02 Blueprint: By Civil Engineering Department
“Will you have coffee or tea?” I suddenly looked up to see a worker standing near my chair with a plate of biscuits. I was actually waiting at the Laboratory of Professor D N Singh, while also framing a few of the interview questions for him. Meanwhile many of the members present in the laboratory came up to me and introduced themselves and also enquired about the interview. I could have mistaken the laboratory for a shared flat or rather a shared home of so many people, had I not read the 'Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory' board outside. The laboratory was properly furnished like a room, with coffee machines installed, many chairs kept around, air conditioner, Television, plants kept around, and a sofa, amongst others. The ambience was extremely calming and pleasant, and also very homely. Professor Devendra Narayan Singh is an expert in his field, Geotechnical Engineering and has revolutionized the concept of Environmental and Geotechnical interrelations. B.Tech. in Civil Engineering with M.Tech. and Ph.D. in Geotechnical Engineering both from IIT Kanpur, he has several awards, publications and recognitions in his name. He has recently assumed the responsibility as member for editor board for International Journal of Geotechnical Engineering Published in association with J. Ross Publishing. He has several Ph.D. students from all parts of the country working under him with around 8 patents till date. How balanced do you think is the current course structure? Comment on the current course structure. I consider the course structure is as adequately balanced as required and completely satisfactory. The problem lies more in the attitude of the students than the course structure. Students are not very interested in learning nowadays. We have the best possible faculty members and facilities. Still majority of the undergraduates are disinterested. I have students under me who come for summer projects or internships from far away colleges like NITs etc. They work really hard here and I can see the high level of motivation and desire for hard work and achievement in them. This aspect is completely missing somewhere if you consider our students.” As he completed his statement I could already see a glare of pride amongst his laboratory students. He further continued, “As we all know that IITs have degraded as compared to what they earlier were in our days. The kind of facilities and provisions which we have is difficult to find under one roof, all over the world. Yet, I do not know why the sincerity levels of the students have fallen dramatically over years.
“Our country today needs good civil engineers; our stream is as promising as the popular Computer Science or Electronics, if not more” He had already answered an array of questions regarding the curriculum and facilities which I had on my sheet. I think you will want to reframe your questions now, he said notoriously smiling.
What grade on an average do you give to a graduate from IIT Bombay? Very poor! I mean on an average. There are a few good students but the issue is that they are few. Our country today needs good civil engineers; our stream is as promising as the popular Computer Science or Electronics, if not more. Our Students have somehow diverted themselves to various streams but Civil Engineering. We have the best brains of the country; they must be optimally utilized. We have been through this age, but there was always a level of commitment involved in anything we did. As a professor of IIT Bombay, I have always wanted to preach and teach such great minds. But the students are not interested. The graduates are expected to be professionals and not amateurs, and professionals respect time, of their own and that of others. I cannot be wasting my time on students who do not wish to learn, I am not here to waste my time.
Name: Professor Devendra Narayan Singh B-Tech: IIT Kanpur (Civil Engineeing) M-Tech: IIT Kanpur (Geotechnical Engineering) PhD: IIT Kanpur (Geotechnical Engineering) Position Held: Professor at IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur and presently at IIT Bombay Field of Interest: Environmental Geotechnology Publications: 6 Indian Journal and 117 International journals. He has authored 3 books
We currently have no software courses running in our department. How much as per your opinion is it important to have software courses incorporated in the syllabus? Software knowledge is definitely a great additional learning, but I do not see any need for a compulsory course for it. I think if a student is really interested in learning particular software, then he/she should contact the respective professor in the department and take it up under him. I believe in self learning, no one is going to force you all to learn at this age. IITians in my vision and opinion should be leaders and not followers, meaning that they have to take up initiatives themselves towards learning and not necessarily wait for a course to be introduced. Besides, our students are not giving their 100% to the current core courses itself, so there is no question of introducing new ones. Shouldn't the work visits in our department be more frequent? Work visits could impart the students a practical experience of how things actually work and make them understand applications part of the theory. I agree with your perspective regarding work visits, but it is not that physically visiting a site is the only means of gaining practical experience. Internet has evolved as a magnificent source of knowledge and
information nowadays; I don't need to explain that to your generation. Youtube is an excellent medium where you can get videos of all sorts of new construction technologies, both from India and also those practiced worldwide, which is otherwise not possible to demonstrate with the regular Work Visits. What general advice do you wish to give the students? I would like to ask them that what makes them so disinterested. What is it that they expect from us to get back their attention to serious academics? We as faculty really enjoy all your mischiefs, but in-sincerity and lack of discipline and non-professionalism are the attributes of notoriety. You all should behave like kids and not like mentally worn outs. I have conducted courses wherein no student has turned up for the mid-semester examination! This is sheer carelessness and irresponsible behavior. Teaching is enjoyable when students ask questions and both the faculty and the student learn from the answers. We have lost the inquisitive brains somewhere in either social networking or deep somewhere in other activities but studies. Right now, research has become the fundamental backbone of Civil Engineering. There are numerous challenges confronting civil engineers like lack of natural resources, waste disposal etc. Other interesting topics like Sports Stadium construction or cricket pitch designing, environmental issues have also gained momentum. Today's world is different than what it used to be. A lot of opportunities are available to think new and innovative. Clearing one entrance examination is just like a new beginning of various other exciting opportunities to come and not the end of ones' career. I do not wish to wake up to a day when IITians become an absolute myth. What really matters is what one achieves after getting into IIT and not the rank one scored in the entrance examination. He pointed towards his team of Ph.D. students, who were working in the lab and continued, the guy who I thought was a worker was also one amongst them. I prefer teaching these guys, my post graduates. They belong to various other colleges and have no ego whatsoever. They are very clear in their vision that they want to learn and that is why they are here. These people are from all over the country and have come so far leaving their home with an aspiration of making it big someday. There have been 17 Ph.D.s under me before and 13 of them are currently working in some great places at high posts and have a total of 8 patents. You see the person behind you (he pointed at a middle aged man who was making coffee) he is a non-teaching staff at IIT Bombay. He works all day doing his job and finally comes over at night to study. If he can show such an enthusiasm at this age, why can't we? I just went around asking his students on the kinds of projects they were involved with. A very young lady Ms. Pankaj Pathak is currently working on 'Determination of distribution of soil contamination system' which is funded by BRNS. There were others doing similar very interesting projects which were also funded by other such organizations. The laboratory is an institution in itself and besides, working with Professor D N Singh could be a great learning opportunity for a lot of Civil Engineering students. He said he receives hundreds of emails daily from students of different colleges for working under him either for summer projects or research etc. It is extremely despairing to see that our own students have never utilized this opportunity of working under him. He mentioned in his interview that genuinely sincere students will always find his doors open; all he wants is to see his efforts and the students bringing about a change and leaving a mark in whatever they do.