VidYouth

All the final year students are now looking calm suddenly. Though juniors have joined the colleges, nobody is facing the wrath of ragging by their super seniors, the final year students. The reason – They are themselves terrorized by a bigger scare called the Project Seminars. The time is round the corner when all the funky-junky hip crowd of the college also starts to dress in formals; one can witness people, who had forced juniors to call them “Sirs” and “Madams”, now wishing their lecturers in corridor very decently. They say impression is what matters, to score good marks in seminars and not the project or the seminar.

At C M Engineering College, the final year students of Aeronautical Engineering hoped strongly that the date appointed for their mini project seminar on 5th of October would surely be postponed to some other date in future. Abhishek tells us, “In the Aero Department all through out the course we’ve been given deadlines for projects, assignments, tests, etc. but never till date it happened as per the schedules and everything was always postponed.”

All the students thought that after they come back from the long holidays they had on account of Dussera and Swine Flu Special Holidays, they would be informed about a changed date, as mostly the non locals were still in their home town, celebrating the holidays. To the dismay of many, there was no such news and thus everyone was geared up to return and finish their projects.

Seminar dates were not changed and thus the arduous long day had started and the In charge of Aeronautical Department Mr. Prasad had announced in the class, ”Seminar starts at 10 am sharp and those who do not reach on time or are absent; shall be awarded a ZERO.” One among the students passed a comment saying “Giving a ZERO is not an award.”

The lecturer seemed undisturbed by the tense, worried and anxious faces the students, who felt they were present for a court hearing on a death penalty row. Air was still and the class was hit by a wave of silence, even the fans had stopped the creaking sound. It was almost as the life had come to a stand still; suddenly when Narender another student of the same class casually enters the room and says, “Emmi Mama ! Anduru inta silent unaru”{Why is everyone so silent?)

Here was a perfect example of an engineering student of JNTU, who was completely unaware about his mini project and that it was this very dreaded day he was supposed to show his presentation and give a seminar in front of the whole Aeronautical department. What was even more ironical was the next question he asked, “What mini project? I don’t even know which batch im in and what im supposed to do”

Half of the class was in splits and were rolling on the floor laughing and other were amazed by his care free attitude towards studies, all said and done he was advised to speak to the Head of Department and sort out his matter as soon as possible and avoid any more funny questions in the class room.

It was 10 o’clock and still half of the class was still not present, some were on their way, some were in process of getting the print outs done and the rest were stuck up in traffic. The principal Dr. Talla Siva Prasad had observed the situation and was irritated by the unpunctuality of the students and asked the lecturers to cut the marks for all the late- comers.

Finally at 11 o’clock the seminar started and the first group to go on the stage presented their project, which involved designing an Aircraft model on computer software – Uni Graphics, the team was the best chosen of the lot and was knowingly placed 1st as the Principal stayed only for 10 minutes listening to them and varied on with his regular activities. It was surprising to see very few questions were being asked to the students just the opposite of what was anticipated.

There were almost 9 batches and few individual projects altogether and by the end of the first session only 5 batches had finished their seminar; so after the recess was over the coming batches were asked to wind up their presentation in a more quicker fashion, though the time allotted for each group was 20 min, the judges and lectures were tired of the slogging presentations and slide show, even the questions were scarce and none seemed interested in what was going on.

The other projects included a study on RAMJET engines, a type of supersonic engines. (More than speed of sound); a report on Hydraulic systems of Air Bus 320, the design of Helicopter Robinson R-22; they all seemed similar, monotonous and the event grew duller and exhausting.

Other students busy preparing for their seminar. Credit: Dynamic Warrior

Then suddenly a live working model of “Self Operated Rover” was displayed by Pardhasardhi and his group and he said the purpose of this machine was to explore the strenuous and uneven terrain of rocky surfaces, such as that of the planet Mars, alas a project with a vision and perfect execution had appeared in front of the sore eyes of the staff.

The Head of the Department Mr. Veeraraju was all praise about the project till the very end of the event, he constantly urged the other students to come up with more practical aspects or working models as they caught the attention of the judges and surely made a point to the audience and above all fetched higher marks than the regular study projects.

The day came to an end and there were several Sad, Irritated, Happy and No Expression types of faces but the expression on everyone’s face was A BIG QUESTION MARK?
They all still pondered upon the thought, “How many marks did I receive”

And the thoughts still frightened their conscience; they prepared themselves for the days ahead to come which included more such seminars and projects as a sign of warning that said:

This is your final year and after this, is the world outside which awaits you with more challenges to face on, so get well prepared now itself when the grass is still dry.