Dr Padole prepares Road Map to make VNIT a world class institution
By Vikas Vaidya
Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) (erstwhile VRCE) is listed at number 5 among 20 Government run universities by the India Today survey. The speciality of VNIT is that it never stops progressing. Now, it has got a dynamic Director in the form of Dr Pramod Padole who himself is its alumni. Many people are not prepared to take charge of top posts. But a simple looking Dr Padole is different. VNIT is his soul and so the road map to make VNIT a world class institution is already in his mind. While talking to ‘The Hitavada’, Dr Padole unveiled his plans those he would be implementing.Dr Padole has successfully completed more than 14 consultancy projects in the areas of appropriate technology, design and finite element analysis which were funded by DST, MHRD, KVIC and AICTE.
Dr Padole has received “Academician Par Excellence” award from Institute of Engineers in 2017 for the life-time contribution in the areas of product development, process development and technology transfer.
“Having associated with the institute for more than three decades as a student and faculty member, it is my vision to make it the institute of par excellence; recognized for its academics, research and innovation. The National Institutional Ranking Framework ranking of 17 in 2016, indicates a great potential in this institute. The efforts will be made to utilize this potential to regain a better ranking at national level,” said Dr Padole.
Dr Padole pointed out, “The strengths in this institute opened the doors of opportunities to obtain academic excellence by exploring graduate students to industrial, professional and ethical practices and entrepreneurship skills. The required modification in the curriculum can be introduced. Encouraging industrial internship for a period of 3 months during 2nd or 3rd year of UG. Alumni association is willing to help in this context.”
Dr Padole has regret that the way VNIT should have grown on industry-institute linkage front, it has not. “Now I will encourage industry-based UG/PG projects. We will have academic collaboration with IITs, foreign universities. There will be student exchange, credit transfer schemes. In recent past full time Ph.D programmes have helped institute to improve its research quality and also improved overall laboratory conditions. However, efforts will be made to encourage Ph.D programmes for industry/other organisation personnel,” said firm Dr Padole.
Dr Padole wants to increase employability factor among the students. After serving for long he has come to conclusion that the academic institutes have to take first step in that regard. VNIT will soon have better industry-institute interaction for strengthening incubation Centre to support national programmes like ‘Make in India’, ‘Start up India’ by involving industry, financial institutions like Mudra, technical experts, alumni, MSME. Alumni association can play big role in this activity, this is what Dr Padole feels.
Improve Interdisciplinary Research
Dr Padole said, “Introducing interdisciplinary PG programmes like advanced manufacturing and materials will be an important part of VNIT. Introducing interdisciplinary integrated five year courses like B.Tech (Metallurgy) - M.Tech (Mechanical) will be given priority. We will also focus on establishing centres of excellence- biomedical engineering, Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Centre, Robotics centre.”
Achieve Effective Utilisation of Resources
Elaborating his concept about multidisciplinary research, Dr Padole said, “This research should lead to development of technologies useful to better the quality of life of the society in this region. Hence, special centres like Centre of Biomedical Engineering, Food Processing, Energy Storage, Robotics, Bamboo technology etc. can be established with the partnerships of industries, medical institutions and renowned research organizations.”
Improve the Visibility of the Institute:
In spite of the fact that VNIT has been doing quite nicely, the achievements of the institute are still not discussed loudly, and not showcased as it should be. “We need to focus on this aspect. This can be achieved by better interaction with the outside world, collaborating with national and international societies, organizing more international and national conferences, increased participation of alumni in institute activities etc.,” spoke Dr Padole with a clear vision about its alma mater.
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