In the education world, an engineering institute's prosperity is measured based on its infrastructure and brand name. With this being a key, most colleges are working to establish better infrastructure to attract an increasing number of students, professors and researchers to achieve their dreams.
"Karunya School of Mechanical Sciences has arguably one of the best infrastructures in Coimbatore," says Joel Thomas, a final year mechanical engineering student. "The institute has provided students like me with several facilities and opportunities to pursue our interests and aspirations," he adds with a proud smile. As engineering has always been a complex subject which requires a lot of practical lessons, Karunya has spared no expense to provide the students with the best possible facilities. "An institute's infrastructure should be at its best so that the students will have a feel of what is happening in the present day industry," says Dr. T.V. Christy, Director of the Karunya School of Mechanical Sciences.
The institute has established four special centers for Metallurgy, Research in Design and Manufacturing Engineering, Research in Thermal Energy Management and Renewable Energy. The various facilities found at these centers are the Metrology Lab, Thermal Engineering and Advanced Thermal sciences laboratory, Metallurgy Lab, Design Lab, Vibration Lab, Ergonomics Lab, Robotics Lab, and Energy Park.
"Students pursuing their undergraduate studies can utilize the research facilities set up by the doctoral candidates in order to pursue their projects in the same field as well," says Dr. Christy.
Helping Students Fly High
Karunya as an institute has always believed in being a step ahead of the crowd and thus has established a bachelors and masters program in aerospace engineering, the institute has spared no expense and has built facilities which are modeled along similar facilities found at ISRO. Karunya has also built supersonic and subsonic wind tunnel facilities and a shock tube facility with which its students can build experience and have a better understanding of what it takes to be an Aerospace Engineer. The institute has a high altitude test facility and a kinetic heat simulator as well.
Understanding the importance of able guidance for aeronautics, the institute for its aerospace engineering program ensured that it recruited scientists and engineers. Some of them have previously worked for organizations such as ISRO. In doing so the institute was able to build some of the facilities it required in order to make the aerospace engineering students understand the practical aspect of the theory concepts better.
The Mentors
While the institute has so many impressive infrastructural facilities, the institute also has faculty members with rich academic experience and doctoral level qualification. "Besides their high educational qualifications and experience, a key trait we ensure our faculty has is an excellent aptitude for mentoring the students," says Dr. Christy. All the faculty members at Karunya ensure that all the students including the ones who come from very difficult family backgrounds and academic deficiencies are mentored well.
"Mentoring has become a very important aspect in the past couple of years and each faculty member at Karunya has 15 to 16 students under him/her. The mentors ensure that the students' concerns are readily addressed and that they are able to maximize the time spent on gaining knowledge and their overall development," says Joel.
Holistic Development is Essential
Karunya University was founded with the noble vision to raise professionals and leaders of high academic caliber and unblemished character, nurtured with a strong motivation and commitment to serve humanity. Karunya envisions training technocrats who will serve the society in the four thrust areas viz. food, water, health and energy; and hopes to mould its students to evolve into better human beings. This ideology serves as the backbone of the institute.
The institute strongly believes in inculcating a holistic development of all its students and encourages students to enroll for programs which the DECE - Department for Extension and Continuing Education Activities conducts. With a separate Department to cater to students' extracurricular activities, there is an option to participate in various NSO activities such as athletics, badminton, basketball, cricket, volleyball and NCC.
Apart from this the university along with one of its wings SEESHA - Samiti for Education, Environment , Social and Health Action enables students to ample exposure in society oriented activities. Students are actively encouraged to join various clubs for automobile, aerospace, design and energy. The institute also has a cultural club called KALA - Karunya Arts & Literary Association where the students can hone their theatrical skills and excel in fields such as music and dance. Karunya also conducts two major annual fests - PitStop and MindKraft which are eagerly waited for by the student community.
Paving the Future
The institute is far- sighted and believes in keeping ahead of the technology curve. Karunya has identified Mechatronics as an upcoming area for the future and is planning to establish a Center of Excellence in Mechatronics to keep students as tech forward as possible. The center will give an opportunity to students to enroll for add-on programs and do projects in the area of Mechatronics as well. Ergonomics and robotics are the other areas where the institute plans to focus on in the future and has already established the required facilities.
While providing its students the necessary infrastructure, the institute also ensures it has the best faculty who besides imparting knowledge will guide and mentor the students to serve humanity by attaining high levels of academic excellence, professional competence and exemplary values.
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