Recommendations for Improving Quality of Education in CET
This document is intended to share the experience of some former students of the Department of Mechanical Engineering (Class of 2000) in other institutions of higher learning. The thoughts have been organized under some broad headlines.
Syllabus
Ideally, the syllabus should be completely set by the faculty member in charge. This will be possible with the impending autonomous status of the college. In addition to the fundamentals, there should be some topics of current relevance and future trends. One basic precept to be followed in making the syllabus is that every term in it should have some solid relevance. No longer should there be students who are left in the dark as to why they have to learn seemingly useless things. Introduction of courses of current relevance like Mechatronics, Robotics, System Simulation, Neural Networks, and Computer Graphics (at least as electives) will be good. Inter-department electives, especially for people engaged in multi-dimensional projects would have been very useful. Also, collecting feedback from students on courses can help in improvements.
Engineering Mathematics
There has to be some effort to relate the techniques of mathematics to actual problem solving in engineering. Mathematics, in the manner it is taught now, does not serve any purpose, as it is no different from that in any average arts and sciences college.
Course Projects
Students will have to choose a problem that uses the techniques learned in the course. The final output of the project is a full-fledged report and presentation to the class. Projects can be either individual or (preferably) group. All projects can be followed by a peer evaluation of other members in a group to make sure nobody gets a free ride.
Meaningful Assignments
Assignments should rise from mere Xeroxing of information given in books to something more meaningful. Students should be penalized heavily for non-original work. Different problems can be given to different students. Example: each student can be required to write a critique of a research paper and present it in class. It should not be the number of pages that count towards giving credit; on the contrary it should be the quality and effort.
Laboratory Work
The experiments have to be totally revamped to make them more meaningful (similar to syllabus). Lack of interest is due to no input being given about the relevance of experiments. Moreover, use of antiquarian equipment results in great difficulty in getting proper results and students end up copying old data. It will also help a lot if theory courses and the related lab work are in the same semester under the same faculty.
B.Tech Project
It should have the standard of at least a small industry project. The whole process should result in some value creation. The projects should have commercial, scientific or social use. This will prepare the students to get an idea of the necessity of value creation, an integral part of any modern-day job. Students can start looking for projects early in the course. There has to be a strong motivation from the department for students interested in taking up projects that can directly or indirectly benefit the lot of the common people. The alumni of the Mechanical Engineering Class of 2000 are keen to fund such projects. Most industry projects are multi-disciplinary. There should be provision for this in the new autonomous set-up. For example, some of our batch mates would have been much better off, if they had an Electronics Engineering student in their robotics project team.
Other Ideas
- Institution of a best faculty, advisor and lab instructor awards, totally decided by students.
- Inclusion of qualified and interested final year students in a team giving instructional assistance for junior students in need of help.
This will go a long way in finding out and encouraging teaching talent.
- Bureaucratic procedures to be simplified. For example, to use a computer a student should not have to get umpteen signatures from professors and lab assistants.
- Encouragement to students who perform and help to those who do badly in academics.
- Combined research by professors and students.
- Lab maintenance work, e.g. repairing old machines and equipment.
- Career guidance in terms of options available. Professors can make up a list of alumni they know and get information from them various entry-level positions available to
students and also Industrial Training (IT) opportunities. Alumni in various industrial establishments can help in setting up IT for interested students.
- Professors advising and encouraging students on paper presentations in research areas for various journals and not just inter collegiate paper presentation competitions. A paper published in
a reputed journal is a big boost for admissions in foreign universities. Professors can help enterprising students explore this path.
How Can We Help
- Detailed information on the educational practices in other universities to faculty and students. We will visit the department whenever we come to town for any feedback.
- Assistance to faculty and students through the Mentorship Programme. Our team will be available by this email address - mentor@NOSPAM_royalmexx.com for any help.
We have a database of people and their areas of expertise and the emails will be routed to the appropriately.
- The people in the industry will help in setting up Industrial Training for interested students.
Motivation
The driving force behind this effort from the Class of 2000 is a feeling of gratitude to the alma mater and a sense of responsibility to make things better. All these suggestions are aimed at improving the standards of people graduating from the institute every year. Increased interaction between faculty and students for doing interesting and relevant work is the key.
One salient aspect of almost all of our proposals is that they involve no additional financial commitment from the part of the cash-strapped department. It is a change in attitude that is required. Further on, we firmly believe that any single rupee spent on infrastructure development will have any use only if it adds to improving the value of the products, i.e. Engineers, in this mass production unit that the college is. For example, any amount of money and effort spent on the Mechanical Students Library, which we founded, will be futile if there is no need for the students to make use of it.
Our esteemed institution should uphold the hallowed principles of Academic Integrity, which is of paramount importance in all the great universities in the world. This can be done by instilling a sense of purpose and enthusiasm in the students - easily among Indias finest. We should be a shining example to the other colleges of the nation, at least in this basic aspect.
Finally, if all this is possible in one place in CET, it is in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. This is from our experience in the support and motivation from the entire department for all our activities during our fruitful and enjoyable four years.
Compiled By
Nitish Mathew, M.S. Student,
Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, USA.
Contributors
Philip Kuncheria, PGDM (IIM -Lucknow), Joyco India, New Delhi.
philipkuncheria@rediffmail.com
Prince M Samuel, M.S. Student
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Operations Research,
University of Texas, Austin, USA.
Murali Krishna B,
Telco Construction Company, Bangalore.