We encourage our students to participate in Hackathon events conducted across India, CIT Professor

In a conversation with Shiksha.com, Professor and HOD at CIT Coimbatore - Coimbatore Institute Of Technology, Sakhti Mala talks about the institute’s emphasis on providing practical exposure to students in the form of live projects and internships. They believe these practices help them keeping the curriculum updated.

Read the excerpts of the interview below:

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

A: Apart from just classroom learning, we also emphasise on:

• Practical Learning: As the curriculum includes five theory courses and three lab courses every semester, we have have the flexibility of having a lab course for every theory course wherein the students can practice what is taught in the theory. As part of every lab course, they will carry out simple projects which facilitate the students to perform independent open-ended investigative lab work.
• Project-Based Learning: At the end of the semester, to get a holistic view of the course they have opted for, students are directed to choose a mini-project (based on the courses learnt in that semester) in groups, carry out during the vacation and present before a panel. The students can implement the suggestions and make it as a complete workable module.

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

A: The curriculum offers two six months internships during seventh and tenth semesters. This provides an opportunity to the students to apply the knowledge gained from classroom and lab sessions to the live projects of industries and thus they are industry-ready.

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

A: We are searching for applicants who are enthusiastic and have positive attitude towards study and passion for computer science.

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

A: Our Board of Studies has members from Industries, Academia, and Alumni network. The Board meets every six months to update the curriculum with necessary courses to meet the Industry requirements.

Every semester a batch of students (of either the 7th or the 10th semester) carries out live projects at various industries as part of their internship. Based on their projects, which represent current industry needs and practices, are then included in curriculum to keep it updated.

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

A: Yes, our college is receptive to innovation, technology, science and entrepreneurship. We encourage our students to participate in Hackathon events conducted anywhere in India, and to present their innovative ideas in various conferences with full fund. To name a few,

• Siddarth S of 7^th semester M.Sc (SoftwareSystems) was a finalist of SIH -2019 and presented his model at Chandigarh Engineering College.
• Nandhini, student of 7^th semester M.Sc (Software Systems) got selected to present her idea in National Hackathon conducted by the Department of Higher and Technical Education, Government of Rajasthan between 16-19 December 2019 at Manipal University, Jaipur.

The department association also organises seminars, and talks on recent technologies regularly.

Also, the students of our Department are active members of FOSS-CIT (Free Open Source Software) club. The students themselves conduct workshops on recent technologies. Recently, they have conducted workshops on

• Building Chatbots using DialogFlow
• Developing REST API using Python and Flask

Our student, Manish Dev of III M.Sc (Software Systems) along with few other students have started, SLIPPER SHOTS (“Students Learning in Peer to Peer Educational Renovation to Shoot Higher Objectives in a Time Set”), the first start-up to get incubated in Coimbatore Institute of Technology.