SRINAGAR: The week-long online faculty development program in Cloud Computing organized by UGC-Human Resource Development Centre, University of Kashmir (KU) concluded here on Saturday.
The program was organised for the faculty members belonging to Computer Science, Engineering and Information Technology streams.
While presiding over the valedictory session of thee program Vice Chancellor KU Prof Talat Ahmad said that the course has been conducted at an appropriate time when due to ongoing lockdown educational institutions are not in a position to function in their regular mode.
He expressed satisfaction over the topics that have been covered and the renowned resource persons from JNU and other universities across the country who delivered lectures during the course.
Applauding the role played by HRDC in conducting a series of online webinars and courses during the coronavirus pandemic, Prof. Talat expressed hope that more such programs will be organized in future for the benefit of vast teaching community working from their homes at present.
Prof. Talat Ahmad stressed upon the management of UGC-HRDC to conduct more short-term courses in association with University’s Inter-disciplinary Centre for enhancing awareness among common masses about locally and socially relevant research activities being carried out by the University particularly in significant areas like lake ecology, water bodies, glaciers, disaster management and climate change.
“Addressing our local environmental and social concerns as well as needs through our consistent research endeavours is our prime responsibility”, he said.
Prof. Talat urged upon HRDC management to make their courses all-encompassing for social science, arts and humanities faculties too.
Director, UGC-HRDC, Prof. Shabir Ahmad Bhat while delivering his valedictory address emphasized upon the need to build capacities of our teachers in emerging technologies of the twenty first century like cloud computing, big data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning in order to enable them to update themselves and keep pace with the advancements made in such innovative technologies worldwide.
Prof. Shabir said that HRDC is contemplating to conduct more such online courses in future that are based on innovative technologies so that our teachers remain well apprised about the recent developments. He said going digital is the mainstay in the field of technology and HRDC will upgrade its digital platform soon in tune with latest technology and trends.
Course Coordinator Dr. Rana Hashmy who is at present working as Senior Scientist at the Department of Computer Sciences of the University elaborated upon the topics covered and key resource persons engaged during the program.
Dr. Rana revealed that apart from online lectures, a few demonstrations and hands-on sessions were also included that made the programme interesting for the participants.
Further she stated that in spite of few technical glitches due to poor connectivity at 2G networks, programme went off well without causing any major disruptions though 4G network would have made it seamless.
Eminent resource persons who delivered lectures during the week-long programme included Prof. D. P. Vidyarthi (from JNU), Prof. Shri Kant Ojha (Sharda Univ), Prof. Sanjeev Sofat (PECUT), Dr. Rahul Johari (GGSIU), Dr. Maroof N. Qadri (KU), Dr. Manzoor A. Chachoo (KU), Dr. Majid Zaman (KU) and Dr. Muheet A. Butt (KU).
Expressing her contentment on realizing the intended objectives of the course, Dr. Rana further added that the motivation behind conducting this FDP was to make the cloud computing courses offered to the students at the post-graduate level more useful and complete by incorporating inputs from the experts having vast experience and knowledge in this field.
Coordinator, UGC-HRDC, Dr. Mohammad Ishaq Geer moderated the valedictory session and in his concluding remarks stated that this was the first course fully offered online by the Centre and though initially there were some hiccups, subsequently all the modalities including attendance, feedback and evaluation of the participants was managed online.
Dr. Geer informed that the Centre is contemplating to conduct all its allotted courses online during the current academic session provided an improved internet connectivity becomes available to the Centre.