Workshop

• This workshop presented an overview of social and cultural factors that affect health in India. The participants, who were mostly of foreign origin (from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany, USA and the State Department of Public Health, New York, USA), were given a general overview of the public health delivery systems through field visits to government and private hospitals.
• Visits to public health and educational institutions as well as NGOs further encouraged discussion and sharing of experiences among the diverse group of participants. The workshop succeeded as a method of education, experiential learning and concluded with suggestions of future directions/collaboration of research and professional comradeship.

• This workshop witnessed the active participation of experts of national and international repute.
• Faculty from IITGN presented their research ideas under the three focus areas of Diagnostic/Therapeutic Tools and Techniques; Automated Rehabilitation and Surgical Techniques; and Public Health Techniques.
• Eminent invited researchers such as Prof. Nitish Thakor (John Hopkins University, USA) and National University of Singapore, Singapore), Prof. Dinesh Kant Kumar (RMIT, Australia), Prof. Sunil Agrawal (Columbia University, USA), Prof. Sailendra D. Sharma (IIT Bombay, India) and Prof. M. Manjunath (IIT Kharagpur, India) were asked to present their thoughts on these focus areas. In addition, some of the well-known researchers such as, Prof. Soumyadipta Acharya (John Hopkins University, USA) and Mr. Rohit Vishnoi (Hospira Inc., USA) also shared their thoughts while being present virtually in the workshop session.
• All of the invited experts were encouraged to indicate the possibilities of research collaboration with IITGN faculty. Additionally, they were requested to share their opinion on the need to strengthen the faculty in specific research areas, so that IITGN could plan faculty recruitment in those areas. Moreover, the experts were asked to suggest ways of taking the activities of the Center forward.

On January 22, 2015, IIT Gandhinagar hosted a one-day workshop entitled “Modern Techniques in Rehabilitation”. The workshop was a part of initiative for Center of Biomedical Engineering at IIT Gandhinagar. The purpose of the workshop was to bring distinguished researchers working in the field of rehabilitation. There were three keynote speakers, namely, Dr. Anirban Dutta (from National Institute for Research in Computer Science & Control, INRIA, France), Dr. (med) Abhijit Das (from Institute of Neuroscience Kolkata) and Dr. Mistuhiro Hayashibe (from Computational Medicine and Neuroscience, Robotic Department, INRIA, France). Also, there were clinicians from Civil Medical Hospital, Ahmedabad.

From October 7 – 10, 2014, IIT Gandhinagar hosted a four-day “Cancer Awareness Program”. The workshop was attended by Dr. Usha Bohra (MS, FRCOG (London) MRCP (Gynec) Gyneconco surgeon, Apollo Hospitals, Ahmedabad), Dr. Arun Shet (Professor of Medicine, Hematology and Oncology, St John’s Hospital, Bangalore) and Dr. Vishal Choksi (Head and Neck Surgeon, Oncology (Surgical), Apollo Hospitals, Ahmedabad) along with members from IIT Gandhinagar. In order to give this program an increasing momentum and a creative touch, a t-shirt designing and slogan writing contests were organized where in the participants from IIT Gandhinagar community were welcomed to pour in their innovative ideas in order to come up with original, meaningful and motivational thoughts.

On July 22, 2014, IIT Gandhinagar hosted a one-day meeting where expert such as, Prof. Nitish Thakor (Professor (John Hopkins, USA) and Director (Sinapse, Singapore) reviewed different research projects carried out under the aegis of the Center. Prof. Nitish Thakor made valuable suggestions and presented his observations on the research activities carried out at the Center. He stressed on the importance of doing technology-intensive valuable research, and patenting research ideas.