Dr. V P Joy Assumes the Role of Honorary Professor at IIT Palakkad

Former Chief Secretary to the Government of Kerala,  Dr. V P Joy assumes the role of  Honorary Professor at IIT Palakkad. The centerpiece of Dr. Joy's discourse was the contemporary shift towards multidisciplinarity in education, a trend actively endorsed by government policies. He highlighted how these policies encourage technical institutions to adopt a holistic approach to education, allowing multiple entry and exit options for students to broaden their horizons beyond the confines of their specialized fields.

In his thought-provoking talk, Dr. Joy touched upon the evolving nature of education, which, in recent times, has taken on a more reductionist form. This shift towards reductionism, he explained, has been driven by the explosive growth of knowledge in various domains. However, he also emphasized the need for integration to complement this reductionism. “In the reductionist approach students learn more and more about less and less," he says, pointing out that multidisciplinary education bridges this gap by integrating knowledge across diverse disciplines, thereby expanding the collective knowledge base. Dr. Joy went on to explore the intricate layers of the human mind that govern the operation of knowledge. He stressed that all knowledge is communicated through various languages, i.e., the language of complex biomolecules driving life is different from the language of chemical reactions.