Chennai: Flipped classrooms, skill labs, new courses in emerging areas, and participation in hackathons are how the Directorate of Technical Education (DOTE) is planning to make govt engineering college students future-ready.The state govt announced 10 new courses, including BE computer science engineering with specialisation in AI and machine learning, data science, cyber security, BE robotics and automation, and BTech in industrial biotechnology in the govt engineering colleges for 2025-26 academic year.“We are creating centres of excellence for robotics and AI, and smart manufacturing in the govt engineering colleges. The govt engineering colleges will also be equipped with labs to run these new courses,” said J Innocent Divya, commissioner of DOTE.The directorate is also in talks with industry insiders to establish skill labs in the govt engineering colleges. The industry will establish labs and, in return, they will get trained graduates. Further, it will be made mandatory for all students studying in govt engineering colleges to take part in hackathons, to provide them with exposure to industry problems.“We are moving from conceptual understanding to product development. Students will understand the basics first and then build solutions to industrial problems. We will focus on developing this mindset,” she added.These colleges will also adopt the flipped classroom concept, where the content of the lectures will be shared in advance with students. “There will be group discussions on real-world issues in the classrooms. It will help children to work on complex problems,” said Divya.The directorate is also planning to train the faculty members to change their mindset as well. After skilling these students, the directorate may also bring global capability centres (GCCs) for campus placements to enable these students bag offers with better pay packages.
