34th Annual Report (2021-22)

35 KeyFutureplans : Center forWater – Building a Center for watermanagement, technology deployment, and policy in collaboration with Water Valley, Denmark CoE for Carbon Sequestration & Renewable Energy – Building a center of excellence focused on increasing urban/peri-urban and rural vegetation cover for carbon sequestration, developing technology-based plantation models and citizen engagement programs, piloting technologies for biofuels production PKC's Sustainable Mobility vertical aims to apply scientific and technical tools to address the rapidly growing and changing mobility requirements of the city. We wish to support the development of sustainable solutions toward carbon-neutral transportation. Working towards the Smart City Mission of GoI, the Pune City administration is encouraging and enabling sustainable modes of mobility in the city. In this regard, PKC has the following programs in the pipeline. Vehicle E-Waste Recycling –Projects are being conceptualized with technology providers and the auto industry to pilot novel technologies for vehicle E-waste recycling at the city level through public-private partnership models. Charging Infrastructure Mapping using Pune Digital Twin – In partnership with TCS Pune Digital Twin, PKC wishes to map and plan locations for EV charging infrastructure in the city. Partners : Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), Center for Materials for Electronics Technology (CMET), C4i4, Society of Automotive Engineers This vertical enables the development of various AI-driven platforms for basic and applied research. Large-scale citizen science programs are being developed to involve citizens in analyzing BIG scientific data to foster scientific temper. One such program is called One-Million Galaxies where 450+ citizens ¬ ¬ III. SustainableMobility ¬ ¬ IV. BIGData&Artificial Intelligence have analyzed over 1 GB of data (images of galaxies) on PKC's platform. PKC is also trying to build collaborative projects between BIG Data and AI experts, chemists, and biologists to encourage inter-disciplinary research. Partners : CODATA, IUCAA, Univ. of Southampton, IIA Bangalore, HBCSE Mumbai, Nehru Planetarium Mumbai, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium Bangalore, Jyotirvidya Parisanstha Pune, Khagol Vishwa Pune Aligned with the Skill India Mission , the capacity-building vertical of PKC aims to provide new opportunities to students, young researchers, and professionals to improve their knowledge base and acquire advanced skills through the following programs Interdisciplinary Training Programs & Courses – Contemporary skill-building and knowledge enhancement Citizen centric science talks by experts PKC has conducted over 35 training programs, talks and webinars involving over 96mentorswith 2500+ beneficiaries. STEM Education : Aligned with the National Education Policy 2020 , PKC's STEM education vertical focuses on promoting STEM education through technology-enabled training programs for school teachers and students, scholarship programs for women in STEM, gamification of learning, and setting up of STEMLabs. Projects : PKC has 2 ongoing STEM projects – Teach with Tech (sponsored by Lenovo India) and WEnyan – a mentoring and scholarship program for women in chemistry and sustainability (sponsored by BASF Chemicals India) Partners : Icertis, Infosys Springboard, IBM, DY Patil Engineering, SPPU, District Institute of Education and Training, Pune Zilla Parishad, Agarkar Research Institute, CODATA, Persistent Systems, Serum Institute of India. KeyFutureplans: CoE for STEM Education: Centre with a focus on innovation in school education, gamification in learning, STEM labs, girl education, andMathCircles. V. CapacityBuilding ¬ ¬