The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has said that it would pitch for a smart hackathon for Bengal next year. It will be on the lines of the Smart India Hackathon 2017 to make students of state universities and institutes adopt think innovation
THE IDEA
Director of SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active-Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) of AICTE, Manpreet Singh Manna said there has already been successful Smart Hackathons in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Bengal being a knowledge hub should take the initiative of organising a Smart Hackathon to reach out to a greater number of students, he said.
In the Smart India Hackathon 2017 the participating teams competed from 33 locations across the country to offer digital yet sustainable innovative solutions to solve real time challenges faced by the nation.
WHAT’S THE NEED
“We need a platform called Hackathon for devising innovative solutions to different problems. We should not be stuck in old curriculum and preparing class notes only. We need our electrical engineers to do the job of a mechanic as well as that of an engineer. If that connect is missing, how can our students have holistic knowledge of their subject,” he said.
“Our future engineers know the problems and their solutions but they do not know how to implement,” Manna said adding teachers have to be more proactive and evolve themselves.
Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technolgy (IIEST) director Prof Ajoy Ray said, there should be greater collaboration between industry and institutions.
