Solution - Career Point

Learning the MIghTy wayWhen you hear... you forget. When you see... you remember. When you do... you understand.– ConfuciusThis sounds very much the way we learntthings in our childhood. Our parents did not tell ushow to walk, but made us walk. They did not showus how to ride a bicycle, they made us ride it. Andthat’s how learning goes naturally: derivinginspiration by doing things, ‘Inspired Learning’.In this era of information overload,educational institutions hardly devote time andresources to make students follow this natural path oflearning. An exception to this is Manipal Institute ofTechnology (MIT), where the ‘been there, done that’spirit has helped students make a mark worldwide.While in other colleges, students were seeinghow a car is built, students at MIT designed andmanufactured a high performance car which made itsway into the ‘Formula Student 2009’ (Studentedition of Formula One), at Silverstone, UK. MITgot 65th position among teams from 126 universitiesof 23 countries. Several other feathers of innovationhave been added to MIT’s achievement hat withinthe last 2 years like: 1 st position in “Train Blazer-2008”; 1 st position in “GE Edison InnovationChallenge -2008”; 1 st and 2 nd position in “SchneiderElectric Innovation Challenge” 2008; 1 st prize for anInnovative proposal on “Solar Power embeddedStreet Lamp” and many more.The foundation of this hub of thinking andinnovation was laid 52 years ago, and since then isbeing strengthened by constructive effort and hardwork. The quality of technical education is evidentin the research activities going on in the campus: 6patents filed in the current year, 9 grants received forvarious activities and, several papers, books andawards added to its research portfolio. A majorlandmark is ‘Manipal University TechnologyBusiness Incubator’, which is being established witha huge funding from the Department of Science andTechnology, Government of India.While focusing on innovation, MIT has takencare of students by getting them absorbed into thebest industries, through quality industry projects andcollaborations with universities and companies.‘Practice School’ is one such concept, in sync withthe idea of ‘Inspired learning’. This was introducedat MIT in 2005, through which students are trained toeffectively link the theory learnt in classrooms withthe practice in the industry. This training helpsreduce the cost for a company, on in-house trainingof students who are their prospective employees. Dueto such efforts placement statistics have been movingup since 2005 reaching 95% in 2008. Even in therecession hit 2008-09, 56 companies turned upoffering jobs to 948 students, with the bestremuneration reaching 10.75 lakhs per annum. MITnow stands 7 th among the private Engineeringcolleges in India, and 22 nd overall.A student, Gaurav Sinha (4 th year, Electricaland Electronics) quotes “MIT has provided me withexcellent opportunities to develop to my fullpotential. The environment is conducive for ourgrowth and along with the state-of-art infrastructurefacilities available helps bring out the best in each ofus. The platform and exposure that I got at MIT hasgroomed my personality and prepared me to face anychallenge in future”. Already having produced strongpersonalities of industry like Rajeev Chandrasekhar(Chairman & CEO of Jupiter Capital; FICCIPresident; Founder & former-CEO of BPL mobile),Ravi Bapna (Executive Director of CITNE &Professor, Indian School of Business) , Amit Behl(Director, Intel India), etc. the excellentinfrastructure coupled with innovative learning andcourse content, holds promise for a much brighterfuture for the country.– MIT, ManipalXtraEdge for IIT-JEE 50 APRIL 2010