Events & Seminars

The NetAcad Partner Summit 2016 was organized by CISCO from 5th - 8th April 2016 at the Le Meridien Chiang Mai, Thailand. Mr. Amitesh Kumar, Assistant Professor, Information Technology Department represented Dronacharya College of Engineering in the conference.

The objective of the event was to support active instructors learn, use and teach relevant topics concerning the program, technology and industry.

For the first time, NetAcad Summit was opened to participation to all instructors in the Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ) Academy community. The NetAcad accomplice summit began with Welcome Reception on 05th April 2016 evening.

Day 1: 6th April 2016

The first day started with welcome note of Sandy Walsh - Director, Social Innovation Group, Cisco. Next to him, Dominic Scott - Vice President, Government Affairs Cisco gave an enlightening session on Cisco’s Social Innovation in Supporting National Agendas – More Important than Ever. During the session Scott discussed current scenario as the world is witnessing a period of extraordinary complexity. Political, economic, social and environmental and technological issues are unleashing waves of change which challenge existing models. Never before has there been a greater need for government, business, academia and civil society to come together to find new paths forward. The presentation touched on vital part which Cisco’s Social Innovation Group and Networking Academy Partners need to play in tending to these essential issues.

Next discussion was important from educator point as in this session Kathy Mulvany-Vice President, Corporate Affairs Cisco discussed NetAcad Program and Future Directions. She shared the latest news, updates and strategy for Cisco Networking Academy. Kathy had additionally revealed the forward viewpoint of NetAcad with a sneak peak of what's to come.

In the continuation next session was jointly chaired by Harbrinder Kang - Vice President, Corporate Affairs Cisco & John Lim - Head of Learn Product Management Cisco on Product Portfolio and Roadmap - What’s New and What’s Coming. The session was based on product portfolio update and future direction!

Next sessions were divided into different Breakout Sessions. First Breakout Session was on Leadership Dialogue: Open agenda, feedback, input and challenges presented by Harbrinderkang,. Kathy Mulvany and Sandy Walsh. The session was an open forum to discuss opportunities and challenges directly with Cisco Networking Academy leadership.

The next Breakout Session was on A Deep Dive into the NetRiders Competition and How to Prepare Your Students. The session was led by Cindy Yai Operations- Manager, Social Innovation Group, Cisco, Marcella O’Shea- Regional Manager, ASEAN Social Innovation Group, Cisco, Max Hendriks- University of Technology, Sydney. The NetRiders competitions have experienced some changes over the past years. Two instructors who prepared the 2015 NetRiders champions shared their tips on preparing students to succeed in the lead up to the competition and the advantages of hosting NetRiders for their students. Day 1 finished after this Breakout Session.

Day 2: 7th April 2016

The first session of day 2 was presented by Sandy Walsh on The Asia Pacific and Japan View. The session reviewed key highlights from the past 12 months initiatives focused on human capacity building, workforce development, and community enablement. Sandy also shared the forward outlook on where the Social Innovation group plans to focus efforts in the year ahead and how the academy community can engage and partner with Cisco in Asia Pacific and Japan.

Next session was on Evolving the NetAcad User Experience by Harbrinder Kang. He discussed the NetAcad user experience that will meet evolving needs to better support Instructors and students and also gave a brief introduction about the future vision of what’s to come.

The another session theme was Women in RockIT with the discussion topic as Closing the Gap: Encouraging More Women To Tackle Tech. Panel members were Sandy Walsh Kathy Mulvany, Emma Reid - Regional Marketing Manager Social Innovation Group Cisco, Emma Broadbent - Regional Manager, ANZ Cisco, Anuradha Sharma - Program Manager, India Cisco. Women continue to be under - represented in the technology sector. If this trend continues, women risk losing out on some of the tomorrow’s best job opportunities. The session was based on some of the partnerships and programs that Cisco is supporting to help address the gender gap.

Another session was based on Cyber Security under the title Strengthening: The Human Firewall against Cyber Threats by Glen Welby - Security Sales, Cisco, and APJ. He made everyone aware of the problem that are trying to be fix in cyber security like the growth of connected devices, the growth in cyber - crime & the lack of skilled people to protect organizations.

Then again Breakout Sessions were started for Day 2. Session was on How to Run an Internet of Everything Student Hackathon delivered by Marcella O’Shea - Regional Manager, ASEAN Social Innovation Group, Cisco, Dr Iain Murray, Curtin University, Australia, WaiMui Kwok, Program Manager, Singapore Social Innovation Group, Cisco, Dr. Ling Teck Chaw, University of Malaya Malaysia and AmanteGarcia, University of Santo Tomas, Philippines. The session was designed to learn how academies have strengthened their multi - disciplinary approach to launching IoE in running IoEHackathon.

Another Breakout session was on Curriculum Portfolio by Harbrinder Kang & John Lim - Head of Learn Product Management Cisco. The session was to bring our innovative ideas, questions and suggestions to the table for the interactive dialogue and help to make NetAcad a more holistic place to learn. Day 2 summit come to an end after this breakout sessions.

Day 3: 8th April 2016

The third day of the NetAcad Partner Summit was Instructor Professional Development Day. The day was started with welcome of Karen Alderson - Global Manager Technical Field Engagement, Cisco. There was two continuous technical session by Ananth Rao - Technical Manager Cisco. First was on SDN Fundamental, the session covered , Definition of software defined networking, different types of SDN, security threats to SDN,OpenFlow, how to setup your own SDN Lab, Onepk, and Cisco APIC. Second was on the BGP Fundamentals, the session covered, Definition of BGP, need of BGP, BGP neighborship, Interaction between BGP and IGP, EBGP and IBGP, BGP best path selection, BGP Backdoor and BGP address families.

Breakout Sessions again started for day 3. Breakout Session was on Networking – The Linux Way by SaradaHettiarachchi, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. In the session there was a discussion on how networking works in Linux Environment.

Last Breakout Session of the summit attended was Trouble shooting using Wireshark by AnanthRao – Technical Manager Cisco. The session explained how to use Wireshark captures to troubleshoot networking issues. Few more topics were also discussed as troubleshoot EIGRP, OSPF and IPv6 issues using Wireshark.

Closing Session was presented by Sandy Walsh.

The Partner Summit brought together Academy instructors and managers from across the region with a focus on professional development, networking, and best practice sharing, as well as insight from Cisco on what to expect in the year ahead.