Think & Ink Education and Research Foundation: STEM & Roots for Innovation
Prof. B. A. Patil
Founder & CEO
His R&D experience spanning 30+ years in academia, R&D organizations and IT industry, bestows Prof. Patil with the immense experience to manage research & innovation programs. It facilitates Think & Ink to design world-class research & innovation programs that cater to the market and professional careers of innovative minds. In an exclusive conversation with CEO Insights, Prof. Patil delineates how Think & Ink kindles innovative spirit. Here are the excerpts:
Kindly give us an insight on the way you run the organization?
The only candidate requirement is You should be MAD,where MAD stands for‘Make a Difference’ to you, your family and your county. After interview and assessment, we identify the specific R&D projects that meet the candidate’s career goals and recommend appropriate interventions that exploit inherent talent & organic growth, which assures employment in specific industry and win win situations to all stakeholders. Every year, we place 200+ engineers and science students.
We support STEM education based on experiential learning with various learning pedagogy such as discovery learning, collaborative learning, creative learning, enquiry learning with emphasis on innovations, train the best talent, and solving the society’s problem with the ultimate goal of creating best entrepreneurs. We have strategically planned our programs that cater to the student’s aspirations and industry needs. The research and business verticals are managed by scientists, engineers and professionals in their respective domains with the help of an advisory board consisting of subject matter experts from India and
abroad.
What are the major aspects that set Think & Ink apart from other similar organizations?
Mathematical modelling & its application is critical in pure and applied sciences. Unfortunately, the Indian education system doesn’t have mathematics laboratory! Our exclusive mathematics & programming laboratory for system simulation and rapid prototyping gives us a competitive edge. These are developed and deployed in various stages of innovation ideation, innovation, rapid prototyping, product engineering and final products with IP management.
Endeavouring to ‘Catch them Young’, we have launched a unique feature, where school children (4th to 10th standard) are given the opportunity to work with us and have the first hand science experience. For instance, one of our young innovators Varun (third standard student) works on engineering models and rapid prototyping. We have designed and delivered 400+ science experiments for fourth standard students.
Please throw some light on Think & Ink journey so far.
When Think & Ink opened its state of the art laboratory for school & college students in 2014, there were few takers. Students & parents were reluctant and school management was sceptical! We broke the ice when our training and successful mentoring enabled the students win four gold medals in chemistry conducted by Royal Society, England. And rest is history!
Kindly throw some light on the various programs that you offer under research and innovation.
Our ThinkIT Scholar (a 10 month long STEM-based program with emphasis on innovations & academic performance) is designed & delivered at our R&D centre as well as integrated & delivered at the Schools. We focus on design thinking, critical thinking, product thinking and algorithmic thinking & programming, among others, with various learning pedagogies.
For example, we have developed a one-day workshop Coffee with Sir Albert Einstein for innovative thinking, Dr. Kalam for missiles & projectiles, Selfie with Moon for astronomy & astrophotography, Kitchen Chemistry for innovations using kitchen stuff, Bathroom Biology for microbiology, My Healthy Food for food science, nutrition & detection of food adulteration, A Day with farmer for agriculture sciences, Mahatma Gandhi Electronic Chakra for rural India, with appropriate technologies and many more.
What are the major aspects that set Think & Ink apart from other similar organizations?
Mathematical modelling & its application is critical in pure and applied sciences. Unfortunately, the Indian education system doesn’t have mathematics laboratory! Our exclusive mathematics & programming laboratory for system simulation and rapid prototyping gives us a competitive edge. These are developed and deployed in various stages of innovation ideation, innovation, rapid prototyping, product engineering and final products with IP management.
We have strategically planned our programs that cater to the student’s aspirations and industry needs
Endeavouring to ‘Catch them Young’, we have launched a unique feature, where school children (4th to 10th standard) are given the opportunity to work with us and have the first hand science experience. For instance, one of our young innovators Varun (third standard student) works on engineering models and rapid prototyping. We have designed and delivered 400+ science experiments for fourth standard students.
Please throw some light on Think & Ink journey so far.
When Think & Ink opened its state of the art laboratory for school & college students in 2014, there were few takers. Students & parents were reluctant and school management was sceptical! We broke the ice when our training and successful mentoring enabled the students win four gold medals in chemistry conducted by Royal Society, England. And rest is history!
Kindly throw some light on the various programs that you offer under research and innovation.
Our ThinkIT Scholar (a 10 month long STEM-based program with emphasis on innovations & academic performance) is designed & delivered at our R&D centre as well as integrated & delivered at the Schools. We focus on design thinking, critical thinking, product thinking and algorithmic thinking & programming, among others, with various learning pedagogies.
For example, we have developed a one-day workshop Coffee with Sir Albert Einstein for innovative thinking, Dr. Kalam for missiles & projectiles, Selfie with Moon for astronomy & astrophotography, Kitchen Chemistry for innovations using kitchen stuff, Bathroom Biology for microbiology, My Healthy Food for food science, nutrition & detection of food adulteration, A Day with farmer for agriculture sciences, Mahatma Gandhi Electronic Chakra for rural India, with appropriate technologies and many more.
We have internships, research opportuities & industrial trainings for UG & PG students (like ThinkIT Engineers for engineering students) from 2-6 months. Sponsored by industry, these programs satisfy not only the academic requirements, but also train the best talent and employ in the industry with industry ready skills. These students are trained & assisted for higher education and research opportunities abroad. We also enable the research scholars to achieve their professional career goals by mandating them to write technical reports, research articles and research papers. If the innovation has significant potential, it’s recommended for patents and IPR.
Kindly brief us about your faculty and your methodologies to upgrade them.
We have more than 50 highly trained, self-motivated and talented staff, who have PG degree and over five years of professional expertise. We also have a strong network of 400+ scientists, innovators, engineers, doctors, STEM experts, Subject Matter Experts and IT professionals, who are available on demand. We have consistent programs & comprehensive research policy to constantly upgrade ourselves.
We have strong industry collaborations and signed MOUs with many national and international universities & engineering collages, including Reva University (Bangalore0 for Data Sciences for Space, Concordia University (Canada) for Telecardiology, Bangalore institute of Technology for Smart Structures, and Cambridge Institute of Technology for Forest Management. We are exploring research and academic collaborations with eminent universities(like IIT), national laboratories(like ISRO), U.S. and European universities and industry.
What is the future roadmap set for your organization?
Our roadmap is clear; we are pioneers now and want to become world leaders in STEM education and innovation for developing worlds for inclusive society, lead & develop products in India and make a difference to common man. We intend to develop affordable technologies for inclusive society that address specific societal needs such as low-cost housing, affordable healthcare, sustainable agriculture and STEM education. We aspire to setup more than 100 innovation centres and STEM laboratories across India and are looking for partnerships & collaborations to achieve the same.
Key Management
Prof. B.A.Patil, Founder & CEO
Prof. Patil was honoured as a ‘Salzburg Fellow’ from Austria for making significant contributions to universal access for ICT. He has contributed to many MNCs, where innovative ideas were translated to product features that fetched dollars.
Locations:Bangalore(headquarter) and Belagavi
Kindly brief us about your faculty and your methodologies to upgrade them.
We have more than 50 highly trained, self-motivated and talented staff, who have PG degree and over five years of professional expertise. We also have a strong network of 400+ scientists, innovators, engineers, doctors, STEM experts, Subject Matter Experts and IT professionals, who are available on demand. We have consistent programs & comprehensive research policy to constantly upgrade ourselves.
We have strong industry collaborations and signed MOUs with many national and international universities & engineering collages, including Reva University (Bangalore0 for Data Sciences for Space, Concordia University (Canada) for Telecardiology, Bangalore institute of Technology for Smart Structures, and Cambridge Institute of Technology for Forest Management. We are exploring research and academic collaborations with eminent universities(like IIT), national laboratories(like ISRO), U.S. and European universities and industry.
What is the future roadmap set for your organization?
Our roadmap is clear; we are pioneers now and want to become world leaders in STEM education and innovation for developing worlds for inclusive society, lead & develop products in India and make a difference to common man. We intend to develop affordable technologies for inclusive society that address specific societal needs such as low-cost housing, affordable healthcare, sustainable agriculture and STEM education. We aspire to setup more than 100 innovation centres and STEM laboratories across India and are looking for partnerships & collaborations to achieve the same.
Key Management
Prof. B.A.Patil, Founder & CEO
Prof. Patil was honoured as a ‘Salzburg Fellow’ from Austria for making significant contributions to universal access for ICT. He has contributed to many MNCs, where innovative ideas were translated to product features that fetched dollars.
Locations:Bangalore(headquarter) and Belagavi