Engineering cuttingedge courses
Thapar University, Patiala adopts interdisciplinary approach with greater emphasis on specialised courses, outcome-based teaching to give its undergraduate engineering students an upper hand Persistently reinventing itself to meet the emerging needs of the job market and the complex challenges faced by the industry, Thapar University, Patiala has adopted an interdisciplinary approach with greater emphasis on specialised courses and outcome-based teaching to give its undergraduate engineering students an upper hand. Both the new undergraduate courses to be introduced by the university this year-BE-Electronics and Computer Engineering and BTech-Metallurgical and Materials Engineering-are interdisciplinary in nature, thus catering to the industry's growing demand for wellrounded technical professionals with specialised skills in overlapping disciplines. The 16 undergraduate programmes offered by Thapar University in all the core branches of engineering present a fine mix of conventional courses like BE in civil and mechanical engineering and new-age BE courses in computer animation and gaming, and mechatronics, an interdisciplinary field driven by applications of mechanical and electronics engineering. The new BE course in Electronics and Computer Engineering integrates the two domains so as to equip students with the requisite skills to manufacture, install, operate and maintain computer devices that are automated with electronic control systems, something which traditional engineers are not trained to handle. The other new BTechcourse in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering involves the creation of advanced materials which can be put to use as ceramics in energy applications, composites in aerospace, biomaterials in tissue engineering, eco-friendly materials in green technologies, semiconductors in electronics, polymers in telecommunications and magnetic materials for storing information. While every industry relies on engineered materials, the advances in these materials can benefit the economy far more than the real value of the materials themselves. Students opting for the BE Computer Engineering honours courses introduced by the university in the futuristic fields of computer animation and gaming and machine learning and data analytics will get to pursue five additional courses in a duration of four years. While the degree in computer animation and gaming can translate into highly lucrative careers as content developers, layout artists and 2D-3D animators, graduates in machine learning and data analytics can carve a successful career as research scientist in top-notch companies like Infosys and Microsoft. With focus shifting from 'purchasing on-site' to 'purchasing on-line', and that too through mobile applications like Android, Java and ASP, such honours programmes will give Thapar University students a head start over other engineering graduates by equipping them with high-end skills suitable for such industry. Speaking about the university's cutting-edge undergraduate courses, Thapar University Director Prof Prakash Gopalan said, "We have already moved away from a content-based education system to an outcome-based one. What make us stand out are our cutting-edge research capabilities, highly accomplished faculty, enviable infrastructure and strong academia-industry linkages. Our passouts stand out from the rest, as reflected by our impressive placement figures year after year. Only last year, Japanese firm Hikari Tsushin had hired 12 of our undergraduate students at an annual starting package of Rs 23 lakh." Home to over 80 laboratories for teaching and research, Thapar University has a lot more to offer to its students through its comprehensive institutional agreement with the globally renowned Trinity College Dublin, which will cover the award of dual degrees, academic collaboration in key areas of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, joint research initiatives and student and faculty exchange programmes. The five-year academic plan worked out by the two institutions will cover four departments-Civil Engineering, Electronics and Communication, Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering. As part of this roadmap to broad-base Thapar University and benchmark it with global educational standards, a process of internal overhaul of all its processes is underway, ranging from pedagogy to research and faculty to curriculum. Through this contemporarisation-programme , Thapar University is aligning with the Trinity way of teaching with more emphasis on research-inspired teaching than classroom instruction.