ISTE STTP WORKSHOP

Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IITB) conducted a One Week ISTE STTP Workshop on Technical Communication under National Mission on Education through ICT (MHRD, Govt. of India) during 24th - 28th August 2015. Ms. Aarti Verma, Assistant Professor, Department of Management Studies, Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida (Remote Centre -1316) attended the workshop.

The workshop was a part of ‘Train Ten Thousand Teachers’ under the NMEICT Project of MHRD (Govt. of India) being conducted by IIT- Bombay. The need of ISTE STTP on Technical Communication program was highlighted by the coordinators and keynote speakers. They said that the faculty members who teach this subject to undergraduate/postgraduate students will be benefitted by this training programme.

Dr. Kannan Maudgalya, Coordinator, NMEICT & Professor of Dept. of Electronics, IIT-Bombay and Dr. P Sunthar, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering , IIT-Bombay inaugurated the session by welcoming all the distinguished speakers and participants. Coordinators from around 200 colleges of India participated in the program.

Day One: 24th August 2015

Dr. Maudgalya, gave an overview of NMEICT and stressed that the success of the program depends upon the coordinator’s willingness and enthusiasm to learn. Dr. P Sunthar continued the session with his inspiring presentation on Essence of Communication. In his presentation he laid emphasis on the elements of Technical Communication viz. correctness and clarity. The second session of the day was carried forward by Dr. Virendra Sethi, Professor of Environment Studies, IIT Bombay who motivated the participants through his lecture on “Shifting from What to How” in which he emphasized the need to answer first the ‘what’ part turning into ‘how’ in order to elaborate a topic. He also conducted some brainstorming activities related to English vocabulary.

Day Two: 25th August 2015

Dr. Ashish Pandey, Professor of Management, SJM School of Management, IIT Bombay discussed the elements of delivering the content. He said that the techniques of lecture delivery makes a lecture effective and meaningful. Therefore the content should be delivered in such a way that the students would not feel any difficulty in understanding any part of the content. Dr. D Parthasarathy, Professor & Head, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Bombay discussed some best practices in the domain of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM).

Day Three: 26th August 2015

Dr. M P Gururajan, Professor of Metallurgical Engineering & Materials Science, IIT Bombay elaborated important points which should be kept in mind while writing technical papers and formal business letters. He motivated the participants to develop their reading and writing skills. He narrated some rules which should be followed while writing a research paper. He stressed on the content which should have basic elements known as 6Cs. 6Cs stands for clarity, completeness, correctness, conciseness, compactness, creativity etc. which are significantly used in every formal and informal part of writing. He advised that a research paper must contain the following parts:

1. Introduction

2. Experimental

3. Detail

4. Result Record

5. Conclusion

Day Four: 27th August 2015

Professor Sahana Murthy, IIT Bombay delivered a lecture on pitch, stress and intonation to make communication more effective and clear. He said that the pitch of conversation conveys half of the message and rest of it is conveyed through words. The second session of the day was followed by Dr. Leena Jha, Visiting Professor at SJM School of Management, IIT Bombay who shared her views related to leadership, interview skills and effective group discussion. She discussed the topic “Kinesics of an Interview” and an overview of the expectations of an interviewer from candidates .

Day Five: 28th August 2015

Professor Virendra Sethi narrated a small story to the participants entitled “If you claim having learnt, it is yours, else, it was just another lecture” at the end of the day. The quiz was conducted at end of the session in which all the participants participated enthusiastically. In the valedictory session Professor, Deepak Phatak, Project Coordinator, NMEICT MHRD congratulated the participants and the team members for the success of this workshop and distributed the participation certificates.