GITAM,Hybderabad, Director-school of architecture:Prof. Sunil Kumar Interview

Prof. Sunil Kumar is the Director at GITAM School of Architecture, Hyderabad Campus. He graduated in Architecture from the University College of Engineering, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, and completed his Master’s in Building Engineering and Management from SPA, New Delhi. He is pursuing his Ph.D. from SPA, JNAFAU, Hyderabad. 

As a consultant, he has worked on various projects as Architect and Project Manager. Prof Kumar has been teaching as visiting faculty at various Architecture colleges for Undergraduates and Postgraduates. His areas of interest are Architectural design Teaching, Building Sciences, Building Services, Energy Efficient Buildings, and Professional Practice. He is a certified ECBC TPA by BEE India.

What motivated you to pursue your career in academia and gradually become a director of architecture in Gitam school of architecture?

Teaching is one good place where we can contribute positively to society. So as an architectural professional, I have been in this field for a long time, and I have been working and delivering projects like residential hospitals, and institutional buildings. But for me, throughout my professional career, I have had this urge to teach, and also I have been a visiting faculty for many institutes. And when Gitam University approached me for their new Hyderabad campus, I thought it was a good opportunity, Because the environment at GITAM University is highly conducive. The management is very supportive and I thought I could build a higher grade school of architecture in Hyderabad under GITAM University. That is why I took up this challenge when GITAM University offered me the post of director for the new school of architecture. And the amount of experience the university carries is what made me confident enough that I would be able to create a great architectural institute. So that is one primary reason why I joined Gitam as a director. 

Throughout my professional life, education has been a core area. I have been teaching and on the board of studies for Jawaharlal Nehru Fine Arts and Architecture University and YSR Kadapa University. 

What do you think is the USP or what are the differentiating factors that make GITAM stand out from other colleges?

Yeah Gitam is deemed to be a university in this A++ category. So that gives a lot of freedom in creating curriculum.So architecture education is regulated by the council of architecture but GITAM being a deemed university has a lot of freedom to create its syllabus. So while many of the universities are in the public domain, they take a lot of effort and time in creating new syllabus and programs that would be required for a student to be a successful architect. In Gitam it is very easy, because of our status as a deemed university and with a background of 12 years in architecture education the Visakhapatnam campus has had masters and graduate programs for the last 12 years. So with that background and Hyderabad as a very resourceful place,creating content,creating academic programs that will be suitable for the profession and that will make students a better architect. The USP is the freedom, the USP is the experience, the USP is the brand and the USP is the faculty who always thrive to give their best.

How do the team and faculty of the school of architecture work towards being updated with the latest trends and developments in the field of architecture and incorporate them into the curriculum and programs offered by the college?

Gitam is very meticulous while selecting the faculty. In the first stage of selecting the faculty, we see their academic experience and the norms set by the Council of Architecture and also go a little overboard and see what they have achieved. So there are two-three facets of what we see in our teacher, teaching experience, research acumen, and professional experience. When we are selecting our teachers, these three are important for us and when the teachers come to our university, they are provided equal opportunities in teaching research and professional practice.

We encourage our teachers to continue with their professional development, and our consultancy wing supports them. We provide opportunities for them to conduct research in their areas of interest and offer academic background exercises for teaching. Our teachers are highly enthusiastic about the quality of work they do, not only in teaching but also in research and other professional endeavors. This enthusiasm gives them a comprehensive understanding of what they teach and keeps them closely connected to the real world of industry.

How would you foster a culture of innovation, creativity, and academic excellence within the School of Architecture & Planning?

Gitam management has the vision to become one of the leading universities in the world in the next 20 years. The environment and the ecosystem at Gitam work towards that. And if you have to be one of the world leaders in education in the next 20 years, you have to be a creative and out-of-the-box thinker. For this reason, all our teachers are striving to become education leaders and figure out what is needed to go there. International experiences and exposure are being created for the teachers, and this makes us different from other educational institutions. We know where we want to be, and we are actively working in that direction. The objective and path are crystal clear to us.

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What kind of student advisory and support services are provided at the school of architecture? 

Different students will have different aspirations after graduating. Some want to start their venture, whereas some don't have clarity about their career aspirations. Gitam University has a unique mentoring system. The day a student joins, he/she is assigned to a faculty, typically from their program for the next five years of education. All our teachers are trained and qualified enough to mentor these students encompassing higher education and placement opportunities. The teacher discusses with them and guides them on a day-to-day basis. They look after their academic performance to understand the weak and strong areas of students concerning academics. Students are mentored regularly and are free to schedule an appointment with their counselor and seek answers to their doubts about their career goals. Mentoring system ensures positive student outcomes concerning their career goals and objectives.

Can you discuss your experience in curriculum development and program designing in the field of architecture and planning?

One of the best things at Gitam University, School of Architecture is the venture development course. We have a venture development course, wherein we have a tie-up with North East University. Here we are training our students to become entrepreneurs and providing them with proper training and backup. In the first stage of the course, they study how to become an entrepreneur, and the second stage is the ready set-go stage, where if a student has a potential idea, we support them and nurture that idea. We make the student go through further processes, and then, if the proposal is good to go as a commercial venture, the student is encouraged to work on his venture.

It's not only the venture development course that a student is given, but many other latest skills are taught to the students of architecture, either software training like Revit architecture or Sketchup Etc.

So, by the time they get into the ninth semester when they opt for an internship in a professional office, we see that our students are skilled in these areas, and we have good feedback from industry professionals. Because of the readiness of our students with all the skills, they are well appreciated. We also provide communication skills, personal development, and many other soft skills training that are needed for a person to pursue a successful career. 

Students receive massive appreciation for their work in their respective internships, and several top performers receive pre-placement offers from the organisation where they are interning. They join the same company after the completion of their thesis.

There is a difference between learning in the classroom and doing it in real.So how do you promote experiential learning and practical application of the knowledge that is learned in the classroom?

One of the most used and applied approaches in the GITAM school of architecture is that we always take design problems in live studios. Whether it is designing a campus or a hospital, it will be a live hospital problem that the students deal with. And then some of our faculty they do practice it through the university.So whenever the students are

Students have enough time during the summer break and winter breaks and thus, are encouraged to participate in professional work with the university consultancy projects which give them enough exposure to the practical projects.

These are the two relevant ways of exposing our students to the practical side of their course.

What kind of steps GITAM is taking in order to bridge the gap between academia and the real industry world?

The simplest thing we are doing is having industry experts on our board of studies. When we design the syllabus or modify the syllabus we have a resource person from the industry who guides us and they know the industry relevancy of the syllabus.

And we have practicing architects as adjunct faculty who run a design studio, along with the academic teachers, and then all our design studio viva voces are conducted by professional architects, so the students have to answer to a professional architect. So this is how industry interaction and then professionals working as adjunct faculty make it very easy for us to be industry relevant.

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We are in a world where the advancements of technology are happening very rapidly. What are your thoughts on technologies like AI with respect to their effect on the architecture field?

Knowledge and applications are available in a wide range because even in the gaming industry, we need architects. And if you want to create a real-time virtual experience or an augmented experience, architecture is one important thing but the AI is affecting the architecture field, and we have to be ready for the same. We are trying to understand the scope of these evolving technologies in architecture. 

We are trying to create white papers on these topics to understand them thoroughly and create content and give directions to our students in these technologies. We Don't want to ignore these technologies and we also don't know how it will turn out in the future. We cannot judge what these technologies will do and how they will disrupt architecture. But we want our students to be ready, and Thus, we are updating our curriculum as per the latest technology. Currently, we are working on the applications of AI scope in architecture.