ASIET: Ready for the Next Big Leap

Sarath Syam
Anjupriya, a former Information Technology student of Adi Shankara Institute of Engineering and Technology (ASIET) was picked up by Accenture when most of the big organizations were reluctant to recruit freshers due to the economic scenario in the country. "We were absolutely amazed when a company like Accenture came for campus recruitment and fortunately enough I could clear it," she says. She is one among the many of ASIET alumni who has reached in the top positions of various MNCs around the globe. "The Career Enhancement programs helped us immensely to clear the interviews," says Anjupriya.

Anjupriya's alma mater ASIET is located at Kalady near Cochin, which is the favorite destination down south for big recruiting firms like Infosys, TCS, Accenture, UST Global, Huawei Technologies, Videocon and many more. In recent years, the institute witnessed some shift in trends of placement as their students are opting for banking sector when biggies like ICIC bank and HDFC bank started hunt for engineers in their organization. "The traction towards financial sectors for our engineering students was a notable trend and we conducted a survey among the student to understand the reason behind this. The results showed that the female students who opted for bank employment felt that it is more comfortable than the IT industry," says Dr. S. Gopalakrishna Iyer, Director, ASIET. These efforts from the management show that, they are constantly trying to understand the students' behavior to meet their requirements rather than expecting them to adjust with the trends.

With such philosophies in mind, the college has tied up with software development giants Infosys and TCS to give students an out of the box learning experience. Coaching in communicative English provided by Infosys is one such example. Students can initiate their communication practice from the start of their program. The early start to such practices helps them in facing any interview with a confident mind set. The management believes that along with strong academic background of students these programs serve as the backbone to improve the overall placement results, which is consistently more than 80 percent every year.

Creating Multi Talented Professionals

The fully outfitted campus has faculty strength close to 200 where in 21 professors are PhD holders. The management always ensures that the faculty members are well rooted in their core subjects. "We ensure that our teachers not only teach our students but also mentor them to become well-molded future leaders with ethical and moral values," says Dr. Gopalakrishna Iyer. The faculty is not limited to teaching inside the campus; they actively participate in guiding students' research activities that take place in the recently inaugurated research centre. The uncompromising quality of education has resulted in contributing 22 university rank holders to the society with more than 85 percent student passing rate.

Aside from academics, the college promotes cultural and leadership qualities of the student by allowing them to conduct various activities inside the campus and these are very well supported by the management and faculty. 'Bhrahma' is one of the biggest events conducted by the students of the institute. The event starts with 'Thyagaraja Aradhana' where eminent personalities from arts are honored and the program followed by various cultural and technical competitions. "The total budget of 'Bhrahama' is around seven lakhs and most of the money is collected by our students. They approach various enterprises to get sponsorship for the event and it helps them to have a self realization of their managerial abilities," says Dr. Gopalakrishna Iyer.

Events like 'Brahma' have not changed during the journey of the institute, as they have become a part of the institution's culture from the very beginning. In 2005, four years from the inception, many multi talented engineers began to spread all over the world from the campus and soon Adi Shankara Institute became a brand name for engineering education in Kerala. "One of our first rank holders is now well settled in the U.S. It makes us very proud when we get calls from different parts of the world to inform us about some form of alumni meet that is taking place there," says Dr. Gopalakrishna Iyer, the man in charge to take this institute to a newer level of engineering education. Adi Shankara has now become a brand for preparing world class engineers in the engineering circles.

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