Summary
Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences and Technology will offer Masters and PhD programmes in Health Sciences and Technology and boost research in therapeutics, diagnostics, stem cells, public health, and health data analytics
The facility will also offer courses on Biosciences and Bioengineering, Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mathematics and Statistics, and Design
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati has collaborated with Mehta Family Foundation (MFF), a USA-based organisation that aims to create intellectual talent by fostering new programmes in partnership with education institutions in India, to establish the Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences and Technology.
This new facility at IIT Guwahati will commence academic activities during the ongoing academic year.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed virtually on May 14 between IIT Guwahati and MFF in the presence of Ajay K Sood, principal scientific adviser to the Union government; Rajiv I Modi, the chairman of the Board of Governors at IIT Guwahati and chairman and managing director of Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd; Rahul Mehta, the CEO of Mehta Family Foundation and senior office bearers of IIT Guwahati.
Addressing the event, Sood said, “I congratulate IIT Guwahati and the Mehta Family Foundation for this remarkable initiative. At this juncture, I can clearly foresee that the School of Health Sciences and Technology would host a number of modern academic curricula, centres of excellence, incubators, and research laboratories for the advancements in multi-disciplinary research and education, which are presently needed in the country.”
“The school will also bring in the budding academic leaders in the closest proximity of world-class educationists, scientists, physicians, technologists, and entrepreneurs, which may catalyse high-impact research, diminish expensive biomedical imports, and engender an academic curriculum that substantiates the vision of a sustainable society,” he added.
The Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences and Technology has launched new Masters and PhD programmes in Health Sciences and Technology this academic year. The first batch of 20 MTech students in the stream of Biomedical Science and Engineering will be admitted to IIT Guwahati through GATE 2022.
Highlighting the initiatives to be taken up by the new centre, IIT Guwahati director T G Sitharam said, “The institute profoundly thanks the Mehta Family Foundation for their generous support towards establishing this second new programme on Health Sciences and Technology at IIT Guwahati, which will inculcate cutting-edge education and research in the areas related to therapeutics, diagnostics, prosthesis, implantation, bioinformatics, molecular biology, regenerative medicine, stem cells, public health, and health data analytics, among many others.”
Speaking about the vision of the Houston-based Mehta Family Foundation, the chairperson of the organisation, Rahul Mehta, said, “The Mehta Family Foundation has supported higher education in India and internationally for decades. It is an absolute privilege to partner with IIT Guwahati to create this new school of Health Science and Technology. We believe that education is fundamental for economic development. This multidisciplinary research and education school will foster innovation in new areas at the frontier of the healthcare revolution to deliver sustainable solutions to improve the healthcare of the people in India.”
This new multi-disciplinary programme on Health Sciences and Technology at IIT Guwahati has been designed based on National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The NEP advocates development of a holistic academic curriculum to nurture the best talents of the country through both pedagogic as well as hands-on training.
The newly established school aims to train the students in topics related to Health Science and Technology, with the emphasis on courses from other disciplines of science and engineering such as Biosciences and Bioengineering, Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mathematics and Statistics, and Design.
The new facility will:
· Foster cutting-edge research and innovation
· Establish new standards of pedagogy and hands-on training methods in the areas related to health sciences
· Create a niche of start-ups and MSMEs that will provide evidence-based affordable healthcare technologies
· Promote state-of-art biomedical and public health education
This school will have highly qualified full-time faculty alongside having the guidance of the associated faculty members from diverse disciplines within IIT Guwahati, who have experience in nurturing the existing Masters’ and PhD programmes in the Engineering, Science, and Design departments.
Last updated on 17 May 2022
