We encourage students to solve real-world challenges in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approach, says Director

Dr K Mallikharjuna Babu, Director and Head of AMC Engineering College, discusses the institute's philosophy for helping students become industry-ready in an interview with Shiksha.com. The institute recognises today's industrial demands and has tailored its programmes to assist students to stand out among a crowd of Engineering and Management graduates across the country. Experiential learning, practice-based learning, industrial visits, and mandated internships are just a few of the institute's initiatives aimed at providing students with a high-quality educational experience.

Dr Babu has over 33 years of experience in different facets of Education, Teaching, Research and Academic administration.

Read the complete interview below

Q: What are the three things that your college is doing that will enable it to differentiate itself from the competition?

A: We believe, our curriculum is our strength. Talking about the curriculum, the following aspects help us differentiate from the competition:

• Experiential Learning: The faculty at AMC Engineering College (AMCEC) focus on imparting experiential learning through innovative teaching-learning methods. Students are given individual attention to capture their interests, and map the same with skills are being taught during their formative stages of study.
• Practice-based Learning: At AMCEC, we have sophisticated labs in every engineering program offered. We believe that engineers shall undergo continuous skill development (psychomotor skills). Industry collaborations, center of excellence, and compulsory internships are some of the activities we do to skill up the students.
• Student Projects: The student projects at AMCEC are given a special impetus. High standards are expected from the student projects. We insist that the student projects are being undertaken must have real and societal relevance.

Q: What are the top three initiatives undertaken by you that are helping your students become more industry-ready?

A: Industry readiness is another crucial factor that defines the success of any institute. To help students stand out of the crowd of other graduates across the country is challenging in itself. Yet, AMC Engineerieng College has left no stone unturned to help students become industry ready. Besides this, there are:

• Faculty Development Programmes: The faculty undergo regular development programmes to familiarise themselves with the current technologies and catch the Industry trends. This is imparted to students through special training sessions.
• Compulsory Internships: All the students must enroll in the compulsory internship programme. This not only gives them a strong exposure to the industry practices and challenges (existing structure, problems, and solutions). Students also encouraged to undertake to solve real-world problems plaguing the industry.
• Certification Courses: We are an affiliated institute. The curriculum set by the university sometimes don’t cover all the areas of the subject. All the engineering departments have identified the shortcoming and introduced certificate courses through the center of excellence. Students are encouraged to register for the courses and acquire the required skill to be a relevant and skilled workforce. These courses also enhance their chances for employability.

Q: What are the key attributes that a student should have in order to qualify for your institution and perform well?

A: We expect students to possess curiosity, learning ability, exploratory mindset, willingness to adapt, to try new things, in order to be transformed into competent and confident engineers.

To perform well, student should have the ability to recall facts and basic concepts. In addition, students must develop capabilities to produce new or original work, evaluate and justify decisions, draw connections among ideas, extrapolate data and apply it in new situations, gain the ability to explain ideas and concepts.

Q: Which programme/s would you say is/are your best? What is it that helps your institution differentiate itself for this programme?

A: No industry problem can be solved by one discipline of engineering knowledge. Students are encouraged to work in interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary ways to while solving real-world problems instead of sticking to hypothetical and scaled-down versions. This approach makes students to learn how teams work, how to manage time and resources, how to take ownership of tasks and deliver, how to learn new technologies, unlearn old assumptions, adapt quickly to changing scenarios (agility), and so on. We have a unique department of Interdisciplinary Research. Through this, we imbibe the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship among the students. The department works towards interdepartmental collaborations, development of critical thinking abilities, translation of ideas into reality, a generation of the intellectual property, technology transfers and laying the foundation for the growth of Institutional startups.

Q: What are you doing to improve/drive better campus placements for your current students and alumni? What kind of jobs routinely come to campus? What would you say are the key recruitment trends for your college (observed over the past five years)?

A: The campus placements is dependent on the skill levels of the student to solve and resolve the real-time problems. The student take-up Solving Industrial problems boosts the student profiles which helps them to perform better during placement drives. Companies from Information Technology, Mechanical, and Mechatronics sectors frequent to the Institution. Recruiters identify that the students of AMC have the culture and abilities necessary to immediately and easily assimilate into the corporate and industrial environment.