Hyderabad: Not just as a final year project, the curriculum of Mahindra Ecole Centrale College of Engineering includes shooting a short film, carrying out two industry internships and a semester-long final year project. This is unlike other engineering colleges where just a final year project suffices.
Mahindra Ecole Centrale says it doesn’t want to have a placement cell, but wants industries to know its students through their work.
The 10-month-old Mahindra Ecole Centrale College of Engineering, within the Tech Mahindra campus, has admitted 240 students in its first year. Founder director Prof. Sanjay Dhande said the college is trying to create a new brand of engineer who thinks.
“Today you see that 80 per cent of graduates are not employable. We are bringing a European model of education where creativity is brought out and there is learning by doing,” Prof. Dhande added.
Ecole Centrale is a 210-year old institution in France. Apart from the regular subjects, since it is affiliated to JNTU Hyderabad, the curriculum in the first year includes a short film made on any industry.
The second year requires students to undergo a 10-week long paid internship, the third year also requires an industry internship while the fourth year has a semester-long project at an industry. Each of these has credits attached to them.
Prof. T.S. Krishnamurthy, dean of engineering sciences, said several companies from India and France, like Safran, Airbus, Mahindra and TCS had, in the first year itself, interacted with students and evinced interest in offering them internships.
“The short film can be on any industry. This year, we had films on the bangle industry, The Creamstone ice cream store, the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport and so on. It brings out their creativity. Industries will realise that our students know their stuff because they have been in the field. Theory is different from practice,” Prof. Krishnamurthy said.
“Everyone has to make this film because only through creativity can a student learn. Communication and creativity are what the industry demands today,” says Prof. K. Hariharan, dean, School of Creative Sciences.
