At a time when education is shrouded in rigid learning practices, flexibility in any form is a great leveller, to tap into the potential of young, creative minds. Engineering, at least during undergraduate and postgraduate study, people believe, has little scope for creativity in terms of its syllabus.
IIT Hyderabad has taken a step forward to bust this myth, through its electronics and communication engineering course that places strong emphasis on computer science, which was introduced in 2003.
Prof. Jayanthi Sivaswamy, Dean (Academics), explains how nearly 50% of the courses that the CSE and ECE students have to complete are electives. These electives can be chosen from a set of nearly 20 courses; there is a good overlap in the set of electives for CSE and ECE students. Excerpts from the interview.
Rationale
Information Technology deals with how information is stored, fetched, and communicated across a network of computers. So, it encompasses the disciplines of computer science and engineering (CSE), as well as electronics and communication engineering (ECE).
As we started with CSE in 1998, introducing ECE was natural progression. Our aim was to train students and generate knowledge in the hardware and communication aspects of IT.
This allows students to join any research centre regardless of the programme they have enrolled in. ECE students can work in CS-oriented centres such as computer vision or machine learning. The opportunities for research are manifold, as the boundary between CSE and ECE is fluid in many areas. Computer vision, robotics, communications, and computer architecture are some examples.
When CSE students and ECE students work together in these areas, it helps broaden how they perceive problems and learn holistically.
Knowledge of both CSE and ECE domains is of great help while working in the hardware industry (nVidia, Qualcomm, Intel, and so on), as well as in sectors offering Internet-related and social media services (Google, Facebook, and so on). Our graduates are thus able to pursue careers in a wider range of companies, or pursue research in CSE or ECE departments at postgraduate levels. Many others go on to become entrepreneurs, developing devices or novel services like news aggregation.
Subjects covered
Computer programming, data structures, computer system organisation, electronic circuits, electronics design (workshop), embedded hardware design, signals and systems, digital signal processing, communication theory, and very-large-scale integration (VLSI) are some of the courses at the core level. In terms of electives, they can opt for a wide range — from information theory and coding, to mobile robotics, computer vision and statistical methods in AI.
Research opportunities too, are aplenty. Students can pursue research in areas ranging from VLSI and embedded systems, signal processing and communication, robotics, computer vision, and medical imaging. AI plays a key role in the last three areas.
As the faculty is active in research and are well-trained with PhD from leading institutions in India and abroad, students have the advantage of effective mentorship. As research is also encouraged at the undergraduate level (through honours, dual degree) research-informed teaching is practised. Assignments, mini-projects, and semester projects are ways in which students are encouraged to learn and apply concepts. Research in the lab also happens in a team which includes PhD to undergraduate students, thus imparting valuable research experience.
Employment
Students opt for many of the computing courses together, and hence are trained at the same rigorous level. Graduates pursue careers in leading software as well as hardware companies such as Apple, Amazon, Google, nVidia, AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, Mathworks, and more.