Page 24 - Education World July 2020

Education Briefs

Ashoka U workshop prepare for post Covid-19 challenges 2020 examinations due to the Co-
and innovations,” says So naks hi vid-19 pandemic, IB made a com-
NEW DELHI, JULY 1. The Sonipat A g arw al, founder, EIF. mitment that its students would re-
(Haryana)-based Ashoka University Over the past two years, EdIndia ceive their results in July. To meet
hosted a ‘Shaping Organisations of the Foundation has impacted 30,000 this deadline, IB schools around the
Future’, a virtual conference on June teachers and 500,000 students. world were asked to upload all inter-
27. The conference was addressed by nal assessment work and predicted
business, finance and industry lead- MBD Group Scholarships grades. This meant that every enrolled
ers including Pramod Bhasin, Gen- DP and CP student who would have
pact; Amitabh Chaudhry, Axis Bank; NEW DELHI, JULY 10. The Delhi-based taken the May 2020 examinations
Deep Kalra, MakeMyTrip, and Ashish MBD Group of companies engaged in and has completed all elements of the
Dhawan, Ashoka University. The con- the businesses of publishing textbooks, programme’s core elements has been
ference was attended by over 2,000 eco-friendly notebooks, e-learning issued with a course certificate which
corporate leaders, professionals, stu- apps and online skill development reflects her academic capability.
dents and a variety of audiences in 26 programmes, paper manufacture, ICT Over 400 higher education institu-
countries. infrastructure, hospitality, real estate tions in 50 countries have confirmed
“The virtual conference brought and mall development and manage- that IB 2020 results are adequate for
human resource development com- ment in India, the UK, South Africa admissions this year.
munities, corporate leaders, global and Sri Lanka, disbursed 100 schol-
thinkers and stakeholders to discuss arships to mark the 75th birth anni-
the future of work practices including versary of MBD Group founder Ashok Covid testing short cut
work anytime, anywhere, virtual in- Kumar Malhotra. NEW DELHI, JULY 9. The Indraprastha
ternships, redesigning of workplaces “Malhotra Ji was a visionary who Institute of Information Technology,
and developing skills such as critical always believed in making a difference Delhi (IIIT-D) has developed a com-
writing, analytical thinking, effective in the lives of people by bringing posi- putational AI (artificial intelligence)
communication and social respon- tive changes. Keeping in mind the wel- model for drug repositioning in the
sibility that will be essential in the fare of MBDians during the pandemic, treatment of Covid-19. “Essentially,
post Covid-19 era,” says an Ashoka medical insurance has been almost this means that instead of manually
University spokesperson. A record- doubled for them. We are also imple- going through every available drug
ing of the conference can be viewed menting a work-from-home strategy and checking its effectiveness against
at: https://www.youtube.com/ to safeguard our workforce during this Covid-19 — which is a painfully long
watch?v=fepsECie4GM pandemic,” said Smt. Satis h B ala process — we can now rely on AI to
M alho tra, chairperson MBD Group, speed things up and find us the drugs
EIF training initiative speaking on the occasion. which have the highest probability of
success against the disease,” says an
MUMBAI, JUNE 22. EdIndia Foundation IB 2020 results IIIT-D spokesperson.
(EIF, estb.2019), an edtech non-profit This AI model that could prove to
supported by the Mumbai-based Ster- MUMBAI, JULY 7. The Geneva/Hague- be indispensable in the battle against
lite Power — a power transmission based International Baccalaureate the pandemic is the outcome of col-
and solutions company — hosted a exam board announced the IB Diplo- laboration between IIIT-D, IPGMER,
two-day online training workshop ma Programme and Career-related Kolkata and INRIA, Saclay, Paris
for 8,000 teachers on June 17-18 in Programme results on July 6. 174,355 (France). “In simple terms, our AI
partnership with the Thane Munici- students around the world have been model computes the similarity be-
pal Corporation (TMC). The work- awarded certification. The number of tween the chemical structures of
shop was designed to help teachers of students who received their results in drugs and the similarity between the
TMC’s 850 schools adapt to new digi- India this year is 4,662, a 9.5 percent genomic structures of existing viruses
tal technologies and ensure learning increase over last year (4,217). and the novel coronavirus. The model
continuity in the post Covid-19 era. “An IB education has always been researches the historical information
“All schools have been disrupted about more than results and, this year, about the efficacy of drugs on different
by the pandemic. Therefore, it is im- students have had to deal with a level viruses and selects drugs — based on
perative for all stakeholders to work of global disruption that has never chemical structure — that have been
together for our children’s education been experienced before,” says Dr. successful in treating viruses that have
and well-being. The workshops en- Siva Kumari, director-general at a genomic structure close to that of
courage teachers to embrace tech- International Baccalaureate. the novel coronavirus,” explains the
nology, nurture child well-being and Following cancellation of the May spokesperson.

24 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2020