Visvesvaraya Technological University - Tracking its progress

My Blog is now tracking the progress of Visvesvaraya Technological University(The largest university in karnataka):

Now that the VTU has gone in for choice based credit system(CBCS) starting from the year 2015 itself we are in for major changes both in curriculum and pedagogy. In the older scheme of things the curriculum was revised once every 4 years. The university which started in the year 1998 and had the first set of curriculum revision with the 2002 scheme. Then came the 2006 scheme, 2010 scheme and the 2014 scheme. As far as my memory serves me right the university had four vice chancellors till date. Dr. S. Rajashekharaiah followed by Prof. Dr. K. Balaveera Reddy followed by Dr. H.P. Kincha followed by Dr. H. Maheshappa. While 2014 scheme did not get implemented beyond one year we have seen a new system. I read a news article today where even students of 2014 are asking for CBCS.

Among other notable improvements that happened in the university were

1) Somewhere in 2012 the university experimented with Digital Valuation. MindLogix was the company which got the contract for the software. The proposal was to scan answer scripts and display their image on computer screen and let evaluators value the scripts from any computer lab in any of the colleges.

This made the evaluation process very simple and easier. Earlier faculties had to carry around the answer bundles in designated valuation centers. Had to get them issued and then returned. They even struck work for low remuneration in valuation several times.

2) QPDS(question paper distribution system) is an online system where a special software in all colleges downloads the question papers just about half an hour to ten minutes before the start of the exam. There are special printers meant to print the question papers within a short time. An alternate mechanism of opening an encrypted CD with special keys also exists.

3) As already mentioned the number of units were reduced in 2014 scheme from eight to five modules and one question from each module was compulsory in the semester exams.

4) The university got a regional office in Bangalore along with each of the other regions such as mysore, gulbarga, belgaum etc.

5) Several initiatives in E-learning were taken, streamlining the PhD process etc.

6) VTU cracked the whip in controlling the menace of websites tuned to helping the students in passing the exam or scoring more marks or accessing the past question papers and VTU only books.

Dummies guide to becoming the HOD

This post starts off as fun and makes a few serious points towards the end.
So you have come to a point where you are about to don the role of a Head Of the Department but find your seat a little shaky or your stomach full of butterflies, i can understand.

Take down these points and your life could be smoother in your position.

I have myself never been an HOD but was "stand in" several times. Here are a few duties that HODs are usually expected to perform.

At the start of the semester:

• Make time-tables, Distribute individual time tables to faculty, Get new supplies of chalk pieces(nitty gritties), attendance registers, dusters etc and get the new semester student lists made and supplied to teachers.

• Get the lesson plans from the faculty, advise faculty to make a unitwise question bank to be circulated to the students(preferably taken from past question papers- assuming your institute is not autonomous or deemed).

• Conduct departmental meeting before commencement of semester, send to university data of new students, analyze results of previous semesters and update student list.

• Ask faculty to make question bank and question paper for each internal, make a list of students ineligible for internals, make time table for lab internals, prepare lab exam time table and send for approval along with faculty list.

• Collect exam fees from students and make such students apply for exams online. Collect fine and issue hall tickets, make faculty enter internal marks in university portal.

• Make question paper for lab exams ready, allot subjects for next semester, take signature of students in internal marks list, take students options for elective subjects next semester, Plan recruitment for next semester etc.
• Arrange stock taking every semester, replace worn out equipment, make a departmental budget, manage finances of small expenses like chai paani etc.

Apart from all these tasks attend innumerable meetings ....this list of activities is not complete. You don't know, what will hit you from where. There are several activities that need to be carried out. In short life of the head of the department entails taking on a lot of responsibilities. Internal conduction and semester exam conduction may be given on a turn by turn basis to your department. In some colleges valuation work puts a lot of stress on your existing faculty. Colleges are always short of good hands. A new trend is to get accredited and it has increased pressure on faculties to document. When your faculty are not upto the mark in research then you will need a lot more documents to prove that they are doing good work.
Events like college day, freshers party, farewell and intercollegiate fests also involve a lot of coordination and management skills.
Concerned parents come to meet and ask for placement record and inquire about hostel facilities. They are also interested to know any additional activities that the department undertakes. They want to be informed about progress of their ward by SMS. They want a website to login and monitor attendance of their children. Some parents encourage their ward to be absent in a few days at the start of the semester. Students do not take attendance seriously. Many would not be having sufficient internal and average to attempt semester exams.
Faculties have to be encouraged to attend conferences and workshops. Conferences and workshops need to be conducted in campus. It is a daily chore to arrange alternate faculty for some teachers who are absent on that day.
Drudgery in the life of a teacher implies the teaching gets affected. Higher education in India definitely needs a rejig but aspiring teachers need to keep in mind that their life will not be a bed of roses.
Of course you get to address a class and you can speak your mind out to them.
If you are already an HOD i empathize with your predicament. If you are unmarried and young, A big salute from my side. There will be constant office politics and daily fights on trivial issues between faculty members just seem to blow up out of proportion. Pressure to publish, face a comprehensive Viva or open defense etc. I swear on my mother I did not know before I joined the job.
So my fervent request to smriti irani ji is to create a database of researchers/teachers at the national level and keep track of their affiliation with various universities either for granting funding or keeping a tab on high attrition of PhDs.
One more thing: Why the partiality of biometric attendance for faculties of private colleges who are punctual and no biometric for government school teachers who are on unsanctioned leave 25% of the time?
Higher education is going to undergo a shakeup and consultations are in progress on what steps need to be taken, with regard to the future of AICTE or UGC or Education for that matter. Teachers are held in high esteem the world over but in India the position is not sought after esp at the school level. This is because small but good schools(read as capable management) are not allowed to grow and cannot compete with profit minded investors called educational entrepreneurs. It needs a minimum of 10 crore to set up a school. A key requirement of schooling laws is they cannot operate in rented premises. This cuts out any possibility for a good teacher to teach and grow big. Only people with money can start a school. That means hard working graduate who aspires to grow as a teacher cannot be set apart from the lazy ones.
The question you must have in mind after reading this post should be what extra are the teachers doing other than teaching.. something that any graduate of any field can do and even in teaching how to ensure world class quality? The answer was quite evident from the start and that is research. Every little child in the country want's to be a scientist but after growing up and knowing what research is starts to hate/dread doing it(as was in my case). Please bear in mind that research is a very slow process... slower if you are lazier. Youngsters should be given the right guidance/literature to read in their formative years and with time I am sure would grow up to be giants in their fields of study.
Read about a revolutionary idea of Direct Benefit Transfer in Education in the post: Vouchers for the Right to Education

Third Internal Questions Advanced Algorithms

1. Give the overlapping suffix lemma along with its graphical proof and explain the Naive string matching algorithm.(Code Here)
2. In the RabinKarp algorithm Explain how a string is formulated as a decimal number of radix d using horner's rule and how shifts of its substring are achieved. Why is q chosen such that dq fits in one word? Finally give the Rabin-Karp Algorithm.(Code Here)
3. In Finite Automaton based string matching explain how the transition function is computed and how is it used in the finite automaton matcher.(Code Here)
4. Give the Knuth-Morris-Pratt algorithm along with the compute prefix function.(Code Here)
5. Give the Boyer-Moore Algorithm for pattern matching.(Code Here)

All the Best

ADVANCED ALGORITHMS-2ND INTERNALS Question Bank

CITY ENGINEERING COLLEGE

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE & ENGINEERING

M.TECH 2^ND SEM

ADVANCED ALGORITHMS

2^ND INTERNALS Question Bank

1. Explain flow networks and flows with an example.
2. Explain the ford-Fulkerson method. Explain in detail residual networks, augmenting paths and and cuts in the flow networks. Also state the Max-flow Min-cut theorem.
3. Explain maximum bipartite matching problem.
4. Explain polynomial with coefficient representation and point value representation. How is fast multiplication of polynomials in coefficient form accomplished?
5. Explain what are complex roots of unity along with the cancellation lemma, halving lemma and summation lemma. How do you evaluate a polynomial using DFT?
6. Explain the recursive FFT implementation.
7. Explain the iterative FFT implementation.
8. Explain primality testing using miller-rabin randomized primality test. Explain in detail the WITNESS and MODULAR_EXPONENTIATION functions.
9. Explain integer factorization using the pollard's rho heuristic.
   
   
   ~~~~All The Best~~~~

Management and Entrepreneurship - II nd Internal Question Bank

Unit-3

(1) Explain in brief the various types of departmentation. 

(2) What do you mean by span of control? Explain the factors affecting span of 

                               it. 

(3) Distinguish between (a) Authority and responsibility. (b) Delegation and 

                   Decentralization. 

(4) Authority can be delegated but not responsibility. Comment on this 

                    statement. 

(5) Explain in brief the centralization and decentralization. 

(6) Write a note on Management by objectives. 

(7) Explain the features of MBO. 

 

(8) Explain in brief the steps involved in MBO. 

(9) Write a note on benefits of MBO. 

(10) Explain in brief the nature and importance of staffing. 

(11) Explain various sources of recruitment. 

(12) Explain the steps involved in selection process. 

Unit-5 

1. Explain in brief the concept of entrepreneur. 

2. Give various definitions of entrepreneur. 

3. Enumerate the characteristics of entrepreneur. 

4. Distinguish between entrepreneur and manager. 

5. Write a note on technical entrepreneur. 

6. What are the rewards and penalties for entrepreneurs? 

7. Explain in brief the functions of entrepreneur. 

8. Explain in brief classification of entrepreneurs. 

9. Distinguish between entrepreneur and Intrapreneur. 

10. Write a note on ultrapreneur. 

11. Explain in brief the evolution of concept of entrepreneurship in India. 

12. Explain in brief the role of entrepreneurship in economic development. 

13. Explain in brief the stages in entrepreneurial process. 

14. Write a note on barriers of entrepreneurship.

Questionnaire for Faculty - NBA - Accreditation

Questionnaire for Faculty

1)      How frequently is the curriculum reviewed?

2)      How frequently do you think the curriculum needs to be reviewed in the changing context of the technical education?

3)      What mechanism is in place for consultation with stakeholders in the

development or review of the curriculum?

4)      As a constituent college, what is the mechanism currently available to you to suggest curriculum changes?

5)      What are the teaching methods and aids currently used by a majority of the faculty in your college?

6)      Describe how your team building skills contribute to your work at the college.

7)      Describe how you are involved in continuous learning and its impact on students.

8)      Are you encouraging students to come up with innovative ideas for a given problem

9)      How are you encouraging students to be innovative, creative and independent within the framework of social responsibility?

10)   How often do you visit industries along with industries to know the current trends and technology?

11)  How the program of study meets vocational and essential employability skills.

12)  Please list the workshops that would help the students to know about the modern tool usages.

13)  Identify the short term courses to bridge the gap between industry and academia.

Questionnaire for alumni - NBA - Accreditation

Questionnaire for Alumni

1. Which year did you graduate from ________(our) Engineering College?

Year:

2. What is your current academic/professional career status?

·         Employed

¨       Government

¨       Private Sector

¨       Self Employed

·         Unemployed

·         Pursuing higher Education

·         Doing Certificate Courses

·         Undergoing Training

3.  When were you first employed?

·         Just Before Graduation

·         <6 months after graduation

·         6 months to 1 year after graduation

·         >1 year after graduation

4. Have you appeared for any competitive exam for admission to higher studies.

·         GATE

·         GRE

·         CAT

·         TOEFL

·         GMAT

·         Others(Specify)

·         None

5. How comfortable were you during the training /probationary period of  your first employment.

·         Uncomfortable

·         Just Comfortable

·         Comfortable

·         Very Comfortable

6. Did you pass the training within the stipulated period?

·         Yes

·         1^st Extension

·         2^nd Extension

·         Not applicable

7. Have you applied knowledge of mathematics, science, basic engineering and computing, fundamentals in solving Engineering problems?

·         Very Much

·         Quite a bit

·         Little

·         Very little

8. State the nature of projects completed

·         Design and development

·         Improved Performance

·         Application of New technology/Platform

·         Cost Effective Strategies

9. What is your progress in the employment in –terms of promotion?

·         Initial Employment

·         I Promotion

·         II Promotion

·         Team Lead

·         Project Manager

·         Shifted to other Jobs

10. Do you use modern tools/technologies to meet the current job requirements?

·         Yes

Specify if any

·         No

11. What is your team size when working on a project/Module?

·         0-5

·         6-10

·         11-24

·         25 and above

12. What is your portfolio in the team?

·         Manager

·         Team Lead

·         Group Lead

·         Team Member

 

13. To what extent did the course................................. help you develop the following (related to critical and creative thinking)?

Please tick		To a great Extent	To a moderate extent	To a small extent	Not at all	N/A
Ability to analyze and judge
Identify problems and find solutions
Ability to think in Innovative way
Ability to apply knowledge

14. To what extent did the Course on …..........................help you develop the following (related to professional and ethical behavior)?

Please tick	To a great Extent	To a moderate extent	To a small extent	Not at all	N/A
Ability to work as a team member
Ability to demonstrate leadership.
My ability to demonstrate personal organization and time management
Ability to understand the ethical and technical context of professional obligations and contributions
Exhibit skills in effective oral and written communication and critical thinking,

15. Do you agree that the knowledge you acquired in the program in....................... prepared you for your professional or academic career after graduation.

·                     Strongly Agree

·                     Moderately Agree

·                     Slightly disagree

·                     strongly disagree

16. Overall, I feel that the course.................... met my expectations

·                     Strongly Agree

·                     Moderately Agree

·                     Slightly disagree

·                     strongly disagree

17. Have you attended short courses/workshops, training programs or conference?

Yes                                          No