IIT Guwahati collaborates with Mehta Family Foundation to launch Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences and Technology

GUWAHATI : Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Mehta Family Foundation (MFF), Houston, Texas, USA, to establish the ‘Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences and Technology.’ This New School at IIT Guwahati will commence academic activities during the current academic year.

The MoU was signed virtually on 14^th May 2022  in the presence of Prof. Ajay K. Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Dr. Rajiv I. Modi, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Guwahati, and Chairman and Managing Director, Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Shri Rahul Mehta, CEO, Mehta Family Foundation, Prof Ananth Grama, Prof. Rajiv K. Gupta, Prof. Shankar Subramaniam, Prof. T. G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati, Prof. S. K. Kakoty, Deputy Director, IIT Guwahati, and other Deans as well as faculty members of IIT Guwahati.

Addressing the event, Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India, said “I congratulate IIT Guwahati and the Mehta Family Foundation for this remarkable initiative. At this juncture, I can clearly foresee that the School of Health Sciences and Technology would host a number of modern academic curricula, centers of excellence, incubators, and research laboratories for the advancements in multi-disciplinary research and education, which is presently needed in the country.”

Further Prof. Ajay Kumar Sood, “The School will also bring in the budding academic leaders in the closest proximity of world-class educationists, scientists, physicians, technologists, and entrepreneurs, which may catalyze high-impact research, diminish expensive biomedical imports, and engender an academic curriculum that substantiates the vision of a sustainable society.”

The Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences and Technology has launched a new Master’s and PhD programmes in Health Sciences and Technology from this academic year. The first batch of 20 M.Tech students in the stream of Biomedical Science and Engineering will be admitted to IIT Guwahati through GATE 2022.

Highlighting the initiatives to be taken up by the New Centre, Prof. T. G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati, said, “The institute profoundly thanks the Mehta Family Foundation for their generous support towards establishing this second new programme on Health Sciences and Technology at IIT Guwahati, which will inculcate cutting-edge education and research in the areas related to therapeutics, diagnostics, prosthesis, implantation, bioinformatics, molecular biology, regenerative medicine, stem cells, public health, and health data analytics, among many others. The impact of such translational education and research is rather far-reaching since they will not only fulfil the demands of having sufficiently qualified postgraduates in the service of the nation but also catalyze the research output matching the global standards.”

Speaking about the vision of the USA-based Mehta Family Foundation, its Chief Executive Officer Shri Rahul Mehta said, “The Mehta Family Foundation has supported higher education in India and internationally for decades. It is an absolute privilege to partner with IITG to create this new school of Health Science and Technology. We believe that education is fundamental for economic development. This multi-disciplinary research and education school will foster innovation in new areas at the frontier of the healthcare revolution to deliver sustainable solutions to improve the healthcare of the people in India.”

This new multi-disciplinary programme on Health Sciences and Technology at IIT Guwahati has been designed based on National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The NEP advocates development of a holistic academic curriculum to nurture the best talents of the country through both pedagogic as well as hands-on training.

Dr. Rajiv I. Modi, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Guwahati, and Chairman and Managing Director of Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd, said “First of all, our sincere thanks to the Mehta Family Foundation for their generous support in establishing the School of Health Sciences and Technology. At this juncture, integration of the School in the IIT Guwahati ecosystem may entirely transform the research and academic ambiance for sure. The initiative also commensurate with the mission of the nation to become an international powerhouse in post-graduate education and research.”

The new programme will emphasize extending training in both theoretical as well as hands-on perspectives, which will enable the development of academic leaders with a strong scientific foundation alongside having the capability to translate the ideas into biomedical technologies.

The newly established school aims to train the students in topics related to Health Science and Technology, with the emphasis on courses from other disciplines of science and engineering such as Biosciences and Bioengineering, Electronics and Electrical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Mathematics and Statistics, and Design.

The school will:

(i)               Foster cutting-edge research and innovation

(ii)              Establish new standards of pedagogy and hands-on training methods in the areas related to the health sciences

(iii)             Create a niche of startups and MSMEs who will provide evidence-based affordable healthcare technologies

(iv)            Promote state-of-art biomedical and public health education

This school will have highly-qualified full-time faculty alongside having the guidance of the associated faculty members from diverse disciplines within IIT Guwahati, who have experience in nurturing the existing Masters’ and PhD programme in the Engineering, Science, and Design departments.

Further, Dr. Rajesh Gupta, MFF CARE Team Member, said, “The launch of The Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences and Technology is the culmination of a concerted effort to create an academic home for the emerging area at the intersection of health sciences and engineering to advance human health. Its establishment in a beautiful but underserved corner of the country is heartwarming. My sincerest congratulations and thanks to the Mehta Family Foundation for enabling IIT Guwahati to advance knowledge and train the future generation of talent in the area.”

Dr. Ananth Grama, MFF CARE Team Member, said, “I am honored and excited to be a part of the Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences and Technology at IIT-Guwahati. The School offers tremendous promise of fundamental scientific discoveries, world-class education, and deep societal impact. The School is built around a shared vision of collaborative multidisciplinary research, deeply committed world-class students and faculty, and resources from the Mehta Family Foundation, in an area of particular importance and growth in India. I look forward to being a part of this journey — as the School matures into a premier institution of research and learning.“

Dr. Shankar Subramaniam, MFF CARE Team Member, said, “Innovation in technologies at multiple scales have the potential to impact the health status of millions of people. Training next generation students and contributing to this translational impact is of paramount importance for premier academic institutions and IIT Guwahati can emerge as the pioneer in this area and serve as a harbinger for health science and technology future in India.”

The Mehta Family Foundation has a track record of having supported several institutes in the fields of healthcare education. Previously, the same philanthropic organization supported the Mehta Family School of Data Sciences and Artificial Intelligence, IIT Guwahati (https://iitg.ac.in/dsai/).