Lohakare Ninaad Neeraj|| Candidate for Vice-President|| 2019–2020
Proposal I: Placement Calendar
Overview:
IIT Kharagpur has a pool of large students involved in not just engineering but also in different aspects like data analytics, finance and software development. One of the most important aspects of engineering students is to obtain a good internship and/or placement, for which, students should be aware of the current scenario to improve themselves for industrial exposure. Students are usually unaware of the expectations of the companies and prepare on the basis of their placements. Students also face problems in non-technicalskills such as soft skills, emotional intelligence, and efficiency. I want to tackle these problems in order to help pre-final and final year students build a successful career by creating a “placement calendar” where knowledge of previous years’ placements and internships along with preparation material and boot camps will be used find their scope of necessary improvement. Although this drive will function throughout the semester, major events like workshops, bootcamps will be covered within a month . Another important tool in placements is Curriculum Vitae. Usually, CV making through ERP causes many problems due to its structure. I propose to make a new web portal which will be monitored by the CDC office for making CVs such that the primary information like Cumulative Grade Point Average(CGPA), roll number, is taken from the ERP portal. This will increase the efficiency of CDC in solving issues of students regarding CV editing.
Proposal:
I propose the following to increase the smoothness and efficiency of the procedure followed by the CDC for placements and internships:
●Conducting a placement drive for workshops regarding different fields and their preparations.
●Conducting online mock tests in collaboration with Moodle.
●Conducting mock group discussions evaluated by Alum Webinars/visits.
●A portal will be created for CV collection which will be made by Gymkhana editors and monitored by CDC.
Functioning and Timeline:
Students will get to know about workshops through the CDC notice board. The following timeline will show the workflow of placement drive tentatively.
Impact:
Students who are appearing for placements and internships will get exposure to tests and group discussions, interviews which they will face in during placement season. Some of the students who have technical domain knowledge but are lacking in communication skills will get to know their area of improvement. This will be a very beneficial career building exercise which will help them to endeavor not just placement session but also a corporate life in the future. Web platform for making CVs will improve the efficiency of solving different problems related to CV editing. After shifting the portal management from ERP, CDC will be able to monitor and resolve the complaints of students easily.
Background:
IIT Bombay conducts placement preparation program through their placement cell to ensure training and endorsing of necessary skills for students before the actual placement session. They are successful in carrying out this event with a good amount of turnover by students. Workshops and powerpoint presentations conducted by companies don’t tell about the necessary required skills and preparation for the screening process. Hence, the placement drive will serve to be an important platform in preparations.
Proposal II: Academic Flexibility
Overview:
The IIT KGP student community is one of the most versatile, energetic and enthusiastic student communities in the world, with a very fast pace of learning and an exponentially increasing learning curve. However, there are problems that hinder this system. The current interdisciplinary integration of course structure, whereby pursuing interdisciplinary courses is unnecessarily time-consuming, can be greatly improved upon. Also, students who want and are capable of pursuing other opportunities and/or gain more working experience are constrained by a rigid curricular structure. To support the fast pace of studies and to provide a wide range of learning experiences, I propose to introduce 2 programs: one which will allow students to take a set number of courses from any department of their choice and complete a Masters’ course in the said department; and another that allows students to complete their credits earlier and pursue any internship or research opportunity of their choice.
Proposals:
I propose to have a new interdisciplinary system in place where it is possible for students to secure a Master’s degree in a department other than their own, implemented in the following manner:
●Every department releases a list of subjects that one must complete in order to complete an MTech Degree. This curriculum includes the MTech Project, Dual Degree Viva & Summer Training that the student must complete under the department offering the degree in addition to these listed subjects.
●Students, at the end of their third year, are offered an opportunity to choose the department they want to complete their Master’s in. For dual degree students, this amounts to converting their Master’s specialization to the departments offering the same, and for BTech students, this implies that they can pursue a fresh Master’s degree in a new department after their third year.
●It remains the responsibility of the student to complete the prerequisites required to pursue the interdisciplinary Master’s degree by his third year, which shall be mentioned within the curriculum released by each department.
●The number of seats for each degree will be decided by the department offering the degree,
and the selection shall be on the basis of CGPA ranking of the students applying
I propose to facilitate the early exit of students from the institute, provided they complete the required number of credits as stipulated in the curricula, at which point they are handed their degree, implemented as follows :
●Every student has the option to present the additional courses that he has taken over his stay at IIT Kharagpur as the electives and breadths that are required to be completed according to his departmental curricula, that is, the student may register a subject he/she wants to complete as an addition during the present semester as an elective/breadth for a future semester.
●The student may also take up future depth courses as additional courses, provided he/she has already completed the prerequisite courses.
●At the end of his fifth semester, the student shall be offered an opportunity to register for his BTP and complete BTP I & BTP II in his sixth & seventh semester. He/She may also replace his BTP by taking up subjects, as is allowed at this moment.
●There will be checks and balances in place, that is, approval by the Head of Department and/or Faculty Advisor for the electives that the students wishes to take up.
Impact:
●Students will proactively involve themselves in academics and an environment of healthy competition is created among peers.
●Students will form better career choices as they will have significantly higher first-handworking experience in different fields.
●Students will have the flexibility of opting certified Masters’ programs in different fields of their choice. This will help them in their placements as well as in their studies further.
●The relaxation in the constraints of subjects and number of credits, will give the students more flexibility and an increased command over their curricula and therefore an increased power to shape their own future.
Background:
●We studied the interdisciplinary Bachelor’s + Master’s programs offered at BITS Pilani, and the success of the same in terms of student opinion and placement, and research statistics.
Proposal III: Mess Operations Optimization
Overview:
Wastage of food is a huge problem plaguing society in general. As a government organization of people, it is the duty of the institute to ensure that resources related to food procurement be used wisely. There needs to be a system in place whereby minimum wastage of food is ensured taking into account the students’ food habits, and propose an efficient system for the same.
Proposal:
I propose to make a portal which will take inputs from the students whether they want to have breakfast, lunch, snacks, and/or dinner. The input needs to be submitted a day before and the manager would be notified about the number of students for which the food has to be prepared and accordingly the manager would tell make arrangements. Furthermore, attendance of students could be maintained with the help of Students’ Identity card and accordingly the mess charges would be finalized for each student at the end of the semester, and the balance will be carried forward.
Impact:
●The wastage of food could be minimized by a considerable amount.
●The quality of food cooked could be checked by the responses of the students.
●The mess charges could be decided on the basis of the days the students have their food and the balance can be used by the students to take extra food items (biscuits, chips, sweets etc) in the subsequent month.
Features:
●Daily review/feedback system will exist. The daily reviews will be looked after by the general secretary/secretary mess of each hall of residence.
●There will be an option to cancel any meal, minimum 24 hours before the same. This willin-turn reduce the mess wastage.
Background:
IIT BHU has a similar mess system where they take inputs from the students and accordingly the quantity is decided and it is running smoothly. We have talked to managers of different halls in our campus regarding the quantity of food prepared and we got to know that the actual demand highly variable which leads to wastage of food on some days.
Proposal IV: E-Rickshaw
Overview:
IIT Kharagpur has a huge campus and thousands of people staying within it. Every day students, professors, and staff have to travel hundreds of meters to and fro within the campus. Although the institute provides bus facility, they only run at fixed routes and at fixed timings. Often students have to travel to places which are not on the bus routes and at times other than the bus timings. There is no such transport currently which will help people in such situations. Although cycle rickshaws are available, students avoid using them as they find them slow and they even charge more even for short distances and can only accommodate only 2 people at a time. I propose the introduction of Electric Rickshaws which should cater to the needs of the KGP community and will act as a convenient, affordable and an efficient way of commuting anywhere within the campus.
Proposals:
I propose the introduction of campus e-Rickshaws in IIT Kharagpur which will help people commute anywhere within the campus at any point in time. There will be defined locations of e-Rickshawstands from where people can get an e-Rickshaw and they can be charged accordingly. Some features of Campus e-Rickshaws are:
●They are battery operated and hence do not cause any pollution
●They can accommodate 6 to 13 persons at a time (depending upon the capacity)
●They are faster than cycle rickshaw (maximum speed 25 km/hr)
●They are affordable (Rs 10 per person per ride from any point in campus to any other point)
●They can cover up to 100 km per charge which takes only 7–8 hours
●One charge consumes around 6 units of electricity, i.e, about Rs. 30
●They are convenient during rains and harsh sun
Impact:
●Students will be able to conveniently commute anywhere within the campus.
●It will also help the girls’ community and specially challenged people to travel as during rush hours buses are almost fully packed.
●Students will be able to commute faster and save time.
●It will help participants during fests and events, especially during Inter IIT Sports Meet as grounds are far from some Halls of Residence.
●It will also help students during rainy seasons as they usually get wet while traveling through cycles to class or labs.
Background:
●e-Rickshaws are extensively being used at IIT Roorkee and students find it very convenient.
●e-Rickshaws have also been implemented in IIT Bombay and the impact is also positive.
●We have contacted the company Maini Buggy for the same and have called in the necessary documents.
Annexure
Proposal 1
●In order to conduct bootcamps , I will approach external companies like HackerRank ,CoCubes ,HackerEarth, Mettl, First Naukri ,etc.
●Alumni will judge the group discussions either through webinars or through physical visit .
●It was confirmed through the moodle office that it is possible to conduct such tests. Due to technical limitations , test of maximum 500 students is possible.Slots will be provided on the basis of prior registration.
●Website for CV collection will be made by Gymkhana editors and web team of CDC. Portal will be linked to ERP. The portal will provide digital signature to the ERP to verify the CV.
Proposal 2
●Credits have to be adjusted accordingly so as to facilitate the flexibility.
Proposal 3
●In case any of the student is not registered on the portal or wants to give the preference offline then it can be done with a sheet which will be maintained by the mess manager in each hall of residence.
Proposal 4
●The various E-Rickshaw parking spots will be — Tikka, Opposite Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya of Residence, PAN Loop, Gymkhana, Food City, Tech Market & Nalanda primarily.
Disclaimer: The format and content of all the Proposals are given by the candidates only. No editing has been done by Awaaz.
