Department Visit

There was a notice circulated by the Head asking all faculty members of E & ECE department  to be present at the NKN Room at 4:30 PM. Some alumni of this department is to visit us. This is part of the Alumni Meet which had to be rescheduled due to pandemic situation. Since our alumni base is very large, different batches get preference in different years.

The NKN Room is at the 2nd floor of front block. Student volunteers were standing at the entrance and at the 1st floor, 2nd floor staircases, waiting to receive the alumni and guide their way to NKN. This 2nd floor is a relatively recent addition for the alumni who completed their study in 1980. An escalator is under construction now and is expected to be operational soon.

The student volunteers made us, the faculty members too, feel special. The in-person interactions have just started. While verbal communication has its own place, it is the non-verbal communication, even if it is a smile or a gentle nod, that creates the bond, the human-to-human connect, makes us part of one big family. 

On entering the NKN Room I was sweetly surprised. The 90 capacity room was filled to the brim except, of course, leaving some chairs vacant for the visiting alumni and Head who would accompany them. The major part of the room was filled by the 2nd year students. The 4th year seniors used this occasion to get them  integrated with the Department. This was first such opportunity for the 2nd years as they were online till now.

There will be separate meeting with all 2nd years when all of them arrive in the campus. In alumni meet, emotions run high as they relive in their past, there is time spill-over etc. Thus, we were waiting and it occurred that it would be good to have mutual introduction of 2nd year students and the faculty members. Previous Head, under whose tenure these 2nd year students were supposed to join the Department, took lead and then Prof.-in-Charge, Department Society took over from him.

I do take class of these 2nd year students. The offline / hybrid class started the previous day. In fact, ours was the 1st day, 1st class after 2 years of online mode of teaching at IIT Kharagpur. There was an informal meet before with these 2nd year students. That experience and the interaction here showed that all possibly were not bad in this pandemic phase or they staying home taking online classes.

After the introduction round, one faculty asked some of the 4th year seniors present there managing the show, why many of their batch-mates are moving away from core electronics to computer science / coding related project or career. Another faculty made them aware of the requirement of large number of skilled Electronics & Communication engineer to make the country self-reliant. It was also asked, according to these final year students, what is needed to buck the trend.

And came what many faculty members felt and told, but for one specific reason the same could not be taken up. The senior students told that it is the first year days that are most important in this context when impressions are formed, the opinion about one or the other career path is developed. In the first year, in their formative days, unfortunately, the students are away from departments taking some common courses from departments they do not belong to. 

The senior students continued. During their own 1st year days which were not online, their seniors used to come to their wings in their hall of residences and give all sorts of funda about career opportunities. And this funda was that a good job is waiting if one learns coding. The young kids coming fresh from their schools would accept anything from their godly seniors which is anything but not the fun of the core of the Department one belongs to. And, it is a vicious cycle. 

The remedy these senior students suggest is to have reasonable presence of Department subjects from 1st semester itself with some hands-on. Why is it not implementable? It is the department change option that needs to be included in the curriculum where a select few can change their department based on their 1st year performance while 95% of the students cannot. 

The opportunity to change the Department after 1st year seems to be very attractive. It may be all in perception as regard to what we gain and what we lose by going one way or the other. There might be some objective assessment in future by performing cost - benefit analysis. That might bring changes that these senior students indicate. That might not be too difficult in a curriculum that gives option of Minor, Micro in other Departments as well as Inter-Department dual degree program.

These 2nd year students missed those funda sessions as they are arriving now in the campus! This 2nd year, 4th semester is effectively their 1st year, 1st semester. And, they straightway land into the Department subjects. In a way, they wake up to see their core. The freshness, the purity, the receptiveness is evident in their approach and attitude in comparison to earlier batches. Hope, it continues and the department is able to deliver what it is mandated to.  

The alumni members started walking in. They spoke briefly. Among them was Professor Susmita Sur-Kolay, who was the first woman President Gold Medal (PGM) winner. She told that there are only six women PGM in whole IIT system till date. There were only 4 girl students in their batch coming through IIT-JEE but she is happy now to see improving gender-ratio in IITs. 

She said that IIT Education made her foundation strong for which she could learn anything new easily (so important in a fast moving technology space). The following short video gives a glimpse of few other things that she said. The second half of the video has Mr. Kabindra Daga, another alumnus who was introduced as an "accidental non-Bengali", where he sings a Bengali Bhatiali song. 

Head made a short presentation of the Department. Several unique features of the Department, its achievements, its current research focus and future direction were shared. It was highlighted that the Department ranked 92 in the recent QS global ranking, a reasonable improvement over its earlier rank within 100-150 space. Had international faculty and students been not a factor and also, if there was inclusion of undergrad performance for which IITs are better known, the rank would have been much better. The 2nd year, 4th semester freshers listened to these with rapt attention. At the end of the program, there was a walk around the Department corridors.

It was 6:30 PM. The faculty member who wanted to know from the the senior students the reason for current trend where many are seen coding-bound and, how to change the direction for greater good, came to my Department office room. We chatted for about one hour before heading for home. Of many different things, the following came in our discussion.

It is said that when a baby is born, whoever it sees first, it considers itself to be part of their clan. There is an anecdote where a lion cub raised after birth by a herd of sheep used to act like them and used to flee the place if a lion was around. In that story, one day one lion could catch hold of the cub and forced some remedial measure. But the lion was a lion and the cub was still a cub!