Confluence 2016: Global Technology, Innovation & Entrepreneurship Summit, a two-day event held at the Amity University campus in Noida on January 14-15, attracted participation of academics and corporate leaders from India and around the world. Among the delegates were representatives of some of the world’s top-ranked higher ed institutions including Cambridge and Nottingham universities in the UK; Massachusetts, Purdue, Stanford and Cornell universities in the US; University of Cape Town, South Africa; University of Technology, Sydney (Australia); Istanbul University, Turkey and Intel Corporation, USA among others. During the two-day summit focused on the theme ‘Cloud system and big data engineering’, Amity University, Noida — ranked among India’s Top 5 private universities in the EducationWorld India University Rankings 2015 — signed six MoUs (memoranda of understanding) with participating institutions including the University of Massachusetts, USA; Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada; and Intel Corporation, to co-operate in inter-disciplinary research. “We are delighted with the MoUs and international alliances forged at Confluence 2016. Under the MoU signed with Intel, Amity will co-develop a state-of-the-art Hi Computing Laboratory at Amity which will benefit students immensely,” said Dr. Ashok K. Chauhan, founder-president of the Amity group of institutions, speaking on the occasion. Wharton’s young leaders programme Knowledge@Wharton High School (KWHS), a unit of the global Knowledge@Wharton network of online business journals at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, has invited applications from high school students for its forthcoming 2016 summer programme, KWHS Global Young Leaders Academy. Launched last year, the objective of the academy is to promote entrepreneurship, leadership, business and finance skills among secondary school students around the world through classroom content, exchange programmes and competitions. The intensive three-week academic programmes will be held at Wharton in Philadelphia between May-July 2016. High school students aged 15-18 years are eligible to apply through BrainGain magazine, a study-abroad online magazine collaborating with KWHS on this programme. The last date for applications is March 31, 2016. Applications can be submitted online on http://wharton.braingainmag.com. The fee for the two-week programme is US $5,000 (Rs.3.4 lakh) per student including tuition, on-campus lodging and board. “Governments in emerging economies are stressing the need for radical policy transformations to accelerate education and skills-building among young people to make each country more globally competitive. We believe the KWHS Global Young Leaders Academy will give high school students an opportunity to learn so they can become successful, compassionate and ethical business leaders of the future,” says Mukul Pandya, executive director and editor-in-chief, Knowledge@Wharton Network. British Council launches myEnglish British Council, the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities, launched myEnglish, a unique “blended learning course” in Bengaluru on January 13. myEnglish combines the latest education technology and student-centred classroom instruction to improve students’ English language skills. This comprehensive course will be available at six levels, in customised nine-week training modules. Under the blended learning format, students access learning materials online under teacher guidance, and participate in practice tests through weekly online ‘virtual classrooms’. Additionally, students attend face-to-face sessions to…
