Dr. J. Bala Bhaskara Rao is the Vice Principal and Professor at Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering and Technology, Srikakulam. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada. He has more than 21 years of strong, academic, research, and administrative experience and has more than 30 research publications. Dr. Rao has published three SCIE, 15 SCOPUS journals and has invited reviewers for several reputed SCOPUS-indexed journals.

Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering and Technology

You have held key position at educational institute throughout your professional career. What are the key factors that keep you connected with the education sector?

I come from a mechanical engineering background. I did my BTech in Mechanical from Andhra University, after which I worked with various organisations like Bharath, LNT, ECC, and RCL Laboratories. I have also worked in various positions, like quality control engineer and shift in charge. I shifted my career away from industry and into teaching. I shifted my career from industry to teaching. Teaching is my passion, and I love teaching and research. I have worked in various positions in teaching, like assistant professor, associative professor, head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, in charge, Principal, and now vice principal.

I enjoy the interactive aspect of teaching the students, and I have managed to publish a good number of papers in science and international journals. I have also guided more than 50-60 BTech projects and 18 M.Tech. projects. I enjoy that I get to give the students knowledge and help them grow.

How do you strategize about the key programs and plans for marketing and administration of your college?

We do not have any specific marketing strategies to get students into our college. We rely on the quality of education and word of mouth. We have campus recruitments, training sessions for students to perform well in job interviews, workshops, and more that are meant to attract new students. We also try to improve the quality of the infrastructure and facilities in our laboratories to make our student’s learning process easier. Besides classroom education, we also pay attention to improving our students’ skillset to holistically develop them. All of these together are meant to market our college to incoming students.

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The education system in India and other foreign countries are structured very differently. In your experience, what can an inbound student gain from studying here in the College of Sri Venkateswara Engineering and Technology?

Compared to India, international educational institutes focus more on research. Colleges there provide the right equipment and facilities to help students with research. India does not have modern and updated facilities for students to use with their research. At Sri Venkateswara Engineering College, we make efforts to provide good laboratories and encourage students to take part in research. We take care to pay attention to the student’s interests and try to teach them the course material accordingly. We provide internships and projects to all our students during their final years.

Any insights into how your university could be more welcoming to students of different races or economic backgrounds?

In the Srikakulam area, we have more rural people who are middle class people. When students from these backgrounds join us they have a hard time assimilating with everyone. However, the faculty and staff members are taught to be patient and welcoming towards all students. The administration also has reduced fees, scholarships, delayed payments, and many more systems in place to help students. We also provide them with communication classes so that they do not lag behind when they go for placements. We also focus on basic arithmetic, reasoning, and analytical skills that will be useful not just for employment but also for higher education.

When you came to the Sri Venkateswara College Engineering and Technology, what was your vision and how are you trying to achieve this vision?

When I first joined the college, I had more than 21 years of experience in teaching, research, and industry. I had a strong base in mathematics, research and mechanical subjects, which is what I wanted to teach the students. I wanted to teach them how to do projects, the basic differences between experimentation, laboratories, and projects, how to publish papers, how to search the papers, how to write a paper, and all these methodologies. This is an upward journey, and I am still working on this to achieve this vision.