A Farewell Address by Dr. Subhash C. Arya on 15th June 2015 to the B.Tech and M.Tech students of NEHU

 A Farewell Address by Dr. Subhash C. Arya on 15th June 2015 to the B.Tech and M.Tech students of NEHU

                                                                                                                     Date: 15.06.2015

Respected Dean madam, Head of sister departments, colleagues, and dear engineers and technologists! First of all, I would like to thank all 3rd-year B.Tech and 1st Year M.Tech students who have organized this memorable event of farewell and decorated this Hall so beautifully. I congratulate outgoing engineers and technologists for their hard work and successful completion of engineering degrees.

Well ! 4 precious years stay of B.Tech and 2 years of M.Tech Engineering graduates are really important because, without you, we teachers, technical and official staff would not have been here.  We are because you are! Our existence matters because of your existence.  So, I must thank not only you people but also your present who had shown strong faith in our engineering branches and admitted you, people, into the School of Technology.  

We are trying hard to provide a better learning environment and opportunities to be skillful engineers and technologies, a citizen of high character for a better tomorrow for a better India.  

"Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, and working together is a success" As we look back over the last 4 years; indeed, there was a beginning when faculties and technical staff from BSSS Department, IT Department, and other sister departments came together to nurture you and provided a solid foundation to be efficient engineers.  And thankfully, there was also progress when our departemntal colleagues, technical and office staff members worked together to shape your bright future, and yes..undeniably, we have been successful- Give a big hand to outgoing engineers!

You are now at a crossroad where you have to make the decision independently; you have to make yourself ready to face the challenges of the future, which often look blank. 

We want to info and assure you that we are working hard for the early submission of final year results so that the examination department shall declare results timely.

I feel happy to share with you that this year 5 ECE Engineers cleared the GATE-2015 exam.  5 ECE Engineers got placed in good companies.  AICTE approval for engineering programs is in progress, and we are also trying to bring Vishveshariay Ph.D. Scholarship in ECE and IT Department.

I would like to express my gratitude to all because I would stand here out of constant help from my colleagues, colleagues from sister departments, support from our skilled and efficient technical and official staff members, and above all to my dear students because whom my existence is relevant.

I take this opportunity to offer our best wishes to all outgoing engineers and technologies for their bright future on behalf department of Electronics and Communication Engineers.

Thank you very much!

(Dr. Subhash C. Arya)

HoD, Department of ECE.

Teacher's Day address on 05.09.2018.

 Address by Dr. Subhash C. Arya on the occasion of Teacher's day on 5th September 2018 in the department of ECE. 

Respected Head of the Department Dr. Rupaban Subadar, our esteemed colleagues Prof. L. J. Singh, friends, office staff, and dear students and learners.

I feel immense pleasure to present among you all on the occasion of celebrating and recognizing teacher's day, i.e., 5th September 2018.  

Well, thanks for giving me an opportunity to speak my mind.  Please say teachers are national builders. I say teachers are supposed to be a nation builder.  There is a difference bin assuming that teachers are inbuilt nation builders and are supposed to be national builders.  What is that difference?  Suppose you assume that teachers are nation builders or inbuilt nation builders, then whatever a teacher does, it comes under nation building process.  But is it the case, I say a big NO.  In this regard, I quote our former prime minister Dr. ManMohan Singh, who said, " Our University system is in many parts in a state of disrepair.  In almost half the districts in the country, higher educational enrolment is abysmally low; almost two third of our universities and 90% of our colleagues are rated as below average on quality parameters.  I am concerned that in many states university,  appointments, including that of vice-chancellors, have been politicized and have become subject to caste and communal consideration, there are complaints of favoritism and corruption..." Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2007.  

In this light, I say teachers suppose to be nation builders.  Since teachers are a fundament building block of the education system, including learners, infrastructure, and supporting technical and administrative staff, they have a far more significant role to play as a nation builder.  I call upon all my fellow teachers to introspect, analyze the current state of educational affairs and contribute in such a way that nation should feel proud of its teachers and its community.  

I have apprehension that there is a big gap between the structure of our education system and the structure of our Indian society. Our school, colleagues, universities, IITs, NITs and IISERS, IIMs, etc must represent the correct picture of Indian society. Mainly the teachers belong to one class o society, and students belong to another class of Indian society therefore, it creates lots of affective domain imbalances in the teaching-learning process.  Why had we not accepted Britishers in Inda because they were or are more meritorious than us, but because they do not represent Indian Society?..... (incomplete text....)

Dr. Subhash C. Arya  

Engineering Education in India: Part -I

 Engineering Education in India: An introspection and recommendations

1. AICTE has constituted a committee for preparing short and medium-term perspective plans for engineering education in India.

2. This committee has collected data on engineering capacity and enrolment trends across India and deliberated on available reports on technologies, jobs, skills, and engineering education trends of the future.

3.  Committee could identify gaps-areas and issues to improve     

        (a): Enrolment

        (b): Employability of engineering graduates

        (c): Capabilities of faculties

        (d): Quality of pedagogies.

4. The strength of the knowledge drive-economy of a country depends on the level and utilization of advanced technology and networking through globalization

5.  Engineering education plays a key building role while ensuring success in the knowledge and innovation-driven economy and problems of a country.

6. While appreciating phenomenal work done so far in disseminating engineering education, there has to go a long way to meet the explosive demand and aspiration of the people of this country to make it self reliance and prosperous

7.  Based on studies and analysis done by experts int he engineering education following recommendations have been made to address various issues in engineering education in India:

    (i): Capacity utilization, i.e., capacity vs. enrolment, is presently only about 50%  ( as per 2017-2018 data).   To improve the quality of existing engineering education, the proper measures should be taken instead of opening a new programme. The new programmes which are already in the pipeline and infrastructure available can be started; however, no new programme should be started unless a review is done after every two years. 

    (ii): Capacity utilization should be a key criterion for ranking accreditation and affiliation

    (iii): Traditional Engineering branches such as ME, EE, ECE, and Civil have only 40% capacity utilization, whereas computer engineering, aerospace, and mechatronics have 60% capacity utilization, so existing traditional engineering branches should be modernized in emerging technologies for example for ECE, it should move towards Robotics, Electric Vehicle, Drone Technology, AI and ML, etc.  Committee recommended that no additional seats should be approved in the traditional engineering branches unless they convert into emerging branches with the potential of improving their capacity utilization.

    (iv): Immediate interventions are recommended to improve the quality of teachers in emerging technologies through programs like QIP, academic-industry linage, hands-on training in industry visits, etc. 

    (v): There should a mandatory certificate/diploma/degree in education for every teacher in the engineering department to improve the pedagogies

    (vi): There should be an efficient utilization of MOOC courses both in core and elective domains

8. Efforts should be made for employment generations

9. Institutions should build proper project management capabilities around research like I-STEM is doing

10. Academic institutions have to continuously monitor the future skills requirement and make suitable changes to contents and pedagogies so that the graduating students have the right capabilities for the job in demand.

11. Period Industry feedback for technology degradation should be done

12.  Impact of teaching methods and identify the best methods of executing course work and apprenticeship. There should be a good linkage between apprenticeship with pedagogies.

13. There should be compulsory apprenticeship activities in the engineering education

14. At least two industry representatives should be part of the academic advisory board in the institute.

15. It is recommended that there should be a national knowledge functional hub in the engineering education institution.  It should look into the local industry ecosystem requirement so that accordingly workforce should be prepared.

16. Tinking lab, Innovation lab, incubation centers, etc. should be established, and students should be encouraged to design thinking and practical approach to learning

17. Engineering education should meet the demand of the emerging software industry, health care and medical services, semiconductor industry, AI, IoT, mobility, analytic and cloud, blockchain, robotic, quantum computing, data science, cyber security, 3D printing, and design, AR/VR, etc.

18. Emphasis should be on multi-disciplinary courses such as computational biology, biotechnology, biomedical, mechatronic, space and aerospace, agriculture and environmental studies, etc.

19. Students should be interfaced with real-life socio-economic problems, and they should be made aware of how to solve these problems using technology.

20. Open-book examinations should be introduced to improve the cognitive level of students wherever possible. 

Ref: Engineering Education in India