Introducing

Pramod Dhakal, Ph.D.

Member-Secretary, Open University of Nepal Initiative Steering Committee
Executive Director, Canada Foundation for Nepal

Dr Pramod Dhakal became the Member-Secretary of the Open University of Nepal Initiative Steering Committee following the signing of "Resolution Agreement 2010" for partnership and collaboration between the Government of Nepal and Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) on October 7, 2010. Along with this responsibility, he is an International Coordination Council Member of NRNA, International Affairs Coordinator of NRN-Canada, and the Executive Director of Canada Foundation for Nepal (CFFN). Professionally, he is a Senior Scientist at EION Inc. and Research Associate at Carleton University, Canada.

He received a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Indian Institute of Technology and M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, all in Electrical Engineering. He carries varied experiences from the industry and academia through his successfully executed roles as a high school teacher, faculty member of a university, senior engineer, software developer, system analyst, software architect, senior consultant, senior scientist, head of a university department, and a manager of engineering research and development. His career has mostly evolved around teaching, software, telecommunication systems, and engineering research. In these roles, he has carried out exclusive research and development endeavors for organizations known to lead the world in the field of research and innovation, including IBM, Nortel, British Aerospace, Canadian Space Agency, and EION. After being entrenched in computing and electrical and telecommunications engineering for more than two decades, where he made a number of patented and proprietary scientific inventions and professional contributions in creative spaces, he has emerged into broader social scene in the recent years. Subsequently, his research interests have shifted to application of telecommunication technology for the educational transformation of developing countries.

Also known are his social engagements through well received expressions in his writings on socio-economic issues that frequent in the news media. He has increasing interests in cognition, thoughts, and philosophical domains. Currently he has embarked a few major projects dedicated to Nepal's educational transformation in view of bringing the light of education among rural, remote and marginalized people of Nepal. He has assumed the leadership role in establishing Open University of Nepal (www.openu.cffn.ca) by networking with Nepali Diaspora and collaborating with friends of Nepal, governments, international organizations, and world-class educational institutions. In Open University of Nepal, he envisions a futuristic university, a university in pursuit of academic excellence and innovation in the age of information and technology. He speaks of Open University of Nepal as a catalyst for making Nepal a producer of advanced knowledge and skills useful to both Nepal and the world.

Listed below are some published articles of Dr. Dhakal on social, ethical, and analytical space.

Publications:

1. Open and Distance Education Series

   1. Usha: Ushering Shared Aspirations (उषा: शाझा चाहनाको सेवामा)-English slides narrated in Nepali - October 14, 2009
   2. Open University of Nepal: To the Margins of Society, Through the Light of Knowledge" - Slide Presentation - February 20, 2010
   3. Initiative for Open University of Nepal: An Interview with Dr. Pramod Dhakal for NRNA Newsletter- December 2010
   4. The Issues of Ownership, Autonomy and Funding - December 2010
   5. Creating complimenting environment for all levels of education - December 2010
   6. Diaspora: How They Matter in Education and Knowledge Translation - November 2010
   7. An Introduction to the Initiative for Open University of Nepal Establishment - July 2010
   8. A Proposal for an Open University of Nepal for Providing Higher Education to the Rural and Marginalized People - April 2010
   9. What is Open University of Nepal - a YouTube Vodeo - November 2010
   10. Open University of Nepal: Who wins? - June 2010
   11. Inclusive Education: Empowering Public Education in the New Age of Communication - September 2007

2. The Law of Rule: Reflections on Constitution

   1. Introduction and Summary of Suggestions - April 2009
   2. Values of a Society - April 2009
   3. The Fourth Faculty of Governance - April 2009
   4. The Governance of Innovation - April 2009
   5. A Study of the Evolution of Governance in Nepal - April 2009
   6. Centralized, Decentralized and Distributed Systems - April 2009
   7. The Democracy and Federalism of the Future - April 2009
   8. Where is the Optimal Point of Distribution in a Federation? - April 2009

3. In Search of Wisdom Series

   1. Rural versus the Metropolis - October 2010
   2. The Dilemma of a Truth Seeker - March 2010
   3. The Paradox of Rituals - August 2009
   4. Where Does Success Live? - January 2009
   5. Duty versus Achievement - November 2008
   6. The Utility of Inheritance - October 2008
   7. The Utility of Research - October 2008
   8. What is the Root Cause of Inequality? - September 2008
   9. Where is the Heartbeat of a Society? - September 2008
   10. The Utility of Momentum - May 2008
   11. Public Discourse and Democracy - May 2008
   12. Dreaming of an Egalitarian Society - January 2008
   13. Where is the Great Nation? - January 2008
   14. What Binds Us? - January 2008
   15. Can Greed Equate to Corruption? - December 2007
   16. Can We Clean Minds? - December 2007
   17. Where does Corruption Live? - November 2007
   18. The Power of Communities - April 2007
   19. Farewell Philosopher - March 2007
   20. In Defense of the "Non-Intellectual" - April 2007
   21. The Ethics of Citizenship - April 2007
   22. Logical Pitfalls of a System of Logic - March 2007
   23. Where is the Vision? - October 2006

4. Road to Fair Representation Series

   1. Part VI - A Look at the Politics of Transition in Nepal - April 2008
   2. Part V - The Paradox of Democracy - September 2007
   3. Part IV - To Be or Not to Be Proportional? - October 2007
   4. Part III- Ethnic Identity and Freedom - January 2007
   5. Part II - March 2007
   6. Part I - January 2007

5. In Search of Destiny Series

   1. Tribute to Girija Prasad Koirala - March 2010
   2. The Art of Giving - March 2009
   3. The Fault of Assumptions - December 2008
   4. Life, Death and Continuity - October 2008
   5. A Road to a Village in Rasuwa - October 2007

6. State and the People Series

   1. A Country and Its Diasporas - November 2009
   2. Who is Socialist? - September 2008
   3. Media and the Society - June 2008
   4. Where Are the Priorities? - January 2008
   5. Age Demography and Issues of Inequalities - January 2008
   6. The Economy of Scale - November 2007
   7. Inclusive Education - Teach How You Preach - July 2007
   8. The Issues of State Restructuring - May, 2007
   9. Nepal - Background Information on Post-1990 Era - September, 2007
   10. State Power, Monarchy and Girija - August 2006
   11. Democracy and 1990 Constitution of Nepal - December 2005
   12. Royal Coup and Looming Disaster in Nepal - July 2005

7. Organization and Leadership Series

   1. Whom Can I Trust? - February 2008
   2. Wrangling Over the Missions - February 2008
   3. Expert versus Expertise - December 2007
   4. Where is the Fall? - December 2007
   5. A Phase of Contemplation - November, 2007
   6. Challenges of Social Movements - March 2007

8. Working Papers

   1. Nepalese Diaspora: Possibilities and Opportunities - Presented in August 23, 2008 at NRN-Canada Convention
   2. Empowering Public Education in the New Age of Communication - Published February 2008
   3. A study of the evolution of governance in Nepal - Published January 2008
   4. Canada and the World: Why collaborate with developing countries? - Published March 2008

9. Interviews and Presentations

   1. Yuba Sanchar Radio Interview on CFFN Directions - August 2009
   2. Slide Presentation on Open University of Nepal - February 2010
   3. Video record of Open University of Nepal presentation - Kentuky, USA- February 2010
   4. USHA Slide Presentation in NRN 4th Global Conference Kathmandu - October 2009
   5. Interview with CHUO 89.1 FM Radio Ottawa - February 2006

10. Applied Logic and Engineering

    1. Electing a master server using election periodic timer in fault-tolerant distributed dynamic network systems - May 03, 2005
    2. Performance Improvement in Satellite Communication Networks Based on Markovian Weather Prediction, International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking, 2010
    3. Intelligent Decision Controller for Provisioning Satellite Network Based on Atmospheric Attenuation at High Frequencies, Wireless Networks, The Journal of Mobile Communication, Computation and Information, ACM/Springer 2010
    4. Signal Adaptation via Intelligent Controller System in Weather Impacted Satellite Networks, Telecommunication Systems, The Journal of Modelling, The Journal of Analysis, Design and Management, ACM/Springer 2011
    5. A Decision Support Scheme to Maintain QoS in Weather Impacted Satellite Networks - Proceedings of Atmospheric and Space Environments Conference (AIAA) - Aug 2010
    6. Performance Improvement in Satellite Networks Based on Markovian Weather Predictions - Proceedings of the IEEE Globecom Conference 2010 - Dec 2010
    7. An Intelligent QoS Control System for Satellite Network Based on Markovian Weather Prediction - Proceedings of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC) 2010 - Sept 2010
11. Appeal for Peace and Democracy in Nepal
12. Citations( On Shailaja by TelegraphNepal )

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