It is my last day in BITS Goa Campus. In India, we don't think of college as a luxury, but a necessity. This is both good (everyone gets more education) and bad (the quality of that education may not be good). After high school, we don't think 'should I go to college?', we think 'which college will let me in?'. And then there is the competitive examinations...at the end of high school, college seems like a refreshing break! Almost like a party.(It really was a party. a 3.5 year long one. It was not always a great one, but it comes to an end. Tonight.)
Arriving here, I think that one gets a feeling of permanence; 4 years seem too long a time to think about what will happen at the end. Even those that do have a hard time actually saying goodbye. But what happened in those 4 years? One has to stay for 5% of their life in a community of complete strangers! Of course, at the end, they are not strangers anymore .
I loved my room. It has really been a private kingdom: I had the freedom to do whatever I liked! I was responsible for my actions: If i succeeded it was my success; if i didn't, I learned and went ahead anyway. Because college is the only time when you don't have to pay the real price of your mistakes.
Ah, enough written! Let me enjoy the campus now.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Sunday, December 21, 2008
indian v/s foreign talent
One evening at BITS, we were thinking on the miraculous rise of the software industry. It has been a shining example of how talented we really are, but fail to see that. I wondered why is it so? Why is it that the japanese or the germans are committed to perfection whereas we are not?
I thought maybe it has something to do with the way we learn.
During 11th-12th std., probably there is no other country in the world in which the students study so hard to grasp the concepts of math,physics and chemistry. Hence, the people entering our engineering colleges are the top-notch, the best quality that you can find anywhere an this planet.
of course, then comes the gruelling 4 yrs of the B.E or B.TECH. So, perhaps it is at this stage itself that is reducing the quality of students??
Once inside a college, the examinations are scarcely as difficult or challenging. The instructors are not as good as they were in coaching classes. There is a general atmosphere of relaxation, as it rightly should, after 2 yrs of examination hell. but there is a limit.
This may not be the only reason, but i think that lax exams are one of the reasons. One thing i find lacking is the originality. I don't think that much thought is given before setting the problems. It is such a system that rote-learning is openly and thoroghly encouraged, as opposed to using your brains(there are exceptions, of course). perhaps the faculty should remember that one day, when we step out into the world,we have to face all the diificult truth, there will be no simplification. dealing with problems in the real world will require originality of thought,and a mind open to many different ideas. it is their responsibility to train us for this, that is the very purpose why we go to college. A degree is not just a paper on the wall, it is 4 yrs of hard-work, 4 yrs of making mistakes and learning from them. That piece of paper may get u a job, but to keep it, u will require the experience. it is the duty of the teachers to make sure that the experience is one worth recollecting, one which will really help us in the long run. Instead of setting 100easy questions , set 10 very difficult ones, and see what happens. I'm 100% sure that it will not be popular. But, this is what will help in the long run, what will make 4 yrs of our life really worth it.
I thought maybe it has something to do with the way we learn.
During 11th-12th std., probably there is no other country in the world in which the students study so hard to grasp the concepts of math,physics and chemistry. Hence, the people entering our engineering colleges are the top-notch, the best quality that you can find anywhere an this planet.
of course, then comes the gruelling 4 yrs of the B.E or B.TECH. So, perhaps it is at this stage itself that is reducing the quality of students??
Once inside a college, the examinations are scarcely as difficult or challenging. The instructors are not as good as they were in coaching classes. There is a general atmosphere of relaxation, as it rightly should, after 2 yrs of examination hell. but there is a limit.
This may not be the only reason, but i think that lax exams are one of the reasons. One thing i find lacking is the originality. I don't think that much thought is given before setting the problems. It is such a system that rote-learning is openly and thoroghly encouraged, as opposed to using your brains(there are exceptions, of course). perhaps the faculty should remember that one day, when we step out into the world,we have to face all the diificult truth, there will be no simplification. dealing with problems in the real world will require originality of thought,and a mind open to many different ideas. it is their responsibility to train us for this, that is the very purpose why we go to college. A degree is not just a paper on the wall, it is 4 yrs of hard-work, 4 yrs of making mistakes and learning from them. That piece of paper may get u a job, but to keep it, u will require the experience. it is the duty of the teachers to make sure that the experience is one worth recollecting, one which will really help us in the long run. Instead of setting 100easy questions , set 10 very difficult ones, and see what happens. I'm 100% sure that it will not be popular. But, this is what will help in the long run, what will make 4 yrs of our life really worth it.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Role ofEngineering Colleges
nowadays, there is a mad rush to get into a reputed engineering college. Why? the most obvious reasons are good career, prestige...and so on. but how many of those coming into our engg. colleges, these bright jewels of indian legacy, really want to be an engineer? What is the difference between an iit or bits and nit's and other colleges?
what makes a good engineer is not only his talent for a particular field, but his thirst for more knowledge, his wonder of nature, his scientific integrity....and so on.( so he's a kind of a practical scientist.) Most students nowadays do not realise how lucky they are to be doing engineering now, rather than 20-30 years earlier. There are very good books now that explain in a simple way all the concepts, the motivation to learn. We have internet. it is certainly much simpler now. so simple, in fact, that everyone wants to do engineering!
Getting straight to the point, i think that the basic difference can be readily seen from the course-structure of these colleges. In bits, our core-courses (viz.courses directly related to our branch) are taught only from the THIRD year. well, this was a very unsettling at first, especially since i have a cousin at NITK (Surathkal) and his core courses start from the beginning of 2nd year itself! so i wondered, what could possibly be the reason for this?
i realised that perhaps they (who set the courses) had in mind to create engineers who had a vast knowledge, who knew a little about every branch. and so we have everyone studying things such as mechanics of solids, which seem to be of very little use. perhaps i will see the whole picture only later, maybe it will help in the future in ways that i cannot foresee yet. i don't know how the students manage to study these things at all, perhaps marks are the only motivation or...whatever.
so anyway, by having a glimpse of each branch, i beleive that they hoped to train leaders, those who could see the whole picture, in whatever they did. and you know what? after studying 3 semesters at bits, i have really come to beleive in this idea,
we have touched upon such diverse subjects, that i beleive would not have been taught anywhere else. i think that if i want to know more about any other branch, the foundation has been laid. this is usually the most difficult (and boring) part, as the foundations cannot be easily developed. it requires a lot of patience and perseverance to really understand. and the best time to do it in when ur doing undergraduate work, when ur still full of youthful enthusiasm. if bits would'nt teach it as a course, perhaps i would have never had the foggiest idea of how other branches are. now, i do know. and i am glad that i do.
so, bits trains future leaders, whereas the NIT's appear to me as trade schools.( by this i mean thay they follow the 'usual' way of teaching, in which u have some rules, then using these rules you go further in solving problems. the question of why these rules are as they are is never raised, because that requires deep scientific understanding, which requires mathematics of every kind......and so on. this is waht is called 'engineering science', where you can understand engineering as a natural continuation of science itself. i'm not saying that u can derive everything from scientific principles, but you can derive most. and the pleasure of understanding how it goes, how the puzzle of nature fits together... is simply delightful.) there are few brilliant people (in NIT's) who will no doubt be leaders of tommorow, but i think that bits helps more.
what makes a good engineer is not only his talent for a particular field, but his thirst for more knowledge, his wonder of nature, his scientific integrity....and so on.( so he's a kind of a practical scientist.) Most students nowadays do not realise how lucky they are to be doing engineering now, rather than 20-30 years earlier. There are very good books now that explain in a simple way all the concepts, the motivation to learn. We have internet. it is certainly much simpler now. so simple, in fact, that everyone wants to do engineering!
Getting straight to the point, i think that the basic difference can be readily seen from the course-structure of these colleges. In bits, our core-courses (viz.courses directly related to our branch) are taught only from the THIRD year. well, this was a very unsettling at first, especially since i have a cousin at NITK (Surathkal) and his core courses start from the beginning of 2nd year itself! so i wondered, what could possibly be the reason for this?
i realised that perhaps they (who set the courses) had in mind to create engineers who had a vast knowledge, who knew a little about every branch. and so we have everyone studying things such as mechanics of solids, which seem to be of very little use. perhaps i will see the whole picture only later, maybe it will help in the future in ways that i cannot foresee yet. i don't know how the students manage to study these things at all, perhaps marks are the only motivation or...whatever.
so anyway, by having a glimpse of each branch, i beleive that they hoped to train leaders, those who could see the whole picture, in whatever they did. and you know what? after studying 3 semesters at bits, i have really come to beleive in this idea,
we have touched upon such diverse subjects, that i beleive would not have been taught anywhere else. i think that if i want to know more about any other branch, the foundation has been laid. this is usually the most difficult (and boring) part, as the foundations cannot be easily developed. it requires a lot of patience and perseverance to really understand. and the best time to do it in when ur doing undergraduate work, when ur still full of youthful enthusiasm. if bits would'nt teach it as a course, perhaps i would have never had the foggiest idea of how other branches are. now, i do know. and i am glad that i do.
so, bits trains future leaders, whereas the NIT's appear to me as trade schools.( by this i mean thay they follow the 'usual' way of teaching, in which u have some rules, then using these rules you go further in solving problems. the question of why these rules are as they are is never raised, because that requires deep scientific understanding, which requires mathematics of every kind......and so on. this is waht is called 'engineering science', where you can understand engineering as a natural continuation of science itself. i'm not saying that u can derive everything from scientific principles, but you can derive most. and the pleasure of understanding how it goes, how the puzzle of nature fits together... is simply delightful.) there are few brilliant people (in NIT's) who will no doubt be leaders of tommorow, but i think that bits helps more.
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