‘Disconnect with students causing campus protests’

GREATER NOIDA: Engineering courses being taught in universities and colleges need to undergo changes as technology is developing by the day, AICTE chairman Anil Sahasrabudhe said on Tuesday.

Stressing the need for revision on a regular basis, Sahasrabudhe said teachers, too, needed to be trained and exposed to the changes that are taking place in the field of technology.

He said educational institutes should be opened for a noble cause and those that had been opened with an intention to make profits were closing down one by one.

Sahasrabudhe was addressing representatives of 55 educational institutions at Bennett University during the inauguration of “Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence Skilling and Research”. He also urged the representatives to participate in a three-week induction programme of the AICTE to improve teacher-student connect.

“Technology is developing and the rate of change may be higher in engineering courses. Even within engineering, it will be faster in computer science and electronics rather than mechanical and civil. The automobile industry, too, is rapidly changing. This has to be brought into our curriculum. Once revision on a regular basis begins, teachers, too, need to be trained,” he told TOI.

Sahasrabudhe advised all the institutes to start a course named MORSE(mathematics, operational research, statistics and economics), which is aimed at improving artificial intelligence and deep learning for students from remote educational institutions.

“Many students in remote areas do not have these facilities. They may not be part of these institutions associated with the project, but why should they miss out on this opportunity?” he asked.

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Sahasrabudhe said the field of artificial intelligence and deep learning had “tremendous opportunities” and suggested that an application be designed in this regard.

Emphasising on the relevance of a three-week induction programme for first-year students introduced by the AICTE, Sahasrabudhe said institutes should try to avoid dull-fledge classes in the first three weeks of a course and instead allow the students to get familiar with the surroundings.

“A connect between the students and teachers is necessary and it is the lack of it that is leading to agitation at institutes. Authorities hardly engage in talks with the students and vice-versa,” he said.

On the programme, Sahasrabudhe said a batch of 20-25 first-year students should be associated with one faculty member and activities like yoga, discussions, dance, drama, film screenings, etc, should be introduced.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/noida/disconnect-with-students-causing-campus-protests/articleshow/63807059.cms

L&T Technology Services Honours India’s Brightest Engineering Students at TECHgium

In its second edition LTTS’ unique industry academia initiative TECHgium recognizes young engineering enthusiasts who delivered proof of concepts to address complex industrial challenges

L&T Technology Services Limited, a global pure-play Engineering R&D Services company today announced the winners of the second edition of its unique industry academia initiative TECHgium. Covering hundreds of engineering colleges across the country, including several top-tier engineering institutes, TECHgium is a first of its kind initiative in India to scout for and recognize the best of engineering talent among the fresher community. TECHgium ushers in a new generation of engineers with skills and capabilities that the industry covets. The initiative is aimed at imparting engineering students with relevant exposure to the challenges and practical insights for Industry 4.0. TECHgium will also help create an ecosystem that bridges the industry-academia schism by facilitating the participants with an opportunity to work on technologies of tomorrow and enhance their career prospects and simultaneously augment the solution development team of LTTS. LTTS invested over 100 working hours to mentor students shortlisted for the PoC round, with subject matter experts from respective industry domains mentoring the students. As a result, the winning teams came up with remarkable solutions around IoT, Machine Learning, Advanced Image Processing and Smart Tools. The team from Sri Ramakrishna Engineering College, Coimbatore were declared as winners for developing a mechanism for wide-angle viewing for diagnostic hysteroscopy products. The students of National Institute of Engineering, Mysore won the second prize for creating a variable valve timing mechanism for internal combustion engine. The winner of the third prize went to the team from Sri Manakula Vinayagar Engineering College, Pondicherry for their work on Smart tools and integration with IoT platforms. A special prize was awarded to the students of Zakir Hussain College of Engineering and Technology, Aligarh for devising a Multi-camera Multi Target Visual Tracking System. Some of the other noteworthy POCs demonstrated at TECHgium include active noise cancellation for automobile mufflers submitted by the students of IIT Madras that caters to the Transportation & Commercial Vehicles domain and Artificial Intelligence framework for Microgrids for Industrial Products submitted by the students of VIT University. The winners of TECHgium were selected by a distinguished jury of industry experts including Mr K.S. Viswanathan, Vice President NASSCOM, Dr. Ranganath Navalgund, Honorary Professor, ISRO and Mr Ganapathiraman, Country Manager, ARC India. Dr. Keshab Panda, CEO & Managing Director, L&T Technology Services Limited said, “India has always been the nation of innovators and pioneers and the kind of engineering talent that can be brought to light here is unparalleled. TECHgium is our ode to the great Indian engineering potential and we are confident that this initiative will be instrumental in providing the right stimulus to the enormous academic potential of the country. The success of TECHgium would be immensely helpful in LTTS’ endeavor to propel innovation, bridge industry-academia gap as well as solve myriad engineering challenges and help in building digital skillsets among today’s youth.” K.S. Viswanathan, Vice President – Industry Initiatives, NASSCOM commented “Across the whole spectrum of the industry, skill profiles are undergoing rapid changes witnessing a rising demand for enhanced digital capabilities. India has enormous pool of fresh talents propelled by innovative thinking and attitude to build solutions in key sectors where technology can play a revolutionary role. We are extremely hopeful that initiatives brought out by TECHgium will play an instrumental role in mentoring academic talents in the country, propel innovation in bringing technological empowerment to solve complex industrial problems in the country.” The second edition of TECHgium received a record-breaking participation from over 17,000 students across 220 engineering colleges signing up for the event. The platform gave aspiring engineering students an opportunity to create concepts, submit abstracts, present technical presentation and showcase Proof of Concept (PoC) on real-life technical challenges. Some of the challenges included Machine Learning Platform for Video Analytics for elevators, Augmented/Assisted Reality applications for industrial customers, Video analytics tool for detecting human intentions and Reduction of Emission from Automobiles among others.  

Source: http://bwcio.businessworld.in/article/L-T-Technology-Services-Honours-India-s-Brightest-Engineering-Students-at-TECHgium/16-04-2018-146510/

AICTE Chairman dwells on plan to change curriculum

To attract students to engineering colleges, All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) Chairman Anil D Sahasrabudhe elaborated on his plan of revising the curriculum and engaging trained faculty.

Prof Sahasrabudhe was at Panjab University (PU) here on Monday to attend the India-UK Industry-Academia symposium.

He said: “There are more than 10,000 colleges under the AICTE. The present curriculum is outdated so a new state-of-the-art curriculum is required. The faculty will be trained with the help of the MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses),” said Prof Sahasrabudhe.

The faculty was required to be trained in the new teaching methods which would be made mandatory for their promotions, he added. “The focus would be shifted from rote learning as new learning modules have been prepared. There are students from the rural and deprived sections whose communication skills need to be integrated. Colleges will work on improving the language skills,” he said. He said outcome-based question would be introduced in papers and internships in the industry would be made mandatory.

Elaborating on student-induction programme, he said a faculty member would be attached to about 25 students for three weeks and the students will stay with the teacher throughout the day.

Smart India Hackathon

He said ‘Smart India Hackathon 2018’ was a part of the programme where 340 challenging problems from 27 government departments and 17 state governments for software hackathon were put up and more than 1,300 institutes and 12,000 teams participated.

“It was a 36-hour grand finale which was held on March 30 and 31 at 28 centres in 24 cities and 17 states. Hardware Hackathon with 64 problem statements was being planned in June,” he said. He said the AICTE was keeping a tab on the number of start-ups emerging out of engineering colleges and more than 500 start-ups had come up last year.

Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/chandigarh/aicte-chairman-dwells-on-plan-to-change-curriculum/575210.html

MU ranked 155th among 230 varsities

Times of India Pg 05 17/04/2018