Dr. Alka Anil Mahajan is the Dean of the Mukesh Patel School of Technology, Management & Engineering, NMIMS University, Mumbai. With over 36 years of experience in teaching and administration, she is responsible for the academic administration of the school’s seven engineering campuses across the country. She earned her Ph.D. in electronics and communication engineering from the Delhi Technological University and is an active researcher with several publications in international journals and conferences proceedings. As a member of the Standing Committee on the scheme of Development of Women’s Studies in Indian Universities and Colleges and Capacity Building of Women Managers, constituted by the Indian Ministry of Education, Dr. Mahajan played an instrumental role in preparing the 12th Five Year Plan of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Scheme and Guidelines on Capacity Building for Women Managers in Higher Education. She serves on the editorial and reviewer boards of several international journals and is credited with introducing innovative pedagogical techniques to improve student learning and impacting academic administration through her resourceful ideas.
Host Institution India: University of Notre Dame
Rupa Agarwal
Prof. Rupa Agarwal has 28 years of experience in various aspects of design. The most significant contribution is in design education. She has handled many academic administrative posts in National Institute Fashion Technology, notable amongst which are Chairperson of Department of Fashion Communication and Chairperson of the Master of Design program, Campus Academic Coordinator (Academic Head) of the Mumbai Campus. She is currently heading the craft cluster initiative at NIFT across all its 18 campuses as Head Cluster and is located at NIFT Mumbai. Her core teaching areas are Design Methodology, Design Research, Interactive spaces, Design History and Sustainable systems. Her expertise in curriculum design has led her to be part of many committees within NIFT. She is part of the core committee to develop the curriculum of Design Thinking for classes 6-12. It is being facilitated by the Department of Skill development, Ministry of Education for Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). There are over 3,000 schools that are running the course in 2023-2024.
She believes that teaching is a creative process. Design thinking must be applied to design teaching as well. She is passionate about the ways in which designers could use their unique skills to solve sustainability issues. In the process of doing her Ph.D. from IDC School of Design, IIT Bombay, she developed a nuanced understanding of the subject. Her endeavor was to develop a versatile model that is relevant in any domain of design. The research contribution of her thesis was a conjecture-analysis model for integrating sustainability in design pedagogy.
Sujay Shekar Ganganakatte Chandrashekar
Dr. Sujay Shekar G. C. is an environmental researcher and a metaphysicist. He earned his bachelor’s degree (2015) in science from Sarada Vilas College, Mysuru, and his master’s degree (2017) in physics from St. Philomena’s College, Mysuru. He received his Ph.D. in Physics (2023) from the University of Mysore. In 2018, he worked as a university lecturer at Department of Science in Physics, University of Mysore, and later joined as an assistant professor in 2023 at RNSIT, Visvesvaraya Technological University. Currently, he is a member of the Board of Studies in Physics at St. Philomena’s College, and the Board of Examination in Physics at Karnataka State Open University and JSS Science and Technology University.
Dr. Sujay Shekar believes in understanding the natural world as a means of achieving spiritual enrichment. In this pursuit, he initiated his research on solar energy utilization to create a more sustainable future. He works in the field of physical chemistry and material science to develop advanced nanomaterials for cleaner and more efficient light energy conversion. Through his doctoral research projects, he contributed to semiconductor photoelectrochemistry by engineering nanomaterials for effective photocatalytic applications. He even demonstrated the usage of sunlight for more sustainable synthesis methods of functional materials. Many of his designed compounds exhibited better solar energy conversion efficiency and produced greener solar fuels.
As a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research fellow at the University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Dr. Sujay Shekar is developing new photosystems for boosted photochemical tandem reactions and understand the underlying phenomena of charge dynamics.
Neena Sinha
Dr. Neena Sinha is a professor at the University School of Management Studies, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi. She has served as the dean of the University School of Management Studies, and has held numerous administrative roles, including director of development. She is currently the co-chairperson for accreditation and ranking for the university. She has been a visiting research scholar at Kobe University, Japan. Her experience there, along with teaching Slovakian students in 2012, provided unique insights into intercultural communication and cross-border partnerships.
Dr. Sinha has co-authored several journal publications with international researchers. She has presented her research at conferences, including the University of Manchester, UK, and the ITU Symposia on ICTs and climate change in London. In 2017, she was invited to conduct a masterclass on “Environment Law to Private Environmental Governance: Integrating Economics, Ecology, and Law” at an international conference at Saint Petersburg State University, Russia. Dr. Sinha is a member of the Strategic Management Society and the Academy of Management. She is regularly invited by the state-owned broadcaster Rajya Sabha TV as an expert on issues of educational administration, including discussions on the internationalization of higher education and women empowerment in higher education.
Madhushree Sekher
Prof. Madhushree Sekher is at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS). She is known internationally for her interdisciplinary research, being a recipient of the Australian Research Council (Discovery) grant, DFAT-Australia Awards fellowship, and grants from International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI), ICSSR-Major Project grant, and the UGC-UKIERI Thematic Partnership Award. She represents TISS from India in a multi-university collaborative teaching program being led by Cornell University on ‘food-energy-water nexus.’ She is associated with an international research consortium on ethnic power relations which was funded by the Swiss Development Council and the Swiss National Science Foundation. She has been a visiting faculty at IFPRI-Washington, the University of Hohenheim-Stuttgart (Germany), the University of Sydney (Australia), and the Tata-Cornell Institute, Cornell University. She coordinated and led two training programmes for the Leadership for Academicians Program (LEAP) from TISS for the Ministry of Education, Government of India (2019, 2020), partnering with UPenn-GSE, Philadelphia. She has authored many research articles and books, including Feeding India: Livelihoods, Entitlements and Capabilities (Earthscan, 2013), Governance and Governed (Springer, 2017), and Including the Excluded in South Asia (Springer, 2019). She has a PhD in political science, and was a recipient of the World Bank Robert S. McNamara fellowship for post-doctoral research.
Sandip Rameshchandra Vasant
Prof. Sandip Rameshchandra Vasant is professor in computer science and engineering at the School of Engineering and Technology, and registrar at Navrachana University (NUV). He holds a PhD in computer science, and has over 20 years of experience in teaching, research, and academic and general administration in higher education. Prior to joining NUV, he was the registrar at Anant National University, Ahmedabad. He was instrumental in setting up systems, processes and policies of the university for effective and solution-oriented administration. Preceding his stint at Anant National University, he was heading the Office of the Academic Registrar at Ahmedabad University. He was responsible for strategic academic administration (planning and execution of academic processes), ensuring statutory compliances with UGC and the Government of Gujarat rules and guidelines, writing academic policies, designing the course catalogue, managing university courses, managing students’ life cycle at the university, and automation of academic processes for the Office of the Academic Registrar. He has taught courses such as object-oriented programming, open-source technology and software engineering at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Prof. Vasant has published over 15 research papers in national and international journals of repute, and has been instrumental in volunteering at various educational seminars and conferences. He has been invited as an expert on information technology to deliver sessions on ‘Effective Classroom Teaching and Learning using Information and Communication Technology’ to guide the trainers. Prof. Vasant has also served as vice-chairman and chairman at the Computer Society of India, Ahmedabad chapter, for the period of 2016-2017 and 2017-2018.
Soumini Raja
Prof. Soumini Raja is professor and head of the Department of Architecture at Avani Institute of Design, Kerala, and chairperson of the Board of Studies in Design at the University of Calicut. With over a decade of academic experience, she views design as an ongoing process involving dialogue and negotiation between society, culture, and the environment. She co-founded Studio Commune, and serves as its director of research. Prof. Raja holds an undergraduate degree in architecture from the College of Engineering, Trivandrum, and a master’s degree in urban and regional planning from CEPT University, Ahmedabad. Her doctoral research at CEPT University addressed human vulnerabilities to disasters in coastal regions using a human-nature co-evolutionary framework. She has received several prestigious awards, including the Council of Architecture Training and Research Centre Urban Studio Research Project Award (2022), the Indian Climate Research Network Research Award (2014), the Vastu-Shilpa Foundation Award (2008), and the Eklavya Education Foundation Scholarship of Excellence (2008). Prof. Raja has published extensively in national and international peer-reviewed journals and conferences. She collaborates with various educational institutions, NGOs, and governmental agencies in India. Additionally, she is a canine lover and a trained Kathakali artist.
Sanjay Pratap Singh
Prof. Sanjay Pratap Singh (PhD, MBA, MSc in geology, LLB, qualified CSIR-UGC NET in geology, and UGC-NET in management) has worked as JRF, SRF and lecturer in the Department of Geology, University of Lucknow. He was director of the Sherwood College of Management, and vice-chairman of the Sherwood Group. He was also director of the Royal Group of Institutions, Guwahati, and later served in the Amity Group as senior vice-president and founder vice-chancellor of Amity University, Chhattisgarh. He is an active member of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) – India chapter and had been conferred with the ‘Ambassador for Peace’ award by UPF – South Korea. He is the Global Vice President of Sun Moon University, South Korea. He is also a member of the Equivalence Committee and Governing Council of Association of Indian Universities (AIU).
He has been serving as vice-chancellor of the Assam Royal Global University for the last eight years. He launched the university with 13 schools that offered 55 courses in the first year itself, and currently has a total of 27 schools and over 130 programmes. The university has 7000 students, including 300 PhD scholars, and has been recognized as host institute/ business incubator by MSME, Government of India. The university has signed over 200 MoUs so far with other institutes for cross-cultural exposure.
Swati Pal
Prof. Swati Pal, professor and principal, Janki Devi Memorial College, University of Delhi, has been a Charles Wallace scholar and the first Asian awardee of the John McGrath theatre studies scholarship. Author of several books on theatre, creative and academic writing, her newspaper articles articulate her views on education. Her areas of research interest include performance studies and cultural history. She translates from Hindi to English. She writes poetry and her poems appear in several anthologies. She also has a collection titled In Absentia, and an edited volume called Living on. She is the vice-chair of the Indian Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies. She is the Delhi state-chair for the G100 wing for World Peace of the Women Economic Forum. She has been the recipient of several awards such as a Lifetime Achievement Award for outstanding contribution in the area of educational administration and planning besides gender development by Women’s Agency for Generating Employment (WAGE) in 2017; Exceptional Women of Excellence in Academia, 2017 Award by the All Ladies League and Women Economic Forum; the 34th Dr. S Radhakrishnan Memorial National Teacher Award in 2018; Esteemed Jury Award by COAE International in 2023; and the Best Principal Award by National Edu Trust of India for the year 2023-24 for commitment to integrating environmental education into teaching practices.
Swati Mujumdar
Dr. Swati Mujumdar is an international skill development and higher education expert. With over 20 years of professional experience in education and skill development, she has been advising governments at national and international levels on policy related matters in higher education, the blended education model, vocational education (TVET), and skill development. After years of research, Dr. Mujumdar has developed a unique ‘skill university’ model and under her able leadership, Symbiosis has established two skills universities namely Symbiosis Skills & Professional University, Pune and Symbiosis University of Applied Sciences, Indore. With an investment of over 100 million USD, the two universities have a strategic focus on developing skills and competencies in students, aligned to the needs of the industry. Dr. Mujumdar has participated in UNESCO deliberations on credit recognition and transfer systems in the Asia-Pacific region. She was also invited by UNESCO to Shenzhen to participate in regional consultation on ICT-driven innovation in higher education. She was appointed as a member of B20 taskforce on the future of work, mobility and skilling. With a focus on equity and inclusion, she has successfully spearheaded several projects on training underprivileged girls in STEM-education, skilling of unemployed youth in future skills, and capacity building of teachers/ trainers, and has, thereby, created opportunities for employment for thousands.