Dr Sheetal Agarwal is an Associate Professor & Head Department of Civil Engineering in the Compucom Institute of Technology and Management in Jaipur. She has teaching and Research Experience of more than 16 Years, and Guided More than 30 B. Tech Projects for B.Tech final year students. She got the opportunity to do an action research project and worked with the Transportation Engineering Department, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada under CommonWealth Fellowship Scholar (GSEP scheme). She also has experience of FDPs (Faculty Development Programs) and facilitated Orientation Workshops for Students on Motivation, & Career Counseling.

Compucom Institute of Technology & Management

Being HOD of the Civil Engineering Department, what are your roles and responsibilities towards students?

"Monitor lecture classes, feedback sessions, and practical labs for students"

My primary role is to supervise the work of faculty members and staff members. I am regularly monitoring lecture classes/ practical labs execution as per RTU curriculum scheme. We provide mentoring to the students or offer support and guidance to the faculty members for implementation of new teaching methods Other role is to checking of subject lecture notes prepared by the concerned subject faculty and regular monitoring in the form of feedback session(s) with students regarding delivering of the course content in the class room.Meeting/ calling with the parents of students, especially defaulter students made by us and update the performance of their ward(s). Regular meetings with Class Mentors for analysis of student performance, monitoring of Notice board, students Google drive alias, batch wise student's WhatsApp app groups etc.are other duties of mine. 

How do you tend to establish healthy relations with the students and fellow faculty in Compucom Institute of Technology and Management?

"Support class room teaching, and acquire students' reviews from the campus"

Open line effective communication assists to maintain effective relationships on campus. Reviewing student/faculty queries and grievances, supporting various e-learning platforms and immediate connection to the teacher in the form of direct messages are beneficial to boost fruitful relationship on campus. We promote active students’ participation in the classroom teaching using interactive tools and methods. Our campus encourages constructive criticism in the form of Feedback, pertaining teaching methods, needs or expectations of students for mutual growth and healthy student-teacher bond.

How do you try to bring in a practical approach towards subjects and make it industry oriented?

"Provide internships, expert talks, and industrial visits for pupils"

Learning through hands-on activities such as prototype model/chart making to demonstration the working procedure of any object are beneficial for pupils. We arrange Expert talks from field/industry Experts for students and faculty. Promoting 'real life' projects’ in the classroom makes our subject more industry oriented. Students need to participate in a mandatory Internship of at least 45 days (As per RTU Curriculum) during the pre-final year. We regularly conduct site /Industry visits with students. 

How do you strategize the curriculum and get updated to make it beneficial for the students in Compucom Institute of Technology and Management?

"Update the curriculum as per University recommendation"

Our college is affiliated to Rajasthan Technical University (RTU) Kota. We strictly follow the curriculum as recommended by the university.

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What are your views on the placements and higher education of the students from your department?

"Great growth prospects in govt and private sectors are available to students through placements"

High Earning Potential is a great benefit of placement. The Civil Engineering Branch deals with the planning and construction works. Therefore, having job opportunities in both the private and public sector, as well. For civil engineering undergraduates, short-term industrial work placement /training programs provide a valuable learning experience. RTU, Kota also suggests INTERNSHALA portal to undergraduate engineers for upcoming/ presently available short term training courses throughout India. Pupils can attain great growth prospects. Few top recruiting companies in this course are L & T, Tata Projects, DLF Ltd, Essar Group, etc. serving quick appraisals in career. On average the salary package offered is around 2.5-5 LPA. Master’s in construction management, Project Management, Real Estate Management, Infrastructure Management are some of the courses offered by the Indian universities and institutes that are very much in demand. Besides this, Master degrees in any core branch such as Transportation Engg, Structural Engg, Water Resource Engg, Remote Sensing & GIS, Geotechnical Engg, Environmental Engg etc are also offered by IIT’s, NIT’s Universities.

How do you help your student to cope up with the competition that begins so high in the outside world?

"Field trips, assessments, and transparency are provided to pupils"

General Strategies for Successful Field Trip, Field-based Learning Experiences and regular assessments are given to students. We encourage students for positive competition and to compete against themselves by conducting regular meetings or increasing student interaction. Our campus promote transparency about competition performance. Analysis of performance mistakes by preparing checklists also made by us.

Do you have any extracurricular activities/ programs to enhance the skills of the students or expose them to real world challenges?

"Music club, sports activities, training courses and other programs are available to pupils”

RPSC/UPSC/IES/PWD/WRD/PHED Competitive Examinations Training courses and Higher Studies Entrance Examinations coaching are provided to pupils. Some of the software Training Courses enhance one's knowledge on Planning, Analysis, Design and Scheduling of building systems. We provide short term training programs on specific software such as Staad Pro, Autocad, Revit and Project Based Learning to pupils. They must visit site tours, participate in Music & Sports Club. Intercollege competition on Engineer’s Day is organized on campus each year. 

What are the challenges you faced/ are facing to uplift the quality of education of Compucom Institute of Technology and Management?

“Lack of Industry-Academia Interaction, student’s involvement, multidisciplinary approach and more are greatest challenges faced by us”

Monotonous Engineering curriculum of the university results in syllabus dilution with respect to industry needs. Some of the difficulties faced by us is lack of student’s involvement, pedagogy methods through ICT like smart learning, powerpoint presentation etc. and inquiry-based learning are not incorporated in any semester of engineering degrees. Pupils are less interested in web-based engineering course material like NPTEL on SWAYAM portal conducted by IIT’s.

We face a lack of Industry-Academia Interaction, multidisciplinary approach of the course and faculty updating with new innovations.

What are the interventions and approaches you bring in apart from curriculum to train/teach the students?

“Promote interactive sessions, experiential learning, real world examples and more to teach pupils”

Question-and-answer sessions, and discussion on real world examples are conducted in classes. We promote Interactive lecture (in which students respond to or ask questions), and quick writing assignments of the subject on campus. Our faculties promote experiential learning for students.

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What valuable advice would you like to the students for them to have a prosperous career ahead?

“Update your CV, talk to a professional and remove your worries”

As civil engineering is divided into a few specialized areas such as analysis, budget/estimator, project management, focus on your area of interest, enhance field knowledge and gain experience during the course. Teach yourself and be expert in the handling of site/lab equipments such as all surveying equipments such as Dumpy level, Theodolite, Total Station, Concrete testing equipment from Slump Cone to Universal Testing Machine (UTM) for FM, hydrology and soil mechanics etc. and update with various IS codes which will be useful in practice like IS 456, IS 800,IRC-code. You need to keep updated with the latest construction techniques, materials, equipment, research papers and upcoming research topics.During your 3rd semester, start deciding your career whether to get into field job or design jobs or any government jobs and start visiting the site to know how the theory is applied in site. Learn software courses like Autocad for drawing, Revit, E-Tabs, Staad Pro, Matlab, SAP, MS Project etc as per your area of interest. Always be in touch with subject books & teachers and talk to professional people for clearing subject related doubts queries and field challenges. Do not take health and Site safety regulations for granted. Always try to command good presentation skills and don't fix on a specific discipline too early in your career. Always Get your CV up to date and develop the habit to work in a team.