We follow the philosophy of Education for Life, Education for Living: Br. Maheshwara Chaitanya 

Ahead of the Hindustan Olympiad, one of India’s biggest Olympiads, Br. Maheshwara Chaitanya, the Director of Admissions, Dy. Controller of Exams (Amritapuri campus) and Director (ICPC Asia Amritapuri) of Amrita University, the presenting partner of the competition, shares his insight about how an Olympiad can make the new-age students scientifically, technologically and spiritually sound. He believes in the kind of education that leads to the holistic development of students that in turn help them bring about positive social impact and also adapt to the changing times.   

Why did Amrita University partner with Hindustan Times for the Hindustan Olympiad?   
Amrita has always been supportive about promoting any competition for school students. The initiative by Hindustan Times will help the students think about various futuristic technologies, thus making them productive. 

How important is STEM learning for students in a tech-driven world?  
It is a reality to be accepted that science and technology have been evolving every day, each moment. Most of these technologies have already encroached every domain of life. Future is all about human-to-machine interaction and its complexities. 

What efforts is your esteemed institute taking to further its mission of compassion-driven research?  
Amrita Academy for Career Competency envisioned under the Directorate of Admission & Scholarships, has been driving various outreach programmes across the country since 2017. All these outreach programmes and activities have helped the educational fraternity to gain enormous knowledge in various domains. 

Amrita University is committed towards the cause of blending scientific knowledge with spiritual understanding. What are the best possible ways to do so? 
The key aspect of blending the scientific knowledge with spiritual understanding is to use technology for the benefit of the mankind. The  Live-in-Labs programme, initiated by the Chancellor of Amrita University has been involved in solving various problems faced by the society through compassion driven research. 

Engineering is an all-pervasive field of study in today’s tech-driven world. How is Amrita University helping in the advancement of this domain?  
We update the curriculum across all the programmes, offering various courses across different disciplines. For example, a student in management can register for a course in Artificial Intelligence, to understand how technology can help the management students.  

Tell us a little bit about your ongoing and future research initiatives.  
Amrita Academy for Career Competency has been conducting these programmes for the past two years: 

1. Engineering Foundation Programme: It targets the science students to understand the foundations of engineering concepts and its real time applications. 

2. Introduction to Robotics & Artificial Intelligence 

How is your course on Automation & Robotics Engineering helping new-age engineering students on innovation in this field?  
The curriculum of Automation & Robotics is crafted in such a way that the concepts can be applied directly in the real time applications. Yes, our activities and projects always emphasise on the impact that is created in the society. 

What are the other courses besides engineering that Amrita University boasts of?  
Molecular Biology and Biotechnology are very promising programmes apart from mainstream MBBS, BDS and Ayurveda for the PCB students. Apart from engineering, we have programmes like Integrated Physics with Minor in Data Science, Integrated Mathematics with minor in Data Science etc. 

What sets Amrita University apart from others of its ilk?  
We follow the philosophy of Education for Life, Education for Living. This is what makes all the difference. 

How does STEM learning help in the holistic development of students?   
A commerce student is expected to understand about the FinTech while a FinTech app is built by an engineer, who is expected to understand how commerce industry works. A surgeon will have to depend on deep learning, robot to take a decision after diagnosing any disease. This is how STEM learning