Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai   

Technical expo showcases student talent

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI Sept. 15. Thousands of engineering college seats may be lying vacant in Tamil Nadu. And many may lament about the quality of engineering education in the State, where the increase in the number of engineering colleges has been phenomenal.

But it has not stopped colleges from striving to improve academics, administration and educational standards, as borne out by a few recent events. For example, Futura 2K2, a technical symposium- cum exhibition that showcased student talent and creativity, and the possibilities of use of technology in everyday life was held recently at the Bannari Amman Institute of Technology (BIT), Sathyamangalam (Erode district). The participation by 95 colleges from seven States across the country and the presentation of over 450 technical papers, were pointers to the standard of the event.

"Futura helped us reach out to a wide set of engineers and students, interact with them, motivate creativity and growth," noted K.S. Sundara Raman, a medical doctor-turned administrator. The event helped "our institute benchmark ourselves with others and see an opportunity to develop." The event organisers note that the symposium discussed through papers and displayed through models, new `intelligent measuring systems', effluent purifiers, micro electro mechanical systems, fuel cells, data communication systems, cryptographic and bio-metric systems, besides enterprise resource planning for textiles. Individual sessions were conducted by the Mechanical, Electrical and Electronics, Electronics and Communication, Computer Science, Information Technology, Textile Technology and Civil Engineering departments.

Dr. Sundara Raman, however, concedes that as many other institutes of its kind, the BIT also has a shortage of high quality teachers. "That is why we have asked several of our staff members to undergo Ph.D. We hope to provide high-end training to more staff members in the future."

Keeping with the trend in several colleges, the BIT is striving to provide value-addition to the existing courses like introducing a Japanese language course, and improve Internet access for individual students. A new bio-technology lab is being set up.

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