News Magazine -2009 - Chemical Engineering Department - IISc

their idea or merit in their comments, and the skill required tofinally take it to a stage where it makes a difference. The alumniin the audience presented their view points. Some of these touchedupon issues such as a mix of experimental and theoretical work inPhD work, low visibility of the department because of our smallsize, learning from student colleagues through informal seminars,etc. There was more than forty five minute long participation fromthe audience, before Dr. Gopalkrishna (Jubiliant) and Dr. Ganesan(Dow), who managed various pulls and pushes in this very livelysession quite delicately, closed it for lunch. Lunch was served inthe Main Guest House lawns.The second session on Alumni-Department Interaction was organized byDr. Sivakumar (GE). It had seven talks (Dr. KVS Ramrao, Reddy's ab;Dr. C. Lakshmanan, ITC; Dr. Tulasi Lakshami, Shell; Gururaj, GECapital; Prof. KS Rajanandam, MSRIT; Prof. Narendra Dixit, IISc;Girish, PhD student). These talks covered various aspects ofdepartment-alumni relationship and the role alumni can play infurthering the outreach of the department in attracting motivatedand talented students for its academic programmes. The perceptionof the department among the stake-holders in the country wasdiscussed. Once again, the perception that IISc graduates aretechnically very competent, but needing further support in terms ofsoft-skills to make impact in industry was reinforced. The activeparticipation of the alumni in imparting soft skills to the currentstudents was suggested by several alumni. Identification of anindustry mentor from among our alumni for each of our ME/Researchstudents could boost department-alumni interaction in a big way.Some members brought out the need to identify one or two cleargoals, and work towards them in mission critical mode. Suggestionswere also made for the department to organize events (such asquizes, design contests, etc.) for undergraduate students so as togain certain degree of visibility among them. As with the previoussession, this session also saw very active participation from theaudience for about forty minutes, before Prof. Kesava Rao (IISc) andDr. L. Srinivas Mohan (Fluent) closed it for a short coffee break.22