IIM-A, NID team up to redesign tech course

AHMEDABAD: It's a unique academic innovation that could well be the offspring of an association of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) and National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad.
The IIM-A and NID, the two premier institutions, have come together to redesign a course that was once quite popular among the students. The course to be offered to students of the institutes has been planned and evolved jointly by faculty of both the institutes.
The course has been re-launched after a gap of almost a decade.
The course, 'New Technology Application, Design and Business Model', has been offered to 28 students each of IIM-A and NID. The students from both the institutes will take the course together.
"The prime objective of the course is to make the students of design and management work on technology-based projects together. This was one of the most popular courses that was offered to the second-year students in the first tri-semester," said Arpit Jaiswal, the academic secretary, Students' Affairs Council, IIM-A.
The students would be divided in groups of four, and each group will have two students from IIM-A and two from NID. From IIM-A, the faculty co-ordinator of the course is Prof. Rakesh Basant. The course has been sponsored by Nokia and the teams will have to work on technology-based projects, taking them from concept stage to commercialising them.
Rahul Bagaria, a student who has opted for the course, said, "I opted for this course because I am interested in technology and I was exploring that in a completely new dimension, that is design. We are right now working on the theory part of the course and gradually will advance into working on projects with NID students."