Sophia College for Women
(Empowered Autonomous)
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R&D Cell

Research and Development Cell

Sophia Research at a Glance

Sophia College (Autonomous), Mumbai is committed to strengthening its position as a premier institution in India for innovative, sustainable, and inspirational teaching and research. We believe and work towards fostering an integrated, rhizomatic model of research where teaching faculty and students come together to explore and to delve deeper into their research areas of interest. Having produced several thousands of graduates and post graduates over the past years, the institution has been keen on bolstering the research ecosystem while keeping up with the changing research policies and expectations in India. The research pool of mentors and guides in this institution have been central to the expansion of multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and translational research as mandated by NEP in 2020. The research programmes and specialised research centres at Sophia College are aligned with our academic strengths in order to meet the social, cultural, scientific, and environmental challenges of our times. The several in-house research programmes at the college, train talented young minds to be efficient researchers and nurture better coordination and ideation between academics and industries. The Sophia College Code of Ethics mandates the conduct of original research and it strictly prohibits fabrication of data and misuse of data.


Vision and Mission
● To ensure that a viable and inclusive research ecosystem is enabled for faculty and students so that they can cross disciplinary boundaries to bring in innovative research.
● To formulate appropriate research policies and practices for faculty and students in order to facilitate internationally accepted quality of research.
● To identify thrust areas of research among teaching faculty and to consolidate a research pool which can initiate the ideation for incubation centres in future.

Objectives
● To create an organizational structure to the research culture in college and to sustain the implementation of efficient policies and practices which will ensure integrity and ethical practices in conducting research.
● To sensitise teaching faculty and students about the importance of conducting research and to identify potential areas of research.
● To encourage teaching faculty and students to be involved in research projects and to publish research papers in renowned journals.
● To create seed money or a research corpus to promote researchers who are in Adhoc positions.
● To establish industry linkages in enhancing the employability of graduates.
● To facilitate collaborative research projects and activities with national and international institutions, industries and other professional bodies.
● To provide incentives, grants etc to students belonging to underprivileged backgrounds in order to establish an inclusive and equitable research culture.

Inhouse Publications

DBT Star Scheme

Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, Ministry of Science and Technology

'Star College Scheme is a unique programme sponsored by DBT to strengthen the academic and physical infrastructure for achieving excellence in teaching and training at Undergraduate level across the country. This programme also aims to enhance the quality of the learning and teaching process to stimulate original thinking through ‘hands–on’ exposure to experimental work and participation in diverse academic and research activities.'

'Star College Scheme is a unique programme sponsored by DBT to strengthen the academic and physical infrastructure for achieving excellence in teaching and training at Undergraduate level across the country. This programme also aims to enhance the quality of the learning and teaching process to stimulate original thinking through ‘hands–on’ exposure to experimental work and participation in diverse academic and research activities.' Sophia College was selected under the Star College Scheme of the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India in the year 2015. The support obtained from this programme has helped in

  • - Laboratory skill enhancement of the Undergraduate Science students
  • - Academic enrichment of students and staff
  • - Improved social interaction and environmental awareness
  • - Innovative research activities
  • - Communication skill development

This scheme greatly helped students of all undergraduate classes to develop their capacity building and skill enhancement through research projects, outreach activities etc. Faculty development programmes organized and attended by the staff members facilitated learning and application of various teaching pedagogies in their teaching.

The programme gives/lays a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary and collaborative activities. This has encouraged the departments under the scheme to come together and organize diverse training programmes and workshops etc. Seminars on various latest scientific topics are organized to help students and staff to be abreast with the current developments in science.

The UG student research work under the unique ‘Excellence in Science programme’ of the college, has received a boost with funding that was made available from the DBT . Students under this program were also able to present their research work at university level and state level in ‘Avishkar’ and other national and international conferences. Students' research work was also published in well – known/ popular national journals.

An in-house science newsletter, Spectrum, is published in collaboration with the Department of Life Sciences and Biochemistry, St. Xavier’s College. A new journal SCRIBE was also launched on 28th February, 2020, to mark the National Science Day.

After successful completion of 'Star College Scheme' Sophia College has been awarded the ‘Star Status’ grant in the year 2020.

The beneficiary departments have made extensive plans to augment the Star College programme especially to

  • - Strengthen the existing outreach programmes/activities
  • - Create resource material for E learning

The Star College scheme has been granted to four Science Departments viz Chemistry, Life Science, Microbiology and Composite department Comprising Biochemistry, Physics and Zoology.

Glia, Neurons and the Synapse
Capital assets acquired under DBT Star Status

EXAP

EXCELLENCE IN ARTS PROGRAMME

The Excellence in Arts Programme (EXAP) is one of the flagship programmes of Sophia College (Autonomous). It runs parallel to the core B.A. programme and promotes academic excellence and integrity in students who are selected to be part of it. It provides students opportunities to conduct research, write and present papers, and defend their work. Their performance is reviewed continuously by both faculty members as well as peers. Rank-holders are awarded prizes by the K. C. Mahindra Foundation.



Excellence in Arts Programme

EXSP

EXSP was conceptualized in the year 1992 and instituted in the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of the college. The program is spread into three phases over a period of three years. These three Phases: I, II and III included Seminar, literature survey, Research components.


Selection and structure:
An EXSP orientation workshop is conducted by the Program Coordinator, in order to introduce EXSP to the F.Y.B.Sc students. Interested students with over 60% marks applied and students were chosen based on their merit.
Two staff members are in charge of each of the components. An orientation workshop is conducted by the in charges for each of the components.
The students were awarded two credits for completing Phase I. This phase also included a social component in it. Students were expected to complete an outreach activity.

The students were awarded three credits for completing the literature component activity and four credits for completing the Phase III activity at the end of Semester IV and VI.
They received an additional three credits for their performance at the Semester I – V, exams. The EXSP completion certificate was awarded to ten students who completed the research component activity successfully. The K.C. Mahindra Search for Talent Honors Scholarship was awarded to those students who topped the activity for two continuous years.


Evaluation Criteria:
The evaluation of these activities is by an external examiner and two internal staff member (one of them being the guiding teacher.)

EXSP Committee Members:
Dr. P. Sirisha Murthy (Coordinator)
Dr. Sree Nair
Dr. Meeta Saxena
Ms. Sandra Mendes
Ms. Sandhya Kadiru
Ms. Shraddha Prabhu


Doctoral Research