There’s something wrong with the quality of engineering education today. Experts say that it is so low that most graduates lack in technical skills and end up taking low paid jobs or opt for jobs in which they have nothing to do with their training. Both faculty and facility are to be blamed. Today there is a dearth of mentors who can tap the potential of students and hone their skills.
There are exceptions though. Few students from the thousands passing out from several engineering colleges in the state contribute their mite to society despite investing large amounts on education. Among the few are Naijo Dominic, Alex J Areekadan, Subin Thomas and Nithin Thomas, alumni of SNMIMT, Maliankara, Ernakulam. The latent skill of these ordinary electrical engineering students came to the fore after being mentored by a passionate teacher. This helped them come out of their shell and they were determined to come out with some useful products.
They decided to organise a technical workshop ‘EECON’ on April 11, 2013 with the assistance of teachers and experts. “The result of the workshop was amazing. The 250 students from each batch of electrical engineering course were divided into 50 groups. By the end of the workshop, each group was equipped to make a solar lamp. This boosted the confidence of our group too,” Naijo says.
“Instead of opting for mainstream jobs we decided to start our own initiative that would help engineering students develop technical skill. Our idea was to develop entrepreneurial skills among engineering students. We were looking for an opportunity and the doors opened at the Startup Village in Kalamassery, a new policy initiative of the government. We applied and we managed to get an incubator. We set up Eleksyz Technologies at the village,” Alex says.
The major aim of Eleksyz is to organise technical workshops across engineering colleges in the state and inculcate the traits of entrepreneurship among them. “We are organising our first major demonstration workshop, Teknozium, on October 8 at Technolodge, Kakkur, near Paravur to be inaugurated by Hrishikesh Nair, CEO of the Infopark. Students from several engineering colleges are expected to participate.
Training to develop an Android application will be the attraction of the workshop,” Alex says. “We are planning to give training in all branches of engineering. We are collaborating with several companies to make our project a success. We dream of changing the quality of technical education,” he adds.