“In today’s world, having a certification just for the sake of having a degree or certificate no longer makes sense”, says Dr. S. K. Pandey. An Asst. Professor with the IT department of Jaipuria Jaipur, Dr. Pandey has 10 years of teaching experience behind him and is a B.Sc., M.C.A., M.Tech. and PhD.(CS) holder. His first love has always been academics and he left his job in industry to teach in the IT department of University of Nepal. From there, he moved from strength to strength and also transitioned from teaching engineering students to B-school education, which he thinks is his strength. Dr. Pandey teaches subjects like Information Technology for Managers, MIS, DBMS, E-Commerce and ERP/SAP. He is also often invited by faculty members from the HR, Marketing, Finance and Operations departments to cover parts of their courses pertaining to IT applications.

Dr. Pandey firmly believes in “Learning by Doing”. His classes are interactive, with active involvement from each of the students. He supports this pedagogy with practical applications and exposure to live projects. He is also very meticulous about sharing the content with his students to enable this active participation. “I share the content at least one day before the class and also summarise the topics covered in the previous class before starting a new topic. This helps the students participate and talk to me”. Another method he uses is that of group assignments and finally, he draws out the most reticent with questions and discussions.

Dr. Pandey is also involved with organising workshops and seminars in his domain. As he explains, “There are two categories of workshops that we organise. The first category of workshops includes recent IT tools and technologies like Cloud Computing, ERP/SAP, SPSS, Internet/web tools, Information and Knowledge Management, etc., and are conducted by industry experts. The second category of workshops is conducted by students on recent topics. We train students to conduct these workshops and they are organised in each semester.”

Research has been a major part of Dr. Pandey’s academic career and he is working in the area of cloud computing, open source ERP and real time business analytics. In fact, on the 1st of December, 2012, he organised a National Workshop on ‘Cloud Computing for Modern Business Management’ and he feels great satisfaction as a professional for having done it. He believes that, apart from their intrinsic value, activities like these help and ensure SIP and placements for students as well. He also holds many administrative responsibilities of the institute. He is the Chairperson – IT, Chairperson – Library, Chairperson – Committee on Administrative Matters (CAM), Chairperson – Students’ Coordination Committee (SCC), and Chairperson – Safety & Security and Housekeeping.

Dr. Pandey is an avid reader with interests ranging from fiction to biographies and autobiographies of successful people. He walks and jogs with his wife every evening and on weekends, he loves going for drives and to the temple. He describes his stint with Jaipuria as “systematic, with lots of freedom to work and explore potential”. He believes that Jaipuria has been the best platform for him so far, and has offered him an opportunity for multi-dimensional growth and exposure.