At the very onset of our conversation with the Secretary of Marri Laxman Reddy Institute of Technology (MLRIT), Marri Rajashekar Reddy, he requests that we personally visit their campus at Dundigal, Telangana, so that we can see for ourselves the institute's progress since its establishment in 2005. But a campus visit is not the only way to learn how well MLRIT is doing. The institute was ranked among the top nine engineering colleges in Telangana by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings, released by MHRD this April. The boys of MLRIT even won the Indian College Basketball League held in March. We congratulate the Secretary and ask him about maintaining the right balance between academics and sports, to which he responds, "It's a myth that when students play sports, they tend to ignore academics. In fact, sports helps build team spirit and cooperation in an individual." While they have expert faculty and infrastructure to facilitate academics, they give out as many as 30 scholarships to students inclined towards sports.
Speaking about academics, MLRIT has labs for Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and Entrepreneurship Development Cell. "We encourage students to utilise the labs to execute their projects with expert faculty and gain more exposure so that they can be better in the future," shares the Secretary. And whichever disruptive technology emerges in the future, Reddy is confident that they can develop the infrastructure to train their students.
Ask him about the indispensable skills that a student needs to have to catch up with the ever-changing industry demands and pat comes to the reply, "Communication skills set individuals apart from each other. It's good to have the sound technical knowledge, but what's the point if you can't express it?” Exposure also tops his list of skills that students must possess. One of the ways to sharpen this skill is to participate in as many competitions as possible and understand what one lacks, he offers. He also advocates learning by doing and points out that, "learning one day before the exam in engineering is suicidal and won't help at all." He suggests that students must clock in a minimum of 15 hours per week to do well in engineering.
Towards the end, Reddy establishes that it is still a matter of pride to pursue an engineering course and though there are other courses that are emerging and doing well, "engineering remains the most sought-after course in Telangana," assures Reddy and we think that MLRIT is one of the most sought-after institutes to pursue this course.
For more on the institute, click on mlrinstitutions.ac.in
