Cultivating an Innovative Culture in a Scholastic Environment
\"We promote wheels and wings\", says Prof. S. Ramachandran, Vice Chancellor, Hindustan University.
Pioneers in aeronautical and automotive engineering, Hindustan University were established as a university in 2008. The only university so far to start with 23 specializations in UG courses and many being in the emerging areas like, avionics, Mechatronics, robotics, automation and others. They are the only institution to have a specialized course of B.Sc. in Avionics and one of the first universities to introduce choice based credit system,providing students with more choices in the subjects.
The latest KPMG report states that India has the potential to become the third largest aviation market by 2020 and the largest by 2030 and the automotive industry in India is one of the largest automotive markets in the world and is expected to grow more in the coming years. Aware of the current market trends, the university has introduced a value added course called \'Autotronics\' in collaboration with Volkswagen � an extensive course to combine advanced electronics with automobile engineering which is first of its kind. The university also provides numerous value added courses in collaboration with the industry; to be precise they have 18 value added courses with several industry collaborations such as IBM, Intel and Volkswagen.
The university maintains a very productive relationship with many industries which help them retain a consistently impressive placement record. In the yearly placement drives companies such as Samsung, Infosys and Wipro are the frequent visitors and recruiters, and numerous international brands also visit the campus for placement such as Al Khalili Group of companies from Muscat, Oman. With over 90 percent of students getting placements every year, the placement cell of the institution remains very preoccupied before and during the yearly placement drives. The placement cell connects the students and the companies by understanding the requirements of both the sides.
One of the key aspects of this university is its research and development programmes, as all the innovations and the inventions are a result of constant and unwavering progress in several R&D programs conducted by educational and the other professional organizations. Hindustan University has more than eight centers of excellence attached to each department, as a result of strong collaborations with the industry; the university has many externally funded projects going on in the centers. Most of the projects are funded by the DST, Research board, DRDO and other agencies. From 80 scholars in 2008 to 400 scholars in 2015, the university has progressed at a rather good pace. In the past five years research in the university has increased many folds, with more than 1000 publication per year, the university has published more than 2500 papers in last three years.
Attaining excellence in research is only one aspect of the institution; they also have an entrepreneurship and innovation cell, dedicated solely on instigating entrepreneurship among students. \"We conducted innovation challenge recently, with 500 different events where 126 ideas were presented and we selected 34 for projects and innovations,\" says Prof. S. Ramachandran, Vice Chancellor,talking about one of the initiatives taken to encourage entrepreneurship among students. The institution conducts different programmes to help the students. There are already five start ups from the university\'s students who are in IT, Medical, services and other fields. This center promotes entrepreneurship excellence that is why it\'s also considered as center of excellence for entrepreneurship. The entrepreneurship cell provides the students with the necessary details and advice to start up their own firm. The cell recently conducted innovation challenge where more than 100 ideas were presented by the students and among them 34 were selected for projects and innovations.
With future plans to create an environment for overall development and quality education, the university has increased their international collaborations for students exchange programmes and joint research projects. Student exchange program and joint research projects help the students get exposed to different environments and learn about the different cultures too. They are also increasing industry collaborations and consultancy services. Industrial collaborations help students get exposed to the work culture before they graduate, it helps them be prepared for the corporate environment. Focusing on providing education that provides the students with talents and skills for immediate placement and changing the curriculum to suit the industry requirements, the university is determined to remain a step ahead of their competitors in all aspects.
Prof. S. Ramachandran, Vice Chancellor
Prof. S. Ramachandran has a PhD from University of Miami in 1985 and was the Director of the Center for Research and the Institute for Ocean Management in Anna University. He has managed over 300 colleges for research and worked in University of Madras for three years as the Vice Chancellor. With more than 35 years of teaching and research experience and more than 30 years of administrative experience, he joined Hindustan University in 2013 and brought about a sea of changes in the research departments of the University.
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