Bilal Shaikh is working as an Assistant Professor at Somaiya Vidyavihar University. His fote is academic research and his domain of expertise is Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. He has a total of 53 International Research Publications indexed in Elsevier, IEEE, Web of Science, ESCI and Scopus in 4 years. He believes in one Teaching Methodology - “Pass on what you have learnt, Let the chain reaction of knowledge iterate for the Greater Good.”

Somaiya Vidyavihar University

What are your roles and responsibilities towards the students?

“To provide them best guidance and education”

My accountability for the students is to conduct Lectures and practical sessions for the UG and PG Students of Computer Science and IT Department. I also strive my best to bring in a Research Oriented Approach towards innovation and ideas for Research and Projects for the students. I do organize mentor mentee interaction sessions to solve students' problems in academics and guide them throughout the course for project Development and Implementation. 

How do you establish healthy relations with your students and fellow faculties?

“I do use the tool of effective and open communication”

To make communication healthy with my students and fellow faculties, I generally use a few techniques such as Good Interpersonal Communication through exchange of ideas and hence try to address their issues and doubts through various approaches. This type of environment gives a feeling of sense of belonging. To ensure maximum participation by students I conduct activities such as Group discussions, General meetings etc.

How do you introduce practical and industry oriented approaches towards subjects?

“We offer various technical and personality development sessions”

In our college, to make subjects more industry oriented and practical, we keep on organizing Discussions and Debates on current affairs in Technology. Various online tools and IDEs such as Google Colab and Classroom are used to provide real time practical Experience. We also assign weekly learning activities and tutorials to students. From management point of view oriented teaching and Learning strategies are used that help students to analyze each scenario given with respect to industrial and corporate environment and to implement the same we enforce students to work on case studies in current affairs.

Which best practices are offered to the students to help them gain necessary skills? 

“Diverse co-curricular and technological activities are offered to students”

Our college does have cultural forums to organize various activities like singing, dancing, debates and other passions where students can showcase their talents at inter college levels. Various sports forums and activities are also organized for a healthy and fit lifestyle, some of our students have been through national level sports competitions and tournaments as well. Workshops, International Seminars and webinars once or twice a semester are organized to gain appropriate skills in Programming. 

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How do you strategize and update the curriculum to make it befitting for the students? 

“We keep ourselves updated with the latest industry trends and requirements”

While preparing and updating the curriculum we keep in mind the industry requirements and take help from Technology and Research. It's updated every 5 years. We have included a few new subjects in the curriculum such as Artificial intelligence, Deep Learning, Soft Computing, Green Technology, Big Data Analytics is a part of Curriculum Designing. Identifying Software and IDEs for Implementing programs in an efficient and IT industry oriented manner is also a part of this section.

What extracurricular activities are organized to enhance the skills of the students?

“Numerous national and international events and activities are organized to provide students abundant opportunities to grow” 

We ensure that our students follow Research Paper Reading time and papers written by students are published in various International Conferences. Apart from all these we train them for various programming languages to develop useful Projects and Research Proposals. International Workshops are conducted from time to time to provide hands-on training in various aspects of the subjects by eminent speakers and Academicians. 

What are the challenges you faced to uplift the quality of education of your department? 

“To bring every student to a certain level, financial constraints and switching to online classes from classroom teaching were few challenges”

In my viewpoint, weak students are always a challenge to deal with when talking about Development of skills. They need a special diagnostic evaluation strategy to level up their progress. We have ideas for research and innovation but lack funding for the support. Sometimes language is a barrier, so we need to switch to other understandable languages for a few students. In the case of online study, the major challenge I was facing was to keep students engaged during the lectures and Practical.

When you came to college, what was your vision and how are you trying to achieve the same? 

“To bring best value for college and education for students”

When I joined this college, my main vision was following:

  • To establish the fact that Learning is to be earned not forced.
  • To develop a bond of understanding and teach with passion rather than instruction.
  • To inculcate Research in students keeping aside the course level they belong to.
  • To maintain dignity and integrity of the work assigned and doing it with optimal efficiency.

What are the approaches you bring in apart from curriculum to teach the students? 

“Students are encouraged to complete various training programs and courses”

We have removed the technological barrier of communication by introducing various feasible options for Teaching and Learning using Mobile based Practical Learning Applications, Moodle, Google Suite Applications and so on. We encourage students to take up MOOCs and SWAYAM courses for at least one course and the marks they obtained after giving the test for the same is added as credits to their respective semester Assessment.

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Any valuable advice would you like to give to the students for a prosperous career? 

“Never stop your quest for learning and spread your knowledge”

Pass on the knowledge that you have gained as that is the least we could do for our society. Be grounded and yet practical in every aspect of life may it be personal or professional. College is not the end of education and knowledge gaining, as it’s a continuous process and it never ends, so learn as much as you can and from wherever it is possible.