The Higher Education Review

The Indian higher education sector has been making impressive strides over the past couple of decades. Many premier Indian educational institutions have started to get international attention owing to their quality and innovative teaching methods. CMR Institute of Technology, Bangalore is one such institute that was established with a vision ‘to be a nationally acclaimed and globally recognised institute of engineering, technology and management, producing competent professionals with appropriate attributes to serve the cause of the nation and of society at large.’ Owing to this, the institute has taken many initiatives to address the pain points that are impacting the higher education sector including creating and facilitating an ambience for interdisciplinary engagement, leading to a healthy competition among students and staff in the pursuit of excellence through lifelong learning. The institute develops and operates mutually-beneficial programs, partnering with industries, institutes and individuals of national and international repute and at the same time creates mechanisms to understand societal needs and provides solutions for the betterment of society. Accredited by NAAC with an A+ grade, CMRIT acts as a testament to the quality of education imparted by the institute.

Imparting Value-Based Education
Ensuring creativity and development amongst entrepreneurs, CMR Institute of Technology trains students on design thinking, intellectual property, and start-ups and the students are encouraged and guided to participate at open competitions and venture their own start-ups. Also, to have hands-on experience, the students are guided in their projects right from their first semester and close interaction with industry is maintained to train students and transform them into competent professionals. CMRIT has also created facilities of Maker space,

IPR Cell, Incubation centre and Research centres to conduct active research and create solutions for societal and industrial needs in various domains.

The diversified program portfolio of CMRIT includes courses like Bachelor of Engineering, M.Tech, MBA, and MCA. CMRIT makes students learn and understand technology through multiple mechanisms including regular classrooms, flip classrooms, projects, MOOC, TYL and other student activities. The curriculum and the evaluation process are designed by making experiential learning and self-learning an important component. At CMR Institute of Technology, Bangalore, students are also encouraged to work on entrepreneurial mini-projects and present research works. To make students industry ready, additional courses are made part of the regular curriculum, be it aptitude, programming or soft skills. New courses on the technologies which are in demand from industry such as machine learning, big data, full-stack, cloud services, IoT, cybersecurity, robotics, renewable resources, additive manufacturing, data analytics and proficiency in programming are provided to students of all disciplines. Also, active collaborations with industry and professional bodies are done to give students opportunities to visit companies, attend expert lectures, do their internship, execute projects on industry-focused problems, do research work, and participate in various competitions and hackathons. CMRIT has also created Tie Your LACES (TYL) program which focuses on the employability of students by nurturing the holistic personality of a student.

“Accredited by NAAC with an A+ grade, CMRIT acts as a testament to the quality of education imparted by the institute”

Quality Staff for Quality Preaching
CMR Institute of Technology believes that faculty is the key to the success of students and the faculty keep their knowledge up to date through MOOC, projects, research, consultancy, innovation and entrepreneurship to understand the current industry needs. Adding more about the expertise and experience of their faculty, Dr. Sanjay Jain, Principal, CMRIT says, “CMRIT faculty constitutes of senior

professionals from the industry with rich experience in multinationals as well as doctorates from IISc, IITs, NITs and other premier universities. Faculty members also mentor students on a regular basis to transform them into a competent professional and develop holistic personalities. Mentors remain in constant touch with students to resolve their emotional issues, encourage them for active participation, help them to enhance their TYL score, and nurture them to move towards their career choices”.

All this hard work put in by the institute has helped their students to participate and shine in several international events including Silicon Valley meet up by ‘Fabs’ where their students presented ‘Ignite Talk’ at Stanford University, conducted workshop at the Google head-quarter in the US, attended the ‘Grace Hopper Celebration for Women’ event in the US with Google scholarship, and participated in Google’s I/O conference. As far as the future goes, CMRIT’s focus is on research, innovation and entrepreneurship along with excellence in teaching to help both students and faculty to grow. Enhancement of research collaboration with industry and premier institutes, granting of commercially important patents, creating sustainable start-ups, and execution of large technological projects for society by students and staff are an integral part of the institute’s roadmap. In the shortterm, CMR Institute of Technology, Bangalore is creating a culture of research and innovation among faculty and students by conducting various training, setting up processes, and creating support infrastructure that equip their students to go and realize their dreams.

Dr. Sanjay Jain, Principal, CMRIT
Dr. Sanjay has over three decades of experience across industry and academia, where he has had the roles of researcher, business manager, entrepreneur, consultant and professor. Dr. Jain has represented Hewlett-Packard at several international forums, interacted with Fortune 500 customers as well as with consulting partners such as Deloitte Consulting and Cap Gemini. He has managed global programmes for HP’s R and D product releases. He has also won several awards at Hewlett Packard for product releases, customer problem resolution, process improvement, and social initiatives.