Innovation Cell Central University of Rajasthan About Aims & Objectives Members Activities Gallery Innovation Club Calendar of activities (2017-2018) Contact About The Innovation Cell of the Central University of Rajasthan has been set up with the aim of identifying, encouraging and fostering scientific talent within the CURAJ family as well as surrounding areas. With regards to the latter, the Innovation Cell puts in concerted efforts to identify grass-root innovators from neighbouring villages in varied domains such as agriculture, engineering, etc. The cell has also established an Innovation Club with the principal aim of encouraging the students of CURAJ to pursue their innovative ideas. The Innovation Club is a student-centric venture; the students will be involved in undertaking various initiatives to nurture grass-root innovations and spread their importance to society. The club will also support new proposals on innovation from within the CURAJ community. CURAJ Innovation Cell also promotes interaction of the CURAJ family with the National Innovation Foundation of India (NIF) and with renowned innovators around the country. This is done by inviting experts / innovators of different disciplines to CURAJ to share their experience and expertise so as to motivate students and staff alike to come up with innovative ideas for major issues facing our society as well as for simpler challenges faced in everyday life. The cell also hopes to inspire members of the CURAJ fraternity by organizing a Nobel lecture series to present and discuss the life history and work of Nobel laureates in all the disciplines. Another significant aim of the cell is the celebration of National Science Day by organizing competitions on innovative scientific exhibits and posters that relate to the theme of the Science Day. Aims & Objectives To build a strong innovation culture and create an atmosphere for innovation at CURAJ To identify innovators at grass-root level with special emphasis on farming, traditional medicines, small scale industries, etc. To encourage and generate innovations / innovative ideas at different levels 1
To facilitate interaction between the teaching / student communities and grass-root innovators Mentoring of grass-root innovators to facilitate the transfer of technology to the society Organizing exhibitions of innovations on a regular basis Creation of an inspired teachers network Identify and encourage inspired teachers to share their knowledge and experience Members The present members of CURAJ Innovation Cell are: 1. Prof. Someshwar Das (Convener), Department of Atmospheric Science 2. Dr. Hemalata Mangalani, Department of Economics 3. Dr. Jaykant Yadav, Department of Biotechnology 4. Dr. Devesh Sharma, Department of Environmental Science 5. Dr. Easwar Srinivasan, Department of Chemistry 6. Dr. Tarun Kumar Bhatt, Department of Biotechnology 7. Dr. Subrat Kumar Panda, Department of Atmospheric Science Activities Innovation talk and interaction with National Innovation Foundation experts / renowned innovators The Innovation Cell invited Dr. Vipin Kumar, Director of the National Innovation Foundation, India, for a special talk and interactive session on 22 nd November 2017. Dr. Vipin Kumar delivered a wonderful talk on Innovations for Inclusive Development: Role of Institutions, Initiatives and Incentives He also interacted with the CURAJ fraternity, sharing his experiences and providing valuable suggestions on innovative research. Report: Dr. Vipn Kumar, Director of the National Innovation Foundation of India, visited CURAJ on 22 nd Nov 2017. He delivered a very informative and enlightening talk on Innovations for Inclusive Development: Role of Institutions, Initiatives and Incentives. He stressed on the importance of initiatives to be taken up by individual institutions across the country to encourage innovative ideas as well as to identify grass-root innovators around the region and bring their innovations to the knowledge and benefit of the society. Later, he also interacted with the CURAJ teaching and student fraternity, in which he shared some of his experiences in the field of innovative research and bringing significant innovative ideas to light. Overall, Dr. Vipin Kumar s visit turned out to be very valuable for CURAJ, as it provided a deep insight into the domain of innovation and harnessing the potential of the grass-root innovators of our country. 2
Visits to nearby villages and identifying grass-root innovators The Innovation Cell visited the Patan village on 22 Dec2017 Nobel Lecture Series The Innovation Cell organizes series of lectures on the life history and work of Nobel laureates in all the six disciplines of Physiology & Medicine, Chemistry, Physics, Economics, Literature and Peace has been planned. The inspiring stories of hard work, determination and innovative ideas of the Nobel prize-winning people would certainly motivate the students and staff of CURAJ towards greater heights in their respective careers. It would also inspire them to take up challenges faced by the country and to come up with innovative ideas to overcome them. Report: The first series of talks on the Nobel Lecture Series was organized on 2 nd February 2018. The Nobel prizes on Peace, Physics and Literature were chosen for the inaugural session of this series. The Hon ble Vice-Chancellor, in his opening remarks, encouraged the initiative and provided some useful suggestions for organizing the future series of talks. The first talk was by Dr. Subhasis Bhadra, Department of Social Work, who spoke about the Nobel Peace Prize 2017, awarded to International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons. This was followed by Dr. Neeraj Panwar, Department of Physics, who delivered an informative lecture on the Nobel Prize in Physics 2014, awarded to Prof. Isamu Akasaki, Prof. Hiroshi Amano and Prof. Shuji Nakamura, for their invention of efficient blue light emitting diodes. The last lecture of the day was by Dr. Sanjay Arora, Department of English, who gave a talk on The Nobel Prize in Literature 2017, awarded to Kazuo Ishiguro, who, in in novels of great emotional force, had uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the world. The session concluded with a Vote of Thanks by Prof. Krishnan, Dean Academics. Report: The second series of talks on the Nobel Lecture Series was organized on 28 th February 2018 to coincide with the National Science Day celebrations. The series comprised of talks on the Nobel prizes on Chemistry, Economics and Physiology & Medicine for the year 2017. Convener of the Innovation Cell, Prof. Someshwar Das spoke at the outset about the importance of the National Science Day and also briefed about the day s lectures. The first talk was by Dr. Pankaj Goyal, Department of Biotechnology, who spoke about the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017, awarded to Prof. Jacques Dubochet, Prof. Joachim Frank and Prof. Richard 3
Henderson for the development of cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution. The talk also brought to light the inter-disciplinary nature of science and the importance of research at the interface of various scientific disciplines. This was followed by Dr. Mohd Hussain Kunroo, Department of Economics, who spoke about the Nobel Prize in Economics 2017, awarded to Prof. Richard H. Thaler, for his contributions to behavioural economics. The last lecture of the day was by Dr. Tarun Kumar Bhatt, Department of Biotechnology, who gave an interesting and informative talk on the Nobel Prize in Physiology & Medicine 2017, awarded to Prof. Jeffrey C. Hall, Prof. Michael Rosbash and Prof. Michael W. Young, for their discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling the circadian rhythm. The session concluded with a Vote of Thanks by Prof. A. K. Gupta, Dean Research. Participation in Festival of Innovations Day at Rashtrapati Bhavan CURAJ Innovation Cell has been quite active in participating and contributing to the Festival of Innovations Day held annually at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and hosted by the Hon ble President of India. The event invites representatives from Institutes of Higher Learning across India to share their achievements and promote innovations within and outside through networking. Dr. Jay Kant Yadav, Assistant Professor, Department of Biotechnology and Dr. Vijay Kumar Prajapati, Assistant Professor, Department of Biochemistry have represented CURAJ with distinction and showcased our achievements in the past two years in the prestigious event. Science Day Celebrations National Science Day is celebrated annually on 28 th February with a lot of emphasis on innovation. Exhibitions are organized for both students and grass-root innovators from nearby villages to display and share their innovative ideas. Poster competitions are also organized on a specific theme of innovation, for eg., in 2017, a poster completion was held for students to come out with innovative ideas that would benefit the differently abled section of our society. Eminent speakers are also invited on this day to share their knowledge and experience with the CURAJ community. Title of Event: Visit & Lecture of Dr. Vipin Kumar, Director, National Innovation Foundation November 2017 Visit to Patan village for interaction with grassroot innovator Nobel Lecture Series I 4
Nobel Lecture Series II Visit by CURAJ faculty to Rashtrapati Bhavan for Festival of Innovation Innovation Club An innovation club has been established under the aegis of CURAJ Innovation Cell with the objectives of encouraging out-of-the-box thinking and also technologically empowering villages with innovative solutions. The functions of the club would be: To search, spread, sense and celebrate innovations in the field of Science and Technology, Agriculture, Education, Public Services, Cultural Creativity, Governance at different levels, etc. Activities at Innovation Club: Creating awareness about Innovation Promotion of Innovations Documentations Open House Innovation workshops Identifying challenges Shodhyatras 5
Calendar of Activities (2017-2018) S. No. Activity Time 1 Circulate about Innovation and Inviting innovative ideas from faculty and students of CURAJ October 2017 2 Invited Lecture by distinguished person November 2017 3 Second meeting of Innovation Cell, CURAJ Second week of November 2017 4 5 Circulation of information regarding launch of Innovation Club to CURAJ fraternity Identification and documentation of grassroots innovations from nearby rural area (Three Visits) November 2017 (1) Second week of October, 2017 (2) First week of January 2018 (3) Second week of March 2018 6 Nobel Lecture Series I 1 st week of February 2018 7 Meeting with student members of the Innovation Club February 2018 8 Science Day Celebration 28 th February 2018 9 Nobel Lecture Series II February 2018 (coinciding with Science Day Celebrations) 10 11 Participation of CURAJ faculty in Festival of Innovation (FOIN), 2018 at Rashtrapati Bhavan New Delhi Interaction of Innovation Cell with School of Humanities and Languages March, 2018 April 2018 (tentative) Innovation Cell innovationcell@curaj.ac.in 6