ConnectNext Conference – Co-creation of Vibrant ‘Industry-Academia’ Eco System for Future

La Fondation Dassault Systemes in India organizes a virtual ConnectNext Conference on 17^th September 2020. One of the Key Objective of ConnectNext Conference is to showcase high quality student projects, to industry representatives across India; thereby demonstrate Talent Readiness of our next generation students. The projects which will be displayed in the ConnectNext Conference are sourced from all the engineering colleges throughout India through nominations by respective engineering colleges and top quality projects are selected for display with appropriate qualification process.

ConnectNext Conference is one of the important facets of ConnectNext Program launched by La Fondation Dassault Systemes in India; for co-creation of a vibrant ‘Industry-Academia eco system for future’ to address the Talent Readiness and Employability challenges experienced by the constituents of the eco system.

ConnectNext Conference is a unique platform for Industry to witness these projects, innovative ideas and creative solutions provided by students to address range of Industrial and Society problem, depth of engineering understanding; application of engineering know-how and use of upcoming technologies by next gen engineering students from various colleges across India.

The plenary session of the ConnectNext Conference will be addressed by Thought Leaders from Central Government Agencies / Departments / Policy Making bodies; from Academia and Industries. 

Plenary session will be followed by virtual Playground in which innovative engineering students projects will be at display and industries can interact with our Future Ready Talent. Students of top 3 projects will get an opportunity to present their innovative projects to 2000+ audience in the conference from the dais.

100 top quality selected projects will be displayed in the playground, which will be available for the audience after the plenary session.

Another important aspect of the ConnectNext Conference is inauguration and launch of dedicated external SwYm community for Industries to have powerful way to peep into student’s project and have a wow experience. It would present unique facility to the viewers to interact with 3D Designs e.g. Zoom, Rotate, Measure, View sections etc. With powerful dashboard and community interface, industry users will be able to view all the selected projects on-line at any time and also provide social feedback e.g. Like, Comments etc. Collaboration power of on-line communities and dashboards for Engineering Reviews will be unique experience for the industries visiting the virtual conference as well as online community. 

• Workforce of the Future getting ready with expertise on new technology and knowhow
• Technology exploration and Creative solutions by young generation engineers
• Innovative Engineering Projects by aspiring engineers ( through Digital 3D designs, simulations, physical prototypes, VR display )
• Upcoming technologies, tools applied for engineering applications by the students
• Engineering know-how of future engineers
• Emerging talent across width and breadth of India
• Student’s abilities to be comfortable with, and to use  upcoming technologies for engineering
• Get to see entirely new ideas, innovative thinking applied by students to address challenges

La Fondation Dassault Systemes has launched ConnectNext program for co-creation of a vibrant ‘Industry-Academia eco system for future’ to address the Talent Readiness and Employability challenges experienced by the constituents of the eco system. We believe that both these challenges are two sides of the same coin. La Fondation Dassault Systemes is playing a catalysts role to create a vibrant “Industry and Academia collaboration Framework” and encouraging Industries and Academia to work together to address this challenge with appropriate contribution from both sides. La Fondation Dassault Systemes aims to resolve this challenge by helping students to be “Industry Ready”, “Future Ready”.

In our analysis through various interactions with industries, we discovered that: 

• With reference to the size of our nation, we do not have ‘many to many’ connections of all Engineering / Technology colleges / universities with all the industries across India. Providing such a collaboration platform will greatly benefit this eco system and provide opportunity to spot bright talent and commensurate career opportunities for students.
• Strengthening Students Projects framework will have huge positive impact in addressing this challenge. Well executed student Projects, addressing real life Industrial Problem statement, with deeper level of application of Engineering know-how, mentored by Industry experts, can largely improve quality of such projects. Such a project framework will help students to be Industry Ready and Industry will also benefit from such talent availability.

ConnectNext program encompasses these aspects. We are developing a library of Industry defined projects for students to choose and work upon, build a pool of mentors from Industries to guide the students during their project execution. This will greatly improve the quality of students’ projects and it will help students to be Industry ready.

With launch of ConnectNext Conference La Fondation Dassault Systemes is formally unveiling the ConnectNext program to Industries in India to assure the industry that the Academia Eco systems is getting ready by empowering students to be Future Ready and raring to work on challenges of future.