Ten Trends In Eduction To Watch For In Future

It is that time of the year when we tend to pause and reflect. What have we achieved this year? What are the highlights of culture, business, technology, and trends that we have observed around us?

For me, the most exciting and positive movement at present is in the domain of technology impacting education. And it is an impact that is coming from many different directions.

Let’s explore them in further detail.

Cost of higher education: 

The cost of higher education is high, and when coupled of youth unemployment and student debt, it has become a serious issue that is finally getting a great deal of attention this year. It is causing the higher ed institutions to experiment, consider alternative models, explore new ideas. Education has been a rather slow-to-change field. This year, however, I think the pace of change has picked up, and most likely, this trend is driven by fear. While the top institutions with big brands can justify their premium pricing, most others cannot. Tremendous amounts of quality educational content is available online for free, or at reasonable prices. Unless the degree comes with a serious branded network, is it worthwhile to pay so much? The question, I am sure, will be hotly debated over the rest of this decade, and changes will come.

Question mark around liberal arts education:

The jobs are mostly in the STEM fields. Then why would anyone pay $30k a year for four years to study the humanities? What is the justification for existence of the liberal arts colleges if they cannot translate that education into lucrative professional careers? This is the question plaguing the leaders in that field. Personally, I am a huge believer in liberal arts education. However, I also believe, that liberal arts should be the arts that liberate. Today, those are technology and entrepreneurship. Thus, I would like to see the liberal arts colleges make it compulsory for students to study programming and entrepreneurship as parts of their degree requirement. We’re not there yet, but by 2020, I hope, we get there.

Evolution of engineering education:

Most engineering schools are hotbeds of experimentation with MOOCs and other online education possibilities. EdX, the mother of all MOOCs, came out of a collaboration between Harvard and MIT, and is run by MIT’s Anant Agarwal. There is, however, concern around intellectual property, and many deans are not as keen to give out their jewels for free. My take on the subject is that Free is a dangerous path. Creating and delivering value isn’t free. Thus, consuming value should also not be free. Is education a public good? To an extent. But with governments neck-deep in debt, it is unclear how such models will sustain at scale. Nonetheless, experimenting with scalable modes of delivering world class education to students worldwide is worthwhile. Whatever comes out of this will likely, also, be worthwhile.

The other observation I have is that many of the deans of engineering schools are trying to figure out how to also train their entire body of engineering students with entrepreneurship education. They don’t have adequate budgets yet, but again, with smart use of virtual methods, it is doable. I would like to see, by 2020, every single engineering student in the world ALSO trained in entrepreneurship. The pace of progress for humanity will accelerate tremendously. It is engineers, not MBAs, who know best how to ‘build’ things. That includes new companies.

Demand for community colleges and vocational education:

At the face of huge global youth unemployment numbers, the country that has drawn attention as a successful model is Germany. They do vocational training well. Most other countries don’t. America has an excellent network of community colleges through which really great quality vocational training CAN be delivered. However, the quality of the community colleges and their connections into the employers is quite poor. There’s a lot of work to be done here, but through a combination of virtual learnings methods and internships, the gap can be bridged. The model, also, needs to be replicated globally.

Changes in K-12 education:

Salman Khan has made some dent in K-12, and Khan Academy’s attempts at turning the schools from ‘sage on stage’ to ‘guide on side’ is a seminal experiment under way. Instead of not-very-qualified teachers trying to create course content, if the lectures are standardized and delivered via online video, which teachers guide students through exercises in class, the quality of education may significantly improve. It’s early. But, it is an extremely promising direction. In general, rich media content available widely for educational purposes is awesome. The film ‘Lincoln’ is far more engaging to teach history with than a dry text book.

Broadband penetration:

Today, the limiting factor for online education is broadband penetration. By 2020, this will change dramatically. The ability for digital learning to impact society will also change alongside.

Changing dynamics of media consumption:

The availability of vast amount of rich media content not only on smart phones and tablets, but also on television is drastically changing how people consume media. Instead of TV being time-bound, today, it is becoming largely on-demand. To the extent this trend accelerates, education and entertainment are going to intersect in ways that we haven’t seen yet. I see huge potential.

Education businesses:

For-profit colleges get a lot of flack. They charge big tuition fees, and don’t deliver on the employability metric as well. But, if you look at education businesses as great providers of digital programs and materials, without having to worry about accreditation, faculty, etc. such that existing institutions can scale their ability to deliver quality education using those capabilities at reasonable prices, the potential is enormous. If community colleges started adopting more of the proven digital learning methods and casting their faculty as ‘guide on side’, the results could be encouraging. In this, also, lies the answer to the question of how a liberal arts college or an engineering school can teach entrepreneurship or programming to large numbers of students (not 50 students, 5000 students).

Entrepreneurship education and incubation:

Entrepreneurship has justifiably become cool, and its education on high demand. This trend will continue. At every level – high school, college, graduate school, community college – entrepreneurship needs to be taught, and by 2020, we will see much greater penetration of entrepreneurship education throughout society. Entrepreneurship as a vehicle of economic development and prosperity is becoming well understood. Its education will also become so within this decade.

Internships:

There is a lot of discussion around whether unpaid internships should be legal. I think, this is nonsense. Any opportunity to educate and develop skills in people should be welcome. If employers are willing to train free of charge, it is absolutely ridiculous to not let them. It takes a lot of bandwidth for an organization to train green, unskilled people. It is free education that makes youth employable. I hope that aided by online services, the process of matching interns with employers will become pervasive at every level, in every country. This is an incredibly important youth development strategy for the world.

Those are currently my observations. I have a long view, and fully acknowledge that it will take time. Many of the experiments are at their very beginning stages. Nonetheless, I do believe that we end this decade on high note, having achieved meaningful strides in the education domain.

Cloud Pre-Paid Load Testing To Take the Pressure Off Online Shopping

Online Shopping Festivals and Christmas-themed marketing campaigns have given a major boost to online shopping in India in recent times. With website traffic peaks expected during this season, businesses need to guarantee their mobile and web applications will perform well under pressure and handle the upcoming onslaught of  online shoppers. According to comScore, among the BRIC Nations, India has been the fastest growing market adding over 18 million internet users and growing at an annual rate of 41%. Riding on a 31% year-on-year increase, India’s online population grew to 73.9 million. With an extended online universe in excess of 145 million the market is at a tipping point for online businesses. The study says about 60% Internet users in India visit online retail websites - and to retain them, businesses need to ensure they have a smooth experience.

In response, Borland, a Micro Focus company, has launched Borland Credits – a new virtual currency that can be used to purchase Silk Performer CloudBurst testing services. The pre-paid model delivers application performance testing without the need for hardware assets, helping users to significantly reduce testing costs and complexity, quickly and efficiently.

A testing situation    

According to global research, conducted by Vanson Bourne and commissioned by Borland, 44% of CIOs are aware of the events that drive peak-traffic loads, but do not simulate website performance with heavy load testing to see if they can handle the increased pressure on their websites.  That’s despite knowing that even minor delays to website response times can have a sizable impact on customer satisfaction, page views, conversion rates and site abandonment. 

Commenting on the challenge, Nitin Dang, Country General Manager, India at Micro Focus, said: “There is no denying the significance and prominance of a business’ online presence, especially in today’s economic environment. Even the most usable website or mobile application can be rendered useless if the backend infrastructure can’t handle the volume of traffic during peak times. Borland Credits is a wonderful initiative to tap the potential of the cloud and offer businesses a flexible way to future proof their websites”

“With the on going online shopping festivals as well as Christmas holidays being just around the corner, businesses need absolute confidence that their high-quality applications will perform well under pressure and handle peak loads.  However, managing and emulating hundreds of thousands of realistic end-users, from multiple regions, in order to load test an application can be time-consuming, complex and costly.  It’s enough to deter many businesses from testing in the first instance added Nitin Dang.

“We’ve created Borland Credits to offer businesses a forward-thinking and flexible way in which to get more from the cloud,” continued Nitin Dang. “Users will have easy access to our Silk Performer CloudBurst testing services – from anywhere in the world – without the need for unnecessary, costly infrastructure, which often sits around collecting virtual dust until it is needed.  We’re giving our customers better control over their testing expenditure, with the ability to ensure their applications run at optimum levels, wherever they may be.”

Users can choose between several packages, depending on how many Borland Credits are purchased in one go, without being locked into to a specific subscription plan or paying any service fees:

*        Cloud infrastructure: Rent unlimited cloud infrastructure by the hour, to execute a load test. 

Unlimited virtual end-user licenses: Users can pay per virtual end-user within a 24-hour period, depending on the application type under test.

*       Spanning test periods: Purchase a 24-hour testing period model, which enables a load test to be tailored, run, analyzed and re-run multiple times without an additional charge.

Before any load test is conducted, Silk Performer CloudBurst will display an estimate of how many Borland Credits will be used and on completion of a test, will calculate the number of Borland Credits to debit from the account to help users budget accordingly.

Through the new billing model and Borland Credit system users will also be notified by email, 24-hours in advance of when a load test agent is about to automatically close and will receive Virtual User Price Protection, so that if an application doesn’t scale to meet the loads anticipated, they will only pay for what they have used.

Rs 100 Crore Nano Park To Come Up In Bangalore

The Karnataka government plans to establish a 'Nano Park' here, which will have nano incubation centre, said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

"Our government proposes to establish a state-of-the-art Nano Park in Bangalore, which will have nano incubation centre along with necessary physical infrastructure and support system including common facilities," Siddaramaih said at the inauguration of '6th Bangalore India Nano' here.

"I'm sure this initiative will give a major fillip to the nanotechnology industry to blossom in the state in the coming years," he added.

It was inaugurated in the presence of eminent scientist, Bharat Ratna awardee C N R Rao and Nobel Laureate Sir Andre Geim. The event is organised by Department of IT, BT, S&T- Government of Karnataka and Vision group on Nanotechnology.

Siddaramaiah said the Indian Institute of Nano Sciences and Technology is being established in Bangalore with the funding support from Union Government under the nano mission at an estimated cost of Rs 100 crore.

The state government has already allocated 14 acres on Tumkur road for locating this institute, he pointed out.

Stating that Bangalore has always been a trend setter in encouraging new wave of industrial development, he said: "In knowledge-based industrial development, Bangalore has reached iconic stature. I am delighted to state that the city is acclaimed as one of the top 10 Technopolises in the world."

Calling on scientists to come up with tangible nano- technology-based solutions for food security, energy security, water purification, medicine and health care, he said: "The ultimate purpose of science and research should be to address the huge challenge in these areas."

Rao said India is number three in the world in the area of nano sciences and commended the contribution of institutes like Indian Institute of Science and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research.

He said: "We have made reasonable progress; ....We have a long way to go."

"We should not forget the importance of science. Science should also focus on solving human problems and improve the quality of life," he said.

Source: Economic Times

Freescale And iWave Systems Bring Out Innovative Products

Freescale Semiconductor, dealing in embedded processing solutions, along with iWave Systems Technologies, a Bangalore based Product Engineering Services company, demonstrated a range of technology innovation. The innovations developed by iWave Systems and based on Freescale technology include a Wi-Fi enabled Skin and Tooth Analyser, Smart MIPI camera, WEC2013 on Freescale’s i.MX6 SDP and iWave’s i.MX6 development board, System on Module (SOMs), Development Boards, Single Board Computer and many others that will benefit Industrial, Medical and Automotive domains.

Vivek Tyagi, Country Sales Director, Freescale Semiconductor India Pvt. Ltd. says, “At Freescale, it has been our constant endeavour to consumerize technology innovation. It is a great opportunity for us to have iWave as a partner. The products developed by iWave are unique and have already been adopted by many overseas customers, especially from Europe and Japan. Especially, the new product the Wi-Fi enabled Skin and Tooth Analyser developed by iWave will be a boon to the medical and healthcare industry. We are committed to provide support to our customers to develop innovative solutions in today’s fast evolving marketplace.”

M.A. Mohamed Saliya, Managing Director, iWave Systems Technologies says, “In order to sustain our leadership position, we continue to develop new System on Modules (SOMs) using the latest SoC’s like Vybrid controller solutions, i.MX7 and i.MX8 from Freescale. Besides the SOMs, in order to ease the product development by our customers, we offer reference designs and the platform software for the customers to develop their applications faster as a proof of concept. Our platform software also called BSP (Board Support Package) ranges from Embedded Linux to Android, Windows Embedded Compact, QNX and so on. We have an edge over the competition, since our customers find it challenging to locate all these under one roof.”

SAP Ganges Launch; India Retailing To Come Of Age

By Manu Sharma

Finally retailing in India will come of age. At the on-going SAP TechEd 2013 summit in Bangalore, the German software company announced the rollout of SAP Ganges, a business network built on the SAP HANA cloud platform will connects the last mile in retail consisting of Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies, distributors, banks, and your neighboring mom and pop or kirana retail stores.

According to industry sources, about 9.3 million retailers are in India today and that amounts to 40 percent of the world's retailers, However, most of them are in the unorganized kirana stores. Only 4 percent of India’s retail market is the organized sector i.e. controlled by large supermarket or chain stores, while in China the share is about 20 percent and in Brazil 36 percent .

Technology is reshaping the world around us and is removing barriers across geographies and businesses. Customers are seeking out the best offers, the best prices, and the best service levels with the help of real-time data. It has become imperative for CPG companies to work off a foundation of optimal processes across their entire value chain. The SAP HANA cloud platform powers the business network with real-time data on a massive scale.

Vishal Sikka, member of the Executive Board of SAP AG, Products and Innovation, said: "With SAP Ganges, we have shown that SAP HANA has the ability to transform and evolve entire industries in India. SAP HANA is helping connect businesses of all sizes in real-time: from the millions of kirana stores; to the large CPG companies serving them, and the financial institutions supporting them; by bringing new value to all points along this network and empowering people to conduct businesses in a totally open, transparent and real-time way."

Developed in India (Bangalore) for the Indian market by a team of 10 developers along with 75 more outsourced globally, SAP Ganges is a business network offering seamless connectivity for CPG companies to the last mile of their supply chain, which consists of millions of unorganized retail stores. Other partners in the business network are: distributors of the consumer product companies; banks, which provide credit to the retailers; value-added services providers; telecom services providers which enable remote connectivity; and manufacturers of affordable point-of-sale (POS) devices.

Conceptualized through intensive design thinking-based co-innovation with leading industry players, SAP Ganges offers a range of holistic offerings for different stakeholders including:

* CPG companies: enabling visibility through reporting and forecasting based on sales information aggregated from the retail stores. In addition, they can use SAP Ganges as a direct marketing channel to reach retail stores.

* Distributors: providing the distributor to take orders, track inventory at the retail stores, and to allow them to receive payments digitally.

* Banks: enabling banks to assess credit eligibility of retailers and to adjust credit limit periodically based on retail store sales.

* Retail Stores: enabling retail stores to connect to business network using PoS devices and to access business services.

According to the India Brand Equity Foundation, the Indian fast moving consumer goods sector consisting of personal care, household care, and food products was valued at $36.8bn in FY2011-12; and is one of the fastest growing retail markets in the world. Following the release in India, SAP plans to roll out SAP Ganges to other retail-intensive economies such as Brazil, South Africa, China and Indonesia.

India Adds 13 More Budding Tech Entrepreneurs In 2013

Microsoft Ventures in India recently announced the graduation of its Winter Batch from the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator program in India. At a Demo Day held at the Microsoft Lavelle Road office in Bangalore, the 400 plus audience of mentors, industry influencers, venture capitalists, angel investors and media professionals witnessed the amazing progress made by each company over the last four months at the Accelerator.  The 13 startups which graduated now include: AdSparx, ShieldSquare, Chance, Frrole, Native5, SignEasy, TommyJams, Whalelogix, Scibler, HasGeek, Nanobi, Tookitaki and 1000Lookz.

Congratulating the graduating batch, Ravi Narayan, Director, Microsoft Ventures in India said: “The last four months have been exciting and a great learning experience for all of us—the startups and the Microsoft Ventures in India program team.  The companies in the batch ranged from first-time entrepreneurs to more seasoned, experienced entrepreneurs who have just hit upon their best idea with this venture. Hence, we had to cater to a very varied set of asks from the batch – from improvements in UX, to global expansion, customer acquisitions and product development. I am extremely proud that we could make some really successful customer acquisition and investor connections for some of the startups. In this context, I would also like to thank some of our mentors for the amazing support they provided us.”

The accelerator, which was until recently headed by Mukund Mohan, now director of Microsoft Ventures, shifted hands after the global reorganization that took place in July.

“It is amazing that 90% of the companies in this batch are running on revenues, as opposed to just 30% in the first batch. We are talking revenues of about $100,000. That is dramatic shift in the last one and half years,” said Mohan, former CEO in residence, Microsoft Accelerator.

A notable ones that graduated are Chance, a video interaction application; Frrole, a media social intelligence platform; SignEasy, an online document signing application; and TommyJams, a Web platform that connects music artists to venues. All the graduating companies, except two, are close to getting funded, people with direct knowledge of the matter said Mohan.

The Microsoft Ventures Accelerator team in India is now busy shortlisting applications for the fourth batch, which will start in January 2014. After rigorous screening, the final list of up to 15 startups will be announced soon. The four-month incubation process at the state-of-the-art Microsoft office in downtown Bangalore will begin on January 22, 2014 and end with Demo Day in May.

Avail Technology Courses In Semiconductor & Manufacturing In India

 

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) and Applied Materials, Inc. today announced the extension of their partnership to offer a certification course in “Semiconductor Technology and Manufacturing” through IIT Bombay’s Continuing Education Programme (CEP) for the second year. This course, designed to bridge the existing skill gap in this specialized high-tech sector, complements the Government of India’s in-principle approval for the establishment of two semiconductor manufacturing facilities in the country. The Semiconductor Technology and Manufacturing certification course was jointly launched by IIT Bombay and Applied Materials in the year 2012 and was received enthusiastically by industry as well as academia.

The six-day course starting on December 10, 2013 endeavors to impart knowledge about the basic concepts of integrated circuit (IC) fabrication and manufacturing, develop an understanding of semiconductor processes, hardware and system technologies, as well as provide hands-on user training on production level tools and systems widely used in the industry. Renowned faculty members from IIT Bombay will deliver lectures along with industry professionals from Applied Materials. The lab sessions will be held at the IIT Bombay Nanofabrication Facility (IITBNF) and the Applied Materials Nanomanufacturing Lab, Electrical Engineering Department, IIT Bombay.  On successful completion of the course, participants will receive the Continued Education Programme (CEP) certificate by IITB.

Speaking about the programme, Prof. Abhay Karandikar, Head of the Electrical Engineering Department, IIT Bombay, said, “We are glad to take this certification program to its second year. It will strengthen the semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem in India through our state-of-the-art nanofabrication facilities and partnership with Applied Materials. The hands-on training and high level of faculty expertise are the highlights of the course that generated very positive feedback from participants last year. We plan to increase and diversify the hands-on lab sessions this year to enhance the quality and breadth of exposure to semiconductor manufacturing and R&D for the participants.”

Speaking on the occasion, Aninda Moitra, President & Managing Director, Applied Materials India, said, “This is an opportunity to reiterate our commitment to the overall growth of the Electronic System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) sector. Talent development is critical to maximize the impact of this sector. India has high-quality talent, and they need to be continually channeled to move from a purely theoretical environment to a combination of theory and practice, especially in industries that are R&D intensive. This is exactly what the course addresses – giving students and individuals in the ESDM ecosystem hands-on exposure to manufacturing, and the opportunity to utilize India’s only 200mm semiconductor fabrication facility dedicated to university-industry research.”

In India, Applied Materials is a strategic partner and an enabler of the semiconductor and solar manufacturing ecosystem. Since it started local operations in 2002, Applied Materials India has grown into the second largest engineering resource pool for the company globally, providing design engineering, engineering support services, and cutting edge innovation in materials science and engineering to the global organization. The India region, which is a key link to the company’s global IT infrastructure footprint, provides IT solutions and services, and hosts the second largest data center for Applied globally.

The CEP programme is intended for working professionals in the semiconductor industry, research scientists and technical staff, and academics. It includes modules on VLSI & Semiconductor Technology, Semiconductor Equipment Overview and Lab Equipment User Training.  Those with a diploma or a bachelor's degree in Science/Engineering are eligible to apply. One can register for the course at http://www.cen.iitb.ac.in/cen/events/cep_course.php. Application submissions are due by November 24, 2013.