The ‘School Of Electronics’ at KMIT (Keshava Memorial Institute of Technology) offers Electronics and Communication (ECE) and Electronics and Instrumentation (EIE) as the two branches of study. It is common knowledge that ECE has been a highly popular choice amongst the students and parents as it offers a large scope for a better career. Instrumentation is also not far behind and seems to be catching up, with its growing demand in the industry. Instrumentation is a core subject, which deals with the various instruments used in R & D and in almost every industry. The popularity of Electronics is evidently on the rise.

When asked on what makes this field a popular choice, Amrita says, “The growing popularity of electronics even in the times of recession, make it the best and safest option”. Mr Kumar, a parent, whose son recently took admission into KMIT says, “Electronics is a happening thing at present and will be in the future too. Added to this, it has great prospects”. With electronics stream being the most sought after, the colleges demand a hefty donation ranging from anywhere between Rs.5 and 6 lakhs in addition to the the annual fee of Rs.92,000 as prescribed by JNTU. Such is the demand that the seats get filled just in two to three days. Mr Amin, who admitted his daughter into ECE (Electronics and Communication Engineering) through the management quota, justifies the decision, “If my daughter’s future is going to be secure by spending a ‘little’ extra amount, then there is nothing wrong in it”. 60 is the intake for each of ECE and EIE, out of which 70% is under the convener quota and the rest 30% is under the management quota. Even though it is popular, many find it difficult to cope up with the subject. Narain, a student of 2nd year admits, “I regret choosing EIE because it is really exhaustive at times and is only for the hardworking and determined ones. So, a student should choose this field only if he likes the subject and is dedicated”.

KMIT is situated in the ‘heart of the city’, near Narayanaguda. So the students here have an slight edge over others because a lot of their commuting time is saved, which in turn reduces the exhaustion that students of most colleges generally face. The studious atmosphere and the reasonably good infrastructure with spacious classrooms and  labs are an added advantage. But Balakrishna, a second year student complains, “The infrastructure is not good when compared to other colleges and the labs are below par. It needs a lot of improvement. There is only one ground,which is not well maintained”. The college, located in a congested area, has a less scope for expansion and lacks a spacious campus. But all these factors can be overlooked because there are many academic activities going on in the campus. “Something or the other keeps going on in the campus. We have so many people coming and going. People from reputed companies like IBM, Adobe, Adtran, Sun etc., keep visiting and give us guest lectures”, says Kartik, a first year student. The campus has a Wi-fi network and has recently started the e-learning initiative, in which the student with just a computer and a headphone can have access to thousands of recorded lectures by renowned and famous persons belonging to various industries and universities. This program runs on a web component designed by KMITians themselves.

In KMIT, the faculty of electronics is well trained and qualified. Dr G R Babu is the HOD of the department. But as usual, the students are divided in their opinions on the staff. Zeeshan says, “The lecturers lack communication skills and are very strict”. But Rupesh begs to differ. He says, “Overall, the lecturers are good and they teach us the complex electronic concepts in a simple language. At times, the lectures get a bit tedious and boring, but it’s a part and parcel of this studies”.

As a KMITian, a student has the advantage of being up-to-date with various technological advancements and industry needs through programs like TRISHUL and various seminars by experienced people from the industry. So the student is shaped into a complete engineer with a very good knowledge and strong basics. There are so many initiatives going on like the recently conducted “XILATHON”, a Short Term Course covering VLSI, FPGA and Embedded Systems, which was introduced to promote Industry Institute Interaction by the department of ECE, JNTU  and Keshav Memorial Institute of Technology (KMIT) in collaboration with Xilinx. There is also IBM’s TGMC (The Great Mind Challenge) going on, which is open to both the Electronics and Computer groups. Brainchild of Mr Neil Gogte, the director of KMIT and founder of Genesis, the ‘Incubation Center’ was established in the college, which aims at training the students of ECE and EIE to take up projects from the IITs and industry under the supervision of Mr Vinay Patankar.

An Electronic kit. Credit: Coherent Cody

A good engineer needs to have a good knowledge of the subject as well as extraordinary practical knowledge and experience. The electronic labs at KMIT are ‘chalta types’ (just okay and not great). The instruments are a bit old and the lab faculty are also not well trained. Krishna says, “Good labs are very essential for us to get acquainted to the practical knowledge. The labs are not very good and they have to be be improved”. The college management has assured the students that it would definitely bring about some changes by next year. There are, in all about three labs and only three lab in-charges managing them.

Lastly, KMIT assures that the engineers are ‘Complete’ in their spheres. So all the geeks out there, who are fascinated by technology; here’s the right college you seek!

Educational accreditation provides an answer to this question. Educational accreditation is a type of quality assurance process under which services and operations of an educational institution or program are evaluated by an external body called the National Board of Accreditation [NBA] to determine if applicable standards are met. Domain of aspects that come under the purview of this process are the standards of pedagogic methods, infrastructure and above all the efficacy of the institution in making a graduate of every student who joins the institute.

When asked if any of this matters to the students entering their graduation, “Yes, it should be a crucial consideration when joining an institution as it is the basis for our future. I would surely keep in mind the accreditation factor while choosing my college,” says Manasa, an engineering enthusiast, who just cleared her EAMCET exam. On the lighter side, there’s Prithvi who shares, “It shouldn’t really matter whether the college is accredited or not. All we need is a degree at the end”.

India has a robust system of accreditation of the professional courses well recognized by the industry within the country. There are a total of 44 colleges in Andhra Pradesh, which are accredited, out of which 14 colleges belong to Hyderabad (Source: http://www.nba-aicte.ernet.in/). How many of them truly deseve the accredited status? Now the question that squirms up is whether this certification that is being provided is pragmatic or not! Accreditation surely implies that the college is well-accomplished and thus, for any accredited course of engineering taken up by a student, an additional fee of Rs.3000 per annum is charged by the institutes. The minimum expenditure incurred by the institution to obtain an accreditation ranges from Rs.50,000 to Rs.1 lakh per course (includes cost of the application form and other formalities). Prof. K. Rama Linga Reddy, the HOD of the ETM department of GNITS opines, “The concept of accreditation, when used in its right sense to improve the overall facilities of an institution, would be beneficial for the students as well as the society. The certification shouldn’t be exploited.”

GNITS: An Accredited College in Hyderabad. Credit: Enigmaitc Euphony

The question that follows is, does this effect the student’s decision in joining a particular institution? “Serious thinking needs be put in while choosing an institute. Accreditation may not be the complete solution but sure has its advantages because many educational institutions in the country flaunt in vain as the facilities and infrastructure they promise to provide, fail utterly and disappointingly. It is nothing but a braggadocio,” asserts Sudhir Kumar of IIIT, Allahabad. “I have totally lost faith on these certifications, how else would colleges like JBIET and CVR get accredited when there are many other colleges that offer better amenities,” concludes Rohit, an engineering student. On the other hand, there are good many educational institutions that facilitate the students with a good class infrastructure and facilities. At the end of the day, emphasis needs to be laid on the matters of utmost importance such as the infrastructure and faculty to get into an institute.

For details on the accredited colleges, visit the official site of the NBA committee: http://www.nba-aicte.ernet.in/

Despite the re-iterated fine tuning of the accreditation procedures, there are great many educational institutions that are accredited but are below par without meeting the prime requirements. The government has to tread a step further to curb this fallacious accreditation process and put a bridle and over haul the entire process because the career of the young citizens, the to-be national representatives is at stake. More than anyone else, the students themselves need to be judicious and sapient while choosing their ‘alma mater’.

The ECE branch at SVIT is headed by Mr. D.S.Rao garu, the EEE branch by Dr. Kesavan garu and the Mech by Mr. Bashaveshwar Rao garu. All the Head of the Departments have more than 10 years of teaching experience and are strictly concerned about the students. The EEE HOD Dr. Kesavan was the former principal of the college and later he is placed as HOD for EEE. He authored many books and one of them being Control Systems by Hitech publications is very popular.

The annual intake into ECE is 120, EEE is 60 and Mech is 30 students respectively. These seats are filled through EAMCET counseling. And the lateral entries are filled in the second year. The ranks range up to 50,000 in ECE and EEE, more than 50,000 in Mech. The counseling seat fee depends on the JNTU rules and regulations. The management seat fee varies from one branch to another. Due to the recession the inflow into ECE, EEE and Mech has increased drastically. The management fee for ECE was up to 6 lakhs, EEE is 4 lakhs and Mech was 2 lakhs previously. But due to various other factors it increased this year. Established in 1981, the Department of ECE offers a 4-Year B.E. and a 2-Year M.E. Degree Programme. The M.E. is has Embedded Systems and VLSI Design [M.E], with an annual intake of 18 students.

Placements:

ECE: There has been a steady increase in the number of students placed through campus recruitment in reputed organizations – Satyam, L & T, Wipro, Tata Consultancy Services [TCS] and CMC etc. EEE and Mech had no placements. “I am glad the college provides us with extra potential and support, even for those students, who attend external placements are provided with good guidance”, said a ex student. “I don’t think there are any placements and those, who are already placed got it outside the college as per my knowledge”, said Sandhya.

Infrastructure and Laboratories :

The Department of ECE is equipped with 12 labs, 4 advanced labs. Advanced labs like VLSI Design Centre (PPVITSER) are established jointly with PortalPlayer Private Limited Advanced Data Communications & Computer Network Lab established under CISCO Local Academy programme Digital Signal Processing Lab Embedded Systems Lab. For the EEE branch is spread over an area of 1,000 Sq. mts, the Department is equipped with 6 labs. The Mech has 12 well and fully fledged labs a central workshop with the facilities of Carpentry House, which imparts necessary skills to the student. “We don’t have the exact infrastructure in the labs and most of the times when we connect a circuit it won’t work”, said an ECE student. “We are provided with labs having good infrastructure and we have great opportunities given to try new things too at our labs”, said Ravi from EEE. “We don’t have complete infrastructure in the labs but whatever is there is sort of satisfactory”, rants a Mech student. “Our main problem is with Rajeshwari mam, basically she is very friendly but when it comes to labs she makes us stand completely through the lab sessions. Being strict is fine. The ECE dept is sort of caustic”, told another student from ECE. The college provides departmental computer centre, departmental library, classrooms with modern teaching aids and staff rooms. For details visit http://www.svit.ac.in.

Faculty:

The college management proclaims that all the branches are provided with good faculty and the faculty are very experienced too. When queried how true this statement is the students replied as follows.

ECE: “We have few good and few very bad faculties. Few are awesome they tell us hows and whats when we have a doubt. And in ECE, it’s like we have only 35-45% of such good faculty. Most of the time when questioned about something, they twist and twirl it and leave it without giving a reply”, averred Abhijeet. “Our HOD teaches very well and he is very experienced too. He is very serious about the behaviour of the students”, harangued Archana. “Personally I don’t have any problem with my faculty, they teach us and ultimately it’s even the responsibility of the students to read and learn more”, said Harika.

EEE: “Our HOD is the best person to teach but the problem with him is he is a very Hi-fi teacher. He will start the topic with words when we don’t know alphabets even. He teaches far better, which feeble minds like ours won’t be able to understand. And the faculty are good too even if there are only 2-3 students in the class still they take classes”, said Sai.

Mech: “Our ex principal was from Mech so that helped us a lot. He sent us for industry interactions and that was a matter to laud. Faculty is hopefully 50% fine. Pavan sir is very dangerous. He is good but one has to be very careful with him. We can pass off in exams only if one is caught copying then they will fail them. Lakshiminarayana sir is the one, who sets all the marks of the students in labs, internals and even for project”, told Sai from Mechanical.

Students at Electronics lab.

“As of now the labs are okay but they don’t have that ardor that holds the students to attend labs. Except for attendance we don’t have any other reason to attend labs”, said a second year student of ECE. “We don’t have any sort of issues with our HOD and we neither love him nor hate him. He has got a million brains fused into one”, alleged Teja from EEE.

The EEE students are best known for bunking and the Mech for ‘rowdyism‘ in the college. The ECE students are ambiguous. “We learnt a lot in the college. It gave us lot of opportunity to prove our talent and we are also able to protract our skills”, stated Vijay. The college has a good technical base and the main problem is with the students, one cannot expect the faculty to spoon feed every concept in detail. The course time is less and one always has to be ready to study for ones self too, after all now we are at under graduate level was the response of most of the students.

The ECE branch is rated 6/10, EEE is 7/10 and Mechanical 6.5/10. “Our college was established just 5 years back. It is on the way to achieve. The point of joy is that there are more number of students, who have very good communication skills, talent and mingle mentality. In the process of growth we achieved a lot till now”, said a faculty. “All the students in college are good; one thing is there should be someone constantly reminding them about importance of studies. I do that. The college management provides a wide platform for all the students in all possible ways and few can’t be given. The most problematic students in the college are second year ECE students”, said Narsingh, a worker at SVIT. He is better known as ‘Dean of the College’.

On the whole the college has all kinds of students. Few like it and few don’t. But many proclaim it as a good learning centre. So Cheers SVIT!!!

Chilkur Balaji Institute of Technology is approved by AICTE New Delhi and is affiliated to JNTU. The department of CSE at Chilkur Balaji Institute of Technology was established in 2007 with annual intake of total 60 seats each in the CSE and IT streams. The seats are filled through the EAMCET counseling with the college code CBTV. There is no donation for the above courses and the management seats are filled based upon the management quota fees prescribed by the government.

Mr. Jaya Kumar with an M.tech degree, is the Head of this Department. The Administrative officer, Mr. Raza contributes to the smooth functioning of the college. The Computer Science Department is designed to keep pace with the developments as they take place. The 40 ton capacity fully air-conditioned laboratory has 120 Wipro systems with centralized network round the clock with internet facility. The computer systems are installed with all the required software like Visual Studio, Oracle, Linux catering to the JNTU curriculum. UPS and generators support these labs. The labs are taken care of by the lab incharge Mr. Shaheed Syed.

Computer Lab. Credit: Vigilant Knight

Another computer lab, which is still under construction and which probably will be completed in a few days will help in overcoming the problem of insufficiency. The Computer Science department is planning for 280 dual core 2 machines operating at fast speed, all connected in LAN environments for the new lab.

Library is nerve of the institution. It has been strengthened year by year. It contains more than 1500 commendably categorized text books and reference books for the CSE and IT students. Spacious reading rooms are available. IT prescribes about 10 national journals along with the prominent national diaries.

The students are allowed to the lab only if they are in formal dress with their lab observation books up to date. Manjula, 3^rd year CSE student opines, “There is no partiality in giving marks in the labs. We get what we deserve unlike other college students, who loose their marks due to various reasons. The lab assistants and in-charges are  friendly with us but yeah, they are a little less experienced though”. Tanu, a 2^nd year CSE student laments, “Most of the new college are facing the problems of inexperienced and inefficient faculty. It’s good if the freshers get chance to explore their respective fields if they have proper grip on the subject they are handling, our department has good faculty for most of the subjects except for a few”. Pranita adds, “Ours is a new college and the first batch is yet to go out, so it takes time to get the things done, but with the cooperation of the students and management it can be made possible”. Suresh, a 2^nd year IT student laments, “I do not like the college management as it is works in sluggish manner, it takes a lot of time to get things done from them be it a scholarship or anything else apart from that”.

Mallika, a student says, “Computer experience can open many doors. Lots of jobs are looking for IT skills, but this is not the same as studying computer science (It is after all science!). It can be a very useful thing to have to fall back on if you have other interests, but its not advisable taking a break from it until you have at least 2-3 years work experience on your CV. Technology moves forward so quickly it’s hard to keep up and if you don’t make use of your degree pretty much straight away, you could risk getting too far behind the crowd in your skill-set”.

A computer lab under construction. Credit: Vigilant Knight

Sujata, a 3^rd year CSE student suggests, “They can take this stream with their eyes closed provided they choose the right college, which gives them the proper exposure to come up with their talents and at the same time they should be exploring other fields and the sides of their streams.

Babita says, “However if you find computers fascinating and are interested in more than one aspect and can imagine yourself working with them for most of your life, then you should have no problems with motivation and your only limit will be how much your prepared to put in. CBIT would rather be a good choice to go with”.

While the computing field is one of the fastest growing segments of industry, it is also one of the fastest changing areas technologically. Computing professionals’ education does not stop with the college degree, but continues with seminars, conferences and advanced courses and training. In computer theory and applications, new ideas are developed every day. Success requires an ongoing commitment to learning to maintain knowledge, skills, and career opportunities.

Surely after the recession has hit IT and CSE hard the hot favorites among the students have become the Mechanical and Electrical, but among the two the evergreen field is and will always remain is the Mechanical; considered to be the Big Bro of many other engineering discipline like Automobile, Aeronautical, Production, Mechatronics, Robotics etc, it still remains a great choice to be opted for in the Bachelors of Technology.

Ankit a student 2nd year of Mechanical engineering from CMEC quotes “Our Head of Department Mr. Veeraraju Sir is one of those few persons with a “NEVER GIVE UP” attitude…he is always encouraging. And that’s the reason not only me, but everyone in the whole mechanical department always regards him as an “Ideal Person”. I’ve learnt a lot. From him and still there is so much more to learn from him”

No doubt after reading what is mentioned above you may have guessed by now when asked to the students “Who is there favorite lecturer” All of them replied in chorus their HOD sir. And when asked about the rest of faculty members Gautham tells us all of them are good up to a point and are hard working in their respective subjects thou not motivating enough like their favourite Veeraraju Sir but not all can be the BEST right?

Mr. Veeraraju - HOD Dept. of Mechanical Engineering. Credits: Dynamic Warrior

The labs in the college are all set for what is required as per the current syllabus and every semester more and more buildings come up with better lab facilities for the students; as Ketan adds that they never faced any problems with the infrastructure especially with water overflowing and being wasted in the bathrooms they never had any serious problems with any amenities provided by the management.

All and all the course and the college seems to be the perfect place to be in but many disagree and want changes with the rules; the latest to do the rounds is the BAN on T-Shirts; as Prakash suggests “If the college is having any problem with any person’s clothes, they can privately have a meet with that person and warn him” they feel there’s no point intruding into the comfort level of the students.

The surprising figures are yet to be revealed as only 30% of the students said they opted for Mechanical engineering out of their wish and the rest considered it as just another option in the EAMCET exam or were made to join by their parent’s desire, something more like living their dream and pursuing a filed wish once they wanted to.

But unlike them many students shared with us why they joined the Mechanical engineering branch only, few like Niharika who said she was driven by the fascinating machines and how they worked and Sainath who was really very interested in robots and the machinery involved in making them work and so fantastic and interesting that they took mechanical engineering.

Mr. Nageshwar Rao Senior Faculty member of Mech. Dept and Guest @ YANTRA . Credits: Dynamic Warrior

Though being only a year old in college they have made there mark in college; and as they don’t have any direct seniors, the students from 4th year of Aeronautics treat them as there juniors and encourage them to participate in seminars and workshops together. The recently held Tech Pragna under the banner of MRGI- Malla Reddy Groups of Institutions, held its Mechanical Technical Paper Presentation at CMEC under the guidance of Department of Mechanical Engineering and Aeronautics; it was called as YANTRA and was a hit among the crowd, students from the mechanical branch showed great interests to make this event a great success.

Even during the annual day celebrations of CMEC the Triumph-09 students of Mechanical engineering branch performed a scintillating dance performance with their dance group called as “THE MIGHT MECHS” which became a rage among the college crowd after their entertaining performance.

So if you are interested in developing mean machines such as “The Terminator” or experimenting on the eco friendly machines of tomorrow; your next pit stop
@ CMEC – ME: The place for future Mechanical Engineers to be.

Instrumentation and Control Engineering (ICE), is an industry oriented course, which was introduced in 2002 by JNTU. The present intake of students at GNITS in this branch of Engineering is 60 per academic year. The admissions in this course are provided through EAMCET counseling as well as NRI quota. The fee structure is as follows:

Convener Quota (through EAMCET counseling): Rs. 33, 200 per annum

NRI Quota: Initial donation: Rs. 2-3 lakhs and annual fee of Rs. 94, 000.

The branch was earlier jointly headed by Prof. Y. Rajeswari & Prof. C. R. K. Murty, who have teaching experience of 8 years and 18 years respectively. Prof. C. R. K. Murty has retired from the post a few months back, thus the HOD of ICE department is Prof. Y. Rajeswari presently. She opines, “ICE branch of Engineering pertains to one of the most important functions in any industry. With the continuous advancements in the area Electronics, Communications, Information Technologies and Software, there has been considerable development in Instrumentation and Control Engineering. These advancements are being extensively used for plant automation, robotics, aircraft instrumentation, space crafts etc”. Few of the students, who do not wish to be named express their disapproval towards the HOD and a few staff members. They would like to see a little more responsiveness in their HOD regarding the problems of the students. They say that the lecturers need to be more knowledgeable in their subjects. Swetha (name changed) informs, “The faculty are so strict that they wouldn’t allow us into the class even a few minutes late. They need to be considerate regarding this as it is unavoidable at times. We loose our attendance also, which causes us trouble in the end”.

The following are some of the labs, unique to this department, where the students love to conduct their experiments:

1. Transducers & Instrumentation Lab

2. Industrial Instrumentation Lab

3. Analytical & Biomedical Instrumentation Lab

4. Process Control Lab

5. Control Systems I, II & III Lab

• CS-I includes experiments on linear control systems. Various parameters like pr, speed, etc are controlled by P, PI, PID controllers.
• CS-II also focuses on digital control systems like Robot control and digital communication system.
• CS-III includes design of linear and digital control systems by using MATLAB, SIMLINK softwares.

Apart from the college library, the departmental library maintained by the department has about 376 titles, which include books on Advanced Instrumentation and Control, Biomedical Instrumentation, Neural Networks, Projects with MATLAB, Project reports, Journals etc., which is an added advantage for the students so as to refer to the specific subjects required. The R & D cell of the department focuses on students aspiring to carry out projects, by using ARM processors and others.

The technical association of the department named as ‘INSTRUSPARK’ carries out different activities to motivate and improve the skills of students, like technical paper presentation, guest lectures by eminent professors and executives, technical quiz etc. and also non-technical events like elocution, debate, etc. The department wall magazine is updated every week with the on going developments in an artistic way so as to be both attractive and informative.

Analytical and Biomedical Instrumentation lab. Credit: Enigmatic Euphony

The placements for this branch are offered in software companies like Satyam, Polaris, Wipro, Infosys , Accenture ,TCS. Instrumentation Graduates also have good opportunities in core companies such as the HAL, Tata Projects, Keithley, Hareetha Engineers, Reliance Industries, Navyuga Power Corporations, BHEL, ECIL, DRDL, Siemens, Rockwell, Allen Bradley, Yokagawa, Invensys, Honeywell etc.

Based on the survey conducted among the students belonging to ICE branch, the following can be quoted:

“The branch is a synergy of ECE, EEE & CSE, thus covering all the important fields of engineering. It is very interesting to study and gives us a larger perspective of the technology.” __ Anusha, 2^nd year

“The events conducted from time to time under the technical association are of a great help for us to be abreast of the latest technical developments taking place. We gain both knowledge and certificates from them. ” __ Deepthi, 3^rd year

“Most of us are now well settled in our respective jobs in various fields ranging from software to hardware. We are fortuante to have studied in this branch that gave us wide scope in career options.” __ Rohini, pass out student.

“Freshers aspiring to study instrumentation can opt for this branch without any further misconceptions.”__ Deepika, pass out student.

A few colleges accelerated towards the top positions through the cut-throat competition while a few others are yet to nurture the basic requirements of a decent college. Whatever it be, GNITS in Hyderabad, affiliated to the JNTU has managed to maintain its stance over the years. The department of IT is being headed by Mr.Ch. Sesha Gopala Rao, since its foundation in the year 1998. His immense knowledge and insight of the subject pertains to his 25 years of experience, 18yers in the teaching field and 7 years in the industry respectively. When asked the difference between CSE and IT, he informs, “Computer Science is a field of science which deals with theory and foundation of information and computations and their application in computer fields, whereas Information Technology, as the name suggests, deals with processing and managing of information in an environment. That is the reason why we’ll never come across CS companies, all of them are IT companies”. Surely, that has cleared any doubt ever borne in ones mind about these branches.

Every year 60 students are admitted into this department, who are later joined by 4-5 diploma students in the second year. The admission procedure is the same as that of any other branch, i.e. done by dividing into two quotas, viz. Convener quota and NRI quota. About 80% of the total seats account to the convener quota, for which a yearly fee of Rs. 33,200 is charged. The rest of the seats belong to the NRI quota, wherein an initial donation of around Rs.5-6 lakh is charged for this course along with the annual fee of Rs. 94,000.

On being asked so as to why they choose this branch, Shravya says, “My seniors and cousins advised me to take it up as  it is considered the easiest amongst all other branches of engineering and I have no regrets”. When it comes to choosing a branch it all depends on the advice one gets, the interest one has or in some cases the EAMCET rank also plays a significant role. Priyanka declares that she has the natural liking towards logic and that is the very reason for her to take up this course. “Working on computers is far better than working with hardware stuff. Circuits et al are not my cup of tea”, shares Kavya of 2nd year.

Computer Lab. Credit: Enigmatic Euphony

According to the JNTU curriculum, the software languages that one would be well acquainted by the end of this course are: Red hat Linux-9, SCO-Unix , Turbo C++, Visualstudio.NET, Flash, Java, Dream weaver, Adobe Photoshop, Turbo C, Windows–NT, Microsoft Office-2000,C++,C,Oracle. Adequate numbers of computer labs are provided for the students, each equipped with P4 processor computers for the smooth running of the lab sessions. Apart from the computer labs, other related labs are also well maintained. “The faculty is truly knowledgeable and well experienced, that leaves us no scope for complaints. A few of them are strict but that’s manageable as the rest are very friendly and understanding”, chips in Ramya of 3rd year.

The technical association of the department is termed ‘Techno Boom’, which conducts technical activities like paper presentation, poster presentation, project exhibition, technical quiz and various computer languages based tests and activities, etc. take place. The students take part in the activities with a great deal of enthusiasm and thus learn the practical applications of the theory subjects they study.

The college has a brilliant placement record over the years and most of the students have been recruited into the IT companies such as the Satyam, Wipro, Infosys, Accenture, TCS, etc. Deepthi, a pass out student of the IT branch, currently working in Infosys informs, “If one has the right kind of aptitude and interest in working for the software sector, there’s no point in worrying about the recession. They need to concentrate more on their studies now than before, but it pays off well in the end”. All in all, be it recession or not, the significance of IT is never lost. It continues to lure many of the engineering aspirants and why not, when it is one of the best courses of engineering.

Harsha, a final year student has other views regarding recession. He says, “As the saying goes; every dog has its days, so do all the branches in engineering. It is our bad luck to have completed our degree in such tough times, where the same jobs fetch us only half the salaries”.

Agreeing with most of the students, the faculty of the college advise the students either to pursue higher studies especially M.Tech level course or take up jobs to learn the concepts and gain experience.

Felicitation Ceremony for FSW. Credits: Nisargh

The college houses two separate departments for CSE and IT with their respective HODs, who are Mr. A Venkata Ramana for the CSE Department and Mr. A Srinivas Rao for the IT department. As students from the college tell us, both HODs are very cordial to each other and always are seen together walking through the corridors, scolding the students. Students are just too thankful that they don’t teach together. A survey among the students shows that 80% of the students are glad to have their respective HODs but still nearly 20% of them believe that with the obsession these people have for discipline in terms of dressing and attitude of the students is unbearable.

As for the rest of the faculties like all the engineering colleges have, the survey conducted revealed the following results; 75% faculty members are experienced and teach well too, and out of the remaining 25% nearly 15% are experienced but as the students put it, they are not effective enough in their methods to teach them.

Ask the students, why they took IT and CSE as an option in engineering and pat comes the reply from most of them, saying; it was the best branch available at one point of time. Pratima, a student of CSE shares her agony as she says, “Mujhe kya pata tha yeh Satyam wale aisa kaam karenge ! (How would I know that Satyam owners will do such a thing)”. Like most of her classmates believe, it was due to the Satyam issue that the IT market is suffering from recession especially in the context of Indian scenario.

Richard Mathew Stallman at FSW function. Credits: Nisargh

But nonetheless not much has changed and optimists rule the scene as everyone anticipates that in a matter of a year or so the recession would die down and IT – CSE would back emerge as the leading branches for engineering students again.

With the prices of EAMCET regular seats this year going to Rs.32,500/- per year and the seats in the management quota ranging from 3 lakhs rupees to 5 lakhs rupees varying as per  colleges are still comparatively inexpensive to the counter parts of ECE and Mechanical.

As for the infrastructure, the figures speaks for themselves as a whooping 98% students believe they have good labs and other facilities, wonder what the remaining 2% had to complain about, no guessing! Few students want the air conditioners in the labs to be put to use. Well, now there is not much to ask for, after all programming is a strenuous task.

Laxman, a 3^rd year student told us he would like to change one thing in his college if given a chance, he would want to conduct more seminars and competitions for his branch, though they have Technical group called “Mavericks”, they still wish to carry out more such co-curricular events to prepare themselves to face interviews and get ready for the mean mean world outside.

Gnu Free software. Credit: Nisargh

Most of the passed out students of CMEC, especially IT and CSE have taken up higher studies and are currently pursuing MS, mostly in the United States of America. Surya Kiran, a passed out student of IT has successfully opened his own firm called as VOIS- Voice of Ignited Souls, Tina and Sandeep from CSE have opened a group called FSW- Free Software Organization, which mainly emphasizes on using free softwares, the world famous software freedom activist, Richard Mathew Stallman, President of the Free Software Foundation, had come to inaugurate the function held at CMEC.  And many other students have taken up teaching back in their college and are continuing with correspondence in M.Tech courses.

In the end, a piece of advice from the students of CMEC; Only the daring and brave can take up IT or CSE in this time and to make the going easy there is no better place than CMEC.

The Lica Lab. Credit: Painless Predator

Every year, the department of ECE offers a total of 120 seats. These seats are mostly filled under the ‘management quota’ as this branch requires a good rank in EAMCET ranging from 10000 to 15000. The fee structure for the students acquiring a seat through counseling (tuition fee) is Rs.29,500 every year and students have to shell out an extra fee (development fee) of Rs.10,000 for library and infrastructure. This fee is only taken in the 1^st year and is valid till the completion of the course. As far as the fee charged under the management quota is concerned, generally a seat in ECE may cost around Rs.5-6 lakhs, which is exclusive of an yearly fee of Rs.85,500. When asked if there are any variations in donations along the course of EAMCET counseling, Mr. Bhushan, a student counselor says, “The donations can fairly shoot up before the EAMCET counseling starts and can decrease quite dramatically with the second phase of counseling almost coming to an end. So a seat costing around 6 lakhs initially may come down to 3-4 lakhs. It’s just that one has to play the waiting game very tactfully in order to save money”.

The faculty of the department of ECE boasts of ‘supposed’ good faculty comprising of 18 lecturers, 8 professors and an efficient HOD but the students, as always have a different story to tell. Santosh, a student of this branch vents out vehemently. He says, “The faculty members are not that good. Even if they are experienced, it doesn’t matter when they don’t teach properly”. His friend Shravani, who is very adjusting by nature, feels completely opposite. She says, “It is totally up to a student to get accustomed to the environment as we really cannot blame anyone”. Another student Rohan feels, “Most faculty members lack communication skills. What they want to convey in the class is fairly miss-interpreted on most of the occasions. That’s their main weakness”.

The Electrical devices at EDC lab Credit: Painless Predator

Spacious classrooms, appropriate infrastructure and excellent ventilation can be regarded as added features according to the brochure printed ‘especially’ for the freshers. This branch is allotted with a separate building wherein students have an easy access to their labs, washrooms, restrooms (exclusively for girls) etc. On being asked if all the above claims by the department are true, Bhairav says, “The infrastructure, keeping the campus in view, is probably the best but as they say that ‘all that glitters is not gold’, the lab facilities and guidance is not up to the expectations. The availability of drinking water is a big problem but the toilets on the other hand are very well maintained”, he jokingly adds.

There are 6 labs exclusively available for the students of ECE. These include the Electronic Devices and Circuits (EDC) lab, the Communications lab, the Electronic Computer, the Aided Design (E-CAD) lab, the Linear IC Applications (LICA) lab, the Digital IC Applications lab (DICA) and the Micro Processors lab. Osman, a student says, “Gaining practical knowledge is very important in this field. Thanks to the lab attenders and in-charges, who explain each and every experiment quite convincingly, our job becomes easier”, on being questioned if there is an emphasis on field knowledge in labs.

The HOD of ECE, Mr. Kumaraswamy Rao, a retired scientist of DRDO, carries with him a vision to make his department the ‘Numero Uno’ of BIET. He is known for his effective oratory skills and administration capabilities ‘outside’ the ECE department. Though like always, the students have a different take on it. Ruchita (name changed) says, “The HOD is a very capable person but sometimes lends a deaf ear to our problems. We don’t know whom to approach in such situations. So ultimately we land up in the principal’s office, which again leads us nowhere. It’s very irritating”. Her friend, Akanksha (name changed) says, “Our HOD is a very experienced and a highly qualified person but it is very difficult to leave his room with a solution to our problems”.

The 'basic' facilities not taken care of. Credit: Painless Predator

As they say that ‘strict leaders carry strict rules’, there are rules imposed which are just not acceptable. When asked if the said rules exist, Arpit (name changed) says, “Definitely yes! We are not allowed to carry cell phones to college. This is insane. If any authority spots a student with a mobile even if he/she is not using it, the phone gets confiscated”. Another student, Tina (name changed) bursts out, “ The dress code violation raises a lot of eyebrows, especially for girls. We can’t wear what we feel like. We have to stick to salwar kameez all the time. Once a faculty member insulted me for wearing a ‘sleeveless’ top in front of the whole class. It was so embarrassing, I don’t think I’ll ever forget it”. When the students were asked on what they would like to change about the department if given a chance, almost all the students unanimously felt that they would like to change the lab facilities and the faculty members for the better but most importantly the misconception of ‘Ragging’.

As major fields like Computer Sciences (CSE and IT) and Aeronautics have taken a back seat in keeping the preferences of students in mind, official JNTU and OU surveys say that most of the freshers are keen to opt for Electronics as they feel it is not going to be affected with the recent buzzword ‘Recession’.

When asked for some important tips or suggestions for the freshers interested in this field, Kamya says, “ECE is definitely a very good choice. Placement record for this branch is very good especially in top companies like Infosys and Microsoft. Though a lot hard work and commitment is required if hopes of a bright future are to be entertained”. Her friend Deepak (name changed) adds, “Scoring in the internals is a must for obtaining a good overall aggregate.”

With so many energetic and  spirited students cultivating their aspirations in a positive direction, the department of ECE in BIET certainly has a long way to go. Only time will tell if they can live up to their self –claimed ‘Extremely Cool Engineers’ tag in the days to come.

Coming to the fee structure, the convener quota seat for any branch is thirty one thousand rupees (Rs. 31,000/-) and management quota seats vary from four to five lakh rupees (Rs.4,00,000/- to Rs.5,00,000/-). The branch has got special software labs like Unix, Java and Data base management systems etc. The students of the college are not satisfied with the present labs in the department. Bharadwaj, a second year CSE student says, “Labs are okay but they still need to be developed and improvised”.

The faculty in the branch are very well experienced and the faculty provides the best of information to the students. Vinay, the head of Information Technology department (HOD) says, “We are taking all the required measures to satisfy the students with respect to labs and library”. The college library has got different volumes of books related to the department. Deepika, a student of third year IT says, “The only problem with the college library is  all text books are authored by foreigners and it is very difficult to understand their slang and methodologies”.

Arun Kumar, the head of Computer Science department (HOD) says, “The best branch in the campus is CSE because the students are not only good at studies but also in sports and cultural related activities”. The second year computer science department is very well known for the sport related activities. The computer science department is also known for classical singers. Gayathri, a third year student is popularly called as ‘Voice of MITS’ and Nischala, a second year CSE student is titled as ‘Murthy Idol’. Shriram, Aditya, Sujeet and Shakeel represented the college at various competitions and brought a special name to the college. The branch is very well known for the helping and encouraging nature. Prithvi, class representative of second year CSE defines CSE as ‘Creating Sensation Everywhere’.

Information Technology department students are the most fun loving guys in the college. The college authorities show special interest towards the Information Technology department.Vinay, the HOD says, “The best faculty in the college is available in this branch. Management is working towards improvising the labs  and facilities related to students”. Trinath, a third year IT student says, “I’m  happy for being a part of such a  brilliant branch because it  has a lot of scope for developing and experimenting with the ideas”. Second year ITians are known for their innovative ideas. The branch has given out the best performances at various events in the college related activities. College fest is just incomplete without a performance from the incredible IT.

Sophisticated computers lab at MITS. Credit: Cool Conqueror

Students from Computer Science and Information Technology department played an important role in social activities like blood donation and national social service. The faculty of these departments are very interactive and friendly with the student community. Faculty of the branch are taking special care in guiding the fourth year students in choosing projects. The college management is inviting professionals from various fields to help the students in all aspects. The students of information technology department created various websites for the promotion of college related activities .The students of the department participated in various fests and symposiums and bagged prizes for the college. The college library has various books and volumes of books are available for the department. Information technology students have conducted various sport and cultural activities in the college and could reach the expectations.

The present scenario of software market doesn’t have a lasting effect on the students of MITS. This shows the amount of confidence the MITSians have got. On the whole the branches can be awarded a good seven and half on a scale of ten.