We focus on creating engineers who are knowledgeable and industry-ready, says Dr Yajulu Medury, MEC
Dr Yajulu Medury, Director at Mahindra Ecole Centrale Hyderabad, holds a BTech Honors degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. He has also studied MS as well as PhD in Engineering Mechanics from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. He has served as the vice-chancellor of Bennett University at Greater Noida, wherein he developed academic partnerships with Georgia Tech for Engineering, Johnson Business Cornell University for Management, Cornell Law School for Law, Babson College USA for Entrepreneurship and others. In his three-decade-long career, he has been involved with education as an academician and an administrator.
In this Take 5-Series with Shiksha, he talks about the unique aspects of studying at Mahindra Ecole Centrale Hyderabad, the kind of projects, internships and placement opportunities that students have, the best programmes to study and how to take admission to these.
Q. What are the three things that your institute is doing that will enable it to differentiate itself from the competition?
A: The three things that differentiate Mahindra Ecole Centrale from its competitors are:
- Holistic education, with a focus on the development of key technical skills as well as interpersonal and communication skills
- Focus on research at institution, faculty and student-level
- Industry readiness in curriculum, internships and interface
Q. What are the top three initiatives undertaken by you that are helping your students to become more industry-ready?
A: The top three initiatives that make our students' industry-ready are:
- Curriculum and strong focus on research: Constant upgradation in curriculum and focus on research in new technologies such as Super Computers, Robotics, AI, Deep Learning, Machine Learning, etc.
- Internships: We invite relevant industry recruiters to campus for student internships.
- Industry Interface: Focus on getting senior industry leaders and area specialists to interact with students through Industry Connect Events, Seminars, Symposia, Talks, etc.
Q. What are the key attributes that a student should have in order to qualify for your institution and get top grades in your institution?
A: In order to qualify for our institution, the students should have cleared JEE Mains or have 1,800+ SAT Scores.
In order to get top grades in our institution, the students should be hardworking and attentive in class. They should participate and take initiatives in doing a lot of research.
Q. Which programme would you say is your best? What is it that helps your institution differentiate itself for this programme?
A: We only run one programme which is BTech and focus on creating the new engineer, one who is knowledgeable and industry-ready and capable of being an asset to any global organisation that they choose to join.
Q. What are you doing to improve/drive better campus placements for your current students and alumni? What kind of jobs routinely come to campus? What would you say are the key recruitment trends for your college (observed over the past five years)?
We have pretty good industry interfaces and get a good response to our internships/recruitment drives. We had only two graduating classes and have witnessed a wide acceptance of our students with the corporates. Our students usually get great job profiles, which is impressive in an institution so young.
