Twenty-one higher education teachers to receive National Teachers Awards for research and innovation

For the 21 higher education teachers receiving India’s National Teachers Awards, the classroom stretches beyond lecture halls. Their work reaches crime laboratories, community-designed schools and laboratories developing technologies for disasters, weather forecasting and climate change.

President Droupadi Murmu will present the awards on September 5 at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi. The higher education recipients will join 48 school teachers, bringing the total number of awardees to 69. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is due to meet the teachers on the eve of Teachers’ Day at his residence on Lok Kalyan Marg.

The awards recognize work in artificial intelligence, drones, forensic science, climate technology and architecture. At BITS Pilani, Professor Vinay Chamola works across the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, drones, cybersecurity and healthcare. His team is developing autonomous drones for places that are difficult or dangerous for people to reach, including disaster zones. The research includes energy-efficient obstacle avoidance and autonomous charging systems.

Chamola also promotes low-cost, programmable, open-source educational drones for schools. Through BITS Pilani’s PIEDS incubator, he mentors startups. One company, Nawgati, began as a student project focused on queuing systems and now deploys technology at fuel stations across India. “Education should not stop at technical knowledge; students also need the confidence, judgment and resilience to turn ideas into impact,” he told Hindustan Times.

At IIT Roorkee, Professor Avlokita Agrawal led a project in an Uttarakhand government school that involved students, teachers and parents in designing the building. Local leaders and an engineering firm participated, while an industry sponsor funded construction and later adopted the school for five years, including its furniture and equipment. The project used locally available bricks.

“

Education should not stop at technical knowledge; students also need the confidence, judgment and resilience to turn ideas into impact.