Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) Meeting for Department of Electronic Engineering, MUET, Jamshoro was held on 30-04-2019

On 30-04-2019, second meeting of the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) was held for the Department of Electronic Engineering in Audio Video Conference Room, IIT Building. Faculty members from the department of Electronics also attended the meeting enthusiastically. In this meeting a formal one hour DIALOGUE was held between final year students of the department (16 Electronics) and the members of the IAB working at very senior positions in very well reputed organizations. The honorable IAB experts who participated in the meeting were Engr. Asif Memon (GM SUPARCO), Engr. Asif Raza Memon (Electrical team Lead OMV Exploration Pakistan GmbH), Engr. Amir M Shaikh (Team Lead- Health, Safety and Environment, United Energy Pakistan- Ex-British Petroleum), Engr. Abdul Hafeez Qazi, Engr. Waseem Ahmed (Manager Peoples STEEL Mills) and Engr. Ghulam Qadir Ansari (National Manager Cybernet). The DIALOGUE started by the recitation of few verses from the holy QURAN followed by the welcome speech by Dr. Tayab Din Memon, Chairman Department of Electronic Engineering. Dr. Tayab elaborated the importance of Outcome Based Education (OBE), its continual quality improvement (CQI) cycle, and its emphasis on Industry-Academic collaboration. He advised the students to change their perception of rote learning and focus more on creative ways of study. Further, he emphasized that industry should come forward and play its role in imparting the required soft and hard skills among the students.

This welcome speech was followed by a fruitful and constructive question and answer session between the experts and final year students of Electronic Engineering department. Students were given an opportunity to engage with the Industrial Advisory Board members and ask their queries ranging from prospect opportunities for electronic engineering graduate students, employer requirement in the sense of soft/hard skills, future trends of Electronic Engineering, Knowledge-Skills-Attitude balance, internships, final year projects selection according to industrial needs and its possible role in securing jobs or creating business ventures, workshops on industrial related tools, resume writing and interview techniques. This was largely a candid discussion of the experts with students, who shared their diversified experience while answering to the students’ queries. Adopting positive professional attitude, inculcating creativity among the graduating students and the frequent curriculum review are some of the many crucial steps needed towards bridging the industry-Academia divide, this was the recurrent theme of suggestions of various industry experts. Attitude and skills have more weightage in the contemporary world that should be demonstrated in full confidence while appearing in interview was the answer by one of the representative.

The session was ended by a truly motivating and thought provoking vote of thanks by Prof. Dr. Mukhtiar Ali Unar,  DEAN FEECE, Mehran University of Engineering & Technology. He admired and thanked to all IAB representatives and appreciated sincere efforts of the department of electronic engineering in reducing the gap between industry-academia.

Following to the DIALOGUE, a formal meeting on possible curriculum revision, industrial linkage, and internships was held between department’s Program Committee, IAB representatives, and on special invitation Prof. Dr. Tanweer Hussain Phalpoto, Advisor to Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Engr. Hallar Memon Incharge Chairman Electronic Engineering SZAB Campus. The Chairman Department of Electronic Engineering gave a presentation on steps taken towards ‘Outcome based Education (OBE) system’ implementation in department of Electronics to the experts. He informed that CQI cycle has been already started at the department of Electronics and the IAB members were invited to take their valuable input on curriculum revision if any in order to be inline with the current industrial requirements. Most of the experts were unanimous in their opinion that department has done commendable work in updating the syllabus, but though there is always a room for improvement, they suggested some vital areas of technical importance to be incorporated in various courses. The experts also highlighted the need to introduce few technical short courses and thankfully consented to be conducting few of them by themselves.

Indeed the comments of Mr. Asif Raza Memon, Electrical Team Lead, OMV Pakistan, at the end of meeting were noteworthy, in which he said that we have to strive towards reversing the prevalent scenario in Pakistan in which universities approach the industry to solve their multifarious issues. He said that instead, industry should recourse to academia, present their problems and get them solved from there. For that to materialize, academia must foster creativity, teaching methodologies should catch the imagination of students and overall attitude of the graduates must be responsible and professional.      

This meeting was ended by the vote of thanks by Prof. Dr. Arbab Nighat (Convener Program Committee), Dr. Irfan Ahmed Halepoto (Convener Industrial Liaison Committee), Dr. Farida Memon (Convener Curriculum Review Committee and Dr. Attiya Baqai (Convener Final Year Project Committee) to all IAB members for sparing time, actively engaging in DIALOGUE, valuable comments on curriculum and their commitment to conduct seminars/workshops in their capacity in near future.

Following to the meeting Lunch was served at Foreign Faculty Hostel.