Mrs. Kolla Sushma Chowdary has been working as the Head of Civil Engineering Department at Hindu College of Engineering and Technology, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. She is a distinguished academician and administrator with 9 years of work experience in the teaching sector. She started her career with RVR & JC Engineering College of Guntur as an Assistant Professor and later on joined Hindu College.

As part of her education, Mrs. Kolla has done Masters from RVR & JC Engineering College of Guntur. In her impressive teaching and administrative career, she has consistently promoted innovative teaching practices and imaginative thinking. She has endeared herself to her students and colleagues alike through her affable nature and empathetic leadership style. For her amazing work in the education sector, she has won 3 awards and recognitions till date.

Hindu College of Engineering

Being the Head of the Civil Department at Hindu College, what are your key responsibilities towards the students?

As a Head of Civil Engineering Department at Hindu College, my prime responsibility is to provide strong academic leadership. In addition to this, I am responsible for overall monitoring and supervising of the departmental activities to ensure that it achieves the highest possible standards of excellence in all its endeavors.

How do you establish healthy relations with the students and fellow faculty of your institute?

For the purpose of maintaining a healthy and long-lasting relations with the students and fellow faculty of my college, I regularly interact with them to know them and their work related issues or queries so that I can provide constructive feedback and make learning fun and practical.

Apart from this, I have created a positive atmosphere in classrooms and have integrated storytelling into daily lectures so that our students receive the best quality education, participate in discussion and grow on both personal and professional level.

How do you bring in a practical and industry oriented approach towards subjects?

We have designed the curriculum of each subject in such a way that both theory as well as practical learning have become an integral part of daily education delivery. And when it comes to hands-on training of students, we use the best visualization tools and real-world examples and projects so that our young minds can easily establish a link between a concept and its practical application.

Which best practices are offered by your department to students to help them gain necessary skills? 

We use advanced teaching tools while delivering lectures and also give prompt feedback to staff members and students as and when needed. In addition to this, we regularly arrange essential training programs for students from time to time.

How do you strategize and update the curriculum to make it befitting for the students? 

Our college follows the curriculum designed and updated by the JNTUK and APSBTET, as we are affiliated to both of them. And to bridge any kind of possible gaps between academia and industry, extra classes for technical programs are conducted as and when required. Last but not the least, dedicated training programs are there for non CSE students so that they can learn about emerging technologies before stepping out in the real world.

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How do you prepare your students to deal with the outside competitive world?

We strongly believe that conceptual education is most important, rather than holding a degree without knowledge in the particular stream a person pursues. Hence, we train our students regularly to make them technically proficient and competent so that they can handle challenges of the coming future with more confidence.

How does your college enhance the skills of students?

For the purpose of enhancing the skills of our students, we do have dedicated training programs for them in each semester of their respective courses.

What challenges do you usually face while uplifting the education quality of your department? 

As we all know that core branches of Engineering are being closed rapidly due to job recession and less popularity among people. So I would say that the challenge of successfully running an Engineering specialization and retaining students are not linked with any specific domain of Engineering but it's on a college level. And to overcome these hurdles, we regularly connect with student's parents in order to improve awareness among them about our courses, its importance in today's time and job opportunities each program offers.

When you joined Hindu College, what was your vision for it? 

My objective when I joined Hindu College was to deliver the content with practicality to our students so that they can easily understand concepts and take more interest in studies. 

How does the curriculum of your college ensure the best practices of industry?

We have prepared proper teaching plans to effectively deliver the courses to our students and ensure it has best practices of industry. Also, we have designed a special monitoring and feedback process to identify slow learners so that we can make necessary improvements in curriculum and cater to diverse learning needs of students. In addition to this, we take suggestions from corporate experts to stay updated about the latest trends, technologies and developments of the outside world and modify teaching methodologies.

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How does your college enhance Faculty skills and train them as per industry standards? 

Although all our faculty members are highly educated and experienced in their respective domains, they also need to upgrade their skills with changing times and technologies. Hence our college provides them full support by arranging much needed training sessions from time to time. And we also motivate them to pursue certification courses and take part in workshops, seminars and conferences organized by us and other institutions all over the country so that they can learn the latest teaching methodologies and impart better education to students.

What approaches do you bring in apart from curriculum to teach the students? 

We follow unique and innovative approaches to teach students beyond hard-coded curriculum. First and foremost, we have implemented lecture and technology-based learning to educate students about both the subject theory and current technologies which are in high demand in the outside world. Apart from this, we regularly involve students in group activities and games and also encourage them to work on research projects so that they can effectively utilize their classroom knowledge to develop solutions for real-world scenarios.

What do you see as the greatest strengths of your college and how it can be enhanced?

The greatest strengths of our institution are our highly educated, well trained, research oriented, dedicated and energetic faculty members followed by supportive non-teaching and laboratory staff. Then we have state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities on the college campus in the form of smart classrooms and well-equipped laboratories and faculty with major and minor UGC research projects. Lastly, the impressive academic results of our students in University exams along with our simple and transparent admission procedure makes us strong and resilient. 

Any valuable advice which you would like to give to the students for a prosperous career ahead? 

I would advise my dear students to be a good learner and listener first. Also, think wisely while taking a decision but don't compromise your ethics ever, keep learning new things and dedicatedly work on your life goals. Apart from this, stay organized and try to be a team player and value the network you maintain with people from the outside world because they are the one who can help you reach your destination with full guidance and support. Last but not the least, take good care of your health and speak up as and when needed.