IIT Bhubaneswar Organises DiversAsia Conference to Promote Inclusivity in Higher Education; Check Details Here

New Delhi: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bhubaneswar organised an international conference and workshop on “Embracing diversity in ASIA through the adoption of Inclusive Open Practices (DiversAsia)” from January 3-6, 2024. The event was organised in collaboration with Nottingham Trent University, UK and funded by Erasmus+ Programme of the European union.

This international conference-cum-workshop by IIT Bhubaneswar focused on inclusive higher education, DiversAsia Toolkit, accessibility checker, and best practices. The programme aimed at addressing the key challenges and present the best practices to be adopted for inclusive education and enhanced learning with major context of students with physical and learning disabilities by addressing key challenges at individual level, community level, institutional level and government level and presenting role of advanced assistive technologies and development of Toolkit.

The meeting and workshop events were jointly hosted by the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Nottingham Trent University, UK, Vellore Institute of Technology-VIT University, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh, Gazi University, Turkey, University of Latvia, Latvia, SoftQNR, Serbia, Plovdiv University, Bulgaria, National Association of Professionals Working with Disabled People, Bulgaria, PhoenixKM BVBA, Belgium and funded by Erasmus+ Programme of the European union.

Shri Bishnupada Sethi, IAS, Principal Secretary in the Social Security & Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Department, Government of Odisha inaugurated the event on January 3, 2024. Prof. David Brown, Coordinator, Nottingham Trent University (NTU), UK; Prof. Dinakar Pasla, Dean-Sponsored Research & Industrial Consultancy (SRIC), IIT Bhubaneswar; Prof. Subhransu Ranjan Samantaray, Head, School of Electrical Sciences, IIT Bhubaneswar and Dr. M. Sabarimalai Manikandan, Project Investigator of the DiversAsia project also graced the inaugural session.

In his welcoming speech, Prof. Dinakar Pasla, Dean-SRIC welcomed all international partners and participants and introduced the major objectives of the DiversAsia conference.

Shri Bishnupada Sethi emphasized the Government policies and best practices adopted for ensuring the social security and empowerment of persons with disabilities in Odisha. He appreciated IIT Bhubaneswar and the team of DiversAsia for taking up this initiative towards making higher education inclusive through the utilization of advanced assistive technology and artificial intelligence. He emphasized that Social Security & Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities Department and IIT Bhubaneswar to collaborate on developing technologies and implementing them for the benefit of the differently abled people of the State.

Prof. David Brown introduced the DiversAsia Project and the Toolkit, which aim at making higher education accessible to the students with disabilities through interactive learning materials and technology.

Prof. Subhransu Ranjan Samantaray stressed the development of technology for making higher education inclusive for the students having disabilities. He affirmed that IIT Bhubaneswar is inclined to work in collaboration with different institutions and the state government to come up with solutions to address the real problems of these students.

The conference consisted of several sessions with the deliberations on Inclusive Education and Assistive Technologies, DiversAsia Toolkit and Inclusive Education, Best Practices and Policies for Higher Education in India and Outcomes of DiversAsia Toolkit Piloting. The research team from IIT Bhubaneswar demonstrated NLP technologies for development of assistive technologies for students with physical and learning disabilities.

DiversAsia partners appreciated the research members, Brahannayaki Sekkar, Asit Kumar Panda and Devimoonchand Rowthu who played major role in development of NLP technologies under guidance of Dr. M. Sabarimalai Manikandan. The DiversAsia team of IIT Bhubaneswar, Dr. Srinivas Boppu, Dr. Tarakanta Nayak, Dr. Barathram Ramkumar and Dr. Satish D. Dhandole coordinated the event.

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