Dr. Alok Mishra is a director at Ambalika Institute of Management and Technology, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. He is a renowned academician and administrator in the field of technical education and holds academic experience of 20+ years. He is an expert member of the NBA Accreditation team of various colleges. He has organized and attended various National, International Conferences, and Seminars as well as workshops. He has published nearly 30 research papers of Journals of National & International Repute and authored 3 Textbooks in the field of technical education. He has been awarded the “Teacher of the Teachers Award” for his outstanding contribution and academic excellence in the field of Teaching. The institute was established in 2008.

AIMT Lucknow

Could you kindly enumerate a few lines about yourself?

“I am the director of AIMT and have a good industrial oriented knowledge”

I have been in this education sector since 2001. It has been more than 20 years for me. Before Ambalika Institute of Management & Technology, I worked at Saroj Institute of Management & Technology. Before that, I was working in the industry.

What are the key factors that have kept you connected to the education sector?

“Improving other’s life was my motto, hence joined this education sector”

I opted for this education sector as my profession because education is the most crucial tool you can use to improve the life of others as well as the whole society. Since we all know what drastic changes education can bring in our society such as Creating More Employment Opportunities, Developing Problem-solving Skills, Improving the Economy, etc. Also, it is our responsibility to give back to society what we learn and earn here.

Tell us about the patents you have received in the field of Artificial Intelligence?

“First patent was about integrated an AI software with a robot while second was about integration with robots”

We have 2 patents - one is a national patent and the other is an international patent. In a national patent, we integrated an AI software with a robot, and what we observed after this integration, the processing time of any function or any work decreases up to 1/4th of the original process time. Secondly, with the help of other software, we integrated AI software with robots and the robot can decide on a particular task after receiving some parameters or commands. 

What is your philosophy of leadership?

“We need to have a clear vision of what we want in the future”

The most important thing is to have a clear vision of what we want in the future. Secondly, this vision must be transferred to your faculty members, administrative staff, and students. Then one should have a clear-cut mission to complete that vision. When the vision and mission are clear, then one should have the capability to put the correct person in the correct place. I am doing the same thing.

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What are your strategies for the marketing & administration of your institute?

“Our presence is everywhere on social media be it Facebook, Twitter and the news bulletin of our institute”

Talking about my strategic planning about the marketing of my institute, we have several stakeholders and we disseminate our information and all our activities to these stakeholders. We take the help of Facebook, Twitter, and the news bulletin of our institute to enhance our social presence. We also promote entrepreneurship activities. This organization helps in assessing students from the first year onwards and then they share it with us. Our mentoring team then monitors this score and provides solutions to the students depending on our internal parameters. All big organizations like TCS, Wipro, and Cognizant have visited our campus and selected the students for their final placements. We strive to produce engineers who can help in generating employment via their entrepreneurial projects and skills.

What’s the ratio of students coming from the online and offline medium in your college?

“30% via online medium and 70% seats have been filled this year on an average”

We have been associated with online portals earlier also. We conduct various activities like WhatsApp sessions and Emailers. We get only 30% of the students from the online medium and usually, such students come from different locations. The students residing in Lucknow are well aware of our institute and they directly come from offline mode. Overall we have 70% of seats filled this year due to the pandemic. 

How COVID-19 has impacted your institute? 

“The basic vision of our institute is to fill the gap between the industry and academics”

Ours is the first institute in which online classes were started in the Lucknow region during this pandemic. Many students and teachers debate if online education is fruitful or not. This pandemic has eliminated this friction and the students also realized that online mediums can be one of the modes of lecture delivery. We cannot substitute offline education with online education because we have many students coming from rural backgrounds. These students are not comfortable with an online mode but they are trying their best to learn how to access it. The basic vision of our institute is to fill the gap between the industry and academia. There are certain modes such as training programs, workshops, seminars, and conferences by which we can achieve and fill this gap. 

What is your institute’s top priority over the next 10 years?

“To focus mainly in 3 areas including classroom teaching, laboratory skills, and technical training”

The gap between academia and the industry has to be reduced. We have been trying to achieve this through new processes and systems because this will certainly lead to better placement results. We have an in-house portal from 2013-14 called NTPL where lectures from IIT professors have been arranged according to the university’s curriculum and provided to the students. The students are happy that they are getting those lectures from IIT professors via this portal. This platform has become very popular after 6 years. We try our best to ensure at least 25% of the seminar should be multidisciplinary which was also promoted in the National Education Policy. 

What were your expectations and vision while joining this institute? 

“Focus is upon clubbing imagination with engineering and outcome-based education”

The management wanted us to focus on clubbing imagination with engineering and outcome-based education when this institute was established in the year 2008. Because we were following a very simple motto that until you imagine, you can’t move towards your goal and you need to put in a lot of hard work to reach there. We have always put our best in that direction and this has resulted in our institute being recognized in the UP Eastern zone by getting accredited. The focus is not just on marks but also on how the students can fulfill societal needs. The engineering students should be able to solve society's problems and this hands-on experience is a must which we provide in our institute.

What are some of the biggest obstacles you see in general for your institute?

“To elevate students up to the mark if their quality is not higher than the level we have defined as our standard criteria”

Every student who comes here to take admission is not the best student of UP. They are not able to differentiate between the institute's quality and don’t know on which parameters they should judge an institute. The basic concern of the students is the fees. If we reduce the fee, then we also compromise on the quality of the education. No doubt, our responsibility is to focus on all types of students and elevate them from the mediocre quality and we have always tried to achieve this high standard. We are providing the best resources, infrastructure, and environment. But if the student quality is not up to the mark which we have decided for them, then our vision becomes a challenge. We have been successful up to a certain extent but we still have a long way to go. Due to the Covid19 pandemic, the biggest challenge that we are facing is that the guardians are not ready to send the students to the classes. Online teaching is not enough to make students industry-ready, they also need to attend workshops, seminars, practical knowledge, and hands-on training too. 

What assurance would you like to give to students for their future and placements?

“We keep on conducting good technical sessions and placement drives on regular basis”

We have already conducted placements for 3 companies on our campus this year and have scheduled placements for another 4 companies next week. These companies conduct online interviews before placement. So one of the major challenges is being taken care of. I would suggest to students to secure good technical knowledge, attend classes and labs to endure their studies.

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Tell us about the infrastructure of your institute? 

“Labs like Robotics lab, 3D printing lab, PLC lab, and AI lab are established in the institute”

To fill the gap between industry demands and academia, the training programs have to be excellent. We have established different labs which have worldwide recognition like Robotics lab, 3D printing lab, PLC lab, AI lab, etc. Such kinds of labs are not available anywhere else in Lucknow. We have established a strong internal placement cell also.