Dr.P.Murugan is an Associate Professor and Head of the Chemical Engineering Department at Agni College of Technology. He has 11 years of experience in teaching. He received his B.Tech (Chemical Engineering) degree, First class from Anna University, Chennai in 2008, M.Tech degree (Environmental Engineering) First class from Pondicherry Engineering College, Puducherry in 2010 and Ph.D (Chemical Engineering) from NIT Calicut, Kerala in 2019. He has published nearly 6 research papers in National and International referred journals. His research interest includes Environmental Engineering, Wastewater Treatment, Separation Technologies. He actively supports his students for their placement and higher studies by giving knowledge-based technical training.

Agni College Of Technology

What is the latest program that you are offering in your institute/dept. which will help students outperform and stand apart from the crowd?

Our latest Chemical Engineering program is provided with a fundamental engineering concepts customized with software tools to meet the state of art developments in process industries. Combination of fundamental engineering and problem-solving using software help our students to be foremost in design and manufacturing industries.

What are the factors that make this program the best for the students to opt?

B.Tech. Chemical engineering is recognized by Govt. of India and other Governments of many developed countries such as the United States of America, United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, and so on. Chemical engineering students are highly desirable to work in different types of process, allied industries and in other fields such as mechanical, civil, electrical, electronics and instrumentation because they are adept at problem-solving and have good management and analytical skills. Chemical Engineering is having good scope and is evergreen. Engineers with specialisation in this field are always in demand.

What will you say the “best practices” in the course you’re offering?

Chemical Engineering course has been set up with Department Advisory Board with an objective to establish strong industry connects and conduct workshops, webinar, FDPs with industry resource person to provide suggestions for process improvement as well as curriculum improvement. The college has launched Alumni Portal to connect with the alumni and utilize their services, like Guest Lectures, Internship opportunities, placements. We collaborate with chemical industries and provide the best training program such as oil and gas downstream processing to motivate the students. This course has encouraged students to pursue internships during the vacations and acquire necessary problem solving skills. Company specific incubation labs have been setup such as, Meridian School of oil and gas, Seagrass Tech with an objective to develop students’ ability with innovative products in a cost effective manner. In the resultant of the degree project works, we insist to go for new ideas and to patent the project work. Club activities are also given with both technical and non-technical events to make enjoyable, leadership and team work approach within the students.

What are some valuable insights of the program that you are offering at your institute/dept.?

We encourage the students to present their ideas in symposium, seminars and conferences to get the knowledge as well as the interact with the Society of research scholars. Subscription of the journals/magazines/newsletter are provided to the students to get the contents of current technological innovations . To be competent, the level of understanding with the help of software learning tools, hardware learning tools and experiments are involved in the learning to improve the scholarly knowledge of the students. Internship and real time industrial training are provided to enhance and to meet the demands of the current market requirements in chemical industries. MoU’s are signed with reputed industries to share the techniques and ideology of the Chemical Engineering to equip the students.

How does the program ensure that students are being prepared for the future?

To make the students ready to get job, certification programmes are organized by the department from the second year itself. We Provide software training like Python, ASPEN, MATLAB to our students as a part of value addition courses. Students are also provided with aptitude training, Resume writing practice, mock test and mock interviews. Our third and final year students undergo a technical training, conducted by industry resource person. We encourage the students to develop the technical skill in NPTEL/ Swayam and enroll for certificate, learning through other online platform market demand courses like coursera, edx.

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How did you train yourself/faculty to deliver this program to the students?

Our College has well established Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) as a post-accreditation quality sustenance measure. It helps to improve the academic performance of this program. Course File modules are prepared, relating to Outcome based education, faculty performance, academic schedule, assessment, continuous improvement, personal details of a faculty member. These Modules let faculty to keep track of the program outcomes (PO) and course outcomes (CO) with their mappings with Programme Educational Objectives (PEO). Faculty keep their basic details and other information and Planning of Academic schedule for the semester. Records pertaining to continuous evaluation of course delivery, records of corrective measure taken to improve attainment of CO’s based on student's feedback and student’s performance are also maintained in faculty course file. Faculties get training in emerging areas through short term training programs, faculty development programs and seminars. These programmes are organized by Research and Development Institutes. These help the faculty to deliver this course in a more effective way.

How do you tend to build an industry connect with this program?

Our department has MoU’s with companies like Meridian School of Oil and Gas, Seagrass Tech private limited, Veridian Micro Lab Private Ltd and Bioneemtec India Private Ltd.,Tagros India Pvt Ltd,SV Chem Intermediates pvt ltd. These companies train our students in their technologies and make our students ready to face challenges in industry and also provide job opportunities in their company. Our department engages industrial visits, internship and Inplant training to familiarise the students with practical and basic engineering knowledge.

What were the challenges that you faced while inculcating this program in your curriculum?

Innovation in various chemical fields requires solving high complex problems, rapid product development as well as dealing with present market competition. These factors should also be reflected in modern chemical engineering curriculum. In order to meet the change in market requirement, we require financial assistance to develop research labs in our department.

What are the types of projects that the students are working on through this program?

Our students are working on projects which involve product development in the form of experimental based research such as polymeric porous membrane synthesis, pickering emulsion membrane synthesis, sonocatalytic reactor, adsorption studies for treatment of Industrial waste water. Apart from this students are trying to produce ecofriendly products like sunscreen lotion, herbal nebulizer for which we are getting funds from companies with whom we have signed MoU’s and applied for patent which is under progress. Some renewable energy related project works have been carried out in other research institutes such as electrode preparation for fuel cell and super capacitors.

What are the benefits and career options after pursuing this course?

Modern chemical engineers are team players; hence, students have to learn interacting with different professions. Our students get different career options after completing graduation. They get jobs in research, teaching, chemical engineering, biotechnology and more. Both government and private sectors are looking for chemical engineering graduates. Our students are also put up with institutes of advanced learning in the form of admission to doctoral degrees. Some of our alumni are getting admissions in IIT’s for pursing their M.Tech/ PhD degrees. Students also plan to set up business with this knowledge in core and allied areas.