Workshop 13
MFCEM WORKSHOP #13
By
Dr. Prince Kumar Lat
on
Title: Python for Biologists
8th March
A workshop on use of Python programming language for biological data analysis was held on 8th March 2025 by Dr. Prince Kumar Lat.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Prince Kumar Lat is a scientist specializing in AI-driven drug discovery and synthesis. He holds a PhD from Simon Fraser University, Canada, and a B.Tech in Bioengineering from IIT Kanpur, Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering. With over five years of experience in biophysics and computational biology, he has published research in high-impact journals such as JACS and Nature Communications. His current work focuses on developing large language models to predict drug synthesis pathways. Passionate about education, he has created a course *Python for Biologists and Beginners* available on Udemy to equip biologists with computational skills.
Workshop 12
MFCEM WORKSHOP #12
By
Dr. Vanshika Singh, Product Content Specialist- User Experience & Design, CACTUS Communications
on
Title: Scientific Writing in the AI Era: A Systematic Approach for Academic Excellence
15th February
As part of the MFCEM workshop series, an interactive session with Dr. Vanshika Singh on AI tools in Scientific writing was held on 15th Feb 2025.
About the Speaker:
Dr. Vanshika Singh is a product content specialist at CACTUS Communications. A neuroscientist by training and a science communicator at heart, Vanshika comes from a breadth of experience in science, ranging from data crunching for fMRI experiments in a cognitive neuroscience laboratory to being a senior-sub editor in a newsroom at the Wire Science, communicating science to the masses during the very peak of COVID-19. She found the perfect combination of science and communication at CACTUS, first in her role in academic editing as an Associate Editor and presently in her role of a Product Content specialist, where she works in a highly collaborative environment with Product, Marketing, Design, Tech and Business teams to communicate about AI tools being developed at CACTUS.
About the Workshop:
The workshop introduced the participants to the many approaches to AI integration in academic writing and its responsible implementation. Dr. Singh provided an overview of currently available AI writing tool and demonstrated various implementation strategies. Through hands-on demonstrations and drawing from real-world examples Dr. Singh showed how improvement in writing quality was possible using AI tools. The workshop also discussed the use of AI in substantially improving technical writings such as for grants and reports.
Workshop 11
MFCEM WORKSHOP #11
By
Ms. Mihikaa Jain, business development associate in San Francisco Bay Area
on
Biomedical Entrepreneurship
As part of the MFCEM workshop series, an interactive session with Ms. Mihikaa Jain on Biomedical Entrepreneurship was held on 27th September 2024.
Mihikaa Jain is a business development associate in San Francisco Bay Area, wherein she spearheads business partnership establishment and corporate strategy for biotech startup, particularly in the cell & gene therapy space.
Mihikaa is an IIT Kanpur Alumnus, and a BTech graduate in Bioengineering from department of Biological sciences and Bioengineering, BSBE (2015-2019). During her student days at IIT Kanpur, she was awarded the Academic Excellence Award (2018-19), besides others. Mihikaa undertook a Masters in Translational Medicine, from University of California, San Francisco, and honed her skills in commercialization of new healthcare innovations University of California, Berkeley.
During the interactive session, Mihikaa shared her journey from academia to being part of the biotech startup ecosystem at the bay area. She spoke of the numerous opportunities in the biotech space. She also made aware of the many ways one could be part of the startup ecosystem not only as an inventor one but also as investors of early-stage biotech companies, or as services provider for legal, finance, business strategy, marketing, product design, manufacturing, etc. She also shared how one could be actively engaged in technology transfers in university and academic setups to facilitate spin off IP from academia into startups.
Workshop 10
MFCEM WORKSHOP #10
By
Mr. Jacob Koshy, Deputy Science Editor, The Hindu
TITLE: Science Journalism
An online interactive session on Science Journalism with Jacob Koshy, Deputy Science Editor of The Hindu, an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, was held on 31st August 2024.
Mr. Jacob Koshy writes on many issues pertaining to science policy, innovation and research happening out of India and is a constant contributor to the opinion pages. Mr. Koshy did Electrical engineering, followed it with a Master’s degree in India studies from King’s College London and went on to study print journalism.
The online interaction session was aimed at students and post-docs to make known the various aspects of Science Journalism.
Jacob Koshy briefly talked about his foray into journalism post his training in engineering domain. He emphasized, that now more than ever, individuals trained in STEMM were gravitating towards different forms of science communication and journalism. Further he spoke about how the rapid expansion of the online space was making individuals with keen interest in science communication to define their own niche and have a visible digital footprint.
The Bhupat & Jyoti Mehta Family Foundation
MFCEM at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur is generously supported by the Mehta Family Foundation.