Engineering has evolved to such an extent that it is hard to completely define it today. It has proved its significance in every segment of existence and prosperity. In the new economic world, a nation which trains more number of efficient engineers has the upper hand. Educational reforms in the field of engineering have made its way to the top in the list of government plans. Institutions are on their toes to keep abreast with new technologies and overhaul their curriculum whenever required. But the rapid technological change in almost every domain has created a hiatus between professional technical education and its relevance to society in general and industry in particular. There are only a handful of engineering institutions which are providing technical education in tandem to the requirements of the industry. SJB Institute of Technology (SJBIT), located at Kengeri, Bangalore is one such institute.
SJBIT was established in the year 2001 by the divine blessings of the then, the founder President of Sri Adichunchanagiri Shikshanana Trust His Holiness Jagadguru Padmabhushana Sri Sri Sri Dr. Balagangadharanatha Maha Swamiji. It is now being fostered under the divine blessings of His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Sri Sri Nirmalanandanatha Maha Swamiji, the present President of Sri Adichunchanagiri Mutt and Reverend Sri Sri Prakashnath Swamiji, the Managing Director of SJB & BGS Group of Institutions.
"We want our students to be industry ready by the time they leave college. Our entire methodology, be it the infrastructure or the importance given to research has been designed to facilitate the same," explains Dr. Puttaraju, Principal SJBIT.
The Initiation
Not every student is the same. To educate a student well, it is imperative to grasp his/her actual strength and pace of learning. Students at SJBIT are initially identified at class room levels in accordance to their strengths and abilities and are then segregated in groups based on the same. The faculty constantly monitors the students and assesses their development on a regular basis. SJBIT also believes in imparting knowledge irrespective of a student's economic or social standing. Economically deprived students get support as the college waivers either their hostel fees or provide them support in other ways.
At SJBIT, apart from the regular courses on Mechanical, Computer Science, Electrical and Electronics, Civil and Information Science Engineering, the curriculum also includes as many as seven M.Tech programs offering Machine Design in Mechanical, VLSI, Digital communication and Networking, Digital Electronics and Electrical and three other programs in Computer Sciences. The college also has seven Research Centers for Mechanical, Physics, Civil, Mathematics, Computer Science, Information Science and Electronics and Communication at the PhD levels. A noticeable instance was when a project conducted by a couple of students on an innovation on "Big Data Analytic" won laurels and as a result received the White paper invite to be a part of a German company.
Research and Development
The college puts emphasis on students to devote time in research as this gets them in tune with the current industry and gives them an upper hand as well. "We always motivate students to indulge in Research and Development works. To facilitate the same we have signed an MOU with some of the big names like National Instruments (U.K), Bosch (Germany) to set up laboratories in our campus giving a fair chance to our students to learn what is beyond the syllabus," says Dr. Puttaraju. Making an optimal use of student's times they are encouraged to take up projects in companies during their semester breaks.
"We are on the verge of setting up a Research and Development Center as we have signed an MOU with Bosch at an estimated cost of Rs. 4 crores. This set up is for all the branches to utilize, and provides the students an opportunity to work on the latest trends and technologies," adds Dr. Puttaraju. The Research Center would also encourage students and faculties from other colleges to use the facility. "Our aim is to make it as an International Center," he proudly adds.
Building a World Class Infrastructure
A college campus is home to students for a good number of years and it plays a consequential part in aiding their development as adults. Thus a college's infrastructure must be good enough to provide students with the opportunities to have a holistic development. Identifying this as an important aspect SJBIT has built a state of the art campus. The college has over 3000 students out of which approximately 900 reside in hostels. The college has an auditorium capable of housing about 2000 students, an athletic track ranging to 400 meters and gym and basketball courts. The college also has about 15 to 20 committees working on different aspects of the cultural development of students.
The college is also a hub of cultural activities. "Varchasva is an annual cultural festival conducted by our students. Students from 20-25 different colleges are invited to showcase their cultural talents on stage. Tech prodigies are also welcomed to take upon the dais as we encourage competitions on technology and design too. One of the key instances was when we hosted the VTU athletic meet where students from all the colleges belonging to VTU competed. The scale of hosting a competition at national level remains one of our highlighting features," says Dr. Puttaraju.
Equipping Students for the Future
Students at SJBIT are groomed to be industry equipped. The college has tie ups with several agencies who have been roped in bridge the skill gap between the students and the industry. The agencies train students and provide greater inputs in personality development skills, communications skills and various other technological aspects pertaining to the interest of the student, thus ensuring the students meet the demands of the industry.
The college also invites former students to give their valuable inputs on the industrial on-goings to the existing students thereby paving way for informative interactions. Small and Medium Industries regularly interact with the students in the process of encouraging young and innovative entrepreneurs. Scientists from the prestigious TATA Institute (IISC) are invited to give guest lectures on topics which would inspire a student in modulating and developing his/her scientific conception to the next level.
As a result of all these initiatives it is a win-win situation for the students as they find themselves fine-tuned and not just trained. The conventional placement cell has been replaced by a very professional Department of HRD which caters to the needs of the industry and enables the students to be industry ready. The credit of setting up and implementing futuristic HRM Concepts in SJBIT goes to Prof. Gurucharan Singh, the then Director-HR and presently the Dean-HR of the BGS Group. Placements at SJBIT are a result of all those student centric initiations, but it is the student who inclines with an open mind to carve one-self to adapt to the bludgeoning process. The college proudly boasts of a placement record of 96-98 percent on an average annually. Prestigious companies like TCS, Wipro, Microsoft, Robert Bosch, Ntt Data, Mindtree, Igate, Subex, Sasken, Hp, L&T Infotech, L&T Ies, Tech Mahindra, Quinnox, Accenture, Ibm, Aptean, Dell, Exilant Technologies, Amdocs In Software Domain And National Instruments, Power Research Development Coproration, Schneider Electric, Upt, Eta Engineering, Geometric, Mico Bosch, Bill Forge, Shobha, Brigade Group, Mantri and many others in the core domain always find their prospects here.
The role of a teacher is not to be shrugged off; it is a fine demonstration of one's skills that positions him as the faculty at SJBIT during the recruitment. The teaching brigade is a very eminent cluster here, as 15 percent of the faculties are Phd holders and 78 percent being post graduates. The most striking statistic comes through the faculty accretion rate ranging to only 4 to 5 percent.
Looking forward
Gaining an overall 97th position in 2009 to 28th position in 2013 across the country , SJBIT has seen a long haul, aiming to be in the top 20 colleges around the country. "We have expansion realized in terms of 4 units of 1 lakh sq feet which is under construction. We look to promote more PG programs and research programs in the future and we aim to be one of the top colleges in the country," adds the Principal.
At SJBIT, it is not a flow with the wind. Students are empowered and architected to flow against it. With such positive statistics of astounding placements, infrastructure favoring students, and focused minds of His Holiness Jagadguru Sri Sri Sri Nirmalanandanatha Maha Swamij and Reverend Sri Sri Prakashnath Swamiji; SJBIT is certainly an excellent prospect for young students to transcend on to future youths.
.png){kind=logo}