Ganesh made the presentation at Delhi before a panel of experts. The immediate comment we got from the panel was that : this is one of the best presentations! During lunch, one of the panel members encouraged us to further collaborate with people world over so that more meaningful work can be done. Later, the news that trickled was that out of over 600 proposals from the entire country, 40 were shortlisted and called for presentation - and all of them.would be funded! (Though, we are yet expecting the sanction order!) 

Comes March, with Covid19 marching into every country. India enforced lockdown from March 23, and hence the campus was closed. 2020 turned out to be a terrible year for the world (and for the family - with the loss of my cousin succumbing to Covid 19). Under the direction of our Director, however, a team of us worked on checking the potential of molecules in traditional formulations for their effectiveness against Covid19. Some molecules indeed show potential - yet to get funds for verifying it experimentally (proposals have gotten rejected). 

With the university closed down, we geared up for online exams for students - the whole of April went in it - questions and evaluation etc. DBT continued to ask further documents revision of budget all through April and May and these went on parallel tracks. 

The Teaching-Learning newsletter saw its first issue in May - with a few like-minded people writing for it and forwarded by Deans in the school. The hope is that this newsletter will be a platform for sharing good practices, learning from peers of their insights and move towards scholarship in teaching-learning. 

May also saw the coordination of another proposal in collaboration with Thanjavur Medical College - submitted to BIRAC - the presentation of which happened in June - and we are eagerly awaiting for the decision as well. 

In parallel, June and July went in getting students to enrol for the new MSc Bioinformatics program, preparing submitting for necessary approvals from academic council etc, and as well in gearing up for the upcoming online semester. 

The online semester began in August for the senior years and in October for the first years. 

Reconnecting with an old mentor also saw some productive work in terms of manuscripts - exploring newer vistas in machine learning. 

ThinQ activities: 

The year began with our first workshop in Coimbatore in the Edu-Intech conference - the first of its kind - where Mo unveiled Education 5.0. This was followed by a workshop for the participants - where i was a facilitator. Later, in April, FACE academy approached ThinQ for a webinar for Engineering teachers. I co-facilitated it along with Mo and Deesh. Was attended by about 2000 engineering teachers all over the country. 

IIE-A started in May and continued until October. Hectic times indeed. Starting September, i took up.an active role as the coordinator for IIE-B - starting from participant selection, inviting them, nudging facilitator preparation in thr midst of getting my own session prepping. IIE-B was conducted completely online this time - over 4 weekends in December. So, December was fully packed! 

In December, our proposal (with a colleague/friend) for a startup was recommended. Awaiting further details on pursuing it. 

On the family side - all is well. Viyan turned 6. He has developed an interest for reading of English story books (Enid Blyton's Magic Faraway tree helped a lot) and has slightly outgrown his obsession for dinosaurs toys. But his obsession with Dragons remain. He has got interested in video games (Hungry Shark, Hungry Dragon, Jurassic Fight etc). Trying to get him hooked into reading Tamil books and drawing. 

Looking back, the year has been productive one - with lots of learning, and laying the steps for a lot of plans! Hoping for more productivity and learning in the upcoming year! Look forward you 2021!!! 

Scientific Theory Construction through Language Structure

The 9-day workshop (Nov 11 - 21, 2019) on theory construction using language structure is proving to be helpful in the further understanding of some of the concepts, particularly theoretical categories.

At the outset, the study of language is conceptualized as an instrument of access to the study of the mind. The regularities in, within and across languages, points to 'mental systems' that are universal to humans (i.e., the mind generates these regularities). More specifically, the theoretical categories (such as noun, verb etc.,) identified from these regularities are seen as properties of the mind. Analogous to this, defining the theoretical categories such as "mammals" etc can be seen as an access to understand the biological world, more specifically it's diversity. After defining these categories and arranging it as a classificatory tree, it becomes all the more interesting to ask why such a classificatory tree occurs.