The Toolkit team develops low-cost Toolkits that can be used in underserved classrooms in India, their ultimate goal to educate students in cutting-edge soft robotics research through hands-on, cognitive learning. After years of development in the US, the team took its first step in India this week and conducted its first workshop in Delhi with a group of educators and students.
We caught up with Dr. Suresh Subramani, Professor of Molecular Biology at the University of California, San Diego and Global Director of the Tata Institute of Genetics and Society, to talk about the need to promote scientific literacy in India and the future of collaboration between India- and US-based scientific organizations. At the Symposium, he will be part of the panel entitled Technological Advancements in Agriculture.
“I was born in a very literary family full of artists, poets, and writers. The art was in the blood, and then my uncle, who is also a visual artist internationally recognized, so he basically channeled my interest into visual arts. Since then I have been involved in visual arts,” says Mahbub Jokhio, one of the Mittal Institute’s newest Visiting Artist Fellows for Spring 2019.
We recently sat down with Dmitry Popov and Ankur Goel, two members of the Soft Robotics Toolkit team at Harvard. This project — currently in the research, development, and testing phase — will become a comprehensive resource that teaches students how to design, fabricate, model, and test their own soft robotic devices.
Does the issue of ethics apply to all areas of genetics research? The news is constantly filled with stories questioning the authority of scientists to make decisions about human gene-editing and the future of the human race — but there’s more to genetics research than changing someone’s eye color or other physical predispositions. Genetics research opens the door to profound advancements in food security and public health, the management of which will become crucial in the years to come.
The landlocked, extreme northeastern region of India is connected to the rest of the nation via a corridor of land between Bangladesh and Myanmar. In the 1960s, its tribal community rose in an insurgency against the Government of India, with songs their call-to-arms. Mittal Institute Raghunathan Family Fellow Roluahpuia explains how.
Dr. Dominic Mao, originally from Manipur, Imphal — a state in the extreme northeastern region of India — recently set out to create a program there to engage high school students and college-level teaching assistants in a Western-style educational format. He teamed up with three Harvard undergraduates and one alum to make it happen.
If a university wants to be taken seriously today, it’ll need a global outlook. That’s the key message Professor Mark C. Elliott, Vice Provost for International Affairs at Harvard University, conveyed during a talk in New Delhi on Monday, February 11, as part of the India Seminar Series.
In the small tribal community of Palghar in India, many needlessly become ill due to preventable diseases. One team sets out to change everything.
Each year, the Jaipur Literature Festival brings together dozens of world-class writers, humanitarians, businesspeople, entertainers, and politicians for a five-day program in global literacy in Jaipur, India. This year, five faculty members from across Harvard University were invited to speak at the event.
On January 23, the Building Bharat Boston Biosciences (B4) program held an in-country seminar moderated by Professor Venkatesh Murthy. The panel discussion addressed important issues that impact life science advancement in India from publishing issues to diversity and ethics in the sciences.
For years, Mariam Chughtai has immersed herself in the study of the complex politics of identity, religion, and terrorism in Pakistan. Today, as The Mittal Institute’s Babar Ali fellow, she is writing a book that brings her research and real-world experience in South Asia to life, exploring the tension between the politics and culture of Pakistan to rewrite the narrative that has been erroneously given to the nation.