In mythologies worldwide, a significant emphasis is showcased on humans’ endeavour of flying. Apart from the Hindu and Japanese epics, several depictions can be seen in the western culture and the eastern hemisphere of the world.
Narrowing it down with the depiction of human flying endeavour, Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machine drafted a picture of the first model of an aeroplane. Later on, the first successful take-off of the human flying dream was accelerated by the first model of an aircraft proposed by the Wright Brothers.
Since then, the world has gone through several changes in the aerospace sector. The dream was given a different direction from using the aircraft as a war machine, to commercialising the aircraft business. With many people wanting to fly the incredible machine developed by humans with a will to contribute more to the long-seen dream, many educational institutes were drawn into the picture.
For those aspirants willing to fly the mighty bird-like objects in the sky, the need to understand the dynamics and necessities was the need of the hour. Many aerospace engineering colleges were set up to serve man’s era-defining dream.
With time they evolved, and with a need to see that the world gets a chance and set new boundaries to this human adventure, RV College of Engineering was established. The college, since its inception, has dedicated itself to grooming students to contribute to this human venture.
Observing this adventure of RV College of Engineering, The Knowledge Review magazine caught up with Dr K N Subramanya, the Principal of the college. In an interactive discussion with the magazine, he highlights the college’s approach to quality aerospace engineering education and contributes more to man’s flying adventure.
Spreading the Broad Wings of Human Endeavour
Operated by the Rashtreeya Sikshana Samithi Trust, RV College of Engineering (RVCE) was founded in 1963, and today it proudly presents itself as one of the top-ten self-financing engineering colleges in the Country. With annual enrolment reaching the milestone of 1700 applicants, RVCE abides by the mantra of facilitating Outcome-Based Education (OBE) with experiential learning, interdisciplinary research, established governance, an entrepreneurial culture, and sustainable and inclusive technologies in focus.
RVCE, an Autonomous college, offers 13 Bachelor’s Degree programs and 16 Master’s Degree Programs, and special research centres are developed for every department. Moreover, the college is affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) Belagavi makes it even more special for the students studying in the college.
Core Values
Professionalism, Commitment, Integrity, Teamwork, Innovation
Vision
Leadership in Quality Technical Education, Interdisciplinary Research & Innovation, with a Focus on Sustainable and Inclusive Technology
Mission
- To deliver outcome-based quality education and emphasise experiential learning with the state-of-the-art infrastructure.
- Creating a conducive environment for interdisciplinary research and innovation.
- Developing professionals through holistic education focusing on individual growth, discipline, integrity, ethics, and social sensitivity.
- To nurture industry-institution collaboration to competency enhancement and entrepreneurship.
- Focusing on sustainable and inclusive technologies, benefiting all sections of society.
Quality Aerospace Learning and Academic Initiatives
Talking about the college’s academic programs and other initiatives, Principal Dr K N Subramanya says, “At RVCE, 13 Undergraduate Engineering programmes, 16 Masters Degree programmes and Doctoral Research programmes are offered. To stay abreast with the technology, the entire curriculum landscape is enhanced and updated every two to three years. Additionally, the traditional Teaching-learning techniques are drastically getting transformed into digital teaching modes with the introduction of the latest ICT tools. The entire institute is undergoing a metamorphological change ensuring an effective teaching-learning and knowledge assimilation process.”
With project and experimental learning being the need of the hour for many students wishing to enter the aerospace industry, the college has developed its whole curriculum. Embracing the novel project and experiential-based learning, the Principal says, “The advent of experiential learning, design thinking lab, internships, minor and major projects have provided enough thrust among students to think out-of-the-box. Further, it has been instrumental in converting a simple idea into a technological masterpiece through sequential incubation and periodical developments. This provides enough scope and opportunities for students to get not only adequate theoretical know-how but also the required practical understanding.”
Leading through the Conventional Mission of RSST
The founder of The Rashtreeya Sikshana Samithi Trust (RSST), Sri M C Shivananda Sarma, founded the Trust in 1940 when education was considered a privilege. With a mission to ‘Impart Quality Education to all strata of the Society’, the educational institutes from Kindergarten to Professional colleges in Bengaluru were set up. RVCE is the flagship institution of the Trust. Sri Meda Kasturi Ranga Setty, a businessman & philanthropist, joined hands together to pull this movement forward.
The college is headed by the Principal, Dr K N Subramanya. Serving the educational sector for 29 years, he has become a prominent educator and an eminent researcher. He has been instrumental in the college’s success and in bringing the prestigious institute to this stature.
“Keeping in step with the RSST’s mission, ‘Excellence in Education with Societal Commitment’, the college under his leadership has been successful in providing opportunities, especially to challenged, disabled and economically weaker sections of the society. He has published and presented more than 100 Technical papers in National and International Conferences and Journals and has executed and co-ordinating sponsored research projects and consultancy works,” the college management said about the Dr K N Subramanya.
Piloting the Aerospace Engineering Department
The Aerospace Engineering Department has gotten special attention and coverage because of the Head of the Department, Dr Ravindra S. Kulkarni’s sheer leadership and management quality. Though he has held the position since 2015, he has been involved in the inception and development of the department from a rough draft to being a special department.
Dr.Ravindra S. Kulkarni, Professor and Head of the Department brings a rich experience of more than 30 years of teaching and research to the Institution. Being an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, he has been phenomenal in giving the prestigious status to the aerospace department. Moreover, he has gathered a team of excellent educators to train and groom students to provide them with the boost to become the wings of the Indian aerospace industry.
Prioritising Value Education for Holistic Leaders
RV College of Engineering is an institution which has always strived to deliver quality education at an affordable cost to students, without any distinction of caste, creed, or financial status over 60 years.
Emphasising on the institute’s approach to grooming the aerospace experts of tomorrow, Dr K N Subramanya says, “RVCE’s Aerospace Department is a trendsetting institution preparing the leaders of tomorrow and enable India to truly become the rightful world leader that India was about 400 years ago (before the arrival of the Europeans). Thus, we hope to feature in the top hundred technical institutes in Asia, in the next five years and be among the top 150 technical institutes in the world by 2025.”
The college has made itself economically sustainable by leveraging the teaching-learning process and industry-academic collaboration itself for revenue generation through consultancy, R&D, continuing education, and IP. “More importantly, being a role model for a technical education that delivers affordable quality technical education, combined with cutting-edge research & technology solutions relevant to society,” highlighted the college Principal.
Wings to the Pilots of Aerospace Studying
During the inception of RV College of Engineering’s Department of Aerospace, it was incepted to provide wings to the aspirant engineers. Highlighting the college’s process and education facilities, the Principal says, “The Aerospace department has state of the art lab facilities in aerospace domain verticals such as Aerodynamics, Propulsion, Structures and Avionics. Further Advancements are being made to upgrade the Measurement and Instrumentation aspects of various test setup. The satellite development lab and Drone Development lab are in the future pipeline. In addition AR, VR and MR based lab facilities are being taken up to catch up with Industry 4.0. The department is keen on establishing a Center of Excellence for Aerospace Testing and Simulation Studies.”
Further asserting the college’s various initiatives, Dr K N Suramanya says, “Initiatives are underway towards providing a Feel of pilot flying experience to all the students through Virtual Flight simulator and Real Aircraft flying Experience with the support of flight schools.”
Awards and Achievements
The institute takes pride in commuting the knowledge humans have harnessed over the years with the world. The institution has to its credit over 1500 National and International Journal publications, filed over 50 patents, 50 published patents, seven granted patents, and completed sponsored research and consultancy projects worth Rs. 25.0 crores in the last three years. The institution has established various Centers of Excellence on the campus. The college currently has a student strength of more than 5500, faculty strength of above 350, a technical, and administrative staff of about 225 and around 350 research scholars pursuing PhD. The students have won awards and accolades in national and international competitions.
Moreover, to highlight some of the awards won by the institute are:
- Ranked 77th in the Country by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF: 2019-20)
- QS-IGUAGE -Diamond University Rating (2021-2024)
- EduFuture Excellence Award -Best Private Engineering University (South) by Zee Digital
- “Engineering College of the Year-2021” by the Higher Education Review Magazine
- Ranked 34th in the Country by The Week Magazine-2020
- Ranked 6th among the top 10 of 100 Pvt. Engg. Colleges in the Country by Education World Magazine-May 21
- Eleven UG programs and eligible M.Tech & MCA programs have been accredited by NBA multiple times.
Strategically Deploying the Future Plans
Projecting the future of the college, Dr K N Subramanya envisions, “The future of the college is envisaged based on the Strategic Development Plan (SDP). The theme for the SDP covers all critical aspects of the institution. The SDP implementation in its full spirit may lead this institution towards the most preferred institution in the Asia Pacific and also among all its stakeholders.”
With SDP, the college curated the future with a clear vision, mission, quality policy, core values, institutional strategic goals, strategies, sub-strategies and goals. The key performance indicator of SDP can be its successful implementation and evaluation aspects. With confidence in the institution’s human resources and management capability, the college aims to implement SDP effectively, leading to the growth of the institute in comparison with the international standards.
Wings Commander’s sAdvice Catering to the Human Dream of Flying
Advising the future of pupils preparing for the flight, Dr K N Subramanya says, ‘Aerospace engineering, being highly multidisciplinary, is also a niche area. The technologies that go into the manufacture of aerospace systems are highly critical. Owing to which, the engineers would be exposed to complex courses requiring strong fundamentals based on physics and mathematics. With strong determination, positive mindset, perseverance etc., courses can be well learnt and completed with flying colours.
The Future challenges, such as providing public mobility system by Unmanned Air Mobility system and Extra-terrestrial Manned Space Mission programs, will create interesting and Challenging opportunities.
