Prof. Rohan Dasgupta is an Assistant Professor at Anjuman-I-Islam’s Kalsekar Technical Campus, Navi Mumbai in the Department of Civil Engineering. He has experience in teaching for more than 11 years. He completed his BE in Civil Engineering and ME in Structural Engineering and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. His areas of interest include Structural Engineering, Geotechnical Engineering, Architectural Planning, and Building Design.

AIKTC

What keeps you connected with the Education Sector?

“My passion for teaching kept me connected to the Educational Sector”

What keeps me connected to the (technical) education sector is the unique opportunity that it provides me with to pursue my passion for teaching while simultaneously carrying out research and also working closely with the industries. My experience with AIKTC for the past 6 years has been quite wholesome in terms of the different roles and responsibilities that I’ve had the opportunity to undertake apart from just teaching.

What are your roles and responsibilities towards the students?

“To impart quality technical education in the branch of Civil Engineering in the most learner-centric way”

My first and foremost role is that of a teacher where I strive to impart quality technical knowledge of civil engineering in the most learner-centric way possible by imbibing the outcome-based education philosophy – both in the classroom and in the laboratory. I’m also a project supervisor for both major projects (final year) and mini projects (2nd and 3rd year) where I guide students to develop industry skills and pursue research studies into the thrust areas of civil engineering. Apart from that, I’m an assigned mentor for a group of 16 students with whom I am in close touch and have developed a personal rapport; so that they can feel free to contact me whenever they’re facing any personal, financial, or mental issues which may be affecting their academic performance so that they can be properly counseled and their issues solved at the earliest.

Do you have any extracurricular programs to enhance the skills of the students?

“Providing Students with skill enhancing MOOC courses and making them aware of real-world challenges”

To enhance the skills of the students, AIKTC offers skill-based add-on courses which are conducted by our professors as well as experts for the industry. We also organize expert talks by industry professionals to expose our students to real-world challenges. AIKTC is also a local chapter for NPTEL and has subscriptions of various other popular MOOC platforms using which our students gain additional skill-based knowledge beyond the curriculum.

How does the curriculum of AIKTC ensure that the students are being prepared for the future?

“Providing Students with highly updated curriculum and making revision committees”

Being affiliated with the University of Mumbai (MU), AIKTC has to strictly adhere to the curriculum proposed by MU. However, AIKTC as an institute plays an active role in the syllabus revision of MU. A lot of our faculty members (including me) are part of the syllabus revision committees of MU. We obtain valuable inputs from the experts in our respective industries regarding its current and future demands and then recommend their expert suggestions in the form of new topics and even new courses into the curriculum so that our students are prepared for the future.

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How do you make the Course Curriculum industry-oriented?

“To bridge the gap between the practical and theoretical skills of students”

For every topic that I teach, I always make it a point to explain to the students why they’re learning it and how it’s applied in the industries. Sometimes I take them for physical site visits and sometimes I show them videos of construction sites so that they co-relate the knowledge they gained in the classroom to the practices of the industries. 

What are the interventions you bring in apart from the curriculum to train the students?

“Identify slow learners and take extra care of them”

In terms of interventions, I identify the fast and slow learners at the beginning of every course and then motivate the fast learners to participate in technical festivals, quizzes, paper presentations, poster presentations, etc. and help the slow learners by conducting remedial lectures, providing book bank services, etc.

What would you like people to know about your institute they may not know?

“People should know about the dedicated scholarship team of AIKTC”

Many people don’t know that AIKTC has a dedicated scholarship team that has so far assisted more than 19000 students to receive more than ₹ 45 crores in scholarships. They conduct scholarship awareness programs, provide easy-to-understand application process flowcharts, on-campus drives for online submission of scholarship forms, and even take follow-ups till the scholarship amount is deposited in the students’ bank accounts. 

What do you see as the greatest strengths of AIKTC?

“Highly qualified teachers are the greatest strength of AIKTC”

The greatest strengths of AIKTC are its highly qualified faculties and its infrastructure. With 15 Ph.D. holders, 31 pursuing PhDs, and all faculties having at least postgraduate degrees, AIKTC has a pool of extremely talented educators who are academicians par excellence. And with a 10.5-acre campus with ICT based classrooms, modern labs, startup incubation center, remote digital library, approved research center, cricket/football field, badminton court, gymnasium, auditorium, etc., AIKTC undoubtedly has one of the best infrastructures around that provides a vibrant campus life for students.

What are some of the biggest challenges both for higher education in general and for AIKTC specifically?

“Smooth transition to blended teaching-learning process in the biggest challenge”

One of the biggest challenges for higher education is to make a smooth transition into blended teaching-learning by leveraging the advantages of both classroom and online education. Also, in this age of AI, ML, etc., where their demand is at the peak, it would be interesting to see how AIKTC manages to keep its core engineering programs of Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical relevant to the aspiring learners.

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Any suggestions you would like to give to the current youth and the aspiring students?

“Students should focus on Communication skills, contact building, and computer programming”

For a successful professional career ahead, irrespective of the course(s) that the current youth is pursuing, they must learn these 3 Cs – 1) computer programming, 2) communication skills, and 3) contact building.