Apart from scholarly research, the center would serve as a think tank, advisory body, training/education center for organizations/professionals interested developing humanitarian operations capabilities.
The center also participates in the planning of various humanitarian projects undertaken by MA Math and actively monitors their projects.
The center will provide an opportunity for experiential learning for students/researchers in various rural villages in India, Srilanka, Africa etc. The different concepts learned at the center will be utilized to develop and implement better operations and management solutions in those rural areas.
The proposed list of courses/workshops/certificate programs/online coursesthat can be offered under the center is:
AMRITA is in the process of establishing live-in-labs at 100+ locations, mostly in rural areas spread across the length and breadth of India. These live-in-labs have varied focus areas such as energy, water, healthcare, education, waste management, ICT for billion, skill building etc. The students both undergraduates and graduates who would like to get an experiential learning opportunity will spend for 2 weeks to a semester in one of the live in labs based on the area.
They will become part of the interdisciplinary team of students and faculty and each team will be guided by a group of 2-3 faculty, also drawn from across the disciplines from all participating universities. The students will share village life and observe and understand problems encompassing health and hygiene, energy, water, waste, environment, etc., touching the villagers’ lives, and define projects that seek to address these problems,devise solutions, implement, test and eventually demonstrate innovative solutions.
Live-in-Labs is a multidisciplinary, “theory into practice’’program, that facilitates the research, development, and deployment of sustainable solutions for current challenges faced by rural communities in India. The program provides international students an experiential learning opportunity where they can directly interact, observe, study, and live in rural communities in order to gain a better understanding of problems in the areas of health and livelihood, education and technology, environment and farming, and infrastructure. The program supports and facilitates students, from multiple disciplines, to define projects that seek to address problems as well as to implement, test, and eventually demonstrate innovative, affordable, and comprehensive solutions.