Readymade projects may put students future at stake

There is a sense of satisfaction and celebration for final year students of any stream _ be it engineering, science or arts __ for their college days will be coming to an end and their career dreams will be taking shape. But the flipside of it is their nightmare: PROJECT REPORTS.

One thing of the other things students dread about is the project reports. But college reports are meant to provide a platform for students to showcase their learning experiences, which will help their teachers to understand what they learnt.On the contrary, project conceptualisation, preparation and execution have become a mere ritual these days. There are several reasons which could be attributed to this unhealthy trend.

Among other things, lack of students’ interest, teachers’ inabilities, unwieldy strength of a class and not enough time provided in the curriculum to encourage students to pursue projects. The faculty hardly spends any time with the students during ideation, which is the crucial step for the project conceptualisation.

Projects mirror their hold on subjects. The whole idea is to prove one’s talent by developing the right project as part of their academics, which is not happening. Students are “encouraged” to work on their own. Left to themselves to fend, students who are hooked on to the social media are opting for shortcut methods to complete the projects by hook or by crook. By doing so, they are losing an opportunity to prove to their teachers what they learnt.

With these prevailing conditions, students are going with the current trend of “doing projects”. They are just buying from the “market”. They get a ready-made project printed and added their group’s names and submit. What happens in the viva is anybody’s guess like it happens in the short film “Viva”! Surprisingly, these students with the “instant projects” are scoring exceptionally well. “This kind of submitting projects will definitely have an impact on their career.

They may do it in colleges but it will not work in corporates. Actually, they are losing an opportunity to prepare themselves for the future. They will get grip on the subjects, challenges, solutions and deadlines, which they will miss to learn,” says Shravanthi Satyavarapu, a topper in her class and currently working with Tech Mahindra.

But not all students follow the easy path. There are students who put in efforts to take up genuine projects. But their efforts of being unique in developing projects are not yielding enough encouragement from the teachers. Varun Kumar, a final year mechanical student from Geetanjali College of Engineering, says: “I with my team have developed a spider robot for the project. Most of my other friends decided to buy projects. We wanted to be unique to showcase our talent. But things turned out different by the end.

When a project is done by students it is obvious that things won’t come out with pure perfection, we need guidance and support if they expect the perfect output. On the contrary, students who brought projects scored better and they were appreciated by the management just because of the flawlessness in their projects”.

According to the university rules, management should allot one lecturer to every 20 students during project development to guide and help students in the entire process. Instead of taking up new faculty, the managements end up assigning students to the faculty who are already busy with their schedules. This is one of the main reason why normal engineering college students lack practical skills and better knowledge when compared to IITs and NITs.

By now it has become a routine to buy projects for college students. When asked, how will college management analyse students who have put in real efforts vis-a-vis one who gets the ready-made project? Samson Velpula, a professor from CBIT College of Engineering, says: “Students get exposed during viva. The way a student answers gives us a clear picture about their project knowledge and accordingly we grade them.

We ask students about the aim of the project, methodology and techniques adopted. Their answers will reveal their efforts. It is easy for us to understand which project is brought from the market and which one worked upon.” A candid confession comes from Surya Teja, student from CVSR College of Engineering. He admits that he was not involved much in developing projects. “We hardly had a few minutes for viva by our external.

He just asked one question to the entire class of students: “What is your project?” It is obvious that students will be able to answer and score easily if such simple and obvious questions are asked. Why will any student wish to put in efforts when marks are being allotted so easily? Students always wish to have an easy-go attitude when the management fails to provide proper guidance for students but expect good results.

It is obvious that students end up with the trouble-free alternative of getting ready-made projects,” says Surya Teja.It’s not just on the students and parents but also on the college managements to put more focus on project preparations for the first assessment of students by companies during placement interviews are done based on the projects.

By:BHAGYA SHREE KOTTOORI