Life as an Electrical & Electronics Engineering student: VIT

A lot of hard-work coupled with dedication goes in the making of an efficient electrical engineer. But, it's not always about books alone.

Meet, Syed Atif Ahmed, second year Electrical & Electronics Engineering student from  VIT University, Vellore. He strongly believes that while on one hand his course is interesting and engrossing, on the other hand it’s time consuming and a bit tough too.

He also talks about the practical and theoretical aspects of this course, along with his study routine and the kind of exams and assignments that he has been through.

Read on to know more about his life as an Electrical & Electronics Engineering student so far.

A typical day at college!

Well I am pretty much of a lazy guy and so are most of the engineers. So a typical day for me is like a sleeping marathon. Movies, TV shows, games or for me my for love football – that’s it.  And in the evenings, we mostly go out for dinners to a nearby restaurant. This is how a typical day goes by just lazing around, chit-chatting with friends, watching movies, etc. etc.

Practical and theoretical aspects of the course

My course i.e. Electrical and Electronics Engineering consists both of practical as well as theoretical subjects but a lot of preference is given to the theoretical ones because one would not be able to use an electrical machine like motors, generators or transformers without having the proper knowledge of how to use it. Most of the electrical subjects here in VIT are embedded that is, they contains both theory and lab work so that a student attains both theoretical and practical knowledge at the same time.

Industry visits/ exposure

Currently, I am in third semester of second year and we haven’t had an industrial visit yet but there is one or two lined up for the next semester.

Exams and its recurrence

Hahaha. The exams! Actually it is never ending, you can’t really keep a count on it. To be precise, in one semester, we have three set of quizzes, two sets of internals (50 marks each), lab internals, assignments and then comes the finals i.e. the lab term and theory term. So yeah, you can’t really keep a count on it, it is like 40-50 exams per semester and we have two semesters per year so I will leave the Mathematics part for you ;).

Time spent on studies every day

It actually depends on the situation. To be honest, if I have no exams or submissions, I don’t actually open the book at all. But in case, I have an exam or internal the next day, I study for a good 3-4 hours.

It’s a known fact that engineers usually leave everything for the last day so full day and night we study to finish the course sometimes skipping meals too as it would waste our precious time .

Projects

Here in VIT, especially for EEE, there would be one or two subjects each semester which would be project based learning or what we term as a PBL course. In that, you have to make a project mostly a working model in hardware or software form, and in between that you need to undergo project reviews as well.

That actually helps us in acquiring required practical knowledge of how to use the electric components and machines. We usually complete these projects in a span of one semester with the help of faculties, staff and fellow colleagues.

Things I miss and wish to learn

Honestly speaking, there is not much that is missing in the course as VIT aims at overall development of a student. Apart from the core subjects, VIT gives a lot of importance to humanities, management skills and also improving language or speaking skills of students. There are various management, humanities and language subjects here in VIT that are compulsory for every student and if you have interest in all these subjects, you can even pursue a minor degree in that subject apart from your major B.TECH degree.

College life and hostel life?

If you want to live a great college life, come to VIT. It is highly efficient and you have all the resources available in the campus itself. The hostel life is quite good too. The hostels are nicely built and proper decorum is maintained inside the hostels too.

Hobbies, extra-curricular activities, societies and more

Well I love playing football. I even play for the university team and we get to go to places like Goa, Mangalore, Kerala, etc. for tournaments so it’s fun. There are numerous number of societies in our college for every branch/course.

The most famous ones being IEEE, TIFAC, IETE etc. Apart from that there are various organisations also in VIT which help local NGOs like MAD (making a difference), UDDESHYA, etc.

For car lovers who love gaining knowledge about cars and even making them, there are various renowned teams like PRAVEGA, OJAS, KSHATRIYA, etc.

5 good and 5 bad things about the course/branch

Good things: Interesting course, subjects, great infrastructure, fully air-conditioned and a great library, highly efficient faculty and staff and a good bunch of students.

Bad things: Interesting but EEE is tough, too many exams and the worst is hostel in-time for students is too early.