Mukul S Sutaone, director and professor of the College of Engineering Pune Technological University (COEP Tech, formerly called College of Engineering Pune), talks about the new interdisciplinary programmes being introduced in the institution next year, the probable reason why students opt for computer engineering over core engineering, and the new Geology Museum in the old principal’s bungalow.
Sutaone: COEP was given the status of a university after a long struggle. It was deemed to be a university and we could have achieved the status long ago. Our generation of professors and administrators worked on it and the long-awaited status was achieved in June.
There are many academic expansion plans and resource expansion plans and we understand the brand, status and stature of COEP as a unitary university. It has to create a global footprint and it all depends on research, hand-in-hand with academics.
COEP is an educational brand worldwide, well known for its class apart graduation and post-graduation programmes but we intentionally expanded our formal PhD programme, where we will enrol full-time PhD scholars who will be with us. They will be provided with fellowships and scholarships while engaged with the research. We also have plans to reduce PhD fees so that we can attract young talent for research. It is the most prioritised item in our basket.
We are going to expand here and not in the under-graduate programmes as we already are well established with 10 programmes, while it is 20 programmes in post-graduation. The priority is to expand the PhD programmes and that will bring an overall change. The IITs and IIMs have about 1,000 PhDs while here at COEP, we have 200-300 and we cannot help but be jealous. We do understand that research is what puts you on the global map. Education was CoEP’s USP but we now want to overshine – be more illustrated, more demonstrated and more outcome-oriented.
We recently launched the Executive Master’s and PhD programmes in collaboration with Persistent Systems, on September 5. To begin with, it is restricted to the employees at Persistent Systems, who want to upgrade their qualifications to MTech or MBA. We will enrol them as students of CoEP University. The disciplines we identified were drawn collaboratively – cybersecurity and data science – with 100 employees enrolling in the pilot run, due to start this October. It is quite new that CoEP is trying a collaborative degree programme, with a company. Next year, we foresee expanding this in some IT companies and some customer service companies. We are inviting IBM with our undergraduate programme for data sciences from next year. People have been trying the academia-academia collaboration, with foreign universities collaborating with CoEP and it is also equally important. But this industry-academia collaboration is the first of its kind.
As an autonomous university, we had several MoUs yet we were limited as we were not empowered in our status. As a university, we can be more aggressive in international relations to provide joint degree programmes.
We also have to have our curriculum compliant with the National Education Policy (NEP), where they have specified that our curriculum should be quite flexible. There should be multiple exits in the programmes, where say a student can attend the first year, join a job and come back, re-join at year two, with an academic bank of credits valid for a stipulated term before its expiry. We also have our integrated five-year MTech programme for 10+2 from next year. Here too, the student has the benefit of multiple exits and can continue for an integrated PhD programme.
Q: Recent instances of urban flooding draw our attention to the need for more good civil engineers, both in quality and quantity. At the same time, aspiring engineers often opt for computer engineering, in hopes of better jobs. What are the plans to address this shift and how to ensure we have skilled manpower in what is often called ‘core-engineering’?
Sutaone: India is a democracy with a big youth population which is always after getting a good job placement…job placements are the top priorities of students. Secondly, we are designed to be a service provider internationally. So when students come to CoEP, or even the IITs for that matter, the talk is about packages, employment and placements.
As for core engineering and what is happening to them, we will be taking more precautionary measures this time…it is now CoEP’s responsibility to make society learn that we should not run only after computer sciences. We need computer science everywhere, no doubt, but we also need to understand that the formats are changing. Mechanical now does not mean internal combustion or old boilers but is now electric vehicles (EV). It is an amalgamation of electric and mechanical engineering. Our mechanical department with the electrical department is now running a master’s programme in tandem with the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) which is on electric vehicles.
Computer science, computer engineering, software, IT – these require a bulk of people while the same kind may not be required, in say, the automobile industry. So when it comes to placements they will hire, say, four or five people. IT will hire 25. For students at the age of 20-21, it is alright for them to chase these, fascinated by the packages. But we have taken the call well in time. For example, we have financial engineering as a minor elective where the student can get credits for it and get hired by banks and financial engineering industries. In fact, today, their packages are among the highest. Such interdisciplinary minor electives make the students more employable.
Q: Current trends in computer engineering have been AI and big data. For mechanical engineering, it is EVs and robotics. How are these contemporary topics being integrated into the curriculum?
Sutaone: It is in the curriculum both as honours and minor programmes. I am a professor for electronics and communication and 5G is the most happening. We have five courses on 5G itself and my own students will take it up as honours. For metallurgy engineering, honours can be in smart materials while in mechanical, it is the EVs.
Q: Sustainable and renewable are terms that have become the talk of the town with the world facing the heavy brunt of climate change. Any active initiatives to inculcate the same in engineering students to have their ideas revolve around these while also talking of development?
Sutaone: There are, in the form of discreet courses in undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. But as a formal programme, we just have environmental sciences in the Master’s programme. We are planning to start a two-year programme in sustainable development from next year.
Q: How did the idea of turning the old principal’s bungalow built in 1892 into a Geology Museum come into being? Do you foresee similar museums on the campus?
Sutaone: Geology’s history in CoEP is associated with the civil department. Some of the faculty there was dedicated to geology. Professor Sandeep Meshram, in his endeavour, took the collection of precious gems and stones and ideated having a museum on the campus. We beautified the collection and now we will open it to the public, with its inauguration on September 19. Researchers in geology, mineralogy, gemology etc are expected to make use of the museum for their research. At the same time, it will help create awareness of geology as a branch of science among students.
We have many plans for similar museums for other branches of engineering within the campus. We have old boilers, old radios…in a way each department has its own archival collection of old technology and we want to create a museum in each department which will showcase the evolution of technology. For example, in telecommunication, it can be a push-button telephone to today’s handset. We are yet to formalise it but it is definitely in the docket.
Mukul S. Sutaone, Director and Professor of the now College of Engineering Pune Technological University (Express Photo) 
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