PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE/ Pantnagar
With Artificial Intelligence rapidly transforming how universities teach, conduct research and manage academic work, the Faculty Development Centre (FDC) at Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology (GBPUAT) has launched its first structured Faculty Development Programme on ‘Artificial Intelligence for Educators: Basics to Practice’ on Tuesday. The university sources said that it has become an important priority for higher education institutions worldwide to prepare faculty members to effectively harness these technologies.
The five-day programme, from 13–17 July, is designed to equip educators with practical AI skills while laying the foundation for an AI-enabled academic ecosystem across the University.
The inaugural cohort has brought together 50 faculty members from more than 40 academic departments, representing a cross-section of the university’s leadership, including deans, senior professors, associate professors and assistant professors.
Participants are receiving hands-on training in large language models, prompt engineering, responsible AI, data privacy, AI-assisted teaching, research applications and the emerging field of agentic AI.
A distinctive aspect of the programme is its strong industry-academia collaboration. The co-founder and chief product officer of LUMIQ and an alumnus of Pantnagar University, Vaibhav Dobriyal has been mentoring the programme and leading the technical sessions. During the BRAIN 3.0 (Boosting Research, Academics, Innovation and Networking) conclave, he committed to supporting the university’s vision of creating an AI-enabled academic ecosystem.
Speaking at the inaugural session, the vice-chancellor, GBPUAT, Shivendra Kumar Kashyap emphasised that continuous upskilling has become essential as artificial intelligence reshapes higher education. He noted that AI can significantly improve productivity, strengthen the quality of teaching and research and streamline institutional processes when adopted responsibly and ethically.
