Ms. Siji Sivanandan has been working as the Head of Electronics and Communication Engineering Department at Meenakshi Sundararajan Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She has done BE in ECE and M. Tech in VLSI Design and Embedded Systems. She has an amazing 21 years of teaching experience in Engineering College along with 4 years experience in the Electronics Industry. She is also the Staff Coordinator of IETE Student Forum, ARIA Nodal Officer and as Coordinator of SIP Institute. She has guided more than 50 projects in the latest domains of Electronics and Communication Technology. 

MSEC Chennai

Being the Head of the Department, what are your responsibilities towards the students?

"Guiding students in right direction and help them to set realistic goals for themselves is my responsibility"

Being the Head of Department, my responsibility is to guide and motivate students to complete their graduation course. My other accountability is to make them industry and society ready by inculcating good technical and communication skills in them. 

How do you bring in a practical and industry oriented approach towards subjects?

"To enforce this kind of approach, guest lectures, seminars, field visits are arranged for students"

Our department interacts with industry people on a regular basis. And guest lectures, workshops, seminars are conducted wherein resource persons from Industry share their knowledge, experiences and inputs with our students. We also sent our students for internships in industries to do projects as part of their curriculum. Industrial visits too are arranged depending on the subjects they study in a particular year to upgrade their technical knowledge and industrial exposure. 

Which best practices are offered by your department to the students to help them gain necessary skills?

"Technical competitions, guidance sessions are conducted by us in addition to giving them projects"

We regularly arrange mentoring sessions and contests for our students in addition to assigning them mini-major projects on a regular basis to strengthen their subject knowledge and help them to apply the same skills to solve real world issues.

How do you help your students to cope up with this competitive world?

"Appropriate training programs and industry-interaction sessions are organized after taking feedback from colleagues"

Based on the feedback received from internal and external stakeholders, training programs on latest technologies in addition to events like workshops, seminars and mentoring sessions are arranged for the students. Apart from this, regular interaction sessions with Alumni, Industry persons and Academicians helps our students to get an overview of the industrial development, demands and challenges they can face while working in the corporate world. 

Which extracurricular activities are organized in college to enhance the skills of students?

"Different kinds of NSS and YRC activities are arranged by us on frequent basis"

We organize a wide variety of co-curricular activities in our college ranging from NSS, YRC activities to inculcate social responsibility in our students.

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When you joined this college, what was your vision for it and how are you trying to achieve the same?

"My objective was to make this institute best for students and faculty"

When I joined this college, my vision was to make this college a Centre of Excellence by offering quality education to students and making them technically and socially competent and developing their skills as per industry requirements. And to make my vision true, we use effective teaching and learning methodologies, inculcate creative thinking through innovative and group exercises, develop and motivate research ability among students by establishing research linkage with leading industries. 

How does the curriculum of your college ensure the best practices of industry?

"It is an amalgamation of theory lectures, professional visits, apprenticeships and real time projects"

For the purpose of enhancing the industrial exposure and experiences of students and faculty members, our college regularly organizes events like seminars, guest lectures, conferences, symposium, ecube, internships, industrial visits in addition to assigning them real time projects on a regular basis.

How does your college enhance the skills of faculty and prepare them as per industry standards?

"They are trained through FDPs, online certification courses and events like seminars"

Our institute encourages the faculty members to attend faculty development programs, workshops, online courses and industries to help them learn new tools and technologies to prepare them in line with the industry standards.

What approaches do you bring in apart from curriculum to teach the students?

"Regular mentorship and peer training programs are offered to students"

We offer peer coaching, mentoring and counseling sessions to our students on a regular basis to train them in the latest technologies and to enhance their skills.

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What do you see as your college’s greatest strengths and how can it be enhanced?

"Our infra, education quality, collaborations and Alumni support are the main pillars of our strength"

The quality of education that we impart in our students and then their consistent performance in academics. We have also signed MoU with reputed industries, research organizations and foreign universities in order to bring the best programs, training and research opportunities for our students. In addition to all this, we have a well developed infrastructure in the form of clean and green campus, well resourced laboratories, excellent placement record backed by support of our Alumni who are working in reputed organizations. So in my opinion, all these things together make us strong.