Global@Amrita: Amrita University's Official International ... · As a result, the program ... the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami conducted by the Mata Amritanandamayi

2nd Quarter 2016 Newsletter

AMRITA University

Pg.05 INNOVATIONSPg.13 INTERNATIONAL NEWS & EVENTSPg.07 Research @ AMRITA

No.1Private Universityin India No.1

International Faculty in India No.1

InternationalOutlook in India

SUCCESS THROUGH EXCELLENCE

AMRITA @ UNITED NATIONSAIMS Kochi Affiliated as Nodal Centre for UNESCO Bioethics for SAARC Countries

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AWARDS & RECOGNITIONSAmrita Wins National Microsoft Hacking Contest

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SEMINARS & CONFERENCESInternational Conference on Robotics and Automation for Humanitarian Applications

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Amrita Live-in-Labs™

Amrita University’s Live-in-Labs™ program is designed to expose youth to problems faced by rural communities in India. Through experiential learning opportunities, the program aims to inspire innovation through empathy and the application of knowledge while developing collaborative problem solving abilities of participants.

Since the emphasis of the program is on mutual sharing and learning, we at Amrita strongly believe in taking an inclusive approach to addressing challenges and, therefore, encourage participants to work with rural populations to come up with sustainable solutions. As a result, the program is designed as a two-way model of sharing and learning and encourages participants to be open to “other ways of thinking”.

Experiential Learning in Rural India

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AMRITA @ THE UNITED NATIONS

In light of the Indian Government’s national goal to end open defecation by 2019, AMMACHI Labs began a campaign to address the lack of toilets in the country. The Center

implemented a program to provide vocational courses in masonry, plumbing and electrical wiring to village women so they can construct, install and maintain toilets in their own communities. Currently, women are learning about the importance of practicing proper hygiene for their personal health, thus empowering them to spread awareness and become ambassadors for change. This training is now extending to reach rural villages all over India with the vision to address social challenges through technology. The most recent outreach program is a sanitation project that is offering vocational courses to village women in Bhoi Sahi, Odisha. They are learning to construct, install and maintain toilets in their own communities as well as

learning about the importance of practicing proper hygiene for their personal health. This empowerment helps them to spread awareness and become ambassadors for change in their communities. AMMACHI Labs is planning to use this experience in Odisha to train communities in the benefits of sanitation and toilet building in other villages across India. The Women Empowerment Project (WE) was funded jointly by the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF) and Amrita University. During an 18-month period (2012-2014), the WE Project offered computerized Vocational Education and Training(cVET) and Life Enrichment Education (LEE), to women with low levels of literacy living in remote and impoverished communities in the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Empowering Women & Communities : Sustainable Solutions AMMACHI Labs aims to build 800 toilets across 20 villages in India to aid 3,000 families and 30,000 people.

amrita @ UNESCO ICT in Education cONFERENCE

Prof. Bhavani Rao, Director of Amrita Multi Modal Applications Using Computer Human Interaction (AMMACHI Labs) and Prof. Prema Nedungadi, Director

of Amrita Center for Research in Advanced Technologies for Education (AmritaCREATE), presented at UNESCO ICT in Education’s Mobile Learning Week in Paris, France. Mobile Learning Week is UNESCO’s flagship ICT in education conference which sheds light on the ways technology can be leveraged — in different contexts and for different groups — to improve the quality of education now and in the future. Both professors presented work from their respective centers, highlighting the successful, beneficial,

and wide impact their projects have had in rural India. The symposium highlighted 64 presentations of pioneering work happening internationally at the intersection of technology and education.

Ms. Lise Grande, UN Resident Coordinator, India, United Nations Development Program with graduates of the WE program

GLOBAL @ AMRITA Page 1

AMRITA @ THE UNITED NATIONS

AMRITA @ unisdr science & technology conference

Amrita faculty members, Dr. Maneesha Ramesh and Professor Bhavani R. Rao Bhavani, presented their work at United Nations Office for Disaster

Risk Reduction Science and Technology Conference on the Implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030. They were among 800 eminent scientists, policymakers, practitioners and members of the private and civil sector from all over the world. Dr. Ramesh, Director of the Amrita Center for Wireless Networks and Applications (AmritaWNA), presented work about the University’s real-time landslide monitoring and detection system that successfully predicts rainfall induced landslides. Prof. Rao, Director of Amrita Multi Modal Applications Using Computer Human Interaction (AMMACHI Labs) presented on the rehabilitation efforts in the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami conducted by the Mata Amritanandamayi Math in the area of skill development and vocational training.

AIMS Kochi Affiliated as Nodal Centre for UNESCO Bioethics for SAARC Countries

The Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences & Research Centre (AIMS) at Kochi has been appointed as the Nodal Centre for UNESCO Bioethics for countries

that belong to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The UNESCO Bioethics Network, in collaboration with the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, will study and develop curriculum for teaching, training, and research in the field of bioethics (the field of ethical practice in medical and biological research), in order to address the lack of a composite bioethics structure in SAARC countries. The mandate is to develop an up-to- date syllabus for medical ethics education based on the well accepted core curriculum of UNESCO, which would also satisfy the requirements of medical schools in the region. The network offers opportunities to collaborate in research across countries and to answer research questions in ethical issues. Specific focus will will also be given to areas that might have cultural and religious variations which could impact the method of teaching of ethics and the practice of ethics in clinical and other areas. The network also offers opportunities for research in bioethics and trains senior teachers in bioethics using the UNESCO Ethic Teachers Training Course.

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SEMINARS & CONFERENCES

International Conclave on Graph Theory

The Department of Mathematics at Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore campus, organized a four-day International Conference on Graph

Theory, Algorithms and Applications from December 16th-19th, 2015. More than 150 delegates attended the conference on Graph Theory - an area with wide-ranging applications in computer science, communication, linguistics, computational chemistry, physics, and

biology, among others. 75 scholarly papers, invited talks, and research discussions were part of the conference. Presentation were made by leading academicians and researchers from India, USA, Canada, France, Germany, China, Slovenia, and Australia. Different applications of Graph Theory, such as Graph Optimizations, Computing Techniques, and Network Communications, were discussed during the conference.

RAHA 2016 (International Conference on Robotics and Automation for Humanitarian Applications)

Amrita Multi Modal Applications Using Computer Human Interaction (AMMACHI) Labs, of Amrita University, is organizing a

three day international conference on Robotics and Automation for Humanitarian Applications (RAHA) from December 18 - 20, 2016 RAHA 2016 aims to provide a platform for researchers, engineers, industry professionals, and humanitarian workers to share knowledge about technological tools, methodologies, and applied robotic solutions for humanitarian applications. The conference will connect technological innovators and humanitarian field workers, creating a link between fields that often are considered separate and unrelated. The conference will initiate a dialogue to alleviate the suffering of those less fortunate, which will then increase the effectiveness of humanitarian efforts on the ground.


Dr. Thomas B. Idiculla, Director of Mental Health Evaluation at Harvard Medical School, Harvard University conducted a seminar on

“Evidence-Based Practices in Care Setting” on October 27th, 2015 at the Department of Social Work, Coimbatore campus. Dr. Idiculla shared a new method of assessment, developed by his team, and explained how the method benefitted patients and health care workers. He also spoke about challenges in evidence-based practice and ways to overcome them. The presentation em-phasized that care settings not only include hos-pitals and clinics but also the larger community. Dr. Satish Tripathi, President of University at Buf-falo, has been instrumental in developing and nurturing collaborations between Amrita and UB. During his address to the senior faculty of Amrita University, Dr. Tripathi remarked, “Of all relations that the University at Buffalo has with universities in India, our partnership with Amrita has been the most successful one.”

Harvard Professor Conducts Seminar on Evidence-Based Practices in Mental Health

IConAmma 2016 (International Conference on Advances in Materials & Manufacture Applications)

The department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Bengaluru Campus will organize an international conference on Advances

in Materials & Manufacture Applications (IConAMMA) from July 14-16, 2016.

The present conference focuses on the advances in the field of Mechanical Sciences applied to materials and manufacturing as well as examining the benefits to be derived from the development and exploitation of advanced materials and structures ranging from hydrospace to aerospace. The conference also aims to create a cross disciplinary summit that transcends departmental, institutional, industrial, public and private research organizations, and global barriers to lend itself to the integration of research and education in the vital field of advanced materials. IConAMMA 2016 will focus on major sectors of advanced processing, material characterization, modeling and simulation, properties, performance and device fabrication.

Conference themes include but are not limited to the following: Materials for Automotive, Energy and EnvironmentNano-MaterialsHigh Temperature & Cryogenic MaterialsDynamic Behavior of Materials and StructuresPorous Materials and Their ApplicationsMaterials for Solid State Ion BatteriesLuminescence Materials and Its ApplicationsFunctional Materials


INNOVATIONS

AMMACHI Labs Haptics Based Skill Training

AMMACHI Labs’ program focuses on providing effective, value-based education for skill development at all levels and in all disciplines. Through technological advancements, the Center's program strives for maximum social impact utilizing computer-human interaction, haptics, multimedia, and virtual reality. The program is applicable in the areas of education, health care, and disaster preparedness.

Education for Rural India

To provide accessible and affordable educational technologies, Amrita Rural India Tablet Education (Amrita RITE), a patent pending, multilingual literacy program from Amrita CREATE has been deployed in 41 villages across 21 states, benefitting over 8,340 children and adults. The program aims to strengthen education in children, improve literacy, open schools to adult dropouts, and create health and social awareness programs.

My Sangham Wins Facebook’s Innovation Award

MySangham, an online vocational education portal developed by Amrita University’s research center AMMACHI Labs, was amongst the winners of Facebook’s Internet.org Innovation Challenge in India. The challenge selects top innovators and change-makers who design impactful apps or web-services relevant to women, students, farmers and migrant workers in India.AMMACHI Labs is already bringing vocational training and sanitation awareness to over 18 states across India. MySangham will be introduced in those centers as a training tool. MySangham also is being used in several schools in India for training


Amrita Advanced Center for Robotic Surgery

The Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) in Kochi has installed the Da Vinci Surgical System, a robotic surgical platform that is less invasive than traditional surgery. In this technique, incisions are much smaller than cuts made during traditional surgery. AIMS currently uses the Da Vinci Surgical System for gastro-surgical, uro-surgical, and gynec-oncologic surgeries.

India's First Hand Transplant

The Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences conducted the pioneering procedure in January 2015 - a procedure that is considered to be more cost effective and efficient than prosthesis, especially for bilateral amputees. The patient, a middle-aged gentleman, had the procedure done on both hands. Each hand required connecting two bones, two arteries, 4 veins, and about 14 tendons. A second hand transplant surgery was successfully carried out in April 2015.

Amrita Sphuranam

The Amrita Center for Wireless Networks and Applications’ (AmritaWNA) Amrita Sphuranam has provided solar-powered electrification for the entire village of Valaramkunnu in the Wayanad district of Kerala. This model will soon be deployed in all villages being transformed by the Amrita Self Reliant Villages (Amrita SeRVe) village rehabilitation project.

Amrita Virtual InteractiveE-learning World (A-View)The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Government of India, adopted the distance learning platform developed by Amrita University for its ambitious skill training program for over 50 crore Indians after it was demonstrated in front of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on World Youth Skills Day. During the inauguration, the prime minister interacted with thousands of trainees across the nation using the platform. A-View was one of the internet based technology innovations from India chosen by CISCO to receive their prestigious award.


RESEARCH @ AMRITA

As with computing systems, trends now show a sharp increase in more electronic

devices and appliances networked to the internet. From simple home appliances to more complex systems, such as medical devices and industrial control systems, there is an integration of software and hardware that causes new security threats due to contact with the internet.

The current project, conducted by the Amrita Center for Cyber Security Systems & Networks and funded by Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., involves

Security of the Internet of Thingsbuilding a secure framework for embedded systems. Broad areas of research in include:

W Building a cloud based automotive communication platform that will facilitate secure and reliable inter-vehicular data exchange between vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to other communication networks.

W Creating scalable and secure network platforms that involve a combination of hardware and software solutions for agricultural applications.

W Using a new secure context/directory based content aggregation methodology, by the Virtual Elastic Knowledge Cloud, which will eventually act as an information superhighway.

Brain Circuit Models Help Explore Brain Function and Disorders

While neuroscience groups have been tackling new dimensions to crunch data to solve neurological conditions, computational

neuroscience seems a promising option to better understand neurological disorders. To comprehend the brain's disease conditions from a functional role, the Computational Neuroscience and Neurophysiology Lab at Amrita University's School of Biotechnology has been developing computer models based on experimental data of neurons and neural circuits. As neurological diseases have a basis with neural and circuit behavior, these models help understand how certain disabling molecular mechanisms explain clinical conditions and how applying certain drug molecules change functioning conditions. Due to complexity, researchers uses stochastic differential equations and supercomputing techniques including CPU and GPGPU programming methods to solve large-scale simulations. Dr. Shyam Diwakar, Associate Professor at the Amrita School of Biotechnology and Director of the

Computational Neuroscience and Neurophysiology Lab, said, "While it is relevant to experimentally validate every step, complexity in neuroscience limits researchers to specific studies. Bridging molecular neurobiology to physiology and clinical studies is now easier thanks to computational neuroscience. We do hope Amrita's work will help understand and predict ataxias, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy in the long run".


Indo-Swedish Joint Research Project in Embedded Systems Innovative Green Technology

to Treat Municipal and Industrial Wastewater Entering Rivers and Streams

Nowadays the use of embedded systems is a necessity in our daily lives via mobile phones, consumer electronics, industrial robots, and

modern cars. However, the requirements for these systems increase at the same pace as our digital needs and the new research project aims to meet these requirements. In collaboration with Halmstad University, Sweden, Amrita School of Engineering, Bangalore campus aims to develop, experiment with, and evaluate advanced embedded computing platforms. The focus is to develop flexible hardware architectures and simplified programming. The challenge is to develop a heterogeneous hardware platform that can be tailored for specific applications as well as the design methodologies to ease the development. That, in turn, will lead to more energy efficient embedded systems with higher performance.

Swedish company Vinnova has recently decided to fund the project with 5.8 million SEK. The project's industrial partners also include Texas Instruments, Maxim Integrated, and Adarate Systems. The Swedish Defence Research Agency is also a partner in the project.

While neuroscience groups have been tackling new dimensions to crunch data to solve neurological conditions,

computational neuroscience seems a promising option to better understand neurological disorders. To comprehend the brain's disease conditions from a functional role, the Computational Neuroscience and Neurophysiology Lab at Amrita University's School of Biotechnology has been developing computer models based on experimental data of neurons and neural circuits. As neurological diseases have a basis with neural and circuit behavior, these models help understand how certain disabling molecular mechanisms explain clinical conditions and how applying certain drug molecules change functioning conditions. Due to complexity, researchers uses stochastic differential equations and supercomputing techniques including CPU and GPGPU programming methods to solve large-scale simulations. Dr. Shyam Diwakar, Associate Professor at the Amrita School of Biotechnology and Director of the Computational Neuroscience and Neurophysiology Lab, said, "While it is relevant to experimentally validate every step, complexity in neuroscience limits researchers to specific studies. Bridging molecular neurobiology to physiology and clinical studies is now easier thanks to computational neuroscience. We do hope Amrita's work will help understand and predict ataxias, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy in the long run".


AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

Amrita Ph.D. Scholar, Mr. Kuruvachan K. George, achieved global recognition in the recently held 'Speakers in the Wild' (SITW) Speaker Recognition

Challenge organized by SRI International, Silicon Valley, United States. The aim of the SITW challenge was to encourage teams across the world to benchmark their technologies and develop novel algorithms for improving the speaker recognition under adverse conditions (noise and short duration). The Speaker Recognition Technology from Amrita was ranked 6th at the international level, ahead of many world leaders.

Amrita Places 6th Internationally for Speaker Recognition Challenge

The Department of Electronics & Information Tech-nology (DeitY), Government of India, has awarded the prestigious Young Faculty Research Fellowship

2016 to Dr. Maneesha Ramesh, Director, Amrita Center for Wireless Networks and Applications and Dr. Shyam Diwakar, Associate Professor, Amrita School of Biotech-nology. Dr. Maneesha V. Ramesh has led several international-ly and nationally funded projects in wireless technolo-gies including India’s first landslide detection and early warning system. Her team also developed novel low-cost biomedical devices and have set up smart hydro and smart energy systems in rural India as part of Am-rita University's Live-in-Labs™ program. She is also the Dean of International Programs at Amrita. Dr. Shyam Diwakar is the Principal Investigator and Di-rector of the Computational Neuroscience and Neuro-physiology Laboratory at Amrita School of Biotechnol-ogy where he also serves as Associate Professor. With

brain modeling as the focus, his lab studies the physiol-ogy of brain cells and circuits to understand the brain's function for predicting neurological disorders and for brain-inspired robotics. He was also awarded the NVID-IA Innovation award on December 16, 2015 for his com-putational neuroscience work on GPUs. Dr. Krishnashree Achuthan, Dean of Post Graduate Pro-grams at Amrita, said, "Only 200 such awards are given over 5 years by DeitY. This is indeed a noteworthy rec-ognition for Amrita University."

Government RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPs Awarded to Amrita Professors


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Five teams of robotics students from Amrita Uni-versity won prizes at the One Moment of Robot Glory (OMRG) Asia competition in Singapore for

their robots, beating 20 teams from other countries in the final round. While the robotic coconut tree climber, the hand orthosis robot for stroke patients, the gesture based navigational robot and the stair-case cleaning robot bagged prizes in the Open Cate-gory, the autonomous room cleaning robot won the second prize in the Under 18 category. Notably, the robotic coconut tree climber, named Amaran, won the “Best Mechanical Design,” and ClePa, the stair-case cleaning robot, was declared the “Best Market-able Design.” All the robots were designed by stu-dents as part of the Humanitarian Technology (HuT) Labs of Amrita University’s Department of Electron-ics and Communication Engineering. Harsha G., a member of the student team that worked on the coconut tree climber, said, “The number of people who take the job of climbing coconut trees has reduced drastically in India due to accidents associated with the activity; therefore, the coconut tree climbing robot thus fulfills a critical need.” Arsha V. who worked on the navigational robot, said, “This robot is intended to offer a helping hand for the elderly and stroke and spinal cord injury pa-tients who use wheelchairs. It is cost -effective and overcomes many drawbacks of existing technolo-gies.”

Amrita Students Win Big at 2016 Robotics Contest - Singapore

Dr. Sankarprasad Bhuniya of the Amrita Center for Industrial Research and Innovation published a paper in Chemical Society

Reviews, a journal with an impact factor of 33.383. The paper, titled “Small Conjugate-Based Theranostic Agents: An Encouraging Approach For Cancer Therapy”, was co-authored by Rajesh Kumar, Weon Sup Shin, Kyoung Sunwoo, Won Young Kim, Seyoung Koo and Jong Seung Kim from the Department of Chemistry at Korea University, Seoul. Dr. Bhuniya’s research focuses on theranostic approaches that combine diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities into a single agent. It is an appealing formulation to improve the biodistribution and systematic administration of therapy in a targeted area. Furthermore, this could provide clear-cut solutions for long standing diseases, namely, genetic diseases and oncogenic diseases.

Chemical Society Reviews : A study on theranostic approaches for cancer therapy


Amrita Wins National Microsoft Hacking Contest

Students from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Bangalore campus, won Microsoft’s National

College Hacking Contest - Build the Shield, beating fellow competitors from IIT Hyderabad (2nd) and IIT Bombay (3rd). Amrita students were offered full-time placement at Microsoft IT (MSIT), with an annual salary package of Rs. 21 lakhs (USD 32,000). Build the Shield contest, a first-of-its-kind national level college hacking contest hosted by Microsoft India, is a competitive, hands-on hacking experience situated in real-life scenarios. IN the contest, participating teams defend their server while attacking competitors’

servers to emerge as the winner. The contest is open to graduates or undergraduates pursuing majors in Computer Science, Information Technology or Electronics and Communication Engineering. The contest runs in two stages – Qualifiers and National Finale. The contest began with online qualifiers, after which the winning teams visited the Microsoft Hyderabad campus for the grand finale. They competed against each other for the final challenge, heard from security leaders on Microsoft’s idea of information security, and got a tour of the Microsoft campus.

A student paper titled, “Design of Spider Mechanism for Extraterrestrial Rover”, won the best paper award at the 2nd International Conference on

Emerging Trends in Mechanical Engineering (ICETME – 2015) organized by the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Toc H Institute of Science and Technology (TIST), Ernakulam, Kerala from September 3rd-5th, 2015. The paper was presented by Adithya Suresh, final-year Mechanical Engineering student, Amrita School of Engineering, Amritapuri campus.The paper was authored by B.Tech students Abin Simon, Kailash Dutt, Praveen Basil, Sreekuttan T.K., Adithya Suresh, and Arun M. under the guidance of Dr. Ganesh Udupa and Assistant Professor Pramod Sreedharan,

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Amritapuri campus.

Students Win Best Paper Award at ICETME 2015


Amrita Institute for Medical Sciences and Research Center Wins Award for Best Infection Control Practices

Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) has won the Association of Healthcare Providers (AHP) Award for Best Infection Control Practices in

India. Dr. Sanjeev Singh and Dr. Prem Nair received the award in Mumbai, Maharashtra on February 14th 2016. AIMS, located in Kochi, Kerala, has been partnering with the Government of Kerala to implement the hospital’s infection control protocol and practices in public sector hospitals and healthcare facilities. AHP has over 10,000 affiliate hospitals of which they have have specifically recognized AIMS’s contribution to formulating Kerala’s antibiotic and infection control policy. The award was given in recognition of the hospital’s contribution towards promoting public health and patient safety. The hospital was the technical advisor to the Government of Kerala, suggesting that a policy needed to be implemented based on a gap analysis done at several public and private universities. The research study was conducted to understand the knowledge and attitude towards antibiotic prescription and infection

prevention practices. This included interviewing doctors, microbiologists, pharmacists and the administration personnel. “We have had many cases of drug-resistant bacteria coming to the hospital and we have successfully contained them and prevented them from breaking out in the hospital. AHP has expressed a desire to implement our protocol in all healthcare facilities throughout India”, said Dr. Prem Nair, Director, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Research Center.

Amrita Wins National Microsoft Hacking Contest DEAN OF RESEARCH WINS IIT ALUMNUS AWARD

Dr. Shantikumar V. Nair, Dean of Research and Director of the Amrita Center for Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine, was given the IIT-Bombay

Distinguished Alumnus Award 2016. IIT Bombay confers the Distinguished Alumnus Awards (DAA) every year to those who have reached positions of eminence in the areas of business, academics, research, government, public service, and entrepreneurship. The award was presented on IIT-Mumbai’s Foundation Day - March 10th, 2016 - in recognition of Dr. Nair's outstanding contributions as an academic leader in the field of Nanosciences and Molecular Medicine. Dr. Nair is widely known for his innovations in tissue engineered products, nanomedicine, energy conversion, and storage devices. Upon receiving the award, Dr. Nair said, “I returned from the U.S. in 2006 after 20 years of teaching, inspired by Amrita’s Chancellor, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, to

serve my country. The principle that career is not about self-gain, but about service to society, is an enduring lesson I learned from the University’s Chancellor."


INTERNATIONAL NEWS & EVENTS

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by Prof. Tsui-Yao Chen, Dean, College of Biore-sources, National Ilan University (NIU) and Dr. Bi-

pin Nair, Dean of the Amrita School of Biotechnology on May 23rd, 2016. The Amrita School of Biotechnology established a part-nership with the College of Bioresources for academic cooperation and exchange. The two institutions agreed to provide student and faculty exchange programs, en-gage in joint meetings for research and exchange of sci-entific materials, and collaborate on publications. National Ilan University (NIU) (one of the oldest insti-tutions of higher education in Taiwan) was formally founded in 1926 as Taiwan Provincial Ilan School of Ag-

riculture and Forestry. As a center of quality education, NIU is now the only comprehensive national university in Northeast Taiwan offering BA, BS, MA, MS and PhD degrees. NIU moves forward its ninth-decade founding anniversary for a new era.

AMRITA TO COLLABORATE WITH TAIWANESE UNIVERSITY

Amrita to Collaborate with Doshisha University

Dr. P. Venkat Rangan, Vice Chancellor of Amrita University, and Professor Koji Murata, President of Doshisha University (Japan), signed an MoU on March 21st, 2016 with the goal of developing

closer academic and cultural exchanges in the areas of education, research, and the internationalization of higher education. The two institutions agreed to provide student and faculty exchange programs, engage in joint meetings for research and exchange of scientific materials, participate in joint seminars and conferences, and collaborate on publications.


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Columbia University Students Participate in Short Term Study Abroad Program

Students from the Spirituality & Mind Body Institute, Columbia University, participated in a 10 day study abroad program at Amrita

Darshanam - International Center for Spiritual Studies - between December 2015 and January 2016. The students had interactive sessions with senior disciples of Amrita University, Chancellor Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (Amma), and received training in Amrita Yoga and Integrated Amrita Meditation (IAM). Students then embarked on an inner journey at the Amritapuri Ashram where they searched deeply within themselves for the nature of Spirit to discover transformational inner realities that will enliven their work with their clients and patients. This short term program was a collaborative effort between Dr. Anand S., Assistant Professor, Amrita Darshanam - International Center for Spiritual Studies, Amrita University and Dr. Lisa Miller, Director, The Spirituality & Mind Body Institute, Columbia University. The initiative was supported and facilitated by the Amrita Center for International Programs.

Swedish University Joins Hands With Amrita

On April 20th 2016, Dr. Maneesha Ramesh, Dean of International Programs at Amrita University, and Prof. Thorsteinn Rognvaldsson,

Pro Vice Chancellor of Halmstad University, signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish educational relations and cooperation. The two institutions agreed to provide student and faculty exchange programs, engage in joint meetings for research and exchange of scientific materials, and collaborate on publications.

Amrita Signs MoU with Danish School of Media and Journalism

Dr. Maneesha Ramesh, Dean of International Programs at Amrita University, and Prof, Jens Otto Kjaer Hansen, Rector, Danish School of

Media and Journalism, signed an MoU on March 21st, 2016 with the goal of fostering a relationship to promote intellectual exchanges with an international focus. The two institutions agreed to engage in student and faculty exchange programs and cultural projects, participate in joint research projects, organize joint academic and scientific meetings for research and exchange of scientific materials, participate in joint seminars and conferences, and collaborate on publicationss.


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Live-in-LabsTM is a multidisciplinary theory- into-practice program that facilitates research, development, and deployment of sustainable

solutions for current challenges faced by rural com-munities in India. The program provides international students and researchers an experiential learn-ing opportunity in which they can directly interact, observe, and study, while living in rural commu-nities, to gain a better understanding of prob-lems in the areas of health and livelihood, educa-tion and technology, environment and farming, energy, and infrastructure and basic facilities. The program supports and facilitates stu-dents from multiple disciplines to first delineate projects that address prob-lems, and subsequently, to imple-ment, test, and eventually demon-strate innovative, affordable, and comprehensive solutions. International students, both undergraduates and gradu-ates, can spend two weeks to a semester (4-6 months) as a member of an interdisciplinary team of students and faculty at one of the program sites (villages). Furthermore, each team will be guided by 2-3 faculty members drawn from various disciplines from participating universities. The University of California, San Diego (USA), was the first institution to sign on as an international partner for the Live-in-LabsTM program.

KELSEY O’BRIEN MASTERS IN PUBLIC HEALTH

HARVARD UNIVERSITY, USASERVICE YEAR: 2015

“This experience gave me hands-on skills and re-energized my passion for

Public Health. I learned a lot about living in India and about

Kerala’s rich culture.”

"Gave me hands-on skills and re-energized my passion."

VISIONThe Live-in-Labs™ program aims to expose international youth to problems faced by rural communities in India. Through experiential learning opportunities, participants put theory into practice by generating innovative solutions, thereby facilitating critical and collaborative problem solving abilities of participants.

"My first touch with humanitarian and environmental projects."

MARIUS KLINGER, MASTERS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, EPFL, SWITZERLAND SERVICE YEAR: 2015

“This internship helped me have a first touch with humanitarian and environmental projects. I worked directly in the field, building a project of sanitation in rural areas in India. That was my first professional experience in my field of study and I learned a lot on the subject.”


Live-in-LabsEXPERIENTIAL LEARNING IN RURAL INDIA

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AMRITA MBA STUDENTS COLLABORATE WITH JAPANESE STUDENTS ON SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT PROJECT IN ALAPPUZHA’S ISLAND VILLAGE

As part of Amrita University’s Live-in-Labs™ program, 1st Year Amrita School of Business

students from the Amritapuri cam-pus worked with 60 Japanese stu-dents on a sustainable community development project in the village of Perumbalam, Alappuzha district, Kerala. The Japanese students, res-idents of Osaka and Tokyo, came from 18 different universities, such as the University of Tokyo and Kyo-to University, to participate in the six day project. The project, which began on February 27th, 2016, was overseen by staff from the Amrita Center for International Programs and faculty from the Amrita School of Business. The community project in Perum-balam had two aspects – rural in-

frastructure, and economic and so-cial development. The Japanese and Amrita students collaborated on the project by conducting field visits and a situation analysis to identify key areas for growth. The students focused on economic empowerment through the development of new jobs; skill development through vo-cational training; and income gen-eration through a sustainable busi-ness model that enables villagers to better market their products. The MBA students also studied the so-cial development of the village by conducting an impact analysis on the existing pension and scholar-ship schemes run by the Mata Am-ritanandamayi Math. As part of the development pro-ject, a panel discussion was organ-ized at the Perumblaam panchayat where elected representatives and

administrative officers had a dis-cussion with the Japanese students and Amrita students and faculty. Led by panchayat president, Sri K.S. Shibu, the panel discussion looked at current challenges and possible solutions in the areas of economic empowerment, social development, health literacy, infrastructure de-velopment, and educational devel-opment. Proposed solutions were presented keeping in mind the po-tential impact on the village’s sur-rounding environment. One Jap-anese student presented a case study where development actually destroyed the environment and ex-plained how residents subsequently suffered from its adverse effects. Many Japanese students expressed their appreciation of the village’s serene surroundings and strongly advocated it not be compromised in the name of development.


AMRITA WATER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM: WATER MANAGEMENT IN RURAL INDIA

Students, faculty, and staff from the Amrita Center for Wire-less Networks and Applica-

tions, Amritapuri campus, and the Department of Civil Engineering, Coimbatore campus, joined hands to address the issue of water man-agement in rural communities in India. The Amrita team implement-ed low cost water distribution and management systems in Harirampur, Rajasthan and Guptapada, Orissa. After conducting an in-depth site survey of the terrain of both vil-lages and of available resources, the Amrita team custom designed a water distribution system con-sisting of a network of pipes and two overhead water tanks where available water can be collected and then distributed to each home.

Design & Implementation - Harirampur, Rajasthan In order to lay down the pipes for the distribution system, two trenches were dug. The Amrita team manually dug a trench 55 meters long and 3 feet deep. The other trench, 1,050 me-ters long, was dug by an earth mov-ing JCB machine and was manually leveled to approximately 4 feet deep.

Water is now distributed to all 65 homes through a pipe system with an additional 5 taps conveniently placed in public areas. The pipe sys-tem connects to two overhead Sin-tex water tanks that currently store 5,000 liters of water each.

Design & Implementation – Gupta-pada, Orissa To lay out the pipe network, the team, with the help of villagers, manually dug two trenches – one 700 meters long and 2 feet deep and another 550 meters long and 1 foot deep. The Amrita team and villagers also dug the foundation pit for the water tank's steel structure. Plans are in place to build another 5,000 liter water tank in the future. Plans are also in place to commence water conservation awareness initiatives in the village. Water is now distributed to 60 homes with each cluster of homes sharing a

tap. Villagers receive water through a pipe system which connects to an overhead Sintex steel water tank that currently stores 5,000 liters of water. Overall Impact The majority of homes in both vil-lages now have direct access to wa-ter. With easy access to water, it is expected that the overall hygiene of the villages will increase and the spread of infectious illnesses will be stemmed. Children will also be moti-vated to adopt proper hygiene hab-its, thereby improving their health and consequently increasing attend-ance at school. The Amrita Rural Water Distribution and Management project is a great example of how innovation can be inspired through empathy and how science and technology can be lev-eraged to address and solve real world problems with observable and measurable outcomes.



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