JORHAT: In continuation with the ongoing Eminent Scientist Lecture Series of the Online CSIR-Summer Research Training Program (CSIR-SRTP)2020, the 24th lecture was delivered by Prof Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Science and Technology, on August 4 on the topic ' Art of Science for the new Millennium', stated a press release.
It was attended by around 3.9 K viewers through various platforms. Since all schools, colleges and universities are shut town due to COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Shekhar Mande, Director General, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), took the initiative of Online Summer Research Training Programme, 2020 and it was registered by 16,000 graduate and undergraduate students. It is coordinated by CSIR-North East Institute of Science & Technology (CSIR-NEIST) Jorhat.
Prior to beginning the talk, Prof. Sharma released about five CSIR-SRTP 2020 demonstration videos which are now available on YouTube for viewers. Delivering the lecture, Prof. Sharma stated that science and technology and innovation were the most important aspects of the future and he cited the three strongest pillars through which people could negotiate their future, the future of their community, society and the future of the entire nation and the world. They are –science, translation in terms of technology, in term of problems, in term of solutions to those problems and innovation. In his talk, he elaborated the exact meaning of education and how young minds should prepare for education, especially in context of future and real-life problem solving.
"We learn chapter to chapter, exams to exams, course to course, degree to degree but there is no synthesis. Learning the basics, learning them well, building life-long capacity to learn and purpose of education is to bring about synthesis from everything we have learned in a seamless way so that when a problem comes, you can try to look for recognizing the problem, components of the problem and what are the diversity of tools we have to solve the problem and to understand what tool is needed to solve the problem," he said. "Applying our knowledge in real-life problem solving by synthesis will remain the key," he added.
He pointed out another important aspect of education – common sense - which an educated person must have. He said that another expect of education was independent thinking which required confidence. Prof. Sharma elaborated that the future of science was all about conversion of digital and cyber technology on one hand and basic physical science on the other hand. The bold frontier of science will be the integration of basic science and machine learning, he said.
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