Dr. Santosh Patil
Deputy Director, International Collaborations
Manipal University, Jaipur
Q1. Please share your educational and professional journey?
Like every aspirant student of early 2000, I had an interest to be an engineer and Mechanical engineering caught my interest as mechanism and making things happen (designing) gave me a great feeling. I completed my Bachelor in Mechanical Engineering and worked for one year in JSW steels. After a year in a steel industry felt the work not so interesting, as there was nothing to design and just worked like machine in shifts. So decided to purse Master’s in Mechanical designing and applied for Karnataka CET for PG course and got a decent ranking to secure a seat of M.Tech. Design Engineering in KLE college, Belagavi. After completing my Masters with first place in college and second to the whole Visvesvarayya Technological University, Karnataka. I went on to join my alma mater, KLE Dr Sheshgiri College of Engineering and Technology, as Lecturer and promoted to Assistant Professor in a year’s time. It was a good feeling to teach mechanical design courses and learn new methods of designing and covering the uncovered insights of mechanical engineering. Also, implemented new ideas and presented works in international conferences at Bangalore, Hubli and Patiala. Later, this quest of research made me to look for PhD degree. I received a PhD offer with full scholarship and funding at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia, where my research proposal was recommended by Dr Sarvanan Karuppanan and he took me as his PhD student. Initially working into fracture mechanics area later changed to Gears and finally completed the research work with PhD topic entitled “Evaluation of Frictional Contact Stresses in Spur and Helical Gears” After the thesis was submitted I received some job opportunities back in my alma mater, KLE college, one offer in Siddhartha College-Kolhapur and one in Manipal University Jaipur. I decided to explore Manipal University Jaipur. Because my Malaysian trip had given me a huge experience and made me to learn new things, so assuming Jaipur, a new place and people would definitely provide me better experiences. I am presently holding Associate Professor post in Mechanical Engineering Department and also an administration position of Deputy Director-International Collaborations. This has surely given me an ample of new experiences and learning.
Q2. You are a Mechanical Engineer then what did attract you towards academics instead of any corporate job?
As I mentioned in my previous answer, I worked for JSW Steels for one year and didn’t feel to continue in Steel Industry. Also, after my Masters opportunities came to me to work with Corporate in FEA based designing, but my instincts pulled back to teaching. Maybe, it was because I had grown up seeing my dad, who is a National Awardee-1997 as Best Teacher. I found myself comfortable in teaching and growing myself into teaching-learning and research. Also earlier days of teaching felt good and attached to college days. Later, it became my interest and grew as an academician and administrator.
Q3. You are Deputy Director of International Collaboration at Manipal University Jaipur. What is your main priorities or goal as a Deputy Director?
The position itself speaking the role, it is to make Manipal University Jaipur grow in Internationalization. And Internationalization itself is a big word and has a larger agenda. It includes collaborating and signing MoU/MoAs, Student and Faculty mobility, research collaboration and many more. All international activities form my priority, as it totally boosts Internationalization.
Q4. What is the meaning of success in your terms?
Whenever a work gets completed and the completed task satisfies oneself, that means a success. And there are various tasks in our lifetime, so try to complete all your planned tasks in a satisfying manner to see success.
Q5. Students have a craze to go abroad for studies especially higher education. What is the main reason behind that scenario?
On a lighter note, parents these days can afford paying the cost for higher education abroad, hence students plan for foreign degree. The other major reason is that, foreign universities provide scope and facilities which lead to a high paying jobs, employment visas and permanent residence (PR) after their higher education in their respective countries. The later one is “Big Attraction”.
Q6. How do you see education and research standard in India comparing to abroad Universities?
India has always been the Mother of Knowledge. We all know that most of the good doctors and engineers are born in Indian soil. Indian Standards have been always good enough to produce high profiled executives (CEOs and Managing Directors of top companies globally) and also leaders in all fields. As we follow western education standards to be good and started following them, which has made us feel that we are behind standards. Of course in research we are behind other top countries, but this is not because of lower research standards or knowledge, it is because of research funding received is low and not considered that important. Whereas, we see Indians performing high in research in abroad where research funding is high and huge scholarship is provided to deserving students. No doubt most of the top Universities abroad have huge budget and are doing great in all parameters of education, placements and research findings. Looking forward that at least few Indian Universities also overtake them soon.
Q7. Who is your source of motivation?
“Work is worship” – I very much believe in this phrase and do my job dedicatedly to achieve satisfaction in all the tasks I perform.
Q8. Which one thing do you want to change in yourself and why?
Not very sure, but definitely like to improve my managerial skills, so that I can handle my teaching, research and administration efficiently.
People can find Dr. Santosh Patil on below links:
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.co.in/citations?user=5g1MIjAAAAAJ&hl=en
Scopus: https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=55899344900
Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Santosh_Patil23
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-santosh-patil-28b92650/
