Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Kakodkar calls for holistic approach to engineering education

Special Correspondent

"Create engineers proficient in conventional sciences and emerging knowledge-driven era"

CHENNAI: A holistic approach to engineering education is needed to help young engineers develop a wider capability to understand various domains, Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary, Department of Atomic Energy, said on Thursday.

The problem of attracting quality young people to engineering education was acute in various parts of the world, though in India, the systems were in place to attract such students and competent faculty to engineering disciplines, he said, inaugurating the Conference on International Engineering Education, organised here by the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences and the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras.

As the challenge for western economies lay in attracting students from other countries to cope with the shortfall of students in their universities, there was a tremendous scope for complimentary efforts. Another critical issue was that of environmental sustainability. Young engineers had to be equipped to cope with the development process. The domains of education, research and technology had to be pursued simultaneously.

The Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education had started an initiative to focus on students preparing for the International Olympiad to keep scientific research alive.

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