Notebook – Rendezvous

Pulling off a feat

Srivatsan — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 05:06:38 +0000

Planning and designing infrastructure for the first ever IIT campus outside India sounds like a ton of paperwork and a logistical nightmare, given that the project involves the Ministry of Education (MoE), Govt. of India, IIT Madras and Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT) Zanzibar-Tanzania. Prof. Ligy Philip, Dean, Planning, IIT-M, discusses what went into the making of the historic campus at Zanzibar, and the challenges that lie ahead

Srivatsan S

When Ligy Philip was chosen as the professor-in-charge of infrastructure for IIT-M’s first offshore campus at Zanzibar, Tanzania, the news did not come as a surprise. As the Dean, Planning, Ligy has been responsible for IIT-M’s thriving and futuristic infrastructure, on campus, over the last decade.

She became the Chairperson of Engineering Unit in 2014 and later the Dean, Planning (Infrastructure and Finance), in 2017, and has been involved in various aspects of planning, development and sustainability of IIT-M as well as the 163-acre Discovery Campus at Thaiyur.

Ligy casually namedrops some of the mammoth projects she has undertaken at IIT-M: construction of B-type apartments, New Academic Complex (second version), Biotechnology Block (second version) Mandakini Hostel, Sports Complex and so on.

She sees the latest distinction — as Professor-in-charge of infrastructure at the IIT Madras Zanzibar — as an “extension” of her decorated portfolio. “The only difference is, it is not in India this time,” laughs Ligy, as we sit for a conversation on what went into the planning of the Zanzibar campus.

Before we start, Ligy acknowledges the responsibility bestowed upon her. “It is going to be a challenge since it is our first international campus and I am aware that all eyes are on us. Our aim is to make a truly world class institute that has a mix of [Indian, Zanzibar and global] cultures. In a way, it’s not a new challenge for me; I’m confident that we will do a good job,” she says.

The first step towards planning an international campus of the size of IIT Madras Zanzibar — with a promised 215-acre land — was to determine the larger relevance of having such a global institution. “We have to plan in such a way that there are no missteps. That is very important to us. For instance, we are not going to get extra land for the next 20 years. Our goal right now is to set up a campus for 3,000 to 5,000 students,” adds Ligy.

The catch? There are two governments involved in the Zanzibar project. Which means that unilateral decisions offer little to no help. Which is why Ligy says that the Zanzibar project will have a Planning Committee consisting of distinguished members from India and Zanzibar, who have envisioned such campuses both locally and internationally. “The committee will decide on how the permanent campus should be. We have been thinking of recruiting a few international consultants as well,” she says.

Winds of change

Setting up an international campus as big as IIT-M Zanzibar sounds like a ton of paperwork and a logistical nightmare, given that the project involves a lot of back and forth between the two countries. Ligy’s primary concern, however, is the execution part. “I don’t see any challenge in terms of planning since we will have a committee with experienced people who will be helping us out. Whether we get good quality construction workers, materials and so on…those are the challenges.”

For the permanent campus, the land has been identified, inspected and reported to the Government of Zanzibar that has given its approval. Once the formal paperwork is done, plans are on to lay the foundation stone in November 2023. “There is a lot of weed growth in that area, which has to be cleared. We have to put a boundary mark and construct walls. Before that, we have come up with a budget and get it approved [by them] because the entire funding comes from there.”

Unlike the 630-acre IIT-M, whose current student count stands at a staggering 12,500, the Zanzibar campus is primed to have a lot of interactive spaces for students; something the parent institution lacks, believes Ligy.

Facilities are being planned to cover the demography of students from undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programmes. “Naturally, there will be a lot of laboratories,” she says, adding, “At the same time, we are going to give regional importance. We want to factor in all of these during the planning phase.”

There isn’t a concrete time frame as to when the permanent campus will be fully functional, although the work is likely to begin by the end of this year. Which is why Ligy hopes to execute the monumental task at hand in carefully-planned phases.

Phase I will have the essentials: “Like hostel accommodation, for instance,” says Ligy, adding, “Depending on the requirement, we will come up with the skeleton, which can later be converted into an actual project.”

A new building, which was constructed for the Karume Institute of Science and Technology, has been given to IIT Madras by the Government of Zanzibar to set up a temporary campus in Bweleo district of Zanzibar, until the permanent campus is ready for operations.

Since the building was constructed to serve the purpose of a regular college, Ligy says, a lot of modifications had to be made to classrooms as well as other facilities. The modified building is now equipped with smart classrooms, seminar halls and an open air auditorium for students to meet and interact with.

“It wasn’t a residential campus, so dining facilities were not there. We had to do a dining hall and a laundry dispensary facility,” says Ligy, adding that the hostel had to be renovated too.

The temporary facility can now house 70 students for the first year. “But we do plan to rent out some place for other students nearby so that they can stay together. There is an international residential colony that is not even 5kms from the campus,” she adds.

The Government of Zanzibar, informs Ligy, did not insist for the campus to be a 100 percent residential institution. But the team from IIT-M felt that having a residential campus has its merits on students, benefitting them from co-living and co-learning. At the same time, an international housing colony right next to the campus has been selected to put up faculty and staff, so that they don’t need to stay on campus like the IITs.

Ligy says that 70 percent of civil and electrical work are complete for the Zanzibar campus, which is eyeing for a grand inauguration on October 24, 2023. Furniture, mostly flexible types that can easily be converted to meet other purposes, has been sourced from India. “What we are thinking in the new campus is, we don’t want to make anything rigid. If it’s a classroom then it should not just serve the purpose of a classroom forever [like in IIT-M, where classrooms are mostly empty in the afternoon]. Like, it can be converted into a conference room too, for instance. We don’t want to waste space,” she says.

Gajendras at Bweleo

In September, IIT-M was certified with a platinum rating (with a score of 80 out of 90) from The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) as a result of an independent audit for its performance towards achieving a green campus. Similar plans have been envisioned for the permanent campus at Zanzibar, with sustainability being the root of their development master plans.

“We want the new campus to be climate resilient since it’s on an island. Right from the materials to construction, we will be looking into each and every aspect. The design will be in such a way that there is minimum use of air conditioners since we will benefit a lot from the sea breeze,” she says, adding, “We will also be looking into renewable sources of energy. We will definitely be recycling water [like we do at IIT-M] as the campus grows. Solar is another area we are looking at.”

Ligy will leave for Zanzibar in the first week of October to supervise the remaining work before the official launch. But what about the permanent campus? Will it have the characteristics of IIT-M or have its own character?

“Certainly both,” assures Ligy, adding that IIT-M Zanzibar will have the facets and features of both India and Tanzania. “We want the international campus to have a mix of cultures [from India, Tanzania and global]. Though the goal is to set up an institution that is world-class, we have to respect the regional culture at the same time.”

As a matter of fact, work has already begun to install IIT-M’s iconic Gajendra Circle, which has been the symbol for what the institution stands for, at the temporary campus. “Instead of two Indian elephants, there will be one African and one Indian elephant on either side,” she says, “The African elephant will hold the Zanzibar and Tanzania flags, while the other elephant will hold the Indian flag.”

Stand and deliver

Srivatsan — Tue, 26 Sep 2023 08:02:51 +0000

As teaching evolves rapidly in an ever-changing world, how do professionals equip themselves to meet the demands of the times? What are the measures that professors take to ensure that they don’t fall back? How do they bridge the generational gap? Prof. C Balaji weighs in

C Balaji

Professor Martin Seligman, one of the leading lights on Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, U.S, avers that making difficult concepts look simple in class is one of the great sources of joy for him. Calling it his principal “signature strengths”, Seligman further adds that “inspired teaching” is one of the key motivators of his life. I cannot agree with him more. Teaching invigorates; it inspires! It ups the ante and helps push frontiers. Teaching can be a “deadly intoxicant” both for the teacher and learner.

As I step into my thirtieth year as a professor-researcher, having spent nearly 25 years at IIT Madras alone, I have so many vivid memories of what I would like to call “the great platform”: classroom. I am reminded of the quintessential classroom things: the intuitive insights; the all too-familiar frown, the stamp of approval, the “aha” causing a glow in the eyes, the burning desire to interrupt the teacher in order to get a point clarified, the peals of laughter, the pregnant pauses, the serious and animated discussions…the list is endless. The myriad hues the classroom offers is pure joy.

The secret sauce

At the risk of sounding modest, I must admit that good teaching is always a work in progress. In the ensuing journey, the role of successive batches of students in shaping the sharpness of delivery is by no means small. The secret sauce to my teaching is the belief that the best is yet to come. This boyish enthusiasm is the fuel that powers the engine of inspired teaching.

I believe clarity and care are the cornerstones of high-quality teaching. Needless to say, clarity in this context is an umbrella word that includes hard work, motivation, adequate preparation and the willingness to engage with students. Without the aforementioned attributes, clarity becomes a casualty. A caring teacher constantly looks for the glow in the eyes of students, which in turn reflects on the effectiveness of their teaching. This care needs to evolve with time and has to be more inclusive such that even the person sitting in the last bench is convinced of what’s being taught.

Over the years, I have learned to overlook students’ behaviour in the classroom. This quality has made me affable and has helped to deliver in class. The early days, especially at a time when students were just a couple of years younger to me, were a wonderful training ground for me. Students would constantly try to score a point from me and I would try to combat them.

These formative years are important for a young academic to prepare, engage and deliver. Lately, though, I find the “desire to challenge the teacher” has reduced substantially. This does not resonate with me. You do need a certain degree of irreverence from students to teach at the highest level.

Sustaining students’ interest in and out of the classroom continues to be a challenge. We, as teachers, have a problem at hand and we have got to deal with it. Students from the latest Generation Z come with varied interests that result in reduced attention span. This is perfectly understandable in a rapidly changing digital world where AI is taking the world by storm. Tools like Chat GPT have only compounded the problem. Figuring out a successful teaching-learning (TL) process is akin to finding an oasis in a desert! The teachers of today and tomorrow have to reinvent themselves over time in order to stay relevant.

Changing times

Let me quote from my personal experience. Giving surprising examples, presenting intuitive and counterintuitive perspectives to the lesson being taught and engaging the students with in class problem solving methods are some of the measures that can serve as an antidote to the challenging TL process.

The last of the aforementioned strategies requires enormous effort on the part of the teacher to come up with new and challenging problems. When it comes to surprising examples, let me share one that has really worked. In a modelling class, let’s say I start with the question, “Why is homemade sambar tastier than restaurant sambar?”

After waiting for responses, I tell them that the taste of sambar can be mathematically modelled using the laws of probability. If the control variables are the quantity of vegetables, lentils, curry powder, tamarind and so on, one can argue that the taste of sambar actually follows a Gaussian with maximum occurrence, when each of these quantities is at an optimum value. Now, the final taste is a joint probability density function which is a product of all these probabilities.

At a restaurant, the quantity of each of these ingredients is fixed as the process is industrialised. Hence, the taste is maximum that gets insipid after repeated visits. Therefore, there is no variability in taste which makes it devoid of any surprises. The homemade sambar, on the other hand, is not based on exact measures and the natural variability in the quantities of each of the ingredients makes the final taste different every time.

This simple sambar example gives hope to students who might get overwhelmed with the idea of modelling. We have noticed that creative examples not just help in understanding the concept but have a better recall value. Ultimately, teaching and learning are cornerstones of a progressive society. And “inspired instruction” and “joyful learning” are sine qua non in the development of communities, societies, nations and the world itself. Happy teaching. Happy learning.

Mid-semester musings

Srivatsan — Thu, 04 May 2023 09:45:45 +0000

From chasing away monkeys to preparing a comprehensive yet accessible Spider Graph, Preeti Aghalayam writes on the multiple hats a professor at IIT-M wears — whether by choice or chance

Preeti Aghalayam

It’s 7.50am. Cars outside IIT-M’s main gate stretch back all the way up to Madhya Kailash. Horns blare their impatience, and the frustration of a Monday morning commute hangs heavy. As I enter the campus, a sense of calm descends almost immediately. The tree-lined avenues ahead are welcoming, cocooning even. A couple of kilometres of driving and a song on my lips, puts me smack-bang in the academic zone.

With earphones plugged in, a motley group of students walk; some pedal their way on cycles, unmindful of the traffic. There is an unwritten rule on the campus: deer and monkeys; pedestrians and cyclists; and professors and staff are given decreasing order of importance. I slow down, catch my breath and inch forward, trying to avoid a particularly belligerent cyclist who swerves in front of me. I have finally made it! Just a minute or two before 8am.

As I walk up to the Classroom Complex (CRC) building, I notice the massive banyan tree, whose arms have spread everywhere. How old must this beautiful piece of Nature be, I wonder, as I power walk my way through a chatty bunch of students to the classroom. This term we are in a new place, a fully-equipped hybrid teaching-learning studio, thanks to NPTEL (National Platform for Technology Enabled Learning), a massive online learning initiative by the IITs and IISc.

The studio — with its plush-green seats, bright maroon curtains, and a full-fledged audio-video set-up — is colourful and has the right vibe for a modern classroom. Pretty soon, I’m letting the students in — on a giant screen. Yes, this is a hybrid classroom with 20-plus students on campus with us, sitting in those plush-green seats, and a handful logging in remotely from Kathmandu, Nepal.

“There are monkeys in the stairwell,” says Bikram*, his eyebrows raised in wonder and a bit of fear, perhaps. I notice several students behind him; they all laugh in one voice. Meanwhile, I pick up a handy stick hiding amidst the AV equipment and go chase the monkeys away, and escort the rest of the class in. The things we end up doing as professors, I tell you!

Scenes from a classroom

“Well, let us start the class at least as per Indian Standard Time,” I joke. Time and again, we have grown used to all the excuses students come up with when they are late to class. It is not like we have it easy either: traffic was maddening, parking was hard to find, I had no time for breakfast, and then the dappled sunshine through the trees looked so particularly beautiful today I ended up admiring the view for a bit…the list goes on. But yes, eight in the morning is objectively early at any rate. I will give them that.

The class starts with a poll; there are titters as I explain how to access the poll. I stop mid-sentence realising that those born in the smartphone generation don’t necessarily need an explanation on QR codes. “The most important research skill is the ability to observe your surroundings,” I tell them. But before I can finish, they have finished with the poll — and the responses are a good mix of reflection and humour. It makes my heart warm with hope.

Today’s class is about making plots and graphs to visualise scientific data. I show them some of the “bad examples”; and ask them to be critical. The students have at least 10 things to complain about: some are important, and some are nit-picky. I walk around the classroom, before asking them to sketch an improved version.

Meanwhile, Dipti* unmutes her mic and calls for my attention. She holds up her version of the (improved) graph in front of the camera. We all love it. The class continues with a few more examples — the Spider Graph, which many students had not seen before, is a hit.

We have our many arguments and, as one would expect from a class with such diversity — female students constitute 20%, while 40% are from Africa, two students are from Bangladesh, and of course we have a group joining from Nepal — the discussion is rich. When you are in such a vibrant classroom, time progresses swiftly. We were all exhausted at the end of the hour, though I enjoyed every minute with them. And if the smiles of the students as they troop out are anything to go by, so have they.

As I walk out of the classroom, I emerge into Chennai’s sunshine and make my way over to the canteen for a cup of strong South Indian filter coffee. My mind buzzes with the thought of data, graphs and Slido polls. I check my watch, it’s only 9am.

*The names of students were changed. To know more about NPTEL, visit: https://nptel.ac.in/