Leading by example, Dr. Ravinder Reddy, Principal of Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, shares his leadership style and a lot more, with the youth

Dr. Reddy is currently the Principal, Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology, Hyderabad.

Dr. P. Ravinder Reddy received B. Tech degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kakatiya University, Warangal, in 1987, M.E degree in Engineering Design from PSG college of Technology, Coimbatore, in 1991 and Ph. D degree in Mechanical Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad, in 2001. Before joining CBIT as a Principal, Dr. Reddy did serve as Professor and Head of Mechanical Engineering and as the Dean R&D CBIT. Dr. Reddy has over 300 publications in international journals and conference proceedings and is an inventor on 4 patents published. He has guided 19 Ph.D. scholars so far. He was the Chief and Principal Investigator for 21 research and 31 industrial consultancy projects sponsored by AICTE, UGC, NSTL, DRDL, BHEL, RR Industries, ICOMM Tele services and ACD communications and more. Dr. Reddy is a recipient of Raja Rambapu Patil National award for promising Engineering Teacher by ISTE for the year 2000 in recognition of his outstanding contribution in the area of Engineering and Technology, “UGC Fellowship” award by UGC (1999), Excellence “A” Grade awarded by AICTE monitoring committee (2003) for the MODROB project sponsored by AICTE, “Engineer of the Year Award-2004” for his outstanding contribution in Academics and research by the Govt. of Andhra Pradesh and Institution of Engineers (India), AP State Centre on 15th September 2004 on the occasion of 37th Engineer’s Day, Best Technical Paper Award in the year Dec.2008 in Industrial Application titled “Online quality monitoring welding & weld upset in resistance projection welding process”, in Journal of Non-Destructive Testing & Evaluation, the official journal of ISNT during the year 2007 by National Governing Council of Indian Society for Non Destructive Testing. Best paper award by the international academy of sciences for the paper on Aerodynamic Analysis of Return Channel vanes in Centrifugal compressors, International journal of Mechanical Engineering in 2016. Best Teacher award by CBIT in the year 2017. Dr. Reddy served as a Chairman for Design Group of Indian Society for Mechanical Engineering Section from 1998-2005. Member Board of Studies in Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics and Mechanical (Production) Engineering, of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad from 2005-2008, Member Board of Studies of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering (A), Osmania University, Hyderabad from 2008 to till date, Member Board of Studies of Mechanical Engineering, affiliated engineering colleges of  Osmania University, Hyderabad from 2006 to till date, Chairperson, BOS of Mechanical engineering Department of CBIT from 2012 to till date. Honorary Secretary, Condition Monitoring Society of India Hyderabad Chapter since 5th June 2008, Member, Departmental Research Committee of Mechanical Engineering Department, Osmania University from 1st June 2012 for a period of 2 Years. Member Board of Studies in Production Engineering, of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad from 2012-2014, Member of DRDL research Council from 9th May 2016 onwards and Member, DRDO awards scheme for the lab level awards for the year 2015. Dr. Reddy Visited Malaysia during July 20-23rd 2010, for starting Aircraft Maintenance engineering course in collaboration with Dnest, Tafe College Malaysia. He also Participated in race car event organized by ATA Formula Society for Mechanical Engineering (FSAE) Italy during September 9th-16th 2015 at Riccardo Paletti Circuit, Strada per Fosio 1,  Varano de' Melegari, PR 43040 Italy. Dr. Reddy Participated in race car event organized by ATA Formula Society for Mechanical Engineering (FSAE) London during July 13th-19th 2016 at Silverstone Circuit, UK.

Interview Questionnaire: Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology

Ques 1: Kindly tell us about your experience in the education industry and what makes it the best industry to work in?

Ans. I have been in the education industry for last 30 years. There is a tremendous change in the teaching-learning process and accountability of the students over the years. We see in past university system that colleges are affiliated to university and the guidelines and curriculum were developed by the university. Later on, autonomous colleges where there is an academic freedom to colleges in terms of evaluation and examination and curriculum development. Now we are adopting Choice Based Credit System where we are introducing more electives in curriculum development and many streams/specializations are being introduced. There are Universities run by Government and Private and Deemed universities which are under both sectors. The advantage of deemed and private universities is that the fees are fixed by the universities. Whereas in the colleges under private/self-financed sector, the fees are fixed by Government authority based on the expenditure. It is very difficult to run an educational institute on self-finance sector with fee fixed by the government with a lot of constraints. We have to focus on giving the knowledge to the young aspirants entering into the college with a lot of hopes. We need to mold the students as per the desire of their parents /they themselves and prepare them for the industry ready use or adapt without many inputs.  We need to emphasize and focus on the young talent in terms of ethical values along with engineering skills. Fulfilling the objective of learning is the major aspect that makes education the best practice. Make the graduates who are professionally qualified and industry-ready.

Ques 2: Any of the significant challenges you faced as the Principal of Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology.

Ans. CBIT is a premier engineering institute in Telangana State in the self-financing category, established in 1979. A group of visionaries from varied professions of Engineering, Medical, Legal and Management formed the Chaitanya Bharathi Educational Society. The motto of the institute is “Swayam Tejaswin Bhava” i.e. to produce job providers rather than job seekers by inculcating techno-preneurial capabilities. In the last 37 years of existence, CBIT has emerged as one of the leading technical education institutes in the country. The serene beauty of CBIT with sylvan surroundings of the historic Osman Sagar is highly conducive to pursue academics. A student joins with the aspiration to become a professional or an engineer. There has been a constant challenge for us to introduce new mechanisms for the students to undergo learning in their courses in various levels of their selected programs. Tremendous efforts are needed for the first-year graduate students as there is a phase transformation from intermediate to engineering. We are focusing on training the students for lifelong learning with positive attitudes with ethical values. I am sure our students are given opportunities in organizing the events and participation in national and international both academics and sports. Most of the students are now working on innovations and developmental projects where they are exposed to new technologies and experiencing the commercialization of developments is the biggest challenge.

Ques 3: How does your curriculum ensure best practices of the industry?

Ans. CBIT started in the year 1979 and is affiliated to Osmania University. Six years back it became the autonomous Institution under UGC. Since then, the curriculum is developed by the college. The curriculum is revised periodically considering the needs of the industry and changes that are taking place in the society. In the development of curriculum, the personnel from industry- alumni, faculty from universities, R&D organizations are involved and revised every 2 years. Choice Based Credit System was introduced in CBIT in the academic year 2015-16 where there are core courses and elective courses. The number of electives is eight, in which there are core electives, open electives, which provide enough of flexibility in the curriculum for a student to opt for their choice of interest.

Ques 4: What goals do you have in your mind for Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology?

Ans. A student graduating from CBIT should have a capacity to use the industry directly without much of the training. They must have a capability of meeting the work requirements of the industry of their concern. The industry should look for CBIT student for their requirements. I have a passionate belief in the value of the integration of teaching and research. As a professor, I found it beneficial as to integrate my research findings into my teaching. Research creates new knowledge, and teaching imparts it. Exposing our students to new information provokes curiosity, and inspires new approaches to critical-thinking, and problem-solving. CBIT must continue to embrace a strong commitment to sustainability by demonstrating operational integrity, accountability. We must provide leadership in the adoption of sustainable policy and practice in areas such as infrastructure, campus operations, and decision-making at all institutional levels. Our educational goal is not simply to install a range of skills needed in a particular discipline or career but to help develop a person. CBIT has an entrepreneurial ecosystem with deep and large connections with its alumni settled all over the world. We selected the newly formed startup state Telangana, barely 3 years young, to setup our own Incubation Center, due to the state government’s exciting new innovation policy, to promote entrepreneurship which makes it incredibly easy to do business. “Innovation is usually associated with the development of new products that represent performance or functional improvements over existing ones. These are categorized as “product innovations”, and are, usually, more visible as compared to “process innovations”. Irrespective of the form it takes, innovation has been a major change driver globally – intervening to provide accessible and affordable solutions to cater to dynamic consumer needs. India, today, is marching towards establishing itself as a top global innovator for high technology products and services.

Ques 5: You pride yourself on the level of education and responsibility you teach here to students. How do you ensure the quality of education in your institution?

Ans. The quality of education depends on the quality of students, the faculty, the infrastructure and the curriculum. The guidelines, the examination, and evaluation system and good teaching and learning process ensure the quality of education. The performance of students in both continuous evaluation system and end examination and then monitoring the same and feedback analysis timely, makes the system qualitative. The internships and summer/winter industrial training to the students during the semester and qualitative industry needed projects under the guidance of both industry persons and faculty from an institution made the students expose and learn to solve difficult situations. We have introduced remedial classes for weak students where we correct them and complete the degree in time so that they are ready for placements.

Ques 5: How do you build a positive school culture in CBIT?

Ans. During the orientation program in the first year, the administration, experts address the students and parents about the CBIT, curriculum, examination and evaluation system. Subsequently, all the students are exposed to industry culture by the address of eminent persons from industry and research organizations. All the students are involved in participation or organization of technical and cultural fests. Students are addressed by the experts from well-recognized persons in the society to build a positive attitude in the students’ mindset. Various cultural programs are arranged on the theme of collective responsibility, ethical values, and the community services. The number of student clubs makes the students develop organizational skills and responsibilities with accountability.

Ques 6: How do you tend to establish a relationship with the students?

Ans. We treat the students who join in CBIT as family members. All the faculty, nonteaching staff, and management treat every student as their ward. We at CBIT maintain a cordial relationship with every student and if required, we do counseling as well. The alumni support financially to some of the poor and meritorious students. The faculty acts as mentors, counselors, and guides to suggest and guide in the right direction.

Ques 7: How do you look at the growth of students through placement opportunities available at Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology? How do you wish to push the envelope further?

Ans. CBIT motto is “Swayam Tejaswin Bhava” i.e. to produce job providers rather than job seekers by inculcating technopreneurs capabilities. We have a placement officer having over 30 years of Industry and academic experience who interacts with various recruiters and coordinate with the placement coordinators. However, we have been conducting in pre- final year students a well-designed placement training program to enhance the soft skills and the basic knowledge in the domain. In the present scenario of placement requirements, every student should undergo logical reasoning, group discussion, and importance of the team work. We have procured various tools required for training the students for the placements. We have collaboration and MOUs with core and software industry. We have some laboratories for skill enhancement sponsored by software and core industry. Good number of software tools for the circuit and non-circuit branches are procured for the purpose of training the students.

Ques 8: What is your philosophy of leadership? How would you describe your leadership style?

Ans. My philosophy of leadership is to give the confidence to your staff and build the team to work together in molding the students. I treat my staff as adults and I trust them to make good decisions. I try to provide the staff and students with as much information as possible about what’s happening in the latest trends in the technology and organization. This empowers them to shine under both guidance and context by giving them a wide latitude for decision making. My goal is that between the times a person starts working with me and when they finish, I want them to feel their career has progressed.

Ques 10: Any suggestion you would like to give to the current youth and the aspiring students?

Ans. Present students need to focus along with academics on entrepreneurial models, work on startups, innovations, and incubations. They can be part of any incubation center and try to develop the products and collaboration, utilize the free time on the developmental works making the use of the facilities in the college, work on research projects or be a part of the professor’s research and publish papers in conferences and journals.