Tag: Atria University

Atria University student volunteers design a soil-less farming monitor

Bengaluru (March 8, 2020): Driven by the commitment to help the environment and encourage sustainable living, Atria University team, with student volunteers, has designed a ‘Hydroponics Monitor’. ‘Hydroponics Monitor’ is nothing but an IoT-based monitoring device to monitor the plants and nutrient supplements.Atria University student volunteers design a soil-less farming

Hydroponics is a farming technique where plants are grown in water and nutrients, without the help of soil. This method of farming will get more yield than soil-based agriculture and also helps reduce the use of pesticides. Hydroponics Monitor can be set up at the workplace or home easily, according to the Atria team.

To make the world greener and healthier, the team has worked to bring the best of Internet of Things (IoT) and Deep Tech through Hydroponics Monitor. With an interdisciplinary approach, the project strives to improve the health and standard of living. It efficiently provides a sustainable solution to food supply and food quality issues.

Kaushik Raju, Director, Atria University, lauded this project and said, “We came up with the hydroponics lab to work on two main problem statements that we are facing as a society — water and wastage due to transportation. Hydroponics helps solve these issues as it uses less than 25% of the water required in typical farming on land. You can grow the produce closest to the consumption eliminating storage and transport challenges, which also leads to the best nutrient-rich produce without the need for harmful pesticides. At the University, we plan to set up hydroponics with the aim to prove internal consumption for our hostels and students can be grown right here by utilising our dead spaces.”

The hydroponics monitor was designed by a five-student volunteer team working with Atria University—Anil T, Dinakaran P, and Ashok Patel from Electronics and Communication Department as well as John Karamchand and Surya Murugan from Computer Science engineering.

Speaking about this project, John Karamchand, a team member said, “We were always fascinated by the potential impact of technology in the domain of agriculture. We came across a few hydroponic farms in our locality that faced problems due to labour-intensive processes and lack of real-time monitoring. This motivated us to pursue building a solution that enables everyone to manage and run an urban farm with the least human intervention possible.”

Changing dynamics of admission process in Indian universities

Bengaluru, 8 March 2020: In what seems like a welcome change in the higher education system in India, universities are focusing on the non-academic profiles of students more than their academic histories. Setting a precedent for other universities, Atria University, Bangalore, has an admissions process that focuses on the student’s life story and looks at their unique qualities beyond just marks.

Atria University

 

At Atria University, the admission decision is not based on high-school exam cut-offs or standardized test scores. The admission process seeks to identify the student’s potential to match and uphold the qualities of the community. The University values qualities like passion,rigor, curiosity, the ability to learn, self-awareness, general awareness, and a cooperative spirit in a successful candidate. The University believes that each student has distinct views, interests, and ambitions. These should influence their higher education choices, and not traditions and social constructs. The admissions process is a three-step one: online application,student engagement and interaction day, and admissions decision.

Sunder Raju, Founder, and Trustee, Atria University, says, “Atria University is attempting to address the challenges of the future by stitching together disparate learnings into a single holistic process. Distilled to its core, the underlying theme is“Learning to Learn.” We are creating citizens of tomorrow capable of navigating the fast-paced disruptions the future portends.”

According to Shaheem Rahiman, CEO, AtriaUniversity, “We are at a watershed moment in the evolution of our society and the environment. The new world order is being shaped by technology, design,and innovation. The next generation must prepare itself in a completely newmanner if it wants to survive, thrive, and find meaning in the emerging future.Mainstream higher education systems are falling short in preparing our next generation for the 21st century. These changing times demand a change in higher education.”

Atria University, Bengaluru is currently awaiting its State Private University status and is set to redefine the paradigm of higher education in India. Atria University’s approach to learning includes flexible learning pathways, interdisciplinary majors, sprint-style learning, industry experience and project as well as peer-to-peer appraisal.

For more information, visit: https://www.atriauniversity.org/admissions-2020-form/

Regards,

Chiththarthan (Chitti)

Integrity and ethics are the strongest qualities great institutions need to instill in students, says MIT prof at a principal’s conclave in Bengaluru

Bengaluru, 23 December 2019:

Principals from across India and Education leadership participated in The Principal Conclave
Principals from across India and Education leadership participated in The Principal Conclave

The next generation must prepare itself in a completely new manner if it wants to survive, thrive and find meaning in the emerging future. Mainstream higher education systems are falling short in preparing next generation for the 21st century. These changing times demand for changes in higher education. In order to bridge the gap between secondary and higher education, a Principal’s Conclave was hosted by Atria University at the Radisson Blu Atria, today. The event was attended by over 35 Principals from across India and Education leadership from across the world.

Dr. Babi Mitra, Executive Director NEET program at MIT delivering keynote at The Principal Conclave 2019
Dr. Babi Mitra, Executive Director NEET program at MIT delivering keynote at The Principal Conclave 2019

Dr. Babi Mitra, Executive Director, New Engineering Education Transformation program at MIT, during his key note address, said, “One of the strongest qualities of great institutions is trust and Atria University is working towards building the trust in student and teaching community. We need to create visionaries and empower them to evolve as confident, curious and creative-solution drivers equipped to tackle challenges and convert them into opportunities, whatever and wherever their context.”

 

He said that it is important to consider six elements to it make more effective to make learning more engaging. Bold vision, stakeholder engagement, strong complementary team, pragmatism, piloting and thinking, and acting like a start up can help create a committed pedagogy for the benefit of students, he said.

Mr Sunder Raju - Chairman of Atria University
Mr Sunder Raju – Chairman of Atria University

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Sunder Raju, Founder and Trustee, Atria University, said, “There is a need to contemplate and engage with insightful discussions on designing student-centred learning experience. Through Principal Conclave, I wish we create a process that facilitates a learning design that leaves behind its footprint for how a new age child will be trained, developed, and evolved.”

 

“At Atria University, we want to help nurture the future citizen who can stand on their own feet in the real world. We are earnestly working to understand students better and recreate their personal learning journey. We are also creating individual customizable learning paths to encourage and foster their creative and critical thinking.” Said Mr. Kaushik Raju, Trustee, Atria University.

Left to right - Dr Alana Sobelman - Dr Arjendu Pattanayak - Dr Nagaraj K Arakere - Dr Sriram Kalyanaram - Kaushik Raju Director of Technicl Education Atria University
Left to right – Dr Alana Sobelman – Dr Arjendu Pattanayak – Dr Nagaraj K Arakere – Dr Sriram Kalyanaram – Kaushik Raju Director of Technicl Education Atria University

Anuradha Anekal, Principal, Deccan International School, who participated in the conclave said, “Students and parents these days are exposed to diverse subject matters. With information at their fingertips, they are able to make a learned choice about the stream they can choose. The conclave has shown way to different methodologies and helps educators to engage actively with learning experience.”

 

Shaheem Rahiman, CEO, Atria University said “It is gratifying to hear large number of Principals and Academicians across the world endorse our idea of Higher Education. I am grateful to Principals for the significant contributions towards defining an exceptional learning experience for our students. The workshops topics were intensely discussed with animated participation, all aimed at creating a launch pad for our future, that are our students.”

 

Creating new pedagogy

Experts and educators such as Dr. Alana Sobelman, Lecturer of Comparative Literature and Psychoanalysis at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Be’er Sheva, Israel, Dr. Arjendu Pattanayak Former Associate Dean of Carleton College, USA, Dr. Nagaraj K. Arakere Professor, Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Florida, and Dr. Sriram ‘Sri’ Kalyanaraman, Director, Media Effects and Tech Lab, University of Florida, participated in the conclave. More than 50 principals from across the country and academicians from across the globe attended the Conclave.

 

Atria University, through this day-long conclave, aims to create a new learning design that eases a student’s transition from secondary school learning to the higher education framework. The proposed suggestions on a new learning design would be produced as a working publication. This would be a compilation of the day’s recommendations from delegates with respect to transitional elements of higher education and a design outline for an innovative curriculum that reflects our ever-evolving global world.

 

Atria University is currently awaiting their State Private University status.