Odisha HRD

NISER Bhubaneswar advertises for faculty positions

Update:The expanded ads are now in the NISER web site. See the links below.

• Regular Faculty Positions- Humanities
• Regular Faculty Positions- All Schools
• Non-Academic Staff Positions (10)

One thing to note is that NISER is likely to implement the PRIS (Performance related incentive scheme) of DAE under which there is provision for monthly incentive of 20% of basic salary. This is already implemented in some DAE institutions. See for example http://www.saha.ac.in/cs/adm.cs/ADM/PRIS.pdf.

The expanded version of this ad is not yet in NISER website. The ad from last year is at http://niser.ac.in/notices/2009/new-faculty.php and gives an idea of how much the initial salaries will be. following is an excerpt.

ASST. PROFESSOR : Pay Band Rs 15,600 – 39,100 + Grade Pay 7,600
Basic pay on initial appointment will be Rs 29,920 + 22% D.A at current rates + 20% HRA on basic pay. Total emoluments will be approximately Rs 44,438/- per month.

READER (F) – Pay Band Rs 37,400 – 67,000 + Grade Pay 8,700
Basic pay on initial appointment will be Rs 46,100 + 22% DA at current rates + 20% HRA on basic pay. Total emoluments will be approximately Rs 67,414/- per month.

Currently NISER has the following numbers of faculty in the various disciplines:

• Chemical Sciences: 12 permanent + 5 visiting
• Biological Sciences: 10 permanent + 5 visiting
• Physical Sciences: 10 permanent + 4 visiting
• Mathematical Sciences: 5 permanent + 3 visiting
• Others: 4 visiting

This adds up to a total of 37 permanent and 21 visiting faculty.

As a comparison IIT Bhubaneswar currently has 37 permanent faculty and 4 visiting faculty with the following break-up.

• Basic Sciences (14 permanent: Chemistry -7; Math -3; Physics – 4; and 2 visiting)
• Electrical Sciences (5 permanent)
• Infrastructure (6 permanent)
• Mechanical Sciences (8 permanent)
• Humanities, Social Sciences & Management (4 permanent and 2 visiting)

1 comment June 1st, 2010

Tender invitation (again) for construction of hospital complex for the six new AIIMS like institutions

Update: The press release corresponding to the ad below is now available at http://www.mohfw.nic.in/31Press%20relaease.doc. It does not have any additional info though.

The advertisement below appeared in various newspapers today. Although the ad mentions that more details are in the http://www.mohfw.nic.in/ site, nothing is there yet. (It may take a few days for more details to appear there.)

A similar tender invitation was issued in November 2009. See https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3610 and https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3408. Earlier in May 2008, tenders were floated for the housing complex. See https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1121.  (Even older links related to tenders for the AIIMS-like institution in Bhubaneswar are at https://www.orissalinks.com/?p=970.)

The PIB release http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=59071 (see also https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3962)  gives the status of the construction of residential complex until March 2010.

May 30th, 2010

Education through entrance tests: Excerpts from an interesting article by Profs. P. Jalote and A. Singh

Prof. Jalote is the Director of IIIT Delhi and is on leave from IIT Delhi. Previously he taught at IIT Kanpur and University of Maryland. Prof. Singh is a professor at Auburn University, Alabama. Both are alumni of IITs. Following are excerpts from their article in Economic Times.

… The difficulty of cracking these tests have led to the booming coaching industry — it seems the vast majority of students appearing in these exams undergo some form of coaching for them. This impact of coaching has been decried by many. In academic circles, it is a common complain that coaching is allowing even average students to crack the exams, and how exams ought to be changed so that deserving students can clear even without coaching.

It should be clearly understood that the success of coaching is not due to the nature of the exams, but due to the low acceptance ratio in these exams. With these low accept rates, it is irrelevant whether the nature of exam is such that coaching will help or not.

… Anybody who thinks that coaching can be made redundant by reforming the admission tests is living in a state of denial.

There is another aspect of coaching that deserves attention. Coaching is big business: by some accounts, coaching for IITs is bigger than IITs themselves in terms of turnover. Consequently, it is able to attract good teachers by offering high salaries. One hears about IIT/IIM grads teaching in these coaching institutes, but one cannot come across an IIT/IIM graduate as a teacher in a school — even elite schools do not have this distinction. So, in many coaching centres, the quality of education is superior to that of schools, particularly with respect to the entrance test subjects. As the business success depends on how well they help the students do in the entrance exams, their teaching, as measured with respect to success in these exams, continues to improve and they take great care to improve it.

So, we have the following situation. Coaching institutes will continue to thrive as long as the accept ratio remains small. And coaching business will ensure that its teachers and teaching processes are well-equipped to impart training to students to do better at the competitive exam.

This situation, undesirable thought it is, can, however, be converted into an opportunity to improve education. As coaching institutes focus on the entrance tests and the syllabus for them, it provides a power to these exams in that whatever they put as syllabus or as expected knowledge, the coaching institutes will ensure that students get good at that. Even for those students who do not undergo coaching, these exams are highly influential — students learn/ study for these exams with a mission and dedication that they don’t show for anything else.

IF THESE large exams were to be oriented such that preparation for them will make the foundations for the key subjects much stronger and will force the students to really understand the subjects better, the coaching industry will ensure that this knowledge is imparted to students. That is, the syllabus and expectation is potentially a strong force on what students learn in the 2-3 years they prepare for the entrance exams, through coaching or on their own.

If this learning can be strengthened, then even if the students do not get through in these exams — which the vast majority will not — the preparation for them will give them strong foundations in some key subjects. This can be leveraged by other institutions.

… So, instead of fighting coaching by making exams like JEE harder and more theoretical every year, such large exams can leverage the competition for the larger good of improving the education and preparedness of students.

If these exams are thought of as a potential tool in the armory of the country for fighting the poor education standards, rather than just for admitting students into these institutes, then they can favourably impact the lakhs of students who attend JEE, and not just of the selected few thousands who actually enter the IITs, whose skills will be upgraded anyway to top levels by the top quality education that they will be provided. By doing so, institutions like the IITs and the entrance exams they have, will be making a solid contribution to improving the workforce in the country , as they have done in creating the top-level manpower.

I agree with the main point in the above mentioned article. Earlier I wrote my views on coaching at https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/4178.

However, there is an issue with respect to many students not being able to afford coaching. Couple of things that the governments may do are:

• Provide coaching in some government schools such as Navodaya Vidyalayas.
• Provide other avenues for good coaching such as attempts to replicate the Super 30 in Bihar by other governments.
• Bring coaching classes and the +2 level under the ambit of RTE and require that certain percentage of the students there are from poorer background.
• Provide scholarships to poor students to be able to afford good coaching.

2 comments May 16th, 2010

Application form for PG Diploma in Public Health Management at IIPH Bhubaneswar, Delhi, Gandhinagar and Hyderabad: Deadline May 31st 2010

The following is a jpg version of the application form found at http://www.phfi.org/downloads/pdf/Application%20form%20-%20PGDPHM.pdf.

See http://www.phfi.org/downloads/pdf/ for various other PHFI and IIPH documents and forms. They are not properly linked from the homepage.

6 comments May 16th, 2010

IIPH Bhubaneswar starts with a 1 yr PG Diploma in Public Health Management

Note that currently this program (PG Diploma in Public Health Management) is not offered by AIPH Bhubaneswar. Currently AIPH offers a certificate in Public Health Management, PG Diploma in Public Health Informatics and MPH (in collaboration with Ravenshaw University).

May 4th, 2010

CIPET ad for M.Tech and Ph.D at its Bhubaneswar center: Samaja

May 3rd, 2010

Xavier University bill getting fine tuned; plans to offer undergraduate programs

Sources suggest that the Xavier University Bill is getting finalized and may be introduced in the Odisha assembly in the upcoming assembly session. There is plan that the proposed Xavier University (which will be established by the XIMB people) will have undergraduate programs including in Arts and Commerce.

This would be a Godsend. While Odisha now has top notch programs in Engineering (at IIT, NIT, VSSUT, CIPET), Science (NISER), Law (NLUO), Business (XIMB), Social Work (NISWASS), Public Health (AIPH, and soon IIPH) and Education (RIE), and soon will have a top notch program in fashion design (NIFT) and medicine (AIIMS-like Institute), it does not have top programs in Commerce and Arts. Thus the proposed Xavier University offering these programs will fill a huge lacuna. There are several reasons I believe that the Arts and Commerce programs at the proposed Xavier University will be top notch.

• They have track record in Odisha and India. Their XIMB is among the top ranked business schools in the country.
• The top ranked Arts and Commerce programs in the country include many other sister Jesuit institutions such as Loyola Colleges, St. Xavier’s colleges and St. Joseph’s colleges.
• Xavier University being a university will be able to modernize and revise its programs at will and thus will have advantage over other colleges that need to work with their universities. (Some of the top ranked colleges are now autonomous though.)
• Many of the other top ranked colleges are uni-disciplinary. Xavier University will be able to share faculty among multiple programs and thus able to create more multi-dimensional programs.

The proposed Xavier University offering top notch arts and commerce programs would help the other institutions to improve their arts and commerce programs and may even encourage other groups (such as KIIT and ITER) to establish good programs in Arts and commerce.

Thus the Odisha government should not delay and speed up the creation of Xavier University.

Following is from India Today’s 2009 list of top ranked Arts and Commerce programs in India.

May 2nd, 2010

IIT Bhubaneswar faculty list

Update on August 26 2010:

• N. Barik, School of Basic Sciences (Physics)
• Y. V. Rao, School of Basic Sciences (Mathematics)
• Animesh Mandal, School of Mechanical Sciences
• Anamitra Basu, School of Humanities and Social Sciences (In IIT Bhubaneswar 2010-11 brochure)
  • Bio: Ph: +91 9674498481 Email: anamitrabasu2@gmail.com
    Dr. Anamitra Basu is presently working as an Assistant Professor in the School of Humanities, Social Sciences and Management of the institute. She joined the institute as a faculty member in 2010, after serving tenure as an assistant professor for almost four years at the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati. Earlier she has also served the academia for two years as lecturer in a reputed institute. Her experience in hospital industry for more than four years inspired her to undertake field of Cognitive Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology as the field of research. She was a Gold Medallist in Bachelors degree from the University of Calcutta. She obtained her Masters degree from the University of Calcutta in the year 1996. She obtained her doctorate from IIT Kharagpur and her post doctorate study from University Balise Pascal, France. She has two peer reviewed international journals in the field of Cognitive Psychology and three other
    international journals are awaiting. Her present research includes Emotion and facial expressions using electromyography (EMG) and producing a new database along with her earlier research fields. She has always been an active member in conferences, workshops. She is a life member of National Academy of Sciences (NAOP), Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) and Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI).
• Sisir Kumar Nayak, School of Electrical Sciences (In IIT Bhubaneswar 2010-11 brochure)
  • Ph.D IISc Bangalore 2009. Postdoc at Royal Inst of Technology-KTH, Stockholm, Sweden.

With this the total faculty count is at 46: Basic Sciences (17), Electrical Sciences (6), Infrastructure (8), Mechanical Sciences (9), Humanities and Social Sciences (6)

Update on August 20 2010:

• Dukhabandhu Sahoo, School of Humanities and Social Sciences

Update on June 11 2010: Since the list below was made, some new faculty have joined. They are:

• Arindam Sarkar, Infrastructure
• Dipti Ranjan Sahoo, Infrastructure
• Tarakant Nayak, Mathematics

Merging the lists at http://www.iitbbs.ac.in/ver3/facultymember.html and http://www.iitbbs.ac.in/ver3/pdf/pic.pdf we get the following list of 37 faculty at IIT Bhubaneswar. (Our earlier list was at https://www.orissalinks.com/archives/3364.) The schoolwise break up is as follows:

• Basic Sciences (14: Chemistry -7; Math -3; Physics – 4)
• Electrical Sciences (5)
• Infrastructure (6)
• Mechanical Sciences (8)
• Humanities, Social Sciences & Management (4)

1 comment April 26th, 2010

CSIR Post Graduate Research Program in Engineering – 10 seats at IMMT Bhubaneswar

April 26th, 2010

IIT act to be ammended to include medicine; Despite objections by the Health Ministry IIT Kharagpur to start medical school in collaboration with Indian Railways

Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.

In a written reply in Lok Sabha on Wednesday, minister of state for HRD D Purandeshwari said the ministry has decided to amend the IIT Act, the law that governs IITs, to include medical science. The health ministry had said that IITs should not be allowed to start conventional courses in medicine.

The amendment, Purandeshwari said, would help IITs to offer programmes bringing together the diverse disciplines of medicine and engineering. Referring to the health ministry’s objection, she said, "However, appreciating the fact that the modern trends in medical education and research in technology and medicine in all the developed and most of the developing countries are seen hand-in-hand, the government proposes to incorporate `medicine’ in the IIT Act."

Purandeswari said the programme would bring the two important disciplines of medicine and engineering together.

… IIT Kharagpur has come up with a concrete proposal in this regard and plans to start a medical college in collaboration with Indian Railways. At a meeting of experts in the health ministry in February this year, it was observed that IITs should start courses on health information technology, biomedical engineering and e-health rather than running a hospital or starting MBBS courses.

There are several lessons that Odisha can draw from this.

• As Purna Mishra suggested in a comment, VSSUT and the VSS Medical College in Burla should combine to form a single university.
• NIT Rourkela and IIT Bhubaneswar should consider adding a medical college as part of the institute; NIT could include the proposed ESI medical college and IIT could include the proposed Railways medical college.

April 22nd, 2010

IIT Bhubaneswar makes some key hires

Update: IIT Bhubaneswar web site is now updated and lists most of the new faculty that have joined.

A key hire that IIT Bhubaneswar recently made is of Prof. S C De Sarkar.

Prof. De Sarkar was the deputy Director at IIT Kharagpur and my teacher (in the Compiler course) when I was doing my B.Tech in Computer Science & Engineering. He was the best teacher I encountered during my B.Tech degree. He has had many star Ph.D students including some who have won the Bhatnagar award.

He has joined IIT Bhubaneswar as the Dean of Faculty. In the words of IIT Bhubaneswar director Prof. Chakraborty: "He is now a great strength of IIT Bhubaneswar."

Some of the other highlights releted to recent hires (obtained from the IIT Bhubaneswar web page) are:

• Dr. C.N. Bhende, Asst. Prof. of Electrical Sciences received the best thesis award at Doctoral level from INAE.
• Dr. Sumanta Haldar Assistant Prof. of school of Infrastructure has been adjudged as the best Ph.D. thesis in India in the field of Geotechnical Engineering by the Indian Geotechnical Society.

April 18th, 2010

Regional Institute of Education Mysore offers 6 yrs M.Sc Ed integrated program. What about RIE Bhubaneswar?

Following is an excerpt from a report in Times of India.

The MSC Ed, an integrated six-year course (12 semesters), introduced in 2008 is the right way to master teaching skills. Offering quality teacher education programmes is the Regional Institute of Education that include innovative pre-service and in-service teacher training programmes and relevant research, development and extension activities.

The institute started as Regional College of Education in 1963, changed the name in 1994. It is one of the five such institutions established by the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT), New Delhi. The other institutes are located at Ajmer, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar and Shilong.

Prior to the six-year course, there was a two-year MSC Ed course for those who had completed BSC Ed, said Regional Institute of Education Principal GT Bhandage. "It had a good response and the students from all over the country would appear for the entrance exam. This course was conceived essentially to meet the demand of the higher secondary level in specific subjects like physics, chemistry and mathematics. Students who have passed out from this course were absorbed by Navodaya and Kendriya Vidyalaya," added Bhandage.

In 2008, MSC Ed course was introduced after completion of II PUC or equivalent. The idea was to catch them young and train them with pedagogic skills and develop adequate content competency crucial to a teacher education programme, said Bhandage.

The six years integrated course is a combination of BSc and MSC. The first four years, students study physics, chemistry and mathematics while in fifth and final year they can choose a specialization subject.

After completion of the course one can get into Higher Secondary Schools or can do research.

… The admissions are made on all India basis through an entrance exam. The selection will be based on the performance in the qualifying exam and entrance exam.

For details log on to www.riemysore.ac.in or call 514515/ 2514095.

RIE Mysore has a website at www.riemysore.ac.in. I have not been able to find a web site for RIE Bhubaneswar. I wonder if RIE Bhubaneswar offers such a course.

Considering the implementation of RTE, there is a big need for more and better trained teachers and educational administrators (headmasters, principals, vice-principals, etc.). To achieve that the government of India should upgrade the RIEs to National Institutes of Education and make them Institutions of National Importance. This will attract the attention of more good students towards a teaching and teaching administration career. The government should incraese the number of seats and number of programs in these institutes and intrdoce programs for creating top-notch Educational administrators.

1 comment April 14th, 2010

Prof. Damodar Acharya Committee reportedly proposes to scrap IIT JEE and other entrance exams

Update: Following are excerpts from a follow-up Telegraph report which mentions about the committee’s recommendation to have wide-spread consultations before making the changes.

But it has advised caution in implementing the reforms. The panel has suggested detailed consultations and workshops with the state governments, other top engineering institutions like the National Institutes of Technology, and private universities.

The recommendations of the panel can be fine-tuned based on the outcome of the consultations, the team led by IIT Kharagpur director Damodar Acharya has suggested. The panel is likely to meet soon and may draw up a schedule for the consultations at that meeting.

… At a meeting of the panel in Chennai on March 16 with representatives of state and central school boards, some participants suggested that rural students be given more opportunities than urban students. The participants proposed two attempts for urban students and three for rural students.

The panel and the HRD ministry will also need to convince state governments that the move to end state-specific engineering tests is not against their interests.

Following is an excerpt from a report in Telegraph.

… The panel, appointed by human resource development minister Kapil Sibal, has recommended replacing the four-decade-old IIT-Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and myriad other engineering entrance examinations with a common test modelled on the US-based scholastic aptitude test (SAT).

The panel has suggested that the IITs accord a 70 per cent weightage to board examination scores in picking students, ..

Scores in the common aptitude test that will replace the IIT-JEE will contribute the remaining 30 per cent weightage in determining which candidates are selected, the panel has recommended.

Unlike the current engineering entrance examinations including the IIT-JEE, the common aptitude test will not have questions on physics, chemistry and math, but will test students’ powers of logical reasoning and communication skills.

If the recommendations are accepted, the IITs will for the first time admit students based more on their board examination marks than on their performance in a special entrance test.

…The minister had announced in February that he was setting up a panel under IIT Kharagpur director Damodar Acharya to study proposed reforms to the IIT-JEE. The panel was appointed in March, with the directors of the IITs in Mumbai, Roorkee and Chennai as the other members.

…  The panel has recommended that the government develop a Comprehensive Weighted Performance Index (CWPI) to calculate a student’s overall score based cumulatively on his performance in the board examinations and in the common aptitude test. The report appears principally based on discussions at a meeting held with other government representatives, including Central Board of Secondary Education chairman Vineet Joshi and select state representatives in Chennai on March 16.

The HRD ministry is already working towards a plan to introduce a common high school curriculum in the sciences and math, cutting across the 35 boards — central and state — that govern Indian school education.

The common curriculum would make easier a comparison between the board examination scores of students from schools affiliated to different central and state government boards, Joshi had told the meeting.

The CWPI proposed by the panel is aimed at normalising any differences that remain between difficulty levels of school-leaving examinations under different boards.

There is a big danger that the above approach will make the XIIth exams a high stakes affair and bring it under the microscope with every aspect of it being scrutinized and judged by everyone. Most coaching classes may reinvent themselves and start coaching how to score more marks in the XIIth exam and the proposed SAT type exam. This approach may bring in bias favoring students from families with educated parents. English being a compulsory subject in XIIth, this may put students in rural areas and other areas where English is less used at a disadvantage.

So one has to wait and see how this will pan out.

My guess is if the above idea is adopted, it will go through some changes such as specific types of colleges may be allowed to give different weight to Class XII marks in different subjects. Some may introduce interviews or other tests.

One change that should be made is that when possible specialty branches should not be assigned to most  students (say 70-80% in any college/institute) immediately after they join a college/institute after the XIIth. That should be determined after a year in that college/institute based on the performance in that year. This will make the class XII exam less cutthroat and ensure that students after they get into a college/institute continue to give importance to academics.

One alternative idea may to test the proposed idea (of using class XIIth marks) on 50% of the seats for a few years before deciding whether to completely abandon the current approach or not.

7 comments April 14th, 2010

IIT Bhubaneswar pitches a Climate Change research center to the Odisha government

Following is an excerpt from a report in Expressbuzz.com.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bhubaneswar has proposed establishment of Innovative Centre for Climate Change (ICCC) here.

Director of IIT-Bhubaneswar Madhusudan Chakraborty who met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik here at the Secretariat today along with a team of experts gave this proposal to him.

Chakraborty said school of earth, ocean and environment is being established in Bhubaneswar IIT.

The school will impart teaching on land, water, air and environment and proposed research in the subject.

The IIT is keen on establishment of research institute of this school on climate change, he said.

Prof Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the American University of Massachusetts, said the institute will conduct research on climate change, adding, information on climate will be availed from different sources for research.

Rise in sea level, extreme weather, changing eco-system, air quality and pollution, affect of the changes in the human health, shortage of drinking and energy needs will be dealt with in this advanced research centre, he said.

The institute will also conduct research on the impact of climate change on the ecosystem of Chilika lake. He requested the Chief Minister to provide land with necessary infrastructure for the institute.

A similar center proposed in 2007, called "Center for Climate Change Research" (CCCR), was established at the Institute of Tropical Meteorology in Pune last year. This center has 20 scientists positions.

March 31st, 2010

Asian Institute of Public Health (AIPH) Bhubaneswar starts PG Diploma in Public Health Informatics; Signs MOU with Ravenshaw University to offer MPH

Update2: Excerpts from Expressbuzz.

An MoU was signed between Ravenshaw University Vice- Chancellor Devdas Chotray and AIPH founder secretary Dr Pinaki Panigrahi for the launch of the Masters in Public Health (MPH) programme. Besides imparting comprehensive skills in public health, the course would turn students into experts on occupational and environmental health, public health informatics and clinical and behavioural sciences. With an extensive hands-on experience, they will pass out as professionals ready to shoulder the challenges of the rise of chronic, infectious, occupational and environmental health problems that are vital contributors to high infant and maternal mortality in the State.

The first of its kind programme in Orissa is accreditated by the Council of Education on Public Health (CEPH) under the USA Government. The students would also gain credit points that would facilitate pursuance of higher studies in the US if they so willed.

But, foremost, the programme would churn out the much needed manpower in the State. There are at least 10,000 jobs for public health professionals in the district and block level under the National Rural health Mission. This apart, public health professionals are much sought after by private health sector enterprises, national and international agencies.

---

Update: Dharitri’s take on this.

The Asian Institute of Public Health in Bhubaneswar has announced a PG Diploma program in Public Health Informatics. This course will start in September 2010. Some details on the course obtained from their page http://www.aiph.ac.in/academics.html is as follows: 

Post Graduate Diploma in Public Health Informatics (24 Credits, 12 months course begins 1st September, 2010)

The objective of this course is to help individuals gain knowledge and skills in informatics concepts and applications and advance the use of informatics in risk assessment, disease monitoring and disease surveillance. The course provides an opportunity for the students to understand the information system architecture in public health, privacy, confidentiality and security issues related to health information systems. Graduate students from all disciplines are eligible for this course that will be offered online three times a year. The course consists of the following modules:

·    Introduction to Public Health Informatics (IPHI) – Basics of public health informatics, core competencies of public health professionals, and systematic review of public health information systems.

·    Foundation of Health Information Systems (FHIS) – This course is designed to help individuals gain knowledge and skills in public health standards, databases, privacy, confidentiality and security issues relevant to public health information systems.

·    Applications of Public Health Informatics (APHI) – overview of clinical decision support systems, Geographic Information Systems, public health surveillance systems.

·    Computer mediated Health Education and Health Promotion (CMHEHP) – Web based approaches to health education and health promotion, role of health literacy and varied learning needs of public health consumers and different stakeholders.

·    A 12 credit informatics research project will be required to get the Post Graduate Diploma in Public Health Informatics.

The institute seems to have a strong faculty. See http://www.aiph.ac.in/Indian.html. 

Surendra K. Mishra, MSc, PGDA, DCS

Health systems, behavioural sciences research and communication, reproductive health

Ashish Joshi, MD, MPH

Public health informatics, health outcomes research, design of multi-component interventions

Niharika Khanna, MD, DCH
HPV epidemiology, cervical cancer, cancer vaccines

Prasanna Nair, MD, MPH

Maternal and child health, epidemiology, HIV/AIDS

P N Padmanabhan, PhD, FAAASc

Nutrition, non-invasive methods for monitoring gastrointestinal health, cancer prevention

Seba Mohapatra, MD

Maternal health, health systems

Pinaki Panigrahi, MD, PhD
Epidemiology, field surveillance, human research protection, clinical trials

P. K. Senapati, MD

Health systems, health care delivery and administration

S. Ramanathan, MPhil

Health economics and finance, reproductive health, gender and equity

Preethy Nayar, MBBS, MPhil, PhD

Health services research & administration, program and policy evaluation

Shireen Rajaram, PhD

Social and behavioral sciences, access to health care, health care disparity

Pritish Nanda, PGDHM, MPH
Health communication, hospital management, social mobilization, program management

E. Venkata Rao, MD
Epidemiology, financial management

 

U.S.-based faculty teaching at AIPH, Bhubaneswar

Patrik Johansson, MD, MPH.

Health communication, community-based participatory research

Ayman El-Mohandes, MD, MPH
International health, program evaluation

J. Glenn Morris Jr, MD, MPH&TM

Infectious diseases, Cholera, emerging and re-emerging diseases

Ira H. Gewolb, MD
Newborn health, biostatistics

Judith A. Johnson, PhD
Infectious diseases, antibiotic resistance, clinical microbiology

Magda G. Peck, ScD

Leadership development and practice, childhood well being evaluation

Chandran Achutan, PhD

Occupational and environmental health

Hala Azzam,  PhD, MPH

Workforce development and training, field assessments, HIV/AIDS

Hrishikesh Chakraborty, DrPH

Biostatistics, epidemiology, cluster randomized trials

James Sherry, MD,PhD
Health policy, international health

Jaime Gofin, MD, PhD
Program evaluation, community-oriented primary care

Li-Wu Chen, MHSA, PhD

Health economics, cost-effectiveness analysis, health care utilization by underserved population

KM Monirul Islam, MBBS, PhD

Epidemiology, international health, development of surveillance system and evaluation

Ge Lin, PhD

GIS and spatial statistics, statistic methods for defining and quantifying their spatial signals

This instiute will add to the public health offerings in India which include various IIPH offerings such as:

• IIPH Delhi: PG Diploma in (a) Clinical Research (b) Public Health Management and (c) Health Economics, Health Care Financing and Health Policy
• IIPH Hyderabad: PG Diploma in (a) Biostatistics and Data Management
• IIPH Gandhinagar: PG Diploma in (a) Public Health Management

The IIPH in Bhubaneswar (different from the AIPH) is also scheduled to start in July 2010. The AIPH and IIPH in Bhubaneswar will make Bhubaneswar a strong public health education destination. I hope both will spread their wings across Odisha  so that some of the current public health issues of interior Odisha are adequately addressed. I am told AIPH is already doing that and has research projects involving interior and tribal Odisha.

Pioneer reports today that AIPH has signed an MOU with Ravenshaw University. This is a great partnership and beneficial to both.

5 comments March 27th, 2010

Alma Fiesta, the student organized socio-cultural festival of IIT Bhubaneswar, March 26-28th 2010: http://www.almafiesta.com

The web site of this event is http://www.almafiesta.com/. Their blog is at http://almafiesta.com/blog/. Following are some planned highlights of this festival.

We start with the most important one:

Alma Fiesta, IIT Bhubaneswar and Smt. Nandini Satpathy Memorial Trust Presents

Perspective: The Social Case Study Competition

Problem Statement:

Politics in India continues to be a murky and tabooed business which is being rarely taken up by the youth of present generation. Youth owns the key to dynamic thinking and action and thus are the indispensable part of a country’s politics. Present your views highlighting the current scenario of the youth participation in politics, the plan to increase this participation and also the plan to bring out the transparencies in the work of a politician.

Method of Submission: The participants are required to submit online their aforesaid visionary plan in form of a presentation in .pdf format by 25 March 2010 before 11.55 PM. The selected participants will present their plan before judge and audience on 27 March 2010. The presentations can be mailed to submissions@almafiesta.com before the deadline. No registration fees are required for submitting your presentations. So pen down your ideas and get the title of ‘SNSMT-IIT BBS Social Change maker of 2010’ along with various exciting prizes. For any queries contact: Mudit Sharma mudit@almafiesta.com +91 93385 75352.

Following are the rest of the events.

• Topsy Turvy : Inter College Group Dance Competition

  Topsy Turvy, Put your best foot forward, because Topsy Turvy inter-college dance competition is sure to excite everyone to put on their dancing shoes. Be a part of our fiesta and drink in from the excitement.

• Face Off

  Imagination is reality; dreams, thoughts and delusions are no less real than the "outside" world. Reality is a consensus, the same consensus the audience accepts when they enter a theatre to see a play and, for a time, pretend that what they are seeing is real. FACE OFF, an intercollegiate stage play event, is one of those platforms to experience the "reality”. So come, witness the reality on the stage and the director’s mind at work behind the scenes.

• N-Circled

  Give the audience a hint of a scene, no more than that. Give them too much and they won’t contribute anything themselves. Give them just a suggestion and you get them working with you. That’s what gives the Street Play meaning: when it becomes a social cause. So be there to be a part of a social causes @ N-CIRCLED – an intercollegiate street play competition.

• EUPHONY

  In the Iron Maiden edition of the Dream Theatre pluck the MetallicaStrings to elevate from the System of a Down and let the world Parikrama around you to attain Nirvana. If music is your passion and life then euphony, an inter college band competition for both eastern and western genres, is the right chance to test your ardor. The vim and vigour of music bands will be at its peak and the spirit of music is going to fill the entire ambience with a tone of mesmerisation.

• TRACK THE TRACK

  Music is the harmony between melody, rhythm and expressions and thus for a song to touch the soul one needs to properly ‘Track the Track’. This sing-along karaoke event is a unique opportunity for the music enthusiasts to show up their talent. So hit the music loud and prove your mettle.

• ANTAKSHARI

  A contest for the movie track fanatics who are experts in the lyrics. A common, Classic game yet can be mind-boggling at times. To triumph in the event means to be quick and sharp enough to get the right song. It is time to fine tune your musical knowledge and portray it to the world.

• Decoding Shakespeare
• Gone in 60 seconds
• Lit-Spree
• IIT Bhubaneswar Youth Quiz

  A Quiz on Pan Youth Topics. Be it movies, music, gadgets, ads or IT-this quiz comes as a whole some package of fun entertainment.

• Heads or Tails: Citius, Altius, Fortius!

  Bored of traditional quizzes of Tech, Biz, India…? Want a change? We could sense that. So here is an offbeat quiz purely dedicated to the Sports Turf. For all Sports Frenzied Junta Heads or Tails? Call it right!

• Youth Marathon
• Your Honour: The mock board room event.

  Motion:

  Ostracism, humiliation and mistreatment at the hands of family members, community and the medical fraternity are increasing in Orissa. Not only people living with HIV and AIDS but also their family members are equally suffering and facing the challenges in different setting. The question is whether we need to practice a differential treatment/approach to address the issue of people living with HIV-AIDS or not?

• PALETTE

  With the brush in your hand swipe the fog out of the sky and give life to your imaginations. Let the world acknowledge your endless dreams. Colours being your mouthpiece tell the unspoken and leave the beholder standstill. Mismatch the colours on this palette and paint life.

• LEAF COLLAGE

  Attention!!

  Dare not miss this opportunity to expose your ingenious dexterity. Let the foliage mirror your imagination and creativity in your grey cells. Leaves are waiting to reflect your artistic thoughts. Share your ideas, feelings, no matter what you want to express, through leave collage. Give a shape to your imagination and let the clutters of leaves take the pride to represent the artist in you.

• Mahfile-E-Hansi: Dr. Kumar Vishwas
• Classical Reloaded: Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Salil Bhatt; Akram Khan
• Leela: Orissa Dance Academy led by Aruna Mohanty
• Headbang: Kryptos
• Celebration of World Theater Day on 27th March in collaboration with Natya Chetana
• Commemoration of Earth hour on 27th March

One important aspect of this festival is that it is mainly organized by the students with some (minimal) guidance from the faculty and a very small percentage of funding from the IIT. The students find sponsors who cover most of the budget. They organize the events.

1 comment March 26th, 2010