‘Ranking isn’t everything, but has its positives’

Was there a conscious plan that led to IIT-Ropar getting top ranking among Indian institutes?

We neither dreamt nor planned for the ranking. In today’s world, there are many universities in India and abroad which are going out of their way to get a higher ranking. They plan everything to get a higher ranking. Our effort was never in that direction. We wanted to emerge as a good institute nationally and internationally, and recognition in the form of higher rankings is like a milestone in that journey.

Also Read: Why IIT-Ropar finds itself right on top

What is your take on the concept of rankings?

Rankings are here to stay whether we like it or not. This is because the moment you have a lot of information, you start comparing. Twenty years back, no one was bothered about the rank of an institute as there was little access to information. But today, you can’t be oblivious to these. Though ranking is not everything, it does throw light on some positive aspects of an institution. This has created a healthy competition.

Most people debunk these because of lack of uniformity, but the fact is that different agencies are employing different parameters to grade educational institutes. And there is nothing like a legitimate parameter. It is like judging a man — someone may judge on honesty and integrity, while others can judge on professional status. It is a subjective assessment. But at least it puts an institute in a particular bracket. Instead of questioning the parameters, look at what is good with them, probably that is a better way.

What is dangerous is when institutes doctor their policies to get to a particular place. IIT-Ropar is not changing policies to get a higher ranking. Why THE ranking is heartening for us is because it ratifies the original mission and vision of the institute —  to produce high-quality research rather than quantity. In THE ranking, we have been excellent in citation and not in research score. The research score comes from quantum of research and citation from quality of research.

What about the controversy generated by rankings?

Some older IITs have complained how we got such a high ranking and that it was due to a few multi-authored papers. But this is not correct. All ranking agencies normalise the results. I am not claiming that I am better than IIT-Delhi or Madras, but in the quality of research, we are in the same league.

Has this ranking made a difference?

It has. I am getting a lot of queries and interest from industry and students, and the faculty is motivated too. But there is some misinformation also, which is unfortunate.

Are older IITs losing out on research?

Unfortunately, yes. Research is not the top priority for many of the older IITs still. When I was Dean, Research, at IIT-Madras, I found that around 50 per cent of faculty was doing very little research and just 10 per cent of top performers were involved in over 40 per cent of the research work being carried out there. This ratio is much better in newer IITs as these have young faculty members who have not only come from reputed labs, but they were recruited because of their research background.

I think older IITs need to take stock of this factor. They need to put some mechanism in place to improve that.

One of the things that IITs as a whole are missing is the tenure-track system where people are taken for five years and those who do not perform are asked to go.

How are you reaching out to students in the region?

We have formed a Council of Educational Associates (CEA) for this purpose. Through this we organise workshops and even training of the faculty in some of the colleges around. During summer, we ask their faculty to come and stay at our campus and learn new methods. We have adopted two colleges — Baba Banda Singh Bahadur College, Fatehgarh Sahib, and Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College, Ludhiana, and are in the process of adopting another three. A large number of students from other colleges do internship at the IIT. We are also doing technical sessions at different colleges. We are also working with the Punjab government on skill development.

What are the future plans for IIT-Ropar?

A school of management is next on the agenda as engineering and management go hand in hand now. Besides, we have sent a bid for setting up a School of Architecture and Planning. Two to three centres of excellence in water, manufacturing and healthcare verticals are also being planned. The institute already has an international centre of excellence with the Taiwanese government sponsoring a centre on AI and machine learning on the campus. — Geetu Vaid 

PROJECT FILE

Artificial Intelligence: The computer science department has developed AI-enabled technology that helps the visually impaired identify currency notes. Even soiled and crumpled currency notes can be correctly identified using this technology.

Uranium mapping: DST has commissioned a project to map the presence of uranium in groundwater in certain areas of Punjab that are witnessing high incidence of cancer.

Taking on drug addiction: The biomedical department is working on a vaccine that will serve as immunisation against drug addiction.

Robotic cold spray lab: Only the second lab in the country to use cold spray technique for boiler coatings.

Problem of silting in dams: Working with BBMB to solve the silt-deposits problem in a cost-effective manner.

Agriculture: Has developed an attachment that can be used with a tractor to remove stubble after harvesting so that it can be transferred directly to the power generation plants. This cheaper option will help deal with the pollution problem resulting from stubble burning.

Mapping water sources: An area of 5 acres has been dedicated in Doaba to start a field lab for this purpose.

Micro grid project: To allow optimum use of power generated through renewable energy sources, the electrical engineering department of the institute is working on a smart micro grid project.

‘Change JEE’

It is not bringing forth the best talent. Because of the stress on coaching, the real innovative students and those with raw talent are not coming in the forefront. JEE pattern deteriorated the moment we dispensed with problem solving and switched over to multiple-choice questions. Students now have to guess the answer more than solving the problem.

In the pipeline

A school of management is next on the agenda as engineering and management go hand in hand now. Besides, we have sent a bid for setting up a School of Architecture and Planning. Two to three centres of excellence in water, manufacturing and healthcare verticals are also being planned. —Sarit K Das, director, IIT Ropar