Bhubaneswar, Nov. 7: Teachers of technical education and policy makers came together at Innovation in Education and Engineering Design - IEED 2016 to discuss the various aspects of innovation that can be brought into education in general and particularly in engineering design.

The event was organised by the Design Innovation Centre at IIT Bhubaneswar in collaboration with the planning and convergence department of the state government.

Former director, Tata Sons Ltd., R. Gopalakrishnan, who was the chief guest, suggested that the IIT Bhubaneswar and the state government collaboratively introduce an MBA degree in design management. The programme, he suggested, should have six verticals such as arts and architecture, botany and biology, digital robotics and artificial intelligence, neuro science, design engineering and integration.

The idea was much appreciated by participants from engineering institutes, universities, schools and the state government who attended the event. The inaugural session was followed by three brainstorming sessions during which the delegates engaged the participants in interactive events.

IIT Bhubaneswar director R.V. Raja Kumar explained various innovative approaches in engineering design education that should be followed in order to ensure holistic development of students.

The planning and convergence department also decided to institute two awards at the IIT Bhubaneswar - one for innovative ideas and the other for successful innovative and proven concepts, projects, and prototypes at the institute. The workshop also tried to bridge the gap between academics, policy makers and practitioners to come up with practical solutions.

"These deliberations brought out a general view about the present status of the teaching-learning pedagogy in the field of engineering design. The current status shows that there is plenty of scope of improvement in this field," said Arun Pradhan, a senior faculty member at the IIT.

"The interactions were interesting and it was a good learning exercise. We got the opportunity to listen to all stakeholders, including the policy makers, in the field of higher technical education and faculty members of engineering about their ideas of implementing innovative ways of engineering design teaching," said Prabhat Sahoo, a participant at the event.

On Saturday, the IIT Bhubaneswar observed a unity run (a mini marathon) from the IIT main gate in Argul to Khurda railway station as part of the week-long celebrations on the occasion of the nationwide campaign - Rashtriya Ekta Saptah.