BEST PRACTICES
Best Practice 1
Title : Orientation of undergraduate students towards innovation, research, start ups and entrepreneurship :
Primary Goal : The primary objective to implement this practice is to expose the undergraduate students to the world of research, start up and innovation. The secondary objectives are enlisted below
1.To develop a sense of entrepreneurship amongst the students and introducing them to the world of startups and innovation.
2.To nurture the ideas of the students and and process them for further stages.
3.To train the undergraduate students in writing papers and publishing them in indexed journals. 4. Motivating the students for participating in various technical events at National and International. Level.
5. To undertake innovative projects
6. To solve real time problems by participating in Industry based projects.
7. To educate the students regarding various funding agencies and methodology of writing research proposals.
The Context Graduating from an institute and moving out for a job in the industry is a trend that is generally followed by the passing out graduates of an engineering institutes overhere. The students in this forming ages are generally not exposed to the world of research,start ups innovation and entrepreneurship. This exercise is carried out in a view to orient the undergraduate students towards innovation and teach them the tools and skills required to participate in start ups,research and innovation. The Practice After defining the goal a innovation and incubation cell was set up in the institute.Students were motivated to submit their ideas to the incubation Cell and participate in research, paper presentations and development of innovative projects. Proper training programs were conducted to educate them regarding writing papers and publishing/presenting them in national/international journals/conferences. Paper publishing was made mandatory before submission of final year project thesis. Students are trained in the Language labs to improve their language, vocabulary and writting skills. Financial provisions were made • To provide funding to the bonafide students, one from each department, Gathering Secretary, Best Student awardees and highest scorer boy and a girl student to go for research presentation in International conferences/symposiums/ seminars/ workshops in foreign countries.
• To provide funding to bonafide students of final, third and second year for presenting their research papers in national or international conferences/symposiums/ seminars/ workshops in India.
• To provide fund to the students to undertake indigenous and innovative projects.
• To provide special grants and rewards for students who win prizes in various events.
Furthermore national level technical events like symposiums, conferences, seminars etc are organised every year to provide an inhouse platform to the students to enhance their presentation and publication skills and exhibit their innovative projects. Evidence of Success The evidences of effective implementation of this practice is that being an approved host institute 24 Start up proposals have been received and submitted through our incubation centre to MSME,Government of India in the National Event Challenge 2020.Good amount of research publications have been done by by the students in international journals and national/international conferences.
• Problems Encountered and Resources Required
• Research is an expensive affair and need of additional financial resources to implement this practice was a major hurdle. The management of this institution took an initiative and started this innovative practice by assuring financial provisions in the institutional budget.
• One of the major problems faced was time management in a very compact and hectic schedule of semester pattern system of academics. As SGBAU has semester pattern system, the entire academic fulfilments and syllabus completion need to be scheduled and completed in the span of around three months duration only.
• Inferiority feeling and lack of confidence level in the minds of students was a psychological barrier. Lack of communication and presentation skills in the students was another issue to be addressed.
• Weak Industrial Belt was also a problem to be addressed. MoUs had to be signed with industries in Western Maharahtra which is a rich MIDC belt to train the students on real life problems and undertake industry based innovative projects.Connectivity with the students during the pandemic period was also a great hurdle.Online communications were carried out with the students to orient them and increase their participation.
Best Practice 2:
Title : Holistic Development of the students and imbibement of a sense of responsibility towards the society through awareness programs and contribution in overcoming the Covid Pandemic :
Primary Goal : The primary goal of this practice was the overall holistic development of the students for their psychological, social and emotional growth. The secondary objectives are
i) To establish a platform through departmental clubs for the students to conduct various curricular and extracurricular activities.
ii) To create a learning and development stratergy amongst the students.
iii) To imbibe a sense of responsibility towards the society within the students.
iv) To promote experiential and participative learning Context Holistic education is based on the idea that students can be taught in a more natural and engaging way.
Provide an exciting alternative to current educational system, the holistic approach seeks to empower students to use their academic learning as a foothold for their emotional and social development. It instils curiosity and allows students to learn naturally and creatively..It was thought that conduction of various curricular and extracurricular activities through the departmental student clubs can help in developing the personality of the students. The Practice Every department has established a departmental level students’ forum/ club. There are seven departmental clubs. Along with this there are active forums like IETE Students’ Forum (ISF) and Computer Society of India Club (CSI). The Clubs are governed by the students under the mentorship of departmental faculty members.
Various technical and non technical activities and competitions are conducted by the students. This experiential participative and pragmatic methodology helps in overall development of the students. Apart from these scheduled events, the executive committee members also organize various inter department level competitions, expert lectures, workshops, celebration of specific important days like birth/ death anniversary of the legendary personalities. By organizing all such events, these clubs give an opportunity to provide an inhouse training to them to improve their organizational skills, ability to work in teams, resources management skills, financial management, leadership qualities, contingency management etc. The students are motivated and guided to undertake community projects which are helpful for the society. Also the institute is connected to the society through NSS. It is a practice to adopt villages and conduct various welfare programs. Students are completely involved so that they can understand their responsibility towards the Society. Evidence of Success Inspired by the vision of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan ofbringing transformational change in rural development processes by connecting with knowledge institutions, our Institute has also been registered with UBA.
We very well understand the problems faced by rural areas as the institute is located in one of the most rural areas of the nation.We have adopted five villages namely Lasina, Ladkhed, Hivri-Arjuna, Madkona and Karalgaon Our faculty members along with the students are in communication with the authorities and civilians of the villages through social media. Recognising the risk of spread of COVID 19in rural areas we are continuously giving them information regarding the safety measures to be taken and the support, guidance and help provided by the Government. This also includes the advisories given by the Government to rural areas about how to deal with the virus affected cases as well as about how to reduce the chance of it spreading. Information regarding the measures to be taken for proper crop cultivation and crop loans is been shared.
The SOP to be followed during COVID 19, utility of masks, food support provided for children and pregnant women, support provided by the government, rescheduling of bank loan repayment for agricultural debtors and provision of soft loans to encounter the crisis is also shared with the villagers. Information regarding the online education given through the DD National Program for students from 9th Standard and onwards is also been given. Massive layoffs and lack of relief measures are pushing migrants to return to their villages, which would increase the risk of the spread of the virus. The directions of the Government regarding solution to cases pertinent to migrant labours shall also be shared with the villagers. The institute has fabricated a Disinfection tunnel and gifted it the Government Medical Hospital for sanitising the public, patients, health workers and visitors in general.
The innovation has led to automate the process of disinfection by spraying atomised disinfectant on the people while they pass through the tunnel. When a person passes through it he is sprayed with a disinfectant solution coming out at a high pressure. Such sanitizers can disinfect clothing, shoes and other articles for a period of time. The disinfectant is sprayed in a semi-vapourised form and is highly effective as it covers a larger surface area as compared to a liquid disinfectant. The Government hospital has a huge influx of people including health workers and potential covid 19 carriers requiring automation of hygiene and safety protocols. The equipment is sensor based and provides an automated solution that can be highly useful to minimise the propagation of COVID 19 in the hospital
