MIU faculty have contributed to a new anthology of educational research and essays, titled Advancing Innovation and Sustainable Outcomes in International Graduate Education, published by IGI Global. The book features groundbreaking research by MIU faculty members Fred Travis, Dennis Heaton, John Collins, Anil Maheshwari, and doctoral student Nakita Bruno Green, with a foreword by President John Hagelin and President Paul Chan of HELP University in Malaysia. The book is a collaboration between MIU faculty and faculty from HELP University.

The book was edited by MIU adjunct professor and MBA alumnus Mohan Raj Gurubatham and Geoffrey Alan Williams. Mr. Gurubatham conceived the anthology around new paradigms of graduate education. He works as professor and digital learning expert at the Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Management Graduate School of Business of HELP University.

Professor Gurubatham has years of experience working with global consulting firms in technology, change management, e-branding, culture, and learning. He has received international acclaim for his higher order thinking model, which has shown that the practice of the Transcendental Meditation® technique expands a person’s conscious thinking and facilitates knowledge transfer. In his conclusion to the book, he applies this model to integrate the ideas from the various chapters and showcases the significance of Consciousness-Based℠ education in improving the effectiveness of graduate studies.

A chapter by Dennis Heaton and PhD student Nakita Bruno Green addresses how the inclusion of tools for consciousness development in management education can support achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Anil Maheshwari contributed two chapters. One shows how the principles of natural law can provide an integrative framework for teaching data analytics, resulting in stress-free learning. The second chapter examines how big data technologies and architectures can be applied to meet the special needs of emerging societies, especially in the healthcare sector.

Fred Travis wrote three chapters for the book. The first, with John Collins, summarizes a study showing that students participating in Consciousness-Based education had higher levels of brain integration, associated with emotional stability and success in life, and higher global constructive thinking, leading to greater success on the job and more stable personal and social relationships.

Professor Travis’s second chapter on “Innovation, Creativity and Brain Integration” suggests that creativity may depend on a higher order of brain integration. His third chapter, “Negative and Positive Mind-Wandering,” shows how positive mind-wandering enables the mind to escape the constraints of the current situation and explore novel solutions.

Nahom Abegaze is a part-time student in MIU’s master’s in leadership and workplace conflict resolution. He moved to the US from Ethiopia with his family when he was eight and earned an undergraduate degree in philosophy and communication from the University of Minnesota Duluth in 2013. He then worked as project coordinator for various nonprofit organizations.

Looking for a deeper level of personal growth while in college, he founded the organization Students Seeking Spirituality. He began practicing yoga and meditation and adopted a healthy lifestyle. That’s when he first learned about MIU through a Facebook ad.

 

After completing his degree, he continued his pursuit of self-development and, in 2016, he came to a Visitors Weekend. “It was beyond my expectations,” he said. “I thought this was the place I was looking for and I wanted to join.”

Nahom moved to Fairfield in the spring of 2017 and worked as campus visit coordinator and HR assistant. He also had a chance to fulfill his dream of working in Ethiopia when MIU asked him to facilitate a collaboration with a partner university in Addis Ababa. Since last September, he has served as assistant director of MIU’s new Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Nahom says he is a “doer.” He is always hard at work and enjoys achieving his goals. Some of his skills include event planning, program development and implementation, and project management. All of his expertise and past experience come in handy in his new job, which includes infrastructure building, research, policy development, and education.

He considers the Transcendental Meditation® and TM-Sidhi® programs important tools for helping him efficiently accomplish tasks without burning out. “Moving to Fairfield was a strategic move,” he said. “Being in a community of meditators was essential to facilitate my spiritual growth.”

In 2020 Nahom also became a film producer, helping student Nina Ziv make an award-winning documentary about fellow student Buay Tang, who came to the US as a child refugee from South Sudan and was hoping to reunite with his family after 22 years.

MIU Associate Professor Renuka Mohanraj, PhD, has recently been honored as a Fellow of Computer Science Research Council by the Open Association of Research Society for her important research on wireless sensor networks data security.

Her research was published in the Global Journal of Computer Science Technology: E. In this paper she presents an algorithm she designed as a potential solution to the problem of wireless sensor networks security threats in the rapidly expanding field of the Internet of Things (IoT), which are networks of smart devices used by consumers and many industries, such as healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation.

As a result of her research, in December 2020 Professor Mohanraj was invited to give the keynote address at an international virtual conference titled Bridging Innovative Trends in Mathematics, Engineering & Technology.

Professor Mohanraj teaches several courses in the Computer Professionals program℠, including the very popular mobile device programming. She dynamically tailors the course based on input from current students and alumni doing Android development. This feedback, along with her enthusiasm for research, keeps the curriculum on the cutting edge. Mobile device programming is a major market, and her class on the subject is highly valued by students because there are so many opportunities for Android programmers.

Professor Mohanraj has been teaching at MIU since 2014. During this time she has had the opportunity to experience many benefits of the Consciousness-Based℠ approach to education and the practice of the Transcendental Meditation® technique.

“TM practice helps to improve my self-confidence level and brings out my inner potential effortlessly,” she says. “I’m more active throughout the day and my mind is clearer, which makes me a better teacher and a more loving person.”

Professor Renuka Mohanraj and her husband Mohanraj V.S. live on the MIU campus with their daughter Vaisnavii. Mr. Mohanraj is the Computer Science Graduation Director, and Vaisnavii is in 11th grade at Maharishi School.