Dr. Arun Balodi
SM’IEEE, F’IETE, LM’ISTE
PhD. Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee,
M. Tech. (Gold Medalist)
I, Dr. Arun Balodi, welcome you all to the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) at Atria Institute of Technology, Bengaluru (www.atria.edu). We started our journey in the year 2000. The ECE Department offers Bachelor in Engineering, in Electronics and Communication Engineering and Masters in Technology, in Digital Electronics & Communication. Over the last two decades, the ECE Department has recorded a consistent improvement in its academic, research and placement performance. I have joined the ECE Department in the Year 2019 with the vision for the department to be a reputed one in the upcoming 5 years which can provide all the required facilities to our students and faculties. It should appeal to students and highly experienced teachers across the country.
This can happen by focussing on teaching-learning methodology and the research carried by the students and faculties. To achieve this target various group activities have been planned and executed.
It offers a range of add-on programs to meet the changing requirement of the industry and to meet the needs of major stakeholders. We believe that our students have been well accepted in their job profiles and have consistently exceeded expectations of the corporate world. Our students learn and be equipped for a career in the Interdisciplinary Digital Economy of tomorrow, incorporating in-demand skills like the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Robotics, Very Large-Scale Integrated Devices, Nano Electronics, Wireless Networks etc. The department has well qualified and experienced faculty from reputed institutes. Department is equipped with multiple laboratories under the VTU curriculum for the practical exposure of the Electronics and Communication Engineering branch. A dedicated group of faculties train students as per the industry requirements like VLSI, Embedded, Signal Processing and Communication. The Centre of Excellence (CoE) for the Internet of Things (IoT) is available for students to explore their creative minds, develop solutions on Industrial IoT Gateway, Self-sustainable Hydroponics Monitoring Systems, Smart Campus Solutions, etc. The students are also encouraged and supported for the preparation for GATE/GRE/PSUs examinations other than their routine studies. The department has a close networking relationship with professional bodies such as IEEE, IETE, ISTE and experts from leading institution to excel their knowledge to our department students in the various emerging fields of electronics and communication engineering. In the future, the department plans to extend its research into new areas like Biomedical Signal and Image Processing and Smart Devices.
As we all know presently, the world is facing a pandemic Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), an infectious disease. We are taking all necessary precautions to avoid its outbreak in our country also. Looking at the present scenario, the ECE Department of Atria Institute of Technology, Bangalore has responded immediately with the advances in technology to bring the classes online for active learning. Since, March 20, 2020, the classes are being conducted on ONLINE mode effectively. Teaching, learning, assessment of learning outcomes was all done online. In the ECE Department, more than 30 faculties and 500 students are trained on the LMS platform and mapped to courses.
The department of ECE has taken a few steps for continuous teaching and learning and adopted the methodology written below:
- All the faculties of the department, including the head, are connected with the students through e-mail, phone and WhatsApp.
- All the faculties are sharing all the abundant contents/learning material/lecture notes/resources such as pdf files, e-books and other e-contents on LMS (Xcelerator platform), WhatsApp and e-mails also.
- The majority of the faculty has created Google classrooms for their courses and sharing learning material there also.
- For virtual classrooms, faculties are using Google hangout, Google meets and Zoom for video conferencing with students.
- We have also adopted blended mode learning, in which faculty teach a topic scheduled for that day and upload related videos, e-content for their references. After completion of reading the resources, students have to write an assignment given by faculty to upload and attempt Quiz for grading, which is part of their Internal Assessment components.
- For tracking student participation, faculty used to take attendance by taking their log reports during the online sessions.
- For UG students undergoing internships, project evaluations and reviews were also conducted online by professors.
- Students were time to time encouraged in enrolling online courses provided by e-Shikshana/NPTEL/SWAYAM/UDEMY/COURSERA etc.
- Our library resources are also available through e-books and e-journals.
Apart from the routine scheduled syllabus classes department encourages the student for further study and give extra time to the students for the preparation for GATE/GRE/PSUs examination. Over 50 student teams from the department participating in elite project competitions such as DST & Texas Instruments, Indian Innovation Design Challenge Design Contest, L&T’s Techgium, Govt of India’s Smart India Hackathon (SIH) etc., mentored by several faculties of the department. Facilitates advanced self-learning opportunities of various industrial sponsored programs such as Arm University Program, Mathworks Minidrone Competition, Github for Education, AWS Educate, etc. Our alumni joined distinguished universities for their higher study such as the University of Alabama in Huntsville, University of Massachusetts Lowell, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Michigan Institute of Technology, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Bridgeport University, Portland University, University Of Florida, SWINBURNE Institute of Technology (Australia).
The Department Leadership and Faculty have launched several initiatives which are all “student-centric ” and “career opportunities enhancing”. Continue to motivate the students to continue to compete in events and complete courses in “online mode” in the current lockdown.
“The focus of the department is to provide a better campus-based educational experience to the students for developing their learning interest and critical thinking to increase competencies in them.”
