When Sparks Flew at Nirma Ahmedabad

This time with a difference.

There were about 42 faculty members from the various colleges of Nirma University based at Ahmadabad.

A quick bit about the university first. There are in all six colleges here. These are: Institutes of Technology, Management, Diploma Studies, Pharmacy, Science and Law. All in one 120 acres of campus. Lush green and a fantastic architecture. Housing close to 10,000 students across colleges and another 1,000 faculty members, the institute stands out as one of the top private universities in India.

The session was for faculty members from across these colleges and from all levels. Through a systematic creativity approach the participants were encouraged to arrive at solutions to their typical problems. Further taking such learning back to the class rooms and impart to students.

With these two objectives in mind, we kick started the wonderful day.

After initial deliberation, areas of brainstorming soon emerged as: Faculty related, Students related, Research and Admin related.

The groups used a series of tools and techniques for the brainstorming sessions such as Mind Mapping, Exploration, Random Object Mapping, etc. The result was a set of 500 ideas germinated towards the end. The top 50 ideas were then demonstrated through clay modelling, 3- D models, etc. Then voted in a democratic fashion and finally up for proposal.

In the words of one of the oldest faculty members for the session, "even at an age of 62 I was enjoying like a kid".

Remember, Let Sparks Fly sessions are for kids of all age!