Siddhartha Ghosh, Associate Professor in the department of Computer Science and Engineering in G. Narayanamma Institute of Technology and Science (GNITS), Hyderabad has received the prestigious "IBM's Smarter Planet Industry Skills Innovation Awards, 2010". The Award includes a citation, a cash prize of USD $10,000 and other facilities. This is given in recognition of his forward thinking approach to preparing the next generation of students with the skills they need to compete as 21st century leaders.
Siddhartha, who is also the Placement Officer in GNITS, has been selected for the international award from thousands of participants across the world, based on his project named - "A Proposal to Design & Development of Teaching Materials for Smarter Cities".
Siddhartha has also submitted his PhD Thesis and is awaiting his defence at Osmania University. In spite of his many responsibilities, he is active on social networking and maintains constant communication with his students. He is full of energy and commitment. Truly an inspiring teacher.
TheProfessor spoke to him on his choice of teaching career and other plans. Here are the excerpts.
Why teaching?-When I completed MTech from HCU, I had the options to join Govt or software jobs but I chose teaching, because making my own career is very easy and all can do. But a teacher is the only one who shapes thousands of careers in his life. I became faculty to help others learn.
In spite of your workload, you have managed to do good work for PhD: Research or PhD is essential for a college faculty as during PhD I benchmarked myself with international standards and could see where I stand. It has expanded my horizon. I recommend for all teachers.
Good and bad moments:My magic moment is when a student recognizes me after 10 years gap also and asks - "Sir, how are you? I was your student." I do feel sad when I see that the students do not realize the importance of study and waste their time.
Can you help get good teachers like you?- As a Placement Officer, I also tell my students that as long as good students are not opting for teaching profession good teachers will not be there. And if good teachers are not there - good students cannot be produced.
Future plans:I want to continue in teaching field. Want to continue my research in the field of NLP, AI, E-governance and Computing in Indian Languages.
Siddhartha Ghosh can be reached at mr_siddharth[at]yahoo.com
