A Reco for VNIT

Well I’m back with another of my highly intellectual and insightful discourses on the situation at our beloved university. This time a bumper issue for your delectation, matching the one EO’s going to release (when God, when?) and probably with more meaningful matter.

No seriously this time I’m writing a more responsible one which fulfils the demand from many to elucidate on what should be done rather than just comment on what actually goes on.

Any institution aspiring to be considered world class needs to move with the times, something, I think you will agree, that is absent here. VNIT is stuck in a rut, a deep, deep rut.

We need to move forward and sometimes to do so requires a change of direction but this institution changes track with a turning radius and inertia rivalling Jupiter’s. Admittedly change shouldn’t be mercurial but action needs to be taken before its relevance is lost.

The academic situation is abysmal. Don’t gasp my dear friends you are hardly being taxed here, or for that matter in any Indian institution that’s not an IIT, BITS or a top rated NIT like Trichy. The style of teaching is an extension of your science junior college – basic spoon feeding. The teachers hardly have their head around the subject themselves, at least the newly appointed ones, and the older ones have all but lost their zest to teach (if it ever existed) or don’t know how to. How many of us have truly experienced a proper lecture, rather than a drone on what is probably a century or two old and has no relevance in the practical world today? We need to learn the past techniques to master the new, but do we learn the real stuff?

These are some of the changes I would like to suggest to the academic structure at VNIT-

1. First and foremost a reshuffle of subjects is direly required in the first year-

• The topics under the Physics and Chemistry courses could easily be shortened to a single semester retaining only the relevant chapters and content.
• Two courses in Economics i.e. macro and micro need to be included just like at foreign universities. After all, we are going to become engineers and cost is an important factor in any engineering field, plus students who will work in the industry need a sound grounding in the working of the financial world.
• Programming languages like C and C++, etc. ought to be taught at this stage – not to help our placement chances but rather to enhance our problem solving skills: no field can currently cope without relevant software or for that matter the ability to generate a computer program to solve problems. This brings me to the next point
• MATLAB should be taught compulsorily as there is no better, powerful or more universal software for mathematical analysis that is required in any engineering field.
• While I believe that the only way to truly understand drawing is by doing it on paper, drafting software such as AutoCAD should be introduced somewhere in the 2 semesters this course takes as it makes the work quicker, efficient, easier to check and saves paper.

All the software required can be loaded onto a centralized server system and accessible to all computer labs in all departments by obtaining a college wide license.

• Out of the 2 courses for economics one may be conducted in the second semester since the programming course in the 3^rd semester for almost all branches has been promoted to the first year.
• Finally the subject list looks like this:

a) 1^st semester

· Math

· Physics

· Programming

· Electrical Technology

· Engineering Drawing

b) 2^nd semester

· Math

· Economics I

· Chemistry

· Engineering Mechanics

· Engineering Drawing

1. Subjects need to be taught by professors not Ad-hoc staff (for want of a better name) e.g. Programming by someone from the Computer Science Dept, Economics by someone who actually has studied the subject and possesses knowledge of its implementation in the real world; rather the Ad-hoc staff can act as teaching assistants conducting tutorial classes while profs. conduct pure lectures
2. Math needs to be taught with an engineering perspective respective to the dept. rather than as a pure subject; just telling us that Navier- Stokes equation looks like this and solving one problem on the LR circuit doesn’t round off a chapter on differential equations. I’ve learn math from a hero Prof in a way that seems to make the math dept. profs look like jokers barring a couple who do know their stuff rather than copying it wrong onto the board from B. S. Grewal.
3. To encourage students to study, they ought to be asked to come prepared for lectures by reading books by world renowned authors, which are recommended by all depts. but are somehow invisible in the library (need to get my eyes checked). This leaves the Profs with more time to lecture than trying to explain everything form the word go.
4. Engineers are required to work with people and hence elective courses with low credits from a vibrant and diverse Humanities, Arts and Languages dept. could be offered.
5. Complementary software must be actively taught alongside subjects e.g. SPICE, ANSYS, Labview, AutoCAD, etc. (This is the only front along which progress has been made although there are depts. where the licenses have either expired, the labs are shut to UG students e.g. CAD/CAM dept. or there aren’t teachers or learning resources for the software)
6. The profs really ought to take a crash course in learning how to teach and making their subject interesting because unless you generate excitement for what’s being taught in a class, ain’t nothing getting in our noggins (sealed tighter than those Scorpenes India still doesn’t have).
7. Continuing from above, teaching aids need to be encouraged and videos, slideshows and live demos can be conducted – provided projectors and other hardware are available.
8. In the future the college could work out a plan to obtain subsidized or second-hand (but sufficient) laptops for students from retailers seeing as how almost 80% of students have a PC by the final year. These could then be used as an effective learning tool in the class directly rather than for the quite illicit purposes we currently do.
9. Industrial training could be made mandatory, for which the college could enlist small setups that provide meaningful training rather than large companies that just want students to take a look and are happy to have them put of the way as soon as possible
10. A series of guest lectures, one per week on weekends, by acclaimed industrial and engineering personalities as well as Professors from other reputed institutes on practical topics ought to be organized by the students (something that, I doubt, will happen soon – we’re too lazy a lot aren’t we).

This is all that I could think of, for now. If you have anything to add I’d welcome it whole heartedly.

While I know the suggestions above seem like they’ll eat into your time here I don’t think that that would happen, after all in foreign universities the students do all this and more and still have time to party, get laid, get paid, etc etc.

These changes need not take place immediately but I think they can be easily achieved in one Jupiter year (approx. 11.88 earth years).

A copy of this article shall be sent to the Director but I am not sure what effect it will cause. One shall also be sent to the Secretary of Academic Affairs of the Students Council.

A parting jab at my most favourite people at the EO –

Q. What do you call a men’s magazine issued alongside Eyes Only?

A. Guys Lonely

Till next time my faithful readers

Yours Defamingly

The Vnit Vandal