• Activities of three institutes

As UAP puts emphasis on quality education and skilled teachers, there are other systematic efforts to support faculty members besides the activities of ILTS. While "Improving Learning and Teaching Skills (ILTS)" focuses more on the newly joined and junior faculties, two other institutes focus on the overall development of teachers, students, and education. The role of the Institute for Energy, Environment, Research and Development (IEERD) is more of a financer and facilitator for research works with ample encouragement for faculty members to attend seminars, workshop as well as publishing quality articles in reputed international academic journals. On the other hand, the main focus of the "Institutional quality assurance cell" (IQAC) is the overall development of the dissemination of knowledge, taking the students as the primary stakeholder and the faculty as the provider. Both these separate institutes initiate activities that focus on faculty capacity development. On top of that "Office of International Affairs" (OIA) organizes seminars, workshops too which proved to be helpful for young faculty members willing to pursue higher studies abroad. To learn more about these institutes please check the "Centers and Institutes" link under the "Academic" menu in the header, or click the following links

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• Faculty capacity development at Departmental level

Besides the central initiatives, each department also takes measures to develop the skills and capacities of their respective departments. While some of those activities are exclusively for the faculty members, but many of their events such as lectures or seminars are open to the senior students also. The following are such events last year mostly organized before the pandemic forced everything to go online.   

• Training Sessions

Training on OBE

UAP has initiated training of faculty members by phases, in the most recent method of outcome-based education (OBE) for quality assurance in teaching and learning. Under the guidance of IQAC, all departments of UAP have separate Quality Assurance structure through Self-Assessment Committees (SACs). With the direct participation of the Head of the department, these committees facilitate training sessions as well as engage faculty members in an intense process of continuous development. The roadmap that the departments are following for 2019-21 are as follows

• Workshops and Seminars

Each Department organizes many workshops and seminars throughout the year to stimulate learning and scholarly thinking among faculty members and seniors students. Such academic activities are fully presented under the achievements of each department. Here we are presenting the following few as illustrative ones.

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• Workshops in 2019 (before pandemic)

• Workshop on “Common Mistakes in Modeling Research Problem”, was held on December 2-3, 2018. It was conducted by Prof. M. A. Baqui Khalily, Ph.D. (Ohio State University), Former Professor, Department of Finance, University of Dhaka, and the former Executive Director, Institute for Inclusive Finance and Development. Nineteen faculty members of the department attended the workshop.

• Dr. Navid Saleh, Associate Professor, the University of Texas at Austin, USA, conducted a workshop on “Research Methodology: Conception, Design, and Publication of a Research Idea”. Thirty-one faculty members and 17 graduate students attended the workshop.  Dr. Mizanur Rahaman, Director, IEERD organized the workshop to enhance the research capability of the faculty members.  Senior Vice Chairman, BOT, Dr. M Alauddin inaugurated the highly successful workshop.  The participants rated the workshop as “most useful”.  

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• SEMINARS in 2019

• The Department of Architecture organized “Two Conversations: Structure in Architecture”  -- a conversation between Ar. Bashirul Haq, an eminent senior Architect of Bangladesh and Principal Architect of Bashirul Haq and Associates, and Dr. M Shamim Bosunia, Adjunct Professor, Department of Civil Engineering on April 29, 2019, in the jury space of the department. The conversation was focused on how architecture and structural knowledge are intertwined and how both the professionals play role in the construction of a design. To the students and faculty members, it was a great learning experience.

• The Department of Civil Engineering organized a seminar on “Science and Engineering Research in the US - Role of the Government, National Labs and Universities” on 19 December 2018 at UAP Auditorium. Dr. Taher Saif, Professor of Mechanical Science and Engineering of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign gave this seminar. The seminar was jointly organized by the Department of Civil Engineering and Bangladesh Academy of Sciences (BAS) as part of the UAP CE Seminar Series.  

The participating faculty members and senior students learned about the background history of American research and higher education, how American Universities have become the global hub of learning and innovation through decades and what has been the role of the US Government and National Science Foundation (NSF) in promoting high-impact research.

• The Department of Pharmacy organized a seminar on ‘Sharing Research Ideas and Research Experience’ with Dr. Isa Naina Mohamed, Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) as Keynote Speaker. The other speakers were Dr. Ima Nirwana Soleiman, Professor, Department of Pharmacology and Deputy Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia; Dr. Md. Selim Reza, Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Technology, University of Dhaka.  The faculty members and the senior students benefitted from the highly useful seminar.

• Department of Computer Science & Engineering organized a seminar on “Human-Computer Interface: Action with Advanced Technology”. The seminar was given by Professor Dr. Jungpil Shin, from the University of Aizu, Japan on March 24, 2019. In this seminar, he talked about non-touch HCI using Motion gesture sensor, Gestural flick input-based character input system, Disease Diagnosis using Pen-Table. He showed the recent activities of his lab which includes Character Generating based on human activities detected with sensors. A practical demonstration of how this character generator works was given. He later discussed the future prospects of this technology.

• Department of Computer Science and Engineering of University of Asia Pacific (UAP) organized another seminar on “Brain Engineering: Future Opportunity and Feasibility” on July 8, 2018, at UAP Central Auditorium. Mr. S. M. Mahabub Alam, MD & CEO, Massive Star Studio Ltd. & Massive Business Academy spoke on how the brain is one of the most astonishing and intricate parts of the human body. Professor Dr. Abdur Rab, Vice-Chancellor, IUBAT, talked about how brain engineering will revolutionize the world and engineers will further engage themselves in brain research.

• The Department of EEE organized a seminar on ‘Principles of Coherent Optical Communication’ in association with the IEEE UAP Student Branch and IEEE Communication Society Bangladesh Chapter. The eminent scholar and IEEE Fellow Joseph M. Kahn, Professor at Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, CA, USA was the keynote speaker. Final year students and faculty members were immensely benefited from the participation in the seminar.

• The Department of Law and Human Rights in continuation of its Law Lecture Series organized the 10th Law Lecture;  Barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh was the Distinguished Speaker. He spoke on the topic, “Review of Judiciary and Activism”.

The previous notable speakers include Justice S. K. Shinha, Former Chief Justice of Bangladesh,  Mr. Justice Md. Tafazzul Islam, Former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh,   Justice Refaat Ahmed, Honorable Justice of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Dr. Kamal Hossain, Barrister M. Amir-Ul Islam and the like.