On July 8th, 2015 AMMACHI Labs’ Director Prof. Rao. R. Bhavani  presented about technology and skill development at the UNAI-START Conference on Technology for Sustainable Development at the United Nations in New York City.

Her presentation titled “Technologies for Skill Development” touched upon the critical need to re-engage technologies such as robotics toward skill development. Professor Bhavani reiterated that AMMACHI Labs has dedicated itself to researching a wide range of technology-enhanced strategies in the domain of skill-development for rural and neo-literate/semi-literate populations.

“We live in a world of changing environments, and the one critical way to survive in a changing environment is to make sure you have the skills to survive in the changing environment. We need to continually update our skills or acquire new skills to sustain ourselves in these changing environments,” said Professor Bhavani. She emphasized the importance of creating adaptive learning technologies and strategies to address greater developmental issues such as education, employment, water and sanitation.

The one day conference was co-hosted by Amrita University and featured presentations from some of the world’s leading researchers on groundbreaking developments in nanotechnology, biotechnology, wireless technologies, and human-computer interaction. Prof. Ken Salisbury from Stanford and Dr. Sylvia Hostettler from EPFL Switzerland also presented their research and collaborations on skill development along with Professor Bhavani.

The United Nations Academic Impact is a program of the United Nations Department of Public Information. This UNAI lecture series titled UNAI-START (Skills and Technology Accelerating Rapid Transformation) has started a conversation amongst leading universities on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. More about the conference can be found on the UN Academic Impact website.

Watch Professor Bhavani’s speech:

View the Conference Brochure

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