Mary Ellen Randall, 2026 IEEE President, addresses delegates at the IEEE Higher Education Summit 2026, highlighting the future of innovation and education

12 June, 2026 | New Delhi: IEEE, a public charity and the world’s largest technical professional organisation advancing technology for humanity, joined some of India’s most prestigious educational institutions to discuss the role of India’s universities in powering its technology landscape. The theme of the event was ‘Reimagining Private Higher Education in India: Innovation, Sustainability, and Competitiveness’ while the key topics included identifying collaborative opportunities in research, innovation and technology-enabled learning across private universities.

“With AI and rapid technological advancements reshaping our world, engineering education must shift toward flexibility and strong industry-academia collaboration. IEEE is proud to help shape future-ready educational ecosystems to ensure the next generation of engineers is equipped to drive innovation and solve global challenges,” said IEEE President and CEO Mary Ellen Randall on the sidelines of the summit.

Lauding IEEE for the initiative, Prof. Bhim Singh, ANRF National Science Chair and Emeritus Professor, said, “The IEEE has been acting as a great catalyst in technology innovation and advancement, by creating trusted knowledge and an internationally reputed forum where researchers and academics, as well as budding scientists, can exchange knowledge. It is not only a source for promoting high-level research, but it also encourages global collaboration, so that the future generation of engineers can make meaningful contributions towards solving practical problems of the world.”

A dedicated panel discussion on ‘The Next Technology Wave: Building India’s Leadership in AI, Semiconductor & Sustainable Innovation’ was also conducted as part of the summit wherein top academic leaders deliberated upon the most pertinent issues impacting the educational ecosystem in today’s times. While a roadmap on how private universities in India could reimagine their academic programs and curricula to address the convergence of AI, advanced computing, energy technologies and sustainability dominated the conversation, ways to contribute to national missions on Semiconductors, AI, Quantum etc were also discussed.

Key topics also included how private universities could ensure skill integration to make graduates industry ready and aligned with the emerging technologies. Another panel discussion - ‘From Rankings to Relevance: Building Future-Ready Universities with Purpose and Impact’ - was conducted wherein issues such as policy frameworks for accelerating high-quality research/innovation, international partnerships, industry collaborations, global benchmarking and long-term sustainability were talked about in detail.

About IEEE

IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization and is a public charity dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities, IEEE is the trusted voice on a wide variety of areas ranging from global standards, aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. Learn more at http://www.ieee.org.

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Published on June 17, 2026