ByteXL organizes an insightful session on Campus Transformation for Engineering colleges
Hyderabad : byteXL, one of the leading IT skilling partners for Engineering Colleges in India, organized a session on the topic of ‘Transforming Engineering Colleges – Creating High-Skilled Talent in Tech’. The panel discussion witnessed participation of eminent experts that included Mr. Santosh Nair, Managing Director (Global) Industry Collaboration & Academic Strategies, Parul University, Mr. Ramesh Loganathan, Professor, Co-Innovation/Outreach, IIIT Hyderabad, and Mr. Chakravarthi Mittapali, Vice Chairman, Narasaraopet Engineering College. The session was moderated by Mr Karun Tadepalli, Cofounder and CEO of byteXL.
The renowned panelists shared valuable insights into the current state of engineering colleges in the country and the role of technology in classrooms. They also deliberated on the need for curriculum revamping and emerging technology trends. The requirement of building an efficient skilling ecosystem, and the current employment outlook in the IT Industry was also discussed by the panelists.
Mr. Karun Tadepalli, co-founder and CEO of byteXL said, “This session was aimed at initiating a dialogue on the strong need of transformation required in the engineering colleges in the country. The academia must match the current as well as future tech industry standards in case they want to stay relevant. Colleges have to look at from updating the curriculum to enhancing infrastructure and training the faculty to better placements mechanism.”
Though a true to bone technologist, Professor Ramesh Loganathan does not believe technology can replace teachers and for that matter, blackboards. “I use blackboards in the class rather than smartboards because that is much more interactive. We use technology, but it should be only a supplementary tool. If there is no core, there is nothing to be amplified. I believe that when it courses, for IIIT the idea is not for training the students for the industry. We do not teach C language. They learn Python by themselves, they are not taught. But they are the best Python Programmers in the country.”
When it came to discussing the Reddy Committee Report, Mr. Santosh Nair believes that – “Restricting number of colleges is not a solution. Allowing privatization of engineering colleges helped a lot of students. But it has to be done in a very controlled manner. It is important for the government to check the sustainability graph and act accordingly. With the current population, the institution count has still not outgrown. The number of institutions must increase but in a much more controlled way. The education setup has three main objectives. Employability, Innovation and Research. The top institutions namely the IIT, IIIT, etc. are the Enhancers,” said Mr. Santhosh Nair, referring to IITs as research hubs, enhancing the education system overall in the country. He also added that rest of the two categories fall under – Torch bearers and Executors.
Commenting on how practical training is inculcated in colleges based out of tier II colleges, Mr. Chakravarthi Mithapalli said, “Our (college) performance is based on placements. Therefore, we train for the placements. Their (student) skill level is different from the ones in the top institutions and thought process is also different.” He also added that the NEC College has now categorized their curriculum into 14 weeks of teaching and 4 weeks of training now from what was earlier 18 weeks of covering just the fundamentals.
The event also had a case study presentation by Dr. Malineni Perumalu, Chairman of Malineni Lakshmaiah Women’s Engineering College (Malineni Lakshmaiah Group of Institutions) on the impact created by the college through its Campus Transformation initiatives that helped in increasing the interest in women to pursue engineering.
The session was attended by over 50 participants representing deans, principals, faculties, college management, among others.