Greater Noida, Oct. 24, 2018: Award winning Architect and a specialist in Green architecture, Nilanjal Bhowal, delivered a talk on 'Vernacular Architecture' to the second year students. The talk also included Ar. Nilanjan giving design critique to the students. He has found avid recognition for his projects in Heritage Conservation. He has more than 100 national & international publications to his credit and many authored articles with major national dailies. DD NEWS featured him as the ‘Young Entrepreneur’ and NDTV Profit has presented him the ‘NDTV Design & Architecture Award’ in the recent past.

Greater Noida, Oct. 16, 2018: Internationally acclaimed Dubai based Architect, Farid Esmaeil, gave a splendid presentation on 'Identity Generators: Context as a Form Generating Process' to the second and third year students. He also visited the first year students’ studio and appreciated the three dimensional models prepared with toothpicks by the students.

Greater Noida, Sep. 28, 2018: A National Seminar was held, under the aegis of the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University, on 27th & 28th September at the AIT Campus. The Seminar was held on the topic ‘Divergent Contexts and Varied Urban Planning Responses in Three NCR-Satellite Towns: Ghaziabad, Noida & Greater Noida, U.P’.

Understanding Cultural Heritage Resources: An Indian Perspective

Greater Noida, July 20, 2018: In context of the increasing significance of cultural heritage resources for development planning being recognized, the Faculty Development Programme (FDP) focused on sensitising academia and research; professional and pedagogical narrative towards relevance of cultural heritage for development planning. The programme contextualised the subject through an Indian perspective to make it more relevant for the participants. It was intended that the programme sensitised the participants towards inclusion of cultural heritage in planning perspectives.

Ten sessions were scheduled to be completed in five days, and distinguished speakers were invited to address the participants. Speakers included a mix from domains of academia and profession; professional training in architecture, urban planning and urban geography, engaged with private, non-governmental and government institutions. The schedule included a morning an afternoon term, each having two sessions of one and half hour each.

The workshop was attended by participants including representation from educational institutions, practicing professionals and representatives from the corporate sector. All participants were primarily architects, though their specializations through higher studies included urban planning, landscape architecture, architecture conservation, urban design building engineering management and advanced building services. The organisation of the faculty development plan was well received with a positive feedback on its quality of exchange and speakers.

However, the most significant aspect of the workshop was an almost unanimity on the relevance on the theme being addressed, and the critical need to carry it further through similar programmes extensively, leading to its inclusion in pedagogy, research and the profession.

The event concluded with distribution of ‘Certificates of Participation’ to all participants on July 20, 2018.