The lockdown is the perfect ground for many firsts.

The National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur in Adityapur hosted the first-ever online faculty training programme in the history of the institute.

The institute that has been organising seminars and other conferences hosted this first-of-its-kind capacity building programme that was sponsored by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) Training and Learning Academy (ATAL) between May 7 and May 11.

Around 200 faculty members and research scholars across the country participated from various cities.

The subject of the online training was Internet of Things (IoT) to empower faculty members with technology as classes across institutes in the country are taking place in the virtual world.

The programme was inaugurated online by director of NIT-Jamshedpur K.K. Shukla. Attendees used the Cisco WebEx Software application.

The participants learnt about how to apply IoT in implementing projects at various levels of teaching in engineering colleges.

“This was the first time in the history of NIT that we hosted an online training programme. As many faculty members face challenges to teach online, the training programme informs the technicalities of the IoT world and how to leverage technology for teaching. Though there are many faculty members who are continuously taking online classes, this was a value addition,” said Prashant Kumar, a faculty member of electronics and communications department of NIT.

Various technical subjects such as cloud computing platforms, fog computing, IoT-based solar power in India, IoT in industry and information on related topics such as innovation, technology and its socio-economic impact were also dealt with. Use of IoT in agriculture was also showcased.

A test was also conducted on the last day and certificates were given out to those who scored 80 per cent marks.

“We had so far organised seminars and conferences in physical format but this one was a new experience where faculty members from across the country could attend it from their homes. We are planning to conduct more such sessions in the future,” he said.