NIT Srinagar organizes workshop, hand-on sessions on virtual lab

Srinagar : The Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology Srinagar Monday organized a day-long workshop, Hand-on Session on virtual lab in collaboration with IIT Delhi for the faculty and students of various colleges across the Kashmir region.
The workshop was presided over by in-charge- Director NIT Srinagar, Prof. MF Wani, while the Head of Department, Physics, Dr. M.A Shah was Chairman of the workshop. Prof. Seemin Rubab was the Convener and Dr. Mohd Zubair Ansari was the coordinator for the program.
In a special message, Prof Rakesh Sehgal, Director NIT Srinagar extended best wishes to Physics department for the successful conducting of the workshop.
Dr. Tanmay Tarun Das (Outreach In-Charge Virtual Labs) IIT Delhi and Mr. Prateek Sharma (Team In-charge Virtual Labs) IIT Delhi were the experts for the day-long workshop.
On the occasion, Prof. MF Wani said over the past several years, online education has witnessed a significant transformation in terms of learning methods and techniques.
He said the workshop was aimed to create awareness about virtual labs. It will help to empower both faculty, and students to use and integrate these labs into the teaching-learning process.
In his message, Institute’s Registrar, Prof. Syed Kaiser Bukhari said virtual labs are excellent digital resources that help to save costs and enhance student productivity manifolds.
“Students or research scholars can work from any location and seamlessly combine the convenience and ease of use offered by contemporary technology,” he said.
HOD Physics Dr. M. A. Shah said Physics is the science of experimental learning and its concepts are intellectual and thus it is a major challenge to understand them.
He said keeping in view many challenges, there was a need to find an alternative or innovative way where students can conduct experiments at any time or place and in any situation.
Dr. Shah mentioned that virtual labs offer students the opportunities to achieve learning objectives and have arisen in schools and universities as a powerful tool over the past several years.
“These labs will act as a bridge to understand the theory and real-life events. I am hopeful that virtual sessions may contribute to the teaching and learning process by giving students opportunities to learn by dawn,” he said.
Dr. Shah expressed his gratitude to Director NIT Srinagar, Prof. (Dr.) Rakesh Sehgal for his consistent support to the department. He also thanked resource persons, organizers, and participants for attending the workshop.
On the occasion, Prof. G. A. Harmian, former Dean (R&C) said using virtual labs; teachers can easily explain complex theoretical concepts to students through a visual, immersive experience that can make it simpler for students to understand.
“It provides remote access to simulation-based Labs in various disciplines of science and engineering. The internet-based experimentation further permits the use of additional web resources, video lectures, animated demonstrations, and self-evaluation,” he said.
Earlier, Coordinator Dr. Mohd Zubair Ansari presented a brief introduction to the workshop. He said virtual labs are any place, any pace, any time, any type of lab. It is a paradigm shift in student-centric, online education.
On the valedictory session, a quick test was conducted and ten toppers were given gifts by Prof S Rubab.
In her speech, Prof. Rubab said such labs allow students to understand the concepts better, which is otherwise difficult to offer with limited equipment and funding.
The P.G students and research scholars of the department worked shoulder to shoulder with the coordinator Dr. Zubair for making everything in order and Dr. Shah expressed gratitude for their hard and disciplined work.
A formal vote of thanks was presented by Dr. Harkirat Singh. He expressed his gratitude to guest experts and all participants, for making the event a grand success.