Conference

Dr. Kaiwan Mehta has studied Architecture (B. Arch), Literature (MA), Indian Aesthetics (PGDip) and Cultural Studies (PhD). In 2017 he completed his doctoral studies at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bengaluru, under the aegis of Manipal University.

Kaiwan Mehta is a theorist and critic in the fields of visual culture, architecture, and city studies. Since March 2012 he has been the Managing Editor of Domus India (Spenta Multimedia). From July 2017 to March 2022 he was Professor and Programme Chair of the Doctoral Programme at the Faculty of Architecture, CEPT, Ahmedabad, where he contributed to the CEPT University Press and Research, and was also a founding member on the CEPT Essay Prize steering committee. He was the Charles Correa Chair professor at the Goa College of Architecture under the aegis of the Department of Art and Culture, Government of Goa for the academic year 2017-2018. He authored Alice in Bhuleshwar: Navigating a Mumbai Neighbourhood (Yoda Press. New Delhi, 2009) and The Architecture of I M Kadri (Niyogi. New Delhi, 2016). He has delivered keynote lectures and seminars at Cornell University, Centre Pompidou, Paris, besides other Indian and international universities, institutions, museums, and organisations; and has also contributed a section on Modern and Contemporary Architecture in India and South-Asia for the recent and updated edition of Bannister Fletcher’s “A History of World Architecture”. He is currently working on other architecture biographies – the works of Architect Sen Kapadia, as well as Architect Jeetendra Mistry

Mehta co-curated with Rahul Mehrotra and Ranjit Hoskote the national exhibitions on architecture – “The State of Architecture: Practices and Processes in India” (UDRI. 2016) at the National Gallery Modern Art, Mumbai and ‘State of Housing – Aspirations, Imaginaries, and Realities in India’ (UDRI. 2018). Both these exhibitions resulted in a two-volume edited publication each. He has been elected as the Jury Chairman for two consecutive terms (2015–17 and 2017–2019) for the international artists’ residency programme across 13 disciplines at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany. He has been curating the Urban Design and Architecture section of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, Mumbai since 2016. He recently curated two biographical exhibitions, a mid-career retrospective of Rahul Mehrotra and Associate Architects (Mumbai), as well as a memorial exhibition of the life and work of Jitendra Mistry (Ahmedabad).

He has set up courses in Architecture Theory as well as Art, Criticism and Theory, the politics around Craft as well as Aesthetics, and teaches across various undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in Mumbai including setting up the Art, Criticism, and Theory programme at Jnanapravaha (Mumbai). Mehta was the founding academic director of the Parsons – The New School for Design in Mumbai, India at the Indian School for Design and Innovation. He currently teaches at Balwant Sheth School of Architecture, NMIMS, and has previously taught at the K R V Institute for Architecture (full-time lecturer and senior lecturer 1999-2007), Jnanapravaha (Mumbai), as well as Sir J J College of Architecture, IES School of Architecture, and Rachana Sansad’s Academy of Architecture, as well as short courses and workshops across architecture schools in India, The K R Cama Oriental Institute, Artisans Gallery in Mumbai, the Tarq Gallery in Mumbai. He constantly teaches across universities and academies, while continuing to set up many and varied spaces for para-academic engagement and learning.

Areas of specific expertise and competence: 1) Policy development and research in the main focus areas; 2) Promotion, coordination, development, and evaluation activities in international cooperation; 3) Development of education, training, communication, and research that are directed to respond to the needs of the social, economic, and cultural development; 4) Collaboration in the creation and management of teaching, research, development and innovation centers; 5) Enhancement of knowledge transfer from the University through advice, encouragement and participation of companies for the use, dissemination and commercialization of knowledge; 7) Organization of dissemination activities (scholarships, contests, seminars, courses, conferences, academic meetings etc.).

Dr. Moumita Koley is a consultant with the International Science Council, Future of Scientific Publishing project, and is a distinguished STI policy researcher and visiting scholar at the DST-Centre for Policy Research, IISc, Bangalore, India.

Her research focuses on finding ways to enhance the accessibility of scientific output, making the research ecosystem more efficient and responsible, and ensuring that research is responsive to local problems. She has published several research articles on Open Access and Research Assessment Practices.

She serves as a member of the expert group on open science created by International University Association (IAU) of UNESCO.

Marjolein Zweekhorst is professor Innovation and Education in the health and life sciences at the Athena Institute, VU University Amsterdam. Marjolein wrote her PhD thesis on institutionalisation of an interactive approach to technological innovation (defence 2004).

Since October 2016 she is appointed as Professor Innovation and Education in the health and life sciences. She forms one of the professors of the VU with an education signature. She has expertise in transdisciplinary research, training and development of interdisciplinary courses, participatory research in and with society, Community Service Learning (CSL) and with Science Shops.

Since 2018, she leads the CSL team of the VU aiming to implement CSL in all bachelor programs of the VU. In the Netherlands she participates in a national program on transdisciplinary education and international she participates in three EU financed Eramus projects and as well as in the Aurora Alliance.

Marjolein Zweekhorst will provide a presentation on open science, focusing on public engagement in research and education. She will discuss some theoretical background on this topic and discuss the experiences of the H2020 project InSpires and some experiences within the VU university Amsterdam..

Jussi Kivistö is a Professor and the Head of Administrative Studies Unit at the Faculty of Management and Business, Tampere University.

Kivistö is a national expert of Finnish higher education, research and innovation policies and has conducted and overseen several evaluations and assessments at the national level. Overall, Kivistö holds over 20 years project ja training experience both in domestic and international (e.g. Erasmus+, Erasmus Mundus, World Bank) fields.

He has authored / co-authored around 150 publications on topics related higher education, research and science policies. Kivistö also acts as an academic director of MARIHE Erasmus Mundus programme at the Tampere University.

Dr. Nada Trunk Širca holds a PhD in management in Education. Her research fields are higher Education, management and policy in Education, quality assurance and evaluation studies, life-long learning concepts and recognition of prior learning, Education and labour market, and knowledge management.

In recent years, her main focus in the area of HE has been on the topics of LLL and employability, financial literacy, EU integration in the area of Education, active EU citizenship, social inclusion, and internationalisation and modernisation of HE systems in EHEA and outside EHEA (mainly South countries of European Neighbourhood Policy).

She also has many experiences coordinating projects, mainly Erasmus+: she was managing five Jean Monnet projects. She was also the project leader of two KA3 projects in the field of Social inclusion through Education, training and youth (one focused on the inclusion of Roma/migrants in schools, and another one focused on social inclusion of unaccompanied minors in transition to adulthood).

Rammal Hussain is Professor of International Business at the University of Adelaide, Australia and President of the Academy of International Business – Oceania Chapter. He is co-editor of Review of International Business and Strategy (published by Emerald). His research interests lie in the areas of Political Economy, Internationalization of firms, Market entry strategies; International Business Negotiations, FDI and Trade issues (trade in services), and Corporate Governance.

Dr. Kirsty Merrett is a research support librarian at the University of Bristol, where she is responsible for all aspects of research data management. Prior to this, Kirsty worked as the Open Access Administrator at Bristol, managing gold open-access funds for RCUK/UKRI and Wellcome. She is a strong advocate for sharing data using FAIR data principles, and has authored publications on controlled data access. Kirsty works closely with the UK Reproducibility Network to promote all aspects of open research, delivering bespoke workshops, organising an annual Open Research Prize, and using gaming sessions to retrain researchers in open research practices.

Dr. Sharad Mhaiskar is at present Pro-Vice Chancellor at NMIMS Deemed-to-be university. Earlier he has served as Dean of Mukesh Patel School of Technology Management and Engineering, a constituent unit of NMIMS. He brings to NMIMS vast experience of 35 years in higher education sector as well as consulting practice and academic administration. He is at present an Independent Director at DORSCH Consult, India, a subsidiary of DORSCH Consult, Germany. Dr. Mhaiskar has been a Fulbright Scholar and keen in developing ties with reputed international universities. His consulting assignments have been with reputed consulting firms in India and Abroad.
Dr. Sharad Mhaiskar graduated in Civil engineering from Mumbai University. He subsequently earned his Master’s and Doctoral degrees from IIT Bombay. He has professional experience in a consulting firm in the Middle East of 4 years and academic experience for about 35 years in reputed institutions in India and abroad. He has guided 4 research scholars for their Ph.D. degree.
He has been a member of Engineering Accreditation Evaluation Committee (EAEC) of the National Board of Accreditation, India and has evaluated several programs and institutes, across the country for accreditation for NBA and NAAC.
He has been a member of the BIS committees for drafting codes and standards. He has to his credit several research papers in international and national journals. At present he is also member of the American Society Civil Engineers (ASCE) and Fellow of the Indian Geotechnical Society (IGS).
Dr. Mhaiskar has keen interests in Civil and Material Engineering, Higher Education sector reforms, Accreditation and partnerships with reputed global universities.

Professor Dr. Noorsaadah Abd. Rahman graduated with a Bachelor degree in Chemistry from the California State University in Chico, California and a Master degree in Chemistry from the University of California in Irvine, California. She obtained her PhD in organic synthesis in organic synthesis from Cambridge University in 1990 and subsequently joined the University of Malaya as an academic. She was the Director for the Institute of Research Management and Monitoring from 2006 – 2014 and was made the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & Innovation) of University of Malaya in 2015 to her official retirement in 2021. In 2014, she was elected a Fellow of the Malaysian Academy of Sciences (FASc) and was accorded the Top Research Scientist Award (TRSM) at the same time. In 2018, she was appointed a Fellow (ChM) of the Institut Kimia Malaysia and a fellow of the World Academy of Sciences in 2023. She chairs the Malaysian Open Science Alliance at the Academy of Science Malaysia that oversees the implementation of the national open science initiatives since 2019. In April 2023, she was elected as the Secretary General of ASM.

Her research interest is in drug discovery and synthesis and development, particularly in searching for bioactive compound against dengue virus, in which she has published more than 150 articles. She is also interested in research on organic pollutants in the environment, hence her involvement with the National Planetary Health Action Plan Committee at the Academy of Science Malaysia.

In addition to her academic work, Prof Noorsaadah is also involved in raising the interest of science, especially in chemistry, among the school children. She was a member of the technical committee for the Malaysian Chemistry Quiz (K3M) organised by the Malaysian Chemical Institute and is also Prof Noorsaadah an active mentor, head mentor and trainer for the Malaysian team participating in the International Chemistry Olympiad (IChO), an annual chemistry competition for high school students. To date, she has trained more than 70 students who participated directly in the IChO competition. She also involved in various programs to increase interest in science amongst school children, like the National Science Challenge and science programs through the University Malaya STEM Centre such as the “UM-Samsung Solve for Tomorrow” program. Prof Noorsaadah was the co-chair of the steering committee that organises the National Science Challenge for Malaysia under the Malaysia Academy of Sciences (2019-2022) and now acts in an advisory role to the new steering committee.

Dr Sasikumar M is currently Director of CDAC Mumbai. He has been with CDAC since 1987 after completing his BTech from IIT Madras. He completed his Post-graduation from IISc, Bangalore and Doctorate from BITS, Pilani. His areas of interest are Artificial Intelligence, and Educational Technology. He has co-authored two books, one is with Prentice Hall on Parallel Computing. 6 students have completed their PhD under his guidance and three are in progress. He has initiated and nurtured a number of projects in the area of AI and E-learning during his career. He has over 100 publications so far. He is programme committee member in a number of international conferences, member of Board of Studies and advisory board for select institutions. He is fairly active in social media like facebook, linkedin, and research gate.

Sunil Shirvaiker is Program Director & HOD (Statistics) at the School of Mathematics, Applied Statistics & Analytics, NMIMS Deemed-to-be UNIVERSITY. He is with NMIMS for the last 12 years. He has 25 years of industry experience in the electrical & electronics industry and Pharmaceutical Industry in South Asia.

In his current assignment at NMIMS Deemed-to-be University, as Program Director & HOD (Statistics), he is responsible for the Leadership of Statistics Department. He is also a faculty in Applied Statistics & Operations, a member of the Board of Studies and involved in the development of New Programs.

He oversees industry engagement in projects/internships and has professional relationships with industry experts in statistics & analytics. He is also an internal mentor to students doing projects in industry.

As Area Chairperson of Placements at the School of Science, he was in charge of all placement activities of the school for Statistics, Biological Sciences, Chemical Sciences & Physiotherapy. Currently at Nilkamal School of Mathematics, Applied Statistics & Analytics he is in charge of all placement activities for Statistics, Data Science & Mathematics.

He also takes up consultancy assignments from different industries from time to time.

His last assignment before joining NMIMS was as Director of Operations – South Asia at IMS Health Information & Consulting Services India Pvt. Ltd (Now IQVIA). He headed the South Asia Operations which covered customer delivery & development and Data supply service to Healthcare Info. solutions and consulting & services divisions. Sunil worked with this organisation for 12 years. He also worked with companies Siemens, Sandoz, Novartis & Sun Pharma.

Sunil holds a Master’s degree in Statistics from the University of Mumbai & Diploma in marketing management from NMIMS. He has also done management courses at TMTC, XLRI & ASCI and is a member of MRSI.

Viplav is an edTech professional and author of a disruptive book on our educational systems, called WhatIfEdu. He has over 28 years of experience in strategy, pedagogy, content, digital transformation, product design and engineering across K12, Higher Ed, Publishing, Corporate eLearning, Vocational Education and Test Preparation sectors.

Viplav is currently the Senior VP and Chief Product Officer at Knimbus, a digital knowledge platform, and has worked with Aakash Education as Vice President (Products); as Director, Product and Digital Transformation, at Oxford University Press (OUP); as Chief Product Architect at Fliplearn; as CEO at Atelier Learning Systems, and has held many other senior level positions in his career.