NOIDA (Uttar Pradesh), Aug. 8 : Enthusiasm and euphoria filled the air at Amity University when former President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam visited the Amity University Campus here and enlightened them about his vision for the future well-being of India.

Applauding the good work that Amity has been doing in the field of education and research, Dr. Kalam reiterated his faith in the information provided by the management that Amity would register 100 patents in coming 12 months.

Addressing the jam packed auditorium of scientists, directors, faculty members and students, Kalam shared his valuable views on the topic “National Challenges as drivers for research.”

Emphasizing the importance of research globally vis a vis Waterloo University, Carnegie Mellon University and Rice University, Dr. Kalam said that research and development enrich the quality of teaching and in turn ,the quality of teaching enriches the research and development. Research- teaching- research each reinforces the other.

Kalam further said that by imbibing knowledge and its four components– creativity, righteousness, courage and indomitable spirit, citizens can become liberal and progressive. Therefore, “knowledge is the sum total of creativity, righteousness and courage” and teachers and educators should impart the combination of all these to ensure holistic development of students.

In order to instill confidence and vision in the lives of the students, Dr. Kalam shared the uniqueness of five great minds, all of them noble laureates, each one having unique traits such as cherishing the value of science (Sir C. V Raman- a Noble Laureate in Physics for discovering Raman Effect); undertaking science as a life time mission
(Chandrashekhar Subramanyan known for his astrophysical Chandrasekhar limit); treating science borderless (Prof. Bert Sakman- German Physicist and medical doctor known for his research into basic cell function and their development of the patch clamp technique ), birth of creativity in a difficult situation (Mario Capecchi known for his innovations in genetics) and Scientific Magnamity (Prof. Norman E Borlaug- a well known agricultural scientist and a partner in India’s Green revolution).

By eliciting these examples, Dr. Kalam motivated the students to dream big in life, because dreams transforms into thoughts and results into action.

He appraised students with five technological challenges that await them, when they enter professional arenas including, information and communication technology, energy, automobile industry, aero space field and urged them to prepare themselves for chasing these challenges in their professional lives.

Sharing his experience while working on his three dreams- Space programme of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation , AGNI programme of DRDO ( Defence Research and Development Organisation) and PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas), Dr. Kalam visualized a good leader as a person “who has vision and passion to transform that vision into action, could travel into an unexplored path and knows how to manage a success and failure. In order to achieve excellence in any area creative leadership is needed, which means exercising the vision to change the traditional role from the commander to the coach, manager to mentor and from director to delegator.”

He concluded by expressing his hope that Amity University would generate a pool of “creative leaders” for participating in the national development mission.

The event was attended by Major General. K J Singh, Vice Chancellor, Amity University, Dr. Ashok K Chauhan- Founder President, Amity Universe and Aseem Chauhan- Chancellor, Amity University, Rajasthan and Additional President, RBEF. (ANI)