Fresh air, clean surroundings and greenery all around — this is the kind of atmosphere that students of Kongu Engineering College in Erode, Tamil Nadu study in. And their academic game is just as strong. Accredited by NAAC with an A grade, an overall ranking of 57 in the year 2017 by National Institutional Ranking Framework and many other recognitions have been accorded to this college. But it’s not all about academics at Kongu. They are also developing the entrepreneurial spirit of students and encouraging them to think outside of the box. We discovered this and much more when we sat down for a chat with Dr R Parameshwaran, Professor and Head, Department of Mechatronics Engineering and Dr P Navaneethakrishnan, Head of Department of Mechanical at TNIE’s Indian Education Fair 2018 in Dubai. Excerpts:
What makes the college different?
We are a 35-year-old college. We have 13 plus UG branches and out of the 13, around three branches are specialised ones — BE Mechatronics Engineering (in line with Industry 4.0), BE Electronic Instrumentation (process control, process implementation and so on) and BE Food Technology (where people learn to process and preserve food among other things). Our placements are also very good. And the campus is not in the city, it is outside it. Hence, the lifestyle is very good. We have excellent hostel facilities and it is especially safe for girl students as well, thanks to the discipline we believe in maintaining.
In addition, we have a conducive environment for learning, which not many people have. Research is something we are focusing on. All our departments have approved research centres under Anna University, Chennai. So far, 194 candidates have completed their PhD research from our centres. In addition to this, 250 candidates are pursuing their research in our college. So, the research culture, scenic atmosphere and fresh air provides students with a conducive environment.
Parents always look for the overall development of their children. What does your college offer in terms of extracurricular activities?
There are two parts to this, one is co-curricular and the other is extracurricular. Our academics is aligned with co-curricular activities. Every year, we conduct an open house exhibition where students can exhibit their talents and innovative findings to the public. They develop working models for this exhibition which is open to the public for three days. Colleges and schools in and around our college also visit the exhibition and it is much appreciated. These models are converted into technical papers and are presented. So, we create a platform for them to innovate and exhibit their findings. They also travel throughout India and exhibit their models and this is a part of the co-curricular activities. Out of this exhibition, we have got ten patents. This ensures that the résumés of students are packed as well. We have been conducting this exhibition for 19 years now.
We also have different types of clubs. We have photography, cultural, aeromodelling and several others. About 25 clubs form a part of their extracurricular activities. Each domain has a club where students get in, form teams across departments and come up with fresh ideas. We also have a community radio. In this way, we focus on the all-round development of the students which includes academics, co-curricular and extracurricular activities.
What about nurturing entrepreneurship?
We have established a Technology Business Incubator with the help of which, if a student has an idea of establishing a start-up, they can start developing it using our facilities. They can develop and launch it. Till date, our students have launched around 87 products. So, if anyone is looking specifically for an entrepreneurial culture, we provide that as well. Once, an enthusiast came with an idea to detect impurities in jewellery, which could be very minute. We sponsored the idea and this product has been a success. This is a machine with sensors which detects all other metals except gold and is one of the best start-ups to come out of here.
Check out their labs
- IoT Lab (C-DAC)
- Embedded System Lab (Freescale)
- DSP Lab (Texas Instruments)
- Open Source Lab (Cognizant Technology Solutions)
For more on them, click on kongu.ac.in
