The Higher Education Review

During the period of the 90's, Punjab's youth suffered due to the inadequacy of quality higher education available in the state. Sirhind, Punjab historically had a rich educational heritage with over 200 Madrasaas operating during the time of the Mughal Emperors. There were no NBA accredited private colleges in Punjab till the year 2002. Only by the initiation of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Engineering College (BBSBEC), Punjab witnessed its first private college getting NBA accreditation. BBSBEC started operating in 1993 with three disciplines ­ Computer Science Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. In 26 years of teaching experience, BBSBEC has incorporated six Bachelor of Technology disciplines and five Master of Technology disciplines. In fact, because of enriched curriculum and enthralling teaching methodologies, BBSBEC received NBA accreditation thrice with the last one in 2016. Along with engineering specializations, BBSBEC has also introduced Master of Business Administration. With the upstream of vocational courses, BBSBEC has started B.Voc. courses in Software Development and Automobile Servicing.

Delivering Top Notch Engineering and Business Courses
With 70 percent students coming from rural areas, BBSBEC creates awareness amongst aspiring engineering/business students to select the right courses. It makes special efforts by sending technical teams to schools for conducting technical workshops. Thus, over 200 awareness workshops are conducted by the college from September to December in various schools."We motivate students to study engineering courses and give them detailed knowledge about the scope of choosing the right stream. Since BBSBEC is affiliated with the IKG Punjab Technical University, a 45 years old government university, it has been able to maintain strong relationships with industries with 37 MoUs across various verticals. To give the students an industry overview, we conduct 'Industrial Meet' every semester. Industry experts interact with final year students and help them learn the industry requirements. They help students in technicality and in communication skills. Nearly 80-90 students from our college go for internships in top

Industries and Institutes like IITs. Most of them get placed in tier-I Companies like Intel, Wipro, Infosys, Blue Star, Cognizant, and Accenture with good salary packages," says Dr. Gurcharan Singh Lamba, Principal, BBSBEC.

Accreditation
The BBSBEC has been accredited by International Accreditation Organization (IAO), Institution of Engineers (India) and thrice by NBA. It strives to continuously enhance its all-round quality and is fielding itself for NAAC accreditation in 2019-20.

Raising Alerts for an Industry Relevant Syllabus
BBSBEC is the only college under the IKG Punjab Technical University to offer Agricultural Engineering at B.Tech level. In MTech, it has disciplines like Power Engineering, Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing, Computer Science and Engineering, and Cyber Security courses. The specializations BBSBEC has introduced in the MBA curriculum include finance, marketing, international affairs, HR and operations management. These courses are taught by teachers who are selected by a strict selection and orientation process. The new faculty stays under constant monitoring of the senior faculties. Besides, BBSBEC students conduct seminars on the latest industry trends under faculty guidance. Second, to teaching, the faculties have applied for the approval of 11 patents of which 2 patents stand approved. In addition to top-level qualified faculty, BBSBEC has world-class infrastructure, laboratories and Research and Innovation Center spread across 94 acres of land in Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab where numerous researchers visit on regular basis to conduct research experiments.

"BBSBEC Is The Only College Under The Ikg Punjab Technical University To Offer Agricultural Engineering At The B.Tech Level"

BBSBEC regularly conducts regularly special workshops on AI, Java, CAD/CAM, Cloud Computing, Deep Machine Learning and on certain advanced software applications in consultation with resource persons from industry. Also, BBSBEC is affiliated to three IITs that provide remote training to the students e.g. IIT Bombay, IIT Roorkee and IIT Ropar. What is more interesting is that the college is one of the two colleges from Punjab to get selected by the IIT Ropar. Now, both the students and faculties get internship and FDP chances there every semester. BBSBEC has a total of 17 creative clubs.

These clubs hone the creative and technical talents of passionate students. There is an outdoor stadium, an indoor

stadium and a swimming pool inside the college campus preparing the students for national-level competitions. Some of the students have made the college proud at the national level competitions by getting the first positions in the youth festival events of the Punjab Technical University for five consecutive years.

"I'm happy to say that as far as co-curricular activities are considered our students and college has kept hold of its number one position in the Punjab Technical University for five years. The students have participated and won at many national level competitions too," explains Maj Gen (Dr.) G S Lamba. However, Dr. Lamba believes that improvement is an ongoing process and is never complete. There has to be a standardized syllabus across the country as the current syllabus followed by various universities differs a lot. At present, BBSBEC under Dr. Lamba is engaged in upholding industry-relevant curriculum, so that students do not require additional technical learning at any private tutoring center.

Dr. Gurcharan Singh Lamba, Principal
Dr. G. S. Lamba has completed Ph.D. in Cyber Terrorism from the University of Madras. He has three M.Phil degrees in areas like Social Science, Defence Management and Defence Studies. Before pursuing M.Phil, Dr. Gurcharan completed MTech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT, Madras and BTech in Electronics and Communication Engineering from JNU, New Delhi. He is a specialist in domains of Cyber Security, Cyber Management and Public Administration. With years of work experience in academics and serving as Cyber CEO of South Western Theatre Command in Jaipur he also qualified on PG Management course from the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi. Dr. Lamba was selected as the Principal of Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Engineering College in 2014. He has 18 years of teaching experience at UG and PG level in Computer Architecture, C++ Language, Data Structures, Communication Technology, PASCAL and C Languages, Cipher Technology, Computer Theory, Weapon Technology, Communication Technology, Armament Technology and Information Warfare at various levels in Defence and Civil Colleges. He has single-handedly raised a premier institute namely BBSB Armed Forces Preparatory Academy which is providing yeoman service to society and preparing youth to join Armed Forces as officers.