Developing New Technologies - M Joseph

    

         Mostly   our   students   and   teachers   are   users   of   the technologies   innovated   by   other   countries   rather   than   technology developers and showing great interest in learning new technologies so as to get placed. Technology development has lot of merits such as job creation, revenue and to a greater extent national income will   also   get   improved   apart   from   its   societal implications. 

    Invention   of   the   Dubbing   Technology   could   only   pave   the   way   for the doyen in Tamil Cinema M.G.R, to act in cinemas as hero, as it helped   him   overcoming   his   inability   to   sing,   in   spite   of   his cinematic   charisma.   Those   were   times   Tamil   actors   should   posses singling   qualities   to   become   hero/protagonists   in   the   music dominated cinemas, due to restrictions of the then available audio recording facilities. On the other hand career of the then super star,   probably   the   first,   M.K.   Thigayarathabagaavthar,   known   for his   singing   abilities,   started   declining.   A   new   technology development made a commoner to become chief minister of state for about   13   years,   we   can   conclude,   of   course,   with   help   of   other political strategies and mechanisms.

     Nobel   laureate   Prof.   Venkatraman   Ramakrishnan,   remarked   our Indian   Science   Congress   (   2015   )   as   `circus’   .   A   premier University   in   Tamil   Nadu,   has   produced   abnormal   number   of   PhDs sometimes   back,   which   leads   to   suspicion   that   a   considerable amount of unethical practices could have taken place in awarding the   PhDs.   On   such   circumstances,   our   institutions   will   lack   in innovations   and   development   of   new   scientific   concepts   and technologies. People who genuinely do good research are generally not recognized due to various obvious untold reasons. Our research outcomes   and   deliverable   are   trivial   in   nature   compared   to outcomes of the other countries like U.S due to our poor research practices and mechanisms.

    When   I,   as   a   Professor,   asked   the   feedback   about   the   lab class  conducted by  a  teacher  to a  group of  first  year  students, comparing   to   the   lab   classes   they   had   under   gone   in   their respective   schools.   The   students   replied   with   very   positive feedback about the lab classes of the teacher, as that was first time they had been allowed into the Lab. So, We have to start from our   schools.   Scientific   temper   and   seed   for   research   and innovation must be sowed to our students from schooling itself, to create a strong foundation in the subjects with research affinity.

    The innovative spirit and research culture must be inculcated with top   priority,   leaving   all   the   unwanted   practices   in   making   our students to memorize the subjects to produce more marks in exams.  The   research   culture   has   to   be   inculcated   and   nourished among the researchers of our institutions, should be prime focus of our educationists, scientists and technocrats.  Especially world class   research   methodologies   should   be   followed.   

My   Research Advisor,   graduated   from   University   of   California,   Berkeley ( UCB ), Dr.Narsimha Bhat, CEO, Manipal Dot Net, Manipal, used to say me, when I was a researcher, if you work for 100 hours you can discuss with me about research for about one hour. Perseverance, hard work, and by following world class research practices, will make   our   researchers,   students,   research   advisors   to   become innovators and contribute to improve the state of art technology and science.