Dr. V. Ramachandran is the Head of the Department (CSE) at Vasireddy Venkatadri Institute of Technology. He obtained his Ph.D. from Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur and master's Degree from St.Ann’s College of Engineering & Technology, Chirala. He is a distinguished academician and able administrator with more than 26 years of experience. He has grown from the ranks right here in the institute, starting his teaching career as a Lecturer in the year 1997. Prior to assuming the position of the HOD, He was a professor at Vignan Engineering College, Guntur. He has published 25 research papers in various reputed National and International journals, besides a couple of patents to his credit. In his impressive teaching and administrative career, he has consistently promoted innovative teaching practices and imaginative thinking.

Vasireddy Venkatadri Institute of Technology

Being a HEAD OF DEPARTMENT of college, what are your roles and responsibilities towards the students?

I have a personal motto that says” Assist the Head of the Institution in all operations, Respect the policies of management and Coordinate with the staff and students of the department to achieve the vision and mission of the department in specific and institute in general.” I strictly abide by the roles and responsibilities as the Head of the Department and believe that it’s a multifaceted one, involving not only academic leadership but also the well-being and development of the students. I believe effective communication, leadership, and a commitment to educational excellence with a passion towards engineering the education are essential qualities for success in this role. 

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

By nature, and virtue of my interpersonal pleasing communication trait, I tend to maintain healthy relations with students and faculty. With an empathetic and approachable attitude, I always try to listen comprehensively to the student's concerns and react aptly and swiftly after a deep analysis of that aspect. I used to meet, appreciate and see that the right rewards are received by the students or staff as per their hard work and talent. Above all I respect the hierarchy.

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

The department especially has a typical practice of conducting micro, mini, socially relevant, community service and major projects, for which a practical approach is much encouraged and inculcated in students. During Advanced learning hours every day, we conduct competitive coding practice and make-up of students for Hackathons, expos, etc., that help them experience the industry orientation of subjects in a much more practical way. We conduct industry-institute orientation activities on a regular basis to bridge that gap.

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

The best practices offered by the department to the students that help them gain the necessary skills include certification course completion and special advanced skill training sessions via E-Pam, Wipro, Virtusa, Infytq SpringBoard, APSkills etc. We Encourage internships at standard providers and incorporate advanced skill courses into curriculum. A continuous follow up of every student till he/she gets the art of engineering, is indeed the best practice, that goes undercurrents.

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

Earlier as an affiliated institute we had no scope for updating the syllabus, but after autonomous status, we have a limited scope of 10-20% deviation from that of JNTUK. Every 3 Years JNTUK revises its curriculum and we have to play it only within that limited scope. As far as curriculum formation is concerned, we have a strong team of Board of Studies members, constituted with JNTUK representatives and other State Govt. Professors, Industry Experts and Alumni members along with our department senior staff. Our aim always would be to deliberate an optimum curriculum that’s a fusion of core Computer Science and emerging components studded aptly. Many times the formation of a curriculum aims to benefit the ambitious students, with a foresight of 4 years for the batch. It's always furnished to prepare a balanced platform from where a budding engineer can take off in to IT Industry or global higher education or start-up entrepreneurship.

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?

IT placements are a bit changing their nature now-a-days. With the ease and breeze in international education, many students are aspiring for higher education abroad. Considering this scenario, for GATE, GRE, TOEFL and IELTS we encourage students with special orientation sessions from III year onwards. We give a lot of importance to those meritorious students who opt for higher education either domestic IIT, NITs or abroad USA, UK, Germany, etc. We encourage the aspiring students by giving special GATE classes and permit them for practice as per their exam timelines. Recently nano degree courses are also initiated as a result of an MoU with a German University by VVIT, for higher education at Germany and placements in IT and Engineering sectors. For Training and Placement, we have a dedicated team, who incessantly run after the students, to meet the milestones and deadlines for company interview eligibility. Later it’s the vis-à-vis performance of candidates that brings them offers. Students will be given winter and summer campus recruitment training to make themselves up to the occasion to satisfy the employers, who offer jobs of several packages. To emphasize, CSE, IT and allied branches staff play pivotal role in making the entire VVIT budding engineers ready for IT jobs.

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

Through special guest lectures, career guidance speeches by successful personalities outside and illustrious alumni of VVIT, we try to charge the students so that they can cope up heavy competition of world. There are many other things we do by playing the role as mentors, leaving no stone unturned for the benefit of students to let them face the world's competition with confidence.

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

Now I must tell you, that VVIT is the first of its kind to introduce Student Clubs, since 2010. These clubs are technical, cultural, recreational and skill-building. These clubs do a lot to enhance the skills of students while bringing out their innate talents.

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

Rural Backdrop students struggling to communicate is one. The continuous upgradation of faculty teaching-learning skills and technical skills as per the technology revolution, especially for CSE, IT and allied is the other. We have successfully mechanized ourselves with the incorporation of Life Skills every year for students, to make them communicative. Having MoUs with top-tier IT industries to train our staff, who in turn will train our students, to upskill as a whole.

When you came to the college, what was your vision and how are you trying to achieve the same? 

Students are the primary citizens of any educational institute, so nothing more prior against them. My mind will be hovering with how best we can give the knowledge to the students in a swifter way. Frequent monitoring of delivery by staff, taking sample feedback and apt corrective measures are the ways I follow. The professional development of staff, creation and optimum utilization of infrastructure, quality centric teaching and there by community service are the aspects that need continuous improvement, in my perspective.

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How does the curriculum of your department/college ensure the best practice of the industry? 

It is equipped with Skill Enhanced Courses and Skill Advanced Courses along with regular curriculum. So obviously these Skill courses take the students close to the industry defacto standard technologies. After that, all they need is company-specific training in the form of Internships and later will be absorbed by the same or higher level companies. In every semester, for each practical course, we insist every student to carve their work in conformance with industry standards via certain simulation platforms.

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

We, as per the institute’s Faculty Development policy, encourage and urge every faculty to be certified in any vertical of technology offered by our CoE companies. Nearly 45 percent of the Computer Science and allied staff are certified trainers or developers in various platforms, offered by Wipro, E-Pam, Redhat, InfyTq, GoogleCloud, AWS, UIPATH, etc. During the training process the faculty will be given full/partial academic load-off and paid if the training is off-line and away from the institute, as an incentive. Fortunately, all faculty are aspiring, ambitious and dedicated towards upskilling themselves.

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

“Absolute discipline and absolute education “, are the greatest strengths of our department in specific and college in particular. Qualified and certified staff, who are always committed to uplifting the spirits of students are another strength of the Department. Innovative teaching-learning, research- development and entrepreneurship-innovation orientation are other strengths, that help students of VVIT to carve themselves into successful technocrats. Above all the rich experience in educational industry, of management, the empathetic heart with a philanthropic soul of our Hon'ble Chairman and couragious-dynamic-gennext thought process of our vice-chairman are in fact the strengths of our institution in general.