Tezpur, 18 March: Tezpur University’s (TU) School of Engineering inaugurated a two-day Capacity Building Program for Design and Entrepreneurship (CBDE) Pedagogy Workshop today. CBDE is a key component of the Malaviya Mission Teacher Training Program Scheme under the Ministry of Education. Indian Institute of Information Technology Design and Manufacturing (IIITDM), Kancheepuram, is the nodal centre for its implementation throughout India.
Tezpur University is one of the nine Higher Educational Institutions selected to host this prestigious pedagogy workshop, which focuses on promoting design and entrepreneurship in academic curricula. Prof. Shambhu Nath Singh, Vice Chancellor, TU, delivering the inaugural address, said that with a mechanism for continuous innovation support, along with the capacity building of faculty, the ambience of the University for entrepreneurial activities is getting strengthened.
Dr. Sudhir Vardarajan, Program Director of the CBDE Program, emphasized the importance of pedagogy in promoting learning and innovation in classrooms. He said that the ideas we generate must be fresh and original, as mere variants of old ideas lack sustainability. Educational institutions possess a robust knowledge ecosystem, and industries are increasingly open to collaborating with academia, he further added. Prof. Manabendra Bhuyan, Former Pro-Vice-Chancellor of TU, underscored the challenges of fostering entrepreneurship in educational institutions. He remarked, “It is easy to produce engineers but difficult to produce entrepreneurs.”
Prof. Sankar Chandra Deka, Dean of the School of Engineering, emphasized the importance of design thinking in addressing complex challenges. Prof. MK Hazarika, the workshop coordinator, urged participants to move beyond conventional classroom teaching and adopt a problem-solving approach. The workshop witnessed participation from faculty members of esteemed institutions such as NIT Silchar, NIT Meghalaya, NEHU, and Tezpur University. TU has nominated 22 faculty members to participate as CBDE faculty in the first year.
