Students of St. Thomas, Maharshi Vidya Mandir and St. Joseph School, Bhopal were invited to the Avantika campus for a Student Connect initiative on 22nd February, 2018. They were given a campus tour and were introduced to the Avantika way of learning and its unique academic model by Registrar, Dr. Manesh Patil and Professor Kuntal De. Vice Chancellor, Dr. Vladimir Kulish spoke about the importance of practical, hands-on learning and its impact on the future. ?

Avantika Design Thinking workshop was conducted at Emerald Heights International School, Indore by Prof. Sanjay Jain assisted by Ms. Kavery Yadav and Mr. Amit Gorani. The participants were given a challenge on “How to ensure safe travel of school students from Home to School and back”. They were given a brief about the essence of Design Thinking, following which the students brainstormed about the ways and means by which travel for students could be made safer in India. Prof. Jain guided the students in their thought process, suggesting changes which could be made to reduce accidents and ensure safer and comfortable travel for students. The students, on their part, came up with lots of varied and interesting solutions like installing ABS in Buses, creating separate pathways for school buses like the I-bus pathways in Indore, installing air bags and seat belts in all chairs, etc.

Avantika Design Workshop was held at Pahal Design, Bhopal on 1st November, 2017 with 41 participants. The workshop was called ‘Good-Bad Design’, covering activities and challenges on looking at a product in a particular context and redesigning it to make it more efficient or less efficient. The objective of this workshop is to make students understand the importance of a product within a context by empathizing with people and understanding the ‘productness’ of a product.

Student Connect programs on the ‘Scope of Engineering and Design Education’ were conducted on 22nd September, 2017 at Takshshela Junior College and on 23rd September, 2017 at Oxford Junior College in Ujjain. Students gained insights into the future of design centered education. They also learned about Avantika University’s value-driven, project-based programs intended to not just support professional growth but to also help students become innovators and entrepreneurs.

Avantika Design Workshop was held at Kala Vihan art and Design Studio, Bhopal on 30th October, 2017 with 25 participants. In this workshop called ‘Make-Remake’, each team is given an object which needs to be redesigned based on the given context and user. The objective is to make students understand how a product cannot be designed without taking into account the context it will be ultimately used in.