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The Faculty Development Program, held on 6/5/2024, brought together distinguished resource persons in data science and artificial intelligence for a comprehensive and insightful first day from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM. The event commenced with introductions of two notable professionals: Mr. Bastin Robin and Mr. Saranyan Sankrith. Mr. Bastin Robin, currently the Director of Data at ELSA Corp, excels in developing scalable data infrastructure and driving data driven decision-making. He also serves as a Gartner Peer Ambassador and a visiting professor at IIM Nagpur, contributing his expertise to both industry and academia. His career includes significant roles at CleverInsight and Logezy Limited, earning him recognition as one of India’s 20 Most Influential Conversational AI Leaders. Mr. Saranyan Sankrith, a seasoned System Architect with extensive experience in backend development, microservices, and database architecture, currently serves as a Data Engineer at ELSA Corp and a System Architect at CleverInsight. He has played a pivotal role in developing Waddle, a revolutionary time series database, and has a strong background in multiple programming languages, including GoLang and NodeJS, as well as both SQL and NoSQL databases. His career includes significant contributions at Tata Consultancy Services, where he streamlined data pipelines and built custom solutions. The introductory session concluded with a speech by academic coordinator Fr. Justin P. Varghese. The first major session, led by Mr. Bastin Robin, focused on NextGen Generative AI. He discussed student expectations, the rapid evolution of AI technology, the importance of verbal communication skills, and the potential problems and cons associated with AI. He explained generative AI using a simple regression model as an example and delved into topics such as AI-generated content, ethics, and bias. Mr. Bastin also provided an overview of ELSA Corp, highlighting their patented technology funded by Google, which improves English language proficiency using a custom LLM. He discussed how generative AI can be effectively used in teaching, and covered various aspects of natural language processing (NLP), including tokenization, stemming, lemmatization, POS tagging, entity recognition, chunking, and word embeddings. He emphasized the importance of mathematics in AI and provided insights into neural networks, gradient descent, and the generation of images and text. Interactive Q&A sessions addressed questions on the validation of information by ChatGPT, ethical issues, and the use of ChatGPT in the healthcare industry. Discussions also touched on the challenges of black box models and the concept of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG). The second session featured a talk by Mr. Saranyan Sankrith, who discussed effective teaching strategies, the importance of active interaction with students using modern tools, and adapting to students’ methods to make the classroom more engaging. This was followed by another talk by Mr. Bastin Robin, who covered advanced topics such as forward and backward propagation in neural networks, understanding and measuring bias, and creating storylines. He provided a hands-on session with OLLAMA, explaining the installation and use of pre-trained models, creating custom LLMs, and content generation using Docker. The afternoon session focused on structuring courses using OLLAMA, an introduction to PredictEasy, and using ChatGPT efficiently for course planning. The discussion included the use of Google Sheets, the difference between output and outcome, and the application of AI in creating PowerPoint presentations. New AI tools like GravityWrite and Google’s version of ChatGPT, Gemini, were also introduced. The program emphasized the importance of data science subjects, including data structures, statistics, and mathematics. It highlighted the need for the ability to implement basic algorithms, understand data distribution, and choose the right programming languages. The event concluded with each faculty member sharing their key takeaways, summarized by Ms. Anubin. The first day of the Faculty Development Program provided valuable insights into leveraging generative AI in educational and professional settings, emphasizing continuous adaptation to new tools and technologies.

On April 20, 2024, the Department of Languages hosted an insightful workshop titled “Platforms for Digital Projects and Social Media”. This event, conducted via a virtual meet, was inclusive and accessible to participants both within and beyond the university community. The workshop featured Ms. Rimi Nandy, an Assistant Professor and a full-time HASTAC Scholar, as the resource person. The primary audience for this workshop was the MA English with Digital Humanities students, although it attracted a diverse group of attendees interested in digital projects and social media. Ms. Nandy’s expertise provided an invaluable opportunity for students and professionals to explore various digital platforms and understand their applications in academic and professional projects.

The workshop was meticulously designed to equip faculty members of the Data Science Department with advanced tools and strategies for optimizing communication and management tasks. The primary focus was on leveraging Google Workspace applications to streamline workflows, enhance productivity, and facilitate effective collaboration among faculty members. The session commenced with a comprehensive examination of optimizing Gmail workflows. Participants were instructed on advanced search techniques to swiftly locate emails, thereby saving time and mitigating the challenges associated with managing a crowded inbox. The workshop emphasized the importance of organization within Gmail, demonstrating the effective use of filters and labels to categorize and prioritize emails efficiently. Faculty members were introduced to inbox tabs, which facilitate a structured email management system by segregating emails into distinct categories such as primary, social, and promotions. Additionally, the workshop covered the management of email signatures, teaching participants how to create professional, standardized signatures that can be customized for various contexts. Personalized settings customization was another focal point, where attendees learned to tailor Gmail settings to their individual preferences, thereby enhancing their overall email experience. A significant feature discussed was the “Undo Send” function, a critical tool for error prevention. This feature allows users to recall an email within a brief period after sending it, providing a crucial window to rectify any mistakes. The email merge capabilities were also highlighted, showcasing how to efficiently send personalized bulk emails, a particularly useful feature for disseminating announcements or updates to large groups of students or colleagues. The workshop then transitioned to the effective utilization of Google Calendar, an indispensable tool for scheduling and time management. Faculty members were taught to track work effectively by setting up meetings, deadlines, and reminders. The integration of Google Keep and Google Tasks with Google Calendar was also explored. Google Keep was introduced as a tool for note-taking and task list creation, allowing for easy tracking and access across devices. Google Tasks was covered as a simple yet powerful tool for managing to-do lists directly within Gmail or Google Calendar, ensuring that tasks are visible and can be managed alongside emails and events.