To bring our vision of reimagining technology education to fruition, we have forged strategic partnerships with the world’s top institutes. We collaborate to design the programs and curriculum, enable hands-on training as well as foster international opportunities.

As a greenfield university, we are not only adopting best practices of the best engineering and research institutions across the world but are also introducing path-breaking methods of learning and teaching which legacy institutions are aware of but aren’t able to implement.

Our partners — UC Berkeley, Purdue University, and SRI — are very closely involved in every aspect of institution-building like curriculum design, delivery, faculty and student exchange, and joint research. …

In the near future, it will be back to school in India. The entire country is anxious as educators, parents, students and the government try to strike a delicate balance between public health and getting students to start effectively learning again. There are significant risks at work today. There are no ‘best practices’ or even ‘strong hypotheses’ around whether to bring the students back into the classrooms fully, have complete online education or some kind of a hybrid. …

2020 is a year for disruptions and reconstruction. The pandemic has resulted in unprecedented reviewing of the ways in which we view policy. In India, a new Educational Policy, The NEP2020, released on July 29, 2020, after 36 years, has been met with enthusiasm, curiosity and a healthy level of skepticism and criticism. It’s vision is ambitious:

“National Education Policy 2020 envisions an India-centric education system that contributes directly to transforming our nation sustainably into an equitable and vibrant knowledge society by providing high-quality education to all.”

India’s Education system is the second largest in the world, second only to China. Therefore the process of producing a policy for a democratic country becomes an exercise in large debate. The policy is the first comprehensive Educational Policy since India’s liberalization in 1991, and the resultant economic reforms that marked a shift from a centralized economic planning model to an opening of markets to globalization, and hence addresses the needs of a completely different country from the one in 1986. …

With the use of technology, learning is likely to become more personalised. In our current way of learning, there is only so much individual attention a teacher can give each student. Technology can bridge this divide; it can help scale and provide more equitable access to personalised learning.The classroom is not about the room itself. Rabindranath Tagore, who founded Shantiniketan, held classes in the open under the trees. So, when we say “conventional classroom”, we must tear our thoughts away from four walls and a ceiling and focus on the face-to-face interaction between the educator and student.

“A great teacher is like a good coach, like Rahul Dravid, for example”, says Professor Sanjay Sarma, who leads open learning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and is the co-author of an upcoming book, Grasp: The Science That is Transforming How We Learn. “The best teachers fire the curiosity of the students and help them contextualise their learnings. And this is still best-done face-to-face.” …

Yesterday, I finished reading this book called “No Limits” by Mukesh Bansal, the Co-founder of Cure Fit Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. Reading an entire book cover-to-cover, especially non-fiction, was an achievement for me. I fall into the category of people who never really finish a book they start. Every time when I, very ambitiously and in a positive mood, start a book, I either fall asleep or I just count the remaining pages in the chapter and if it is a lot, lose determination. …

By Anurag Agrawal, Tech Leaders Fellow, Class of 2020

Jan 10 — The customer interviews

You remember where we left the last time. All the students had formed their challenge Lab team. So when the fellows came back from the winter break the new term started. The Challenge Lab teams started their customer interviews after deciding the initial hypothesis of the problem statement. But our team was still debating on what idea to work on. What happened was bound to happen.

We were called on stage — asked to present our findings. The only words that rolled out of our mouths were phrases like — “We are working on the problem, yes we are doing it, design thinking approach and data in design.” …

By Anurag Agrawal, Tech Leaders Fellow, Class of 2020

“People always look out for familiar faces to bond with — people with the same taste, same thoughts, and same mannerisms. Ironically the purpose of Plaksha Tech Leaders Fellowship is exactly the opposite. Its vision is to enable you to spend time with people who are not like you. Spending time with familiar faces means there would be no conflict, no challenges, and no alternative point of view. What would it lead you to become? A nicer, bigger version of who you already are? It would be a complete waste of your time if you walk out of this Fellowship with the same belief system that you had — a belief emanating from ignorance and not out of awareness.” These are not my words. …

When I first heard about Plaksha, it was too good to be true... I had just left my fancy dollar salary job, was in the process of setting up my web security consulting service. At that time, neither did I plan to go back to academics and nor did I want to leave Bengaluru.

However, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity of learning AI, ML, and from some of the brightest minds in the country. I gave the entrance test, appeared for the interview, and was fortunate enough to get admission with a scholarship.

Meeting Hitesh

We were invited to BCG, Bengaluru office for an open house. It was a super informative session, set the expectation and most importantly, I met Hitesh Oberoi for the first time. …