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Workshop on ‘Cell Culture Techniques’ held at BITS BIRAC BioNEST Innovation Lab BITS Goa Innovation Incubation Entrepreneurship Society (BGIIES) at BITS BIRAC BioNEST Innovation Lab located at BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, recently organised a three-day workshop on Cell Culture Techniques. Fifteen participants from Goa University, Dhempe College of Arts & Science, Parvatibai Chowgule College of Arts and Science, Bapuji Institute of Engineering and Technology (Davangere), Colorcon Asia Pvt Ltd, and BITS Pilani attended the workshop. The workshop was convened by Prof. Anasuya Ganguly, Associate Professor, Dept. of Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, and Co-founder Tissue Engineered Pvt Ltd., a startup incubated with the BITS BIRAC BioNEST and
was supported by a doctoral scholar Prajakta Bhende. The workshop focused on theoretical sessions with emphasis on hands-on training through experimentation in Animal Cell Culturing using Laminar flow, CO2 incubator, Biosafety cabinet BSL II and Deep freezer. Addressing the participants,
President of the Society and Director of BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, Prof. Suman Kundu stated that “the current pandemic has established that there is great responsibility for biologists to help humanity”. He encouraged participants to be persistent and work hard to create socially impactful innovations in the future.
The BGIIES supports startups in the ideation stage/ pre-seed stage with the preincubation program and the startups in the MVP/seed stage with its incubation program. The Society also provides funding to deep tech startups under the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme www.businessgoa.in
GOA GOVERNMENT AND CONVEGENIUS SIGN MoU TO DRIVE EDUCATION REFORMS THROUGH VIDHYA SAMIKSHA KENDRA ConveGenius, India’s leading social enterprise, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Goa Government to drive education reforms across all the government schools in Goa. After the Prime Minister's recommendation to establish Vidhya Samiksha Kendras across India, Goa is the first state to take the initiative. This recent strategic alliance will bolster the project. With this strategic association, the Goa Education Department will implement the SwiftChat platform powered by ConveGenius to improve education quality across the state. As part of the association, the Goa education department will launch academic, administrative, and registry management chatbots on the SwiftChat conversational AI platform by ConveGenius. The chatbots will use Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology to understand
Goa Government and ConveGenius signing MoU to drive schooling reforms via Vidhya Samiksha Kendra
what users want and assist them in following evidencebased teaching, learning, and governance practices at scale. Aimed at enhancing student learning outcomes through data-driven reforms in every school as proposed by the Prime Minister, the Goa government is planning to set up Vidhya Samiksha Kendra at SCERT, Goa. The recent partnership with ConveGenius, forged under the leadership of the Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant, is a step forward in
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employing conversational AI chatbots to collect meaningful data points from government schools to monitor, assess, and enhance learning. The education department of Goa will deploy SwiftChat’s omnichannel chatbots to record attendance, NEP-aligned assessment progress, NIPUN Bharat KPIs, and facilitate digital home learning. The chatbot data pipelines will be leveraged to build actionable impact dashboards at Vidhya Samiksha Kendra and thus fill
the void of quick, legitimate, trustworthy, and interoperable data for better decision-making and resource allocation at all hierarchical levels. Additionally, the chatbots will maintain two-way communication with key stakeholders from teachers to administrative staff without having to log on to any complex online system or needing a computer. Commenting on the partnership, ConveGenius’s Co-founder and Director, Shashank Pandey, said, “India is undergoing a massive educational transformation thanks to the National Education Policy 2020 and data-driven model like Vidhya Samiksha Kendra. It is a lighthouse guiding the transformation. But time is of the essence. SwiftChat has been built to enable states to set up their monitoring systems within days and not years without investing in heavy infrastructure”
