Punjabi university’s Mechanical engineering department making new strides; starts two new courses from 2023-24 session
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ May 19,2023
At a time when the industry is embracing smart manufacturing, while the automobile sector is bracing to ramp-up the production of new products like electric vehicles and smart hybrid vehicles and at the same time, facing the challenge of developing new technologies like autonomous vehicles, the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Punjabi University Patiala is busy grooming the students to lead from front. Final Year students from B.Tech. Mechanical Engineering have been developing projects based on state-of-the-art technologies, like Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Computer Vision and Machine Learning. Following resumption of regular classroom studies after the COVID-19 Lockdown, the students initially mastered solid modeling, using which they designed and developed their own large-format 3D Printer. Having tasted success, they started working on various other projects related to Precision Farming, viz. design and development of an intelligent Robotic Arm and fabrication of a solar powered Weather Station, which collects field data and feeds it to Google cloud server through GSM network. Currently, they are working on a project, which employs computer vision algorithm for pointing a LASER onto a moving target. In order to keep tabs on expenditure, all the projects have been employing open source hardware platforms such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi, while the end-to-end working is achieved using free and open source software.
During his visit to the department, the scientist Vice Chancellor, Dr. Arvind took great interest in the students’ projects and shared many useful ideas and insightful tips. He advised to think innovatively for identifying and solving various pain-points and take steps to protect the intellectual property. Head of Department, Prof. Balraj Singh Saini said that concurrent with the changing times, the curriculum for Mechanical Engineering needed to be upgraded and, in this respect, the Department is now offering an optional Minor Degree Programme in Computer Science & Engineering.
Punjabi university’s Mechanical engineering department making new strides; starts two new courses from 2023-24 session. Being able to incorporate Artificial Intelligence into a mechanical system paves the way for developing smart systems that can sense and interact with the environment. This combination makes the budding engineer well-poised to venture into a technology start-up as well as take-up specialized jobs or further studies in various advanced fields.
In addition to above, the Department has also started an integrated Six Year Diploma-B.Tech. programme in Mechanical Engineering, which aims at catching the students at a younger age, so that they can be relieved of the excessive stress while preparing for the Engineering Entrance Examination and be groomed more effectively over a longer time period. In this programme too, the candidate can opt for the Minor Degree in Computer Science & Engineering. Head of the Department commented that this programme is expected to help reduce the rampant brain-drain from the region, as with an enhanced level of awareness about various avenues and mastery over the required skills, the youth will be able to make better and informed choices about their careers.
