The Higher Education Review

Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr Sagunthala R&D Institute of Science and Technology is one Indian educational institution that has been able to create an inclusive learning environment for the students to develop and thrive so that they become inspired learners. Vel Tech was started as an engineering college in 1997 under the Trust founded by the Educational-Philanthropic Personalities Chancellor and Founder President Dr.R.Rangarajan and Founderss President Dr.Sagunthala Rangarajan.

Vel Tech has grown steadily over the years by the uncompromising vision, leadership and guidance of the founder couple and the status of the Institution as Deemed to be University. The Institution has also been ranked in between 101-200 in the World by THE Impact Rankings 2019 under the Sustainable Development Goal for Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.

A Place to Progress and Prosper
Vel Tech’s primary objective is to create, translate and share frontiers of knowledge embedded with wisdom and innovation for a positive transformation of the emerging society. Since day one, the institute has been sprawling its wings not only in horizontal and vertical but also in all dimensions with the missions to nurture excellence in teaching and learning, incubate enquiry driven creativity, foster multidisciplinary research, instil integrity and honour; inculcate scholarly leadership towards global competence and growth beyond self in a serene, inclusive and free academic environment.

As of now, Vel Tech offers Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Doctoral programmes in Engineering and Technology, Arts &Science, and Management Studies and Law. Six B.Tech programmes offered by the institute is also accredited by National Board of Accreditation (NBA) under Tier-I category and according to Times annual engineering college ranking survey 2019, the institution has been placed at fourth position in India. Also, to enhance the students’ regional diversity, Vel Tech provides Mahatma Gandhi National Merit Scholarships ranging from 25 percent to 100 percent of the tuition fee and hostel fee to students from various states in India.

At Vel Tech, faculty members deliver the course using appropriate instructional methods which include active learning methods in order to attain the Course Outcomes. Continuous assessment and evaluation methods such as tests, assignments, seminars, and course exit surveys are employed to measure the

attainment of each course outcome. At Vel Tech, for each program, the Program Educational Objectives, which portray the professional and career accomplishments of the graduates within a few years of graduation, are articulated through a well-defined procedure which involves programme stakeholders. Similarly, program outcomes such as the qualities, in terms of knowledge, skill and attitude, which are expected from the graduates by the time of graduation, are derived from the graduate attributes of Washington accord.

At the institute, the attainment of Program Outcomes is measured through the attainment of contributing course outcomes and indirect tools such as graduate exit survey, and industrial employer survey to name a few. The attainment of Program Outcomes at Vel Tech is analysed and corrective measures are taken to bring continuous improvement in the programme concerned and the corrective measures shall include course re-design, teaching-learning process and assessment and evaluation.

“Vel Tech’s primary objective is to create, translate and share frontiers of knowledge embedded with wisdom and innovation for a positive transformation of the emerging society”

Growing at a Rapid Pace
When asked about the infrastructural amenities offered at Vel Tech and how the institute encourages the research activities of the students, Dr.R.Rangarajan, Founder President says, “We have created a conducive physical ambience to carry out the research activities by providing the various facilities including 25 research labs in different areas of specialization and some of the research laboratories are high-speed bearing test facility funded by GTRE and DRDO, Automotive Engine Test facility supported by ARAI, Ashok Leyland, TAFE and Greaves Cotton Ltd.

Software laboratories to carry out modelling and simulation work are CAD/CAM lab, Mechatronics lab, OOPs lab, CAD lab, Data Structure lab, DBMS lab, WP lab, AN lab, AOS lab, AOOD lab, C lab, EC lab, CP lab, Software Development lab, communication skills lab, Power Systems Lab (EEE), VLSI lab ECE, and DASSULT lab”.

According to Dr Sagunthala Rangarajan, Foundress President of Vel Tech, “We believe that teaching and research are inseparable and are the two paramount important components of the educational system. We have also received research grants from sponsoring agencies such as DST, DRDO, CSIR, DAE, GITA (Indo-Taiwan, IndoKorea), IC-IMPACTS, CEFIPRA, and ISRO. The total research publications of our faculty members, in the past five years, are about 2421 in the Scopus indexed journals with h-index of 108”.

Adding about the various

achievements of Vel Tech, Mrs.Rangarajan Mahalakshmi K, Chairperson and Managing Trustee says, “The success of our students is our greatest achievement and about 70 percent of our final year students undergo internships/project works for six months in top tier companies such as Daimler, Mahindra, CSC, Wipro, Ashok Leyland and Volkswagen, in government organizations such as DTRL, DRDO, Computer Emergency Response Team and Central Railway Information System (CRIS) and well as at International Universities. We also have more than 253 MoUs with government Institutes/Universities, Industries/ MNCs, International Universities, Public Sector Units and R&D labs”.

Prof. S. Salivahanan, Vice Chancellor says, “To inculcate entrepreneurial skills, we have established a Technology Business Incubator (TBI), recognized as Centre of Excellence and received Rs. 23 Crore from NSTEDB, and DST. Since its inception, Vel Tech TBI has supported 161 start-ups working in emerging areas.Vel Tech has the privilege to be the First Member from India in ConceiveDesign-Implement-Operate (CDIO), worldwide initiative with an aim to produce the next generation engineers by adopting CDIO based Syllabus/Outcome Based Education/ Flexible Choice Based Credit System. Now, when it comes to our achievements, we were ranked in band 551-600 in QS Asia University Rankings 2021, 1stin India and 74th in the world, according to THE Young University Ranking 2017 of the Globe. Vel Tech has also been Ranked 5thamong Privately Funded Institutions in India by Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) in 2019”.

Prof. S. Salivahanan, Vice Chancellor
Prof. S. Salivahanan is the Vice Chancellor of Vel Tech Rangarajan Dr.Sagunthala R&D Institute of Science and Technology, Avadi, Chennai. Prior to this, he was the Principal of SSN College of Engineering, Chennai for 17 years. He obtained his B.E. degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, M.E. degree in Communication Systems from NIT, Trichy and Ph.D. in the area of Microwave Integrated Circuits from Madurai Kamaraj University. He has over four decades of teaching, research, administration and industrial experience both in India and abroad. He has teaching experiences at NIT, Trichy, A.C. Government College of Engineering and Technology, Karaikudi, R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore and Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi. He has Industrial experiences as Scientist/Engineer at Space Application Centre, ISRO, Ahmedabad, Telecommunication Engineer at State organization of Electricity, IRAQ and Electronics Engineer at Electric Dar Establishment, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.