The NU MTech Program
With rapid advances in technology, no area of knowledge has been left untouched. Technology has transformed the very ways of viewing a knowledge domain, giving rise to newer and more challenging but exciting areas, Bioinformatics being a well-recognized example. In this knowledge era, individuals now have to transform themselves to not just “life-long learning” individuals but also actively contribute to the knowledge world to effectively solve problems and challenges that this world constantly throws.
The key philosophy of NU’s M.Tech. Program is to enable participants to acquire the necessary mental agility, skills and attitude so that they come out as professionals who create meaningful products and solutions that enrich their domain areas. The Program draws its design attributes from NU’s core principles – Industry-linked, Technology-based, Research-driven, and Seamless.
The final semester of the program is devoted to Internship which is done in the industry under the joint guidance of industry and NU supervisors. Instructional components such as lab-work and R&D project are also drawn from the workplace. Further, the topic of study for one elective subject can be suggested by the sponsoring industry. Thus, nearly one-third of program study is committed to industry-relevant work, bringing in a strong and robust industry linkage.
The M.Tech. program lays great emphasis on research based work and effectively bridges the chasm that currently exists between research and practice by introducing a 8-credit R&D project and several courses to inculcate a research bent of mind. The work done in the project is drawn from the long-term plan of the sponsoring industry.
Keeping in mind that sponsored students are busy working professionals who will not be able to spend fulltime on-campus, the program introduces an innovative delivery methodology. Using synchronous online technologies, the classroom in brought seamlessly into the workplace so that students do not move out of their seats to attend lectures. Again, lab work, wherever possible can be done at the students’ workstations itself using the necessary development environments, learning management systems, etc.
The Key Differentiators – Program Pedagogy, Structure, Delivery Methodology and Faculty Profile
Innovative Pedagogy
The program is designed to serve professional development at the workplace and, hence, is characterized by the pedagogic innovation of Education-Work Linkage. The new pedagogy is based on the insight that the workplace while being a place to do business-related work is also a learning environment where education can happen. Academic instruction components such as Lectures, Tutorials, Practicals and Projects are integrated with business objectives leading to work-based instruction components. For example, work being done such as creating proposals, designing solutions, making presentations, etc. will be seamlessly integrated with tutorial and practical work.
Creative Structure
The 2-Year, 74-Credit Program consists of 4 semesters. The courses are categorized into University Core (to inculcate NU’s core principles), Professional Core (to gain proficiency in domain area), Professional Electives (for specialization in an industry-specific domain), R&D Project (to inculcate a strong research bent of mind) and Internship/Thesis (to build linkage with Industry-work or Industry-oriented research).
The first two semesters are devoted to theoretical and hands-on practical training of foundation and advanced courses. This is followed by a summer term at the end of first year during which the students undertake an R&D project. The third semester enables students to specialize in a particular domain. This is followed by an Internship in the fourth semester done in their organization.
Technology-based Seamless Delivery
To enable students to pursue the M. Tech. Program alongside their work, the program design has two delivery components:
- Online component delivered using synchronous technologies. NU has fully equipped web conferencing studios to have two-way interaction with its students located anywhere on the globe. This component is used to deliver lectures and carry out one-to-one student mentoring and guiding as well as interacting with industry-supervisors.
- On-campus component – NU firmly believes that experiential hands-on learning should be an integral part of all its courses. Students will spend at most one month in the campus every semester to carry out the laboratory work that cannot be done in the online mode or at the workplace. Thus over the two year period the students need to spend 3-4 months in the campus at Neemrana, Rajasthan. NU’s Laboratories are designed more in the nature of Industry Innovation Centres rather than University laboratories. Further the activities are designed as mini-projects than isolated exercises.
World-class Mentors
NU’s core faculties are more in the nature of mentors and have a considerable portfolio of intellectual capital to their credit. They have a combined industrial experience of over a hundred person-years and have several granted patents in India and abroad. They are researchers who have successfully led embedded designers in the diverse fields such as transportation, telecom, testing & instrumentation, medical electronics and science education, They have been responsible for creating innovative pedagogies and technology-enabled learning products. They work on funded projects in the cutting-edge areas of biotechnology. They have created award-winning products which can be seen in action across the globe. This team also has a large portfolio of papers published in international conferences and peer reviewed journals.
Apart from the core faculty, NU also has a vast network of global professionals drawn from the industry and academia who will participate in the delivery of the program.
Currently, NU is offering the following four M. Tech. Programs for working professionals who aspire to be the leaders in their professions: