Dr. Padmaja, the Dean of Accreditation and Rankings, obtained her B.Tech. in Chemical Engineering and M.Tech. in Biochemical Engineering from A.U. College of Engineering, Andhra University. Subsequently, she received her PhD in Chemical Engineering from the College of Technology, Osmania University and her postgraduate diploma in Patent Law from Nalsar University, Hyderabad. Dr. Padmaja has guided several B.Tech. and M.Tech. students and published numerous papers in reputed journals and conference proceedings.

Dr. Padmaja has nearly 20 years of experience in industry and academia in the areas of teaching, research and development, and consulting. She has been working with the Anurag Group of Institutions for the past seven years in various capacities. Before joining academia, she worked at Uni-Sankyo Ltd. and Jupiter Bio-Sciences Ltd., Hyderabad, managing large R&D projects of a highly interdisciplinary nature involving Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology. She was responsible for the launch of several new products like enzymes, amino acids, nutraceuticals and mucopolysaccharides beginning with basic research in the lab and progressing all the way to bulk production. She has taken the initiative to set up and manage several labs and facilities for research and development, quality control and diagnostics.

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Vidya Jyothi Institute of Technology

What motivated you to pursue a career in education and become the Dean of VJIT College?

After my doctorate from Osmania University, I started my career in the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology industry. I worked there for 16 years and then moved to the education sector. In the 21st century, engineering education in India faces significant challenges as it requires meeting the demands of technical professions and emerging areas. There are a lot of challenges that can be addressed through the education sector and I feel it will benefit many of the young budding engineers who will take the future of India to a greater level. It has been a very exciting journey every day and a new learning experience for me to take up the challenges in engineering education and nurture the students to be good professional engineers. With complete support from the management, I had the privilege to work in various domains. An especially challenging task for me is accreditation and maintaining the quality of the institute.

How do you envision the role of the Dean in an Engineering college, and what leadership qualities do you believe are crucial for success in this role?

My philosophy of leadership as a dean is to work strategically towards the vision of the institute and to maintain the quality standards of education. I want to take responsibility for inspiring the team to own up to their responsibilities. I always treat my team members well and invite suggestions on every aspect of the institute’s well-being. Collectively, we work under one umbrella, under the guidance of our management, to reach the strategic goals of the institute. I keep updating myself as per the transformations in engineering education. Finally, I want to create an educational environment for students to excel in their professional careers and to solve the challenges of industry and society with a focus on human values, professional ethics and social responsibility.

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

We have introduced a choice-based credit system in the curriculum. While designing it, we ensure to take input from people in the industry. All departments have two members from industry on the board of studies. We also take input from alumni and recruiters who are providing their feedback on how we incorporate the necessary changes in our curriculum. The curriculum has all the courses as per emerging industry trends. It has been designed to include open electives where students can select the courses offered by other departments. VJIT has always emphasised orienting the students towards the technologies that will drive the world in the years to come and has introduced the Bachelor of Technology in a particular specialisation with a minor program. Fast track curriculum has been implemented with a view to encouraging meritorious students to take up internships as per the guidelines of AICTE.

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

We at VJIT have a very conceptual focus on competency-based education and preparing engineers for the 21st century. We adopt a blended teaching and learning system with an emphasis on project-based and case-based learning. We have reformed and customised our autonomous curriculum as per industry trends and introduced various courses related to employability, entrepreneurship and skill development programmes. We have incorporated industry-relevant courses, practical training and internships to equip the students with the knowledge required by employers. Apart from the regular course curriculum, value-added courses imparting transferable and life skills are offered to the students in all the departments. In addition to the technical skills, soft skills like communication, critical thinking, problem solving and teamwork skills are embedded through hackathons, project expos, and professional and departmental clubs.

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

We train our senior professors, heads of departments and faculty through attending faculty development programs, participation in international conferences, summer refresher courses and workshops on emerging technologies. At the same time, we also conduct these programs at the departmental level and institute them to orient faculty and update their skills.

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

In order to build industry connections with the institute, we have various centres of excellence. For instance, we have the Virtusa CoE in Software Testing, the Qlik CoE in Data Analytics, the Centre of Excellence with Epam and the Lean Techno CoE in Manufacturing for the Mechanical, Electrical and Civil Engineering departments. These clubs and centres hold and organise their own events, expert talks and competitions that polish the student's skills.

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

Typically, the students pick project topics based on their interests and career goals. The range of topics worked on by past students are industry related topics or topics for the betterment of society. Other project topics are discipline-specific and are multi-disciplinary. 

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

There are various career options for students after pursuing a B.Tech. One can either pursue higher studies like an M.Tech., MS., or MBA degree or get employment in the industry or private companies through campus placements. We also have our students working at jobs at PSUs (Public Sector Undertaking) and others working at preparing for UPSC civil services examinations for a chance to work at positions of IAS, IPS, or IFS. Alternatively, students can also work in the defence forces or start their own entrepreneurial practices.

Can you outline your vision for the future of the VJIT and the strategies you plan to implement to achieve that vision?

The institution has a strong strategic plan aimed at clearly formulated objectives. Our goals are to facilitate high-quality knowledge, share our curriculum as per industry trends and introduce new courses. We aim at fostering human values and the all-round development of skills that enable students to handle the latest technological challenges. We also promote R&D and consultancy through strong industry-institute interaction to address societal problems. The management has created good infrastructural facilities for the optimisation of knowledge acquisition that will also enable us to nurture the students holistically and make them competent to excel in the global scenario. The top priority of the institute is to maintain quality standards, produce globally competent engineers who will uplift the prosperity of the nation and be one of the best institutes that will provide the best technically fit engineers to society for its betterment.