Dr. P.V. Narendra Kumar is a HOD-EEE at Chalapathi Institute of Engineering & Technology. He is a distinguished academician and able administrator with more than 18 years of experience. He has grown from the ranks right here in the institute, starting his teaching career as an Assistant Professor in 2005. Prior to assuming the position of the HOD, He was the Assistant Professor at Priyadarshini College of Engineering & Technology, Nellore. He obtained his Ph.D. and master's degree from Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati. He has published 15 research papers in various reputed National and International journals, besides a couple of patents to his credit.

Chalapathi Institute of Engineering

Being a Head of the Department at Chalapathi Institute of Engineering & Technology what are your roles and responsibilities towards the students?

Each and every student must be regular with the classwork. They need to attend all the classes and they must write the assignments. They also should attend all the activities such as workshops, seminars, webinars, etc. 

How do you tend to establish healthy relations with the students and fellow faculty? 

We have adopted a mentoring system where for every student one faculty is assigned as a mentor. Every mentor is given ten students for mentoring. Students can seek help from these mentors anytime they need. They can openly express their problems and doubts to them. 

How do you try to bring in a practical approach towards subjects and make it industry-oriented?

As our college is autonomous in the Board of Studies meeting, we can frame the syllabus in such a way that it practically meets the upcoming needs of the industry. For example second year to the third year and the third year to the final year the students will have a vacation period of four to six weeks, During that vacation time we are making our students do internships free of cost. Some internships are physical which comprises electrical internships and internships in computer science internships are online.

What are the best practices offered by the department to the students that help them gain the necessary skills? 

Skill-oriented courses are conducted every semester. We are also conducting workshops, industrial visits, internships and online certification courses. We also tie up with some industries such as MOUs with the industries. For instance, we made Hyderabad Institute for Electrical Engineers, HIE, Pratha Power Systems in Vijayawada.

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How do you strategize the curriculum and how often does it get updated to make it befitting for the students? 

We framed the curriculum in such a way that it consists of three subjects along the labs. Core Subjects are always provided with the Labs. Each semester must consist of a skill-oriented course that is related to the latest technologies such as solar power systems, battery operated electric vehicles. We also make online designs of generating stations, substations, etc.

What are your views on the placements and higher education about the students from your department or How does your department prepare students for Higher education?

We made MOUs with different industries from the second year onwards we are conducting the training and placement classes up to the end of the third year. We are allowing students placement drives from the first semester to the final year.

How do you help your student to cope with the competition being so high in the outside world? 

Separately we are making our students complete certification courses such as Microsoft certifications, Cisco networking certifications, IBM Skill Academy certifications, Juniper cloud certifications, etc. Similarly for core side design of solar power systems, design of battery operated systems using electrical CAD, etc.

Do you have any extracurricular activities/ programs to enhance the skills of the students or expose them to real-world challenges?

So particularly we are concentrating on the core side as an electrical engineering. Nowadays the entire process is going on solar power systems and battery-operated electrical wells. So as a part of that we are making students do certification courses on these topics. In addition to that for getting software jobs, we are also making the certifications courses through online Microsoft certification as well. 

What are the challenges you faced/ are facing to uplift the quality of education in your department? 

The major problem we are facing is students are not coming forward to take electrical and electronics engineering seats. Almost all the students are getting a job because they have a hardware as well as a software job. Even electrical students also getting more and more software engineering jobs. So for that reason, whoever joined the electrical course can have easy access to jobs and that too in the third year itself. We have made it mandatory for students to write the GATE examination so that they can get central government jobs easily.

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How does the department/ college/University enhance the skills of the faculty and prepare them according to the industry standards? 

We are always encouraging our staff members to attend workshops and seminars. We are also giving incentives if they publish research papers, patents or book chapters. We are also offering them to complete the NPTEL courses which are conducted by IITs and NITs of India.

What do you see as the department’s/ college’s greatest strengths and how it can be enhanced?

The greatest strength of this college as well as the department is our Central library. The majority of the staff members completed their Ph.D.’, and are doctorates in training and placement cell separately. We are maintaining the AP skill center every semester.

What valuable advice would you like to the students for them to have a prosperous career ahead? 

So what I mean to say is the students are requested to attend the classes regularly, participate in webinars, workshops and industrial visits, complete the additional certification courses and improve their communication skills. Each and every student will get a degree, It's a normal thing when compared with other students. What is the best in you? In what way you are superior? That is the main thing. For that reason, you need to do some certification additional courses in order to get some practical knowledge.