Dr. Vishnu Rajan has been working as the Head of Electronics and Communication Engineering Department at Sahrdaya College of Engineering, Kodakara, Thrissur, Kerala. He holds a PhD Degree in signal processing and likes to contribute in areas like Embedded Systems, Robotics, AI & ML. Being a Google authorized Android Educator he is providing training on google products across the globe. He always keeps himself updated with the latest technological and educational trends. He has few patents and publications to his credit and the majority of projects he mentored has got recognition in the form of awards or grants as well.

Sahrdaya College of Engineering & Technology

Which latest program are you offering in your department to help students outperform and stand apart from the crowd?

"We offer Project Based Learning in our department"

We follow a Project Based Learning (PBL) approach in our department. Apart from implementing the mini projects and final year project as per the university curriculum, we ensure that students do projects in each semester. This practice of doing projects right from “Semester 1” helps our students to understand the core concepts effectively taught as per the curriculum. Apart from this, they get an exposure on how to work in a team, asset management and self learning right from their junior classes. 

How does this program ensure the future preparedness of students?

"We organize short term training programs and events like workshops regularly"

For the purpose of preparing our students for Project Based Learning, we conduct a lot of add-on programs including workshops, experience sharing and short term training courses etc. We also offer internships opportunities to them in collaboration with leading companies and labs throughout India. Similarly we have in campus labs, setup in alliance with leading companies like Agappe, GE Healthcare, KSUM etc. in order to give experience of industrial culture to students during their course itself. 

How did you train yourself and faculty to deliver this program to the students?

"We are trained through FDPs, departmental trainings and professional visits"

We ensure to keep ourselves updated before teaching the students. We have a strict 3 FDP per year policy as per which all staff members are supposed to attend a minimum of 3 Faculty Development Programs offered by KTU, AICTE or core companies. Apart from this, we conduct several Faculty development programs in our department, associated with KTU and AICTE. Faculty specific industrial visits and department quality assurance meetings are also organized by us to ensure that we are in line with the present industry trend and able to mentor them effectively. 

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What was the major challenge that you faced while inculcating this program in your curriculum?

"Drafting strategy for internal marking of students was definitely a roadblock for us"

First major challenge for us was to tweak our internal mark structure in such a way that our students can get good marks for the projects they do. But, as our institute got affiliated to KTU in 2015, this was fixed too, as KTU allows multitude of ways via which students can gain internal marks, and one such way was by doing projects. 

On which type of projects your students are currently working on under this course? 

"Students are working on projects related to AI, ML, IOT, Robotics and Embedded System"

Our students are presently working on a wide variety of projects ranging from Electronics, Communication and other Allied areas. And as technologies like AI and ML are in trend, so along with these two areas, students also do projects in other allied areas like IOT, Robotics and Embedded Systems etc. One notable achievement was that 4 of our final year students were funded by Kerala Startup Mission via IDEA FEST 21. 

Any valuable advice which you would like to give the students to have a prosperous career ahead?

"Carefully choose those courses to study that suits your passion and interest"

I would like to advise my students to thoroughly consider their interest and passion while choosing a Degree course for themselves. For example, Electronics and Communication is a branch that must be opted by students who are interested in Physics and Mathematics. Also carefully go through the curriculum of subjects which you will be studying under a particular course. And once enrolled, give your full attention to your studies and don't study only to get good marks.

When you became the Head of ECE Department, what was your vision for the college? 

"It was to make students industry ready by the time they complete their respective courses"

My vision when I became Head of the ECE Department was to ensure that students gain in depth practical knowledge of each subject by the time they complete their course. And I am following different ways to achieve this. The PBL System of our college offers training in trending areas of ECE and promotes technical activities in a leisure way via the hardware club. Apart from this, we mentor our students to publish and patent their works. We are confident enough to say that our students never “buy” projects from project centers and they receive money for doing their projects via grants and project awards rather than spending their parents’ hard earned money for buying projects from project centers.

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What factors made you decide to become a teacher?

"The satisfactory and joyful feeling that comes after teaching students and youths"

To be honest, teaching as a career was not my first choice. After completing my Engineering Degree during the recession period, I started to teach students to earn a livelihood, but soon I started loving my job. And now I would surely say that teaching is the most rewarding job in the world, because rewards in the education sector are in the form of our student results and their achievements. Overall teaching is the most satisfactory and joyful job you will ever get.