Uday Andhare, Lokmat News Network (Nagpur)
The prestigious Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) is set to cast off its skin and don a new 'avatar' during the reign of its newly appointed director Dr Premlal Patel. Dr Patel who has a rich and varied experience as an academician, researcher of outstanding calibre as well as an administrator, has taken over the baton from Dr P M Padole who returned to his parent Department of Mechanical Engineering following completion of his five-year tenure as a director of VNIT.
Dr Premlal Patel told Lokmat Times that during his tenure he would work on a 3-pronged strategy on upscaling the institute. This 3-point strategy will include improvement in education, research and augmenting the base of consultancy. Dr Patel who spoke exclusively to Lokmat Times after assuming office said research will bring new thinking power and innovation to VNIT while consultancy will give much needed experience to the VNIT faculties.
The mix of these two will be reflected in the quality of education imparted to VNIT students which will eventually prove beneficial to them in their professional life, Dr. Patel said. Explaining the modus operandi of achieving these objectives, he said currently the consultancy programme is limited only to two departments namely Civil Engineering Department and Mechanical Engineering Department. The scope would be expanded to all nine departments under the VNIT.
The consultancy would involve problem solving for local industries as well as PSUs of the region. Similarly, a high level Industry Institute Interaction will be set into motion. This interaction will be headed by a dean to be appointed for this purpose, Dr Patel informed.
As far as research is concerned, a research park will be set up for start ups where new ideas will be incubated. In addition to this, VNIT plans to organise 'research melas' to showcase the strengths of VNIT. Industry expos will also be organised, he further said.
He admitted that VNIT's National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) grade given by the Union Ministry of Education had slipped from 29th to 42nd. To ameliorate this situation, VNIT faculties will be encouraged to take part in more technical conclaves at the national and international levels and publish more research papers in technical journals.
VNIT will also give stress on image building as much of the work done by it has either been ignored or remained on the back burner, he said in response to a query.