Photo caption: University of Canterbury Assistant Vice-Chancellor Engagement Brett Berquist facilitated the Bridging the Gap: Nurturing industry-academic partnerships panel with panellists from the University of Bath, QS and UC.
Photo caption: University of Canterbury and Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi hosted the Masterclass Ending Energy Poverty: Harnessing new energy to serve the community at the 2024 QS India Summit in Chennai
Leaders from Asia, the Middle East, and Oceania came together in Chennai, India to discuss topics on the rapidly changing nature of higher education.
Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury (UC) delegates Assistant Vice-Chancellor Engagement Brett Berquist, Executive Dean of Engineering Professor Saurabh Sinha and Head of Mathematics and Statistics Professor Clemency Montelle joined international academics, industry and leaders from across India to discuss the important issues of ending energy poverty and nurturing partnerships between academia and industry.
Hosted by UC and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT- Delhi), a masterclass discussion Ending energy poverty by 2030: Harnessing new energy to serve the community was facilitated by Berquist with panellists UC Professors Sinha and Montelle, IIT-Delhi Assistant Professor Ankit Singhal and Professor Sanjay Mitra, and Liquium CEO Dr Paul Geraghty.
During the masterclass, Professor Sinha described the challenges of internationalisation and introducing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on campus as well as UC’s holistic approach to embed these goals in affordable and clean energy. Professor Sinha called for expressions of interest from Indian researchers to focus on ending energy poverty and outlined the role AI could play in boosting energy efficiency.
With Liquium advancing technological solutions to lower the carbon footprint of ammonia production, Dr Geraghty said universities need to produce tens of thousands of scientists and engineers from around the world to meet the global decarbonisation efforts.
Professor Montelle reinforced the importance of Indigenous knowledge systems and community engagement alongside modern approaches. She emphasised the need to imbed mātauranga Māori and Indigenous knowledge systems into renewable energy research if we are to achieve equitable progression towards the SDGs.
The UC sponsored panel, hosted by Berquist on the topic of nurturing industry-academia partnerships to bolster real-world impact and prepare students for an evolving workforce, explored the potential avenues for improving cooperation and encouraged the cross-pollination of ideas. UC Professor Sinha, University of Bath Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Ian White, Vice-President of Vellore Institute of Technology Dr Viswanathan and QS CEO Jessica Turner shared their ideas on how industry-academia partnerships contribute to India’s goals of technological innovation, economic growth, and workforce development.
“Panellists have shared diverse perspectives, offered pragmatic suggestions for ways forward, and the networking has facilitated connections at a rapid pace,” Berquist says.
