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ABSTRACT
Reforms in undergraduate engineering curriculum to produce engineers with entrepreneurial skills should address real-world problems relevant to industry and society with active industry support. Technology-assisted, hands-on projects involving experimentation, design simulation and prototyping will transform graduates into professionals with necessary skills to create and advance knowledge that meets global standards. To achieve this goal, this paper proposes establishing a central facility, ‘Centre for Engineering Experimentation and Design Simulation’ (CEEDS) in autonomous engineering colleges in India. The centre will be equipped with the most recent technology resources and computational facilities where students execute novel interdisciplinary product-oriented projects benefiting both industry and society. Students undertake two projects: a short-term project aimed at an engineering solution to a problem in energy, health and environment and the other a major industry-supported project devoted to a product that enhances innovation and creativity. The paper presents the current status, the theoretical and pedagogical foundation for the centre's relevance, an activity plan and its implementation in the centre for product-based learning with illustrative examples.
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to the management of SR Engineering College for the permission accorded to publish the paper. The author appreciates and compliments several discussions on the subject with Dr V. Mahesh and Dr P.V. Rajashekar of Cognitive Engineering Centre (CEC), Mr. B. Sathish Kumar and other colleagues in Industry-Institute Partnership Cell (IIPC).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Dr P. Venkateswarlu is Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Director, SR Engineering College, Warangal, India. He earned his PhD and MS in Mechanical Engineering (Thermal) from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, and BE in Mechanical Engineering from Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, India. He has more than 40 years of experience; 15 years of teaching and academic research in the area of heat transfer and 25 years of industry research in the area of thermal design and analysis of power plant equipment. He contributed extensively to heat pipe research and development. His teaching and research interests are in heat pipes, heat transfer, thermodynamics, new product development and engineering curriculum reforms. He guided two theses and holds two patents.