Effective teamwork will be the basis for the successful completion of a project, says HOD, Civil Engineering

Adopting blended learning and flipped classroom methodologies has now become a common trend but not every institute is able to implement it efficiently. This requires practice and patience to train students in the same manner. Asking students to prepare for the next lecture by themselves and solving their doubts in the actual lecture is difficult to implement. But this what flipped classroom means. Periyar Maniammai Institute of Science and Technology has been able to make this happen with an aim to impart a quality learning experience to students. In a conversation with Shiksha.com, Dr R Jayanthi, HOD Civil Engineering department talks at length about various such initiatives.

Read the complete interview below.

Q: What are the salient features of the teaching methodology adopted by your college? How does this differ from others?

A: PMIST faculty strongly believe that every student is unique in learning and adopt student-centred teaching and learning.  

Technology has now transformed the learning environment. Faculty adopts the pedagogy for the academic delivery process in the blended learning environment by flipping the classroom. 

Faculty create video lectures and assign passive learning activities. Instructional content are delivered often online to the students beforehand for introducing the topics of a course. The classroom is used for going deeper into the syllabus thereby empowering their knowledge by involving experiments, projects, case studies and peer-to-peer interactions. By this, the students can reflect on what they learned and the learning process enhances students’ motivation. Their learning experience becomes a memorable one and improves their academic performance. Faculty work more closely with the students helping them as a facilitator and ensure their individual learning progress. 

During the pandemic situation, faculty members are successfully conducting lectures through an online platform and adopted extensively various online tools such as Virtual Labs, Class Marker, Edmodo, Word press, Google classroom and Kahoot for their various learning activities. 

Q: How are you preparing your students to be Industry ready?

A: Civil Engineer’s responsibility is to design and develop an infrastructure system. Keeping in view that a Civil Engineering graduate from PMIST should leave with a suite of technical competency and professional skills, we offer value-added courses throughout their period of study.

Knowledge of Civil engineering software such as AutoCAD, STAAD Pro, STRAP, Revit, Primavera, SketchUp, BIM and MEP Design are provided as Value added courses for making our students finding their career in Designing. The Curriculum meets the industry expectations and especially emphasises more on practical than theory. Students are introduced to the latest advancements in the field of Civil Engineering through construction site visits, industrial visits, survey camps, In-plant training at premier industries. We are imparting soft-skill training along with the technical curriculum.

The Department is actively involved in Consultancy services to various Government departments and organizations in both the public and private sectors. Students are also involved along with their faculty in field projects in order to acquire hands-on experience, so that they can master design projects in future. 

Few notable projects, in which students participated are Smart city Mission for Thanjavur Municipal Corporation, Modular Eco toilet construction under Swachh Bharat Scheme, Revamping of Heritage structures such as Perumpannaiyur Church, Thanjavur Moat. The students are getting familiar with how to handle any projects at the different stages of planning, design and execution during the period of their study itself. They get enormous hands-on practical experience by the participation along with their faculty guidance. They will be competent enough to carry out projects when they get posted in Govt Departments.  “Earn while Learn” is a scheme followed in Civil Engineering Department by which participating students are duly rewarded with remuneration for their contribution.  High demand in the construction industry is expected by 2025.  The near future will be the most creative, demanding and pretty times for civil engineers. A highly rewarding career is ensured for our students after acquiring a Civil Engineering degree.

Q: What are the qualities you are looking for in student applicants? What qualities do they need to do well in your course?

A: Civil engineers often play role in public projects, working either onsite or in the office. They have to work with Town Planners, Architects, Surveyors, Contractors and other Govt department officials who are directly involved in the project. Hence it is important that leadership skill is a vital quality required for being a Civil Engineer. Effective teamwork will be the basis for the successful completion of a project. Hence an aspiring Civil Engineer should have the quality to adopt effective teamwork in a project by motivating the team members. During the course of a project a civil engineer may have to take clear transparent decisions for further progress of the project. Hence Decision making is yet another quality a civil engineer has to possess in order to shine in his /her career

Q: How do you ensure that your course curriculum is up to date and meets industry requirements?

A: Outcome-Based education is followed to educate, develop and train students to highly skilled Civil Engineers capable of designing, constructing and maintaining eco-friendly structures with hands-on training in practical industrial consultancy services. The Department of Civil Engineering offers quality engineering education by imparting content beyond the syllabus for the attainment of course outcomes and program outcomes.

The curriculum structure and contents of the Civil Engineering programme are devised after an organised plan of activities.  Initially, feedbacks are received from all the stakeholders involving alumni, parents, faculty, students, academic and industry experts. Their inputs are given due considerations while framing the structure of the curriculum. The guidelines given by governing authorities such as AICTE and UGC are scrupulously followed.  Recent advancements in the field of Civil Engineering are added to prepare our students to face real-time projects. After passing the Board of studies with the participation of an industry expert the curriculum and syllabus is approved in the Academic Council. 

Revisions are often made whenever required for incorporating the advanced features and trends in Civil Engineering. In-plant training is also made as a part of the curriculum to get hands-on training directly at construction sites and industries. Minor courses are also included so as to impart the essential technical know-how and cutting-edge technologies. Camps are often organised in order make the student to get impressed upon the real site experience.  Eminent resource persons and industry experts are invited very often to share their field experiences to students for their knowledge enrichment. 

Students are provided with carefully designed course plans before the commencement of the academic session which clearly outlines the outcomes to be achieved, the content, plan of teaching/learning activity, instructional strategy, teaching aids, tutorials, problem-solving exercise and evaluation methods.  PMIST encourages the faculties and students for the extensive adoption and use of MOOC’s free and paid on-line courses and are up to date in their field of technology.

Q: Is your college receptive to innovation, technology, science & entrepreneurship? How? Could you cite some examples of these?

A: Modern approach of the higher education institutes around the world is innovation and start-ups.  The Motto of PMIST – Think, Innovate and Transform – itself reflects the culture of converting the ideas into need-based projects that up-lift the standard of the society by enriching the quality of life.

In order to achieve the promotion of innovation among the students, PMIST has started Institution Innovation Council as per the directions of Ministry of Education.

The PMIST’s Institution Innovation Council (IIC) encourages and helps the students to work with new and innovative ideas through seminars/ workshops on innovative and entrepreneurship processes and activities.  

 Periyar Technology Business Incubator (PTBI) in PMIST is great opportunity for our students which gives easy access for the aspiring students to begin  their own start-ups with their innovative ideas.