Tag: Education

Concerted response required for the recent letter “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” ?

The recent letter “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” and its rejection by MIT could be a welcome opportunity for the Educational Leaders and the leading Institutions?
https://lnkd.in/gYxdYv7J
The letter “Compact for ….” from the Education Secretary appears to be a Trojan Horse for power grab and an attempt to curb free thinking. The shallow intellectual depth of the administration makes one wonder, if there is even an interest to promote “Conservative” values in lieu of “Liberal” thoughts and expression in campuses! It might just be an old ploy of pitting one group against another and relishing in the chaos, as the outcome!
The challenge through the letter from the Education Secretary and this Administration goes beyond their thinking and adversarial approach to governing. In fact they stem from insidious developments over the past five decades or more that have been metastasizing our nation, its culture and our Democratic and moral fibre.
For example:
— Technology (=Science X Engineering X Managment) is now synonymously treated as reflecting only IT, Computer Science, Data Science or AI! In other words, the entire value of MIT is reduced to one Department or one sector of activity!
— Rewards of Capitalism have degenerated the society that was once heavily middle class (40/40/20 : Poor/Middle/Rich) into a nation of “haves” and “have nots” (90/10: Poor and Middle /Ultra rich). Traditional sharing of the wealth through Risk/Reward has not shifted to Risk/Effort/Reward sharing models.
— While it may be true that over 80% of MIT undergraduates are free of loan burden, that can not be said of most UGs across the nation. Being driven out of the middle class they are also driven into economic disadvantage Vs. their global college educated compatriots.
— Most of the Social Media products – with their inability to control and limit the polarizing effect on the society – are developed and implemented by graduates from top schools like MIT, aided by low wage high skilled H1B Visa workers.
In all of the above, schools like MIT are not solely responsible for the outcomes. But, systemic failure in leadership across the nation, over the decades, to challenge the above outcomes and their corrupting influence has to be acknowledged. It has been leading to despair and “throw the baby out with the bath water” attitude on our social and democratic norms. These are the undercurrent rhat fuel this administration and its political power. As I have learned at MIT, the “System and its solution” need a comprehensive approach addressing several issues at the same time! My plea to the leadership at MIT as well as at other leading institutions is to take bold action on the above (bulleted) and other similar issues. That would be a worthy antidote raising social awareness and public support against arbitrary and misplaced demands from the current administration?

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7382497220568211456/

Keynote Presentations at COPEN-13, @ NIT Calicut – India

Dr. Krishnamoorthy (Subbu) Subramanian, President STIMS Institute and Prof. Ramesh N. Babu, IIT – Madras and Secretary AMTDC presented a joint invited Key Note address at the 13th Conference on Precision Engineering (COPEN – 13) on Dec. 13th 2024 at NIT Calicut, Kerala, India. The presentation was followed by a panel session to further gain insights on successful models and strategy for industry/academia collaboration together with support from the funding agencies, and future directions.
It was an unique opportunity as well as experience. It was the culmination of over a decade long collaboration between STIMS Institute, IIT- Madras, several industry partners as well as support from Govt. of India. The presentations covered two themes:
Substantial collaborative work has progressed inside of India for more than a decade now. This is a remarkable demonstration of success in   Industry/Academia collaboration, much sought after by Industries, Academia and funding agencies from the Govt. in all nations across the globe.
The secret for success can be summatized as a relentless emphasis on System Thinking and Transformational Skills with a determined focus on End-to-End Innovation!
This joint key note talk was presented in two parts by an academic leader with hands on experience in real world innovation and the Knowledge-Integration expertise promoted by the STIMS Institute.

Part 1:   Prof. Babu: Real life experience – home grown success in  Industry/academia collaboration, which is now seen as the successfully established Advanced Manufacturing Technology Development Center (AMTDC) located at the IIT Research Park, Taramani, Chennai, Tamil Nady, India.
https://stimsinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/copen13_nitc_final-1-prof.-babu.pdf

Part 2:   Dr. Krishnamoorthy (Subbu) Subramanian: Origins and Strategy (based on over   40 years of experience in inter-industry and   Industry / Academia Collaboration). — Strategies for End-to-End Innovation -“System Thinking” and “Transformational Skills”
https://stimsinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/copen-13-key-note-paper-final.pdf

Few images from this event and presentations are included below. We thank the conference organizers, academia and industry partners as well as industry consortium represented by IMTMA and also the fiunding agencies from the Government of India. Special thanks to Mr. N.K. Dhand, Chairman, Micromatic Grinding Technology Ltd. (MGTL) and Mr. Mohanram, adviser, Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers Association (IMTMA) for their unstincting support for this decade long collaboration and outcome.

This successful model, for industry/academia collaboration at AMTDC has also been implemented earlier as an inter-industry collaborative effort inside the industry, by Dr. Subramanian through his industrial working career. We hope there will be more efforts to replicate this successful model and its outcomes by many in the Academia/Industry and Govt. agencucies.

Advanced Manufacturing Technology Development Center (AMTDC) https://amtdc.org/

The Misguided War on the SAT – Comments on NYT essay.

The essay The misguided war on the SAT, dated Jan. 7, 24 by Mr. David Leonhardt is a thoughtful and data rich essay on this topic. The essay, the contents and the debate strike a personal chord in my memory lanes!

Being an alumni of MIT, I am genuinely proud and grateful for their thoughtful probing on this matter of Standardized Test scores and their impact on diversity in their student population admitted, as well long term performance or success of students in their performance at college and subsequent career success. Life and success is more than just success in the UG studies, admission to Graduate School or working in a “Prestigious” firm! I hope MIT and other institutions will explore other factors such as good family life (long term relations); success in mentoring others (children, colleagues, fellow professionals) and social responsibility (service to the society, racial/gender cohesiveness) as well as interests in the larger interests of humanity and global issues! How are these factors related to performance in generalized tests such as SAT scores?

Born and brought up in a small village in Tamil Nadu state, India, I attended a local public elementary school and moved to a public countywide school (Board High School). Our education was entirely in Tamil, a local language (rich in history and literature). We were also exposed to English as a special language and to a minimum extent Sanskrit, another ancient and culturally rich language. Our assessment at the end of the final High School year was a common examination in all subjects (Language, Science, Mathematics, History, Geography, etc.). While students were graduated based on the individual’s score, the comparison was across all students in the District level (across several counties). I was ranked first in my school and second at the District level. There were no issues up to this point. Life was as smooth as it can be for a poor rural Indian boy!

Then I proceeded to a prestigious college in a city 12 miles away, which meant travel by train (and some walking) adding up to 3 plus hours of travel each day! But, the bigger shock was that all subjects now were taught in the English language! Without any in-depth preparation in the language, the expectation for learning all subjects in English overnight, was a rude awakening! Somehow all of us students, with similar backgrounds, plugged along. This one year course – called Pre-University Course – is a bridge before proceeding to seek admission for U.G. studies. At the end of this year, students took the prestigious IIT Entrance Examination, offered across India. This is closest to the equivalent of the SAT exam. in USA. The language for this entrance exam. was completely English! On top of that, the questions were entirely “gibberish” as seen by this totally unqualified student – myself – with little exposure to English, and absolutely no exposure to Urban values and issues and way of living as well as national or international matters. Nobody had to assess my test scores. I was certain when I left the examination hall that I had failed the IIT Entrance Examination. It was indeed the case!

Getting ahead in life is as much a matter of chance, as it is due to qualifications and preparations! As a combination of all these, I ended up at Osmania University, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh one of the states in India.  I proceeded to study my B.S. in Mech. Engg., being ranked second across the entire University (with several engineering colleges in their jurisdiction). Another set of chances, qualification and preparations resulted in my getting admitted to MIT. In those days students like me with limited knowledge and exposure, did not know that MIT was a prestigious institution, worth persevering for admission as much as possible! I could have easily gone to another place, but for a kind letter during the admission process from Prof. N.H. Cook from MIT (who later became my adviser). It was my father’s wise counsel to stay patient, being respectful to a professor’s letter. This guidance from my father was more from the principle of being respectful to teachers, the ancient wisdom from Eastern philosophy! It had nothing to do with the merits of MIT as an institution of great acclaim! I did exercise patience for two more weeks and in this time my admission to MIT was confirmed! My admission at that time did not require a GRE examination, the standardized test required for all students applying for Graduate Studies! I did not know the reason then, nor do I care to know it now! Past poor performance in the IIT Entrance Exam. or not taking GRE standardized exam., have not held me back in my jobs, career or life as a whole. I have been blessed with opportunities to collaborate with many across the globe including the IIT in India. My rural upbringing, exposure to the ancient wisdoms and culture have helped me to find meaning and purpose in every step as life has unfolded over the years. https://sipractce.com/   https://stimsinstitute.com/about/management-team/

There are many successful faculty at prestigious institutions like MIT, who are not necessarily graduates from the same institution or from similar well known institutions.  Life and performance as a result of education is as much a matter of chance, as it is due to qualifications and preparations! The debate should not be whether or not SAT scores ( as well as GRE scores) are valid and needed. Instead, the approach should be to use SAT score as one of the measures for the admission process as it has been practiced all along. Then the admission officers should diligently explore the background of the outliers, especially those applicants with poor SAT scores, their background and circumstances and also their performance relative to their peer groups in their local settings?

STIMS Institute offers industry focused education for fourth year in a row.

Education, Process Innovation and End to End Innovation are the focus areas of STIMS Institute. Each of these three focus areas are interconnected. education that is merely academic is less valuable today in the world where more than 80% of what is needed can be obtained through Google. Today education has to be holistic (i.e.) system oriented. That implies scientific fundamentals together with an emphasis on application of the science and the strategic reasoning required to make such education relevant and useful in the real world. Such Education was offered for the fourth year in a row . This leads to over 100 senior engineers, managers and teachers trained to meet the high end professional needs in the manufacturing sector.

This year the course was offered under the GIAN (Global Initiative for Academic Network) program at IIT – Madras, India.

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Course Outline:

  • Why should we grind?
    • Critical and enduring role of physical processes like grinding in manufacturing and especially in Precision Components Manufacturing
    • Examples of grinding processes used in a wide variety of:
      • Work materials, machines, components and applications
      • Role of grinding processes in traditional applications as well as emerging needs like high efficiency IC engines, computer parts, LED, PV and wind energy components manufacturing.
  • The System Approach to Grinding Processes:
    • Every process is an Input / Transformation / Output system
    • “Transformation” represents the Science of the Process
    • System Approach requires integration of Science, Engineering and Strategy
  • Grinding Processes are Input /Transformation / Output systems for surface generation to meet critical functional needs and process economics.
  • The Science of grinding: The microscopic interactions that occur at the grinding zone and their quantification
  • Inputs to the grinding process and how they impact the microscopic interactions:
    • Work Materials and components
    • Abrasive and dressing tools, coolants and other consumables
    • Machine Tools (key element of investment and process design)
    • Process parameters (that are selected as part of process design and can be changed at the shop floor )
  • Measurement and Analysis of grinding processes
  • Hands on laboratory exercises
  • Tutorials and analytical and data driven problem solving
  • Technical Outputs – What are the requirements to be met when using grinding processes
  • System Outputs – the Why? strategic and economic considerations pertaining to grinding processes
  • Application of the System Approach – Case Studies
    • Truing & Dressing of CBN grinding wheels
    • Optimal use of CBN grinding solutions
    • Simple Solid Shape (S^3) grinding – High MRR low WIP, short lead time and flexible processes
    • Processes for micro – chip, magnetic head and LED substrate fabrication.
    • Machining to Grinding Processes
    • Data driven process solutions.
    • Optimization in the development og new machine tools for grinding process solutions.
  • Guest Lectures from Industry and academic leaders on the need and role of System Approach for manufacturing processes.

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This course was a team effort in collaboration with Prof. Ramesh Babu, IIT – M, Mr. Sudheendra – a research student for his Ph.D program and Mr. Anant Jain – R&D manager, Micromatic Grinding Technologies, a well recognized Precision Grinding Machine manufacturer.

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System Approach for Engineers – a new course developed and being offered at Thyagaraja College of Engineering in Collaboration with TVS Co., India.

Madurai Temple 2                      How do you promote system thinking and why is it necessary?

This subject was discussed in depth recently by Dr. K. (Subbu) Subramanian, President, STIMS Institute, with a large manufacturing company and a well renowned College of Engineering in India recently. As a result it was concluded that while system engineering and the structures and techniques related to that are well established, System Thinking is not a natural part of working for practicing engineers. It was noted that, while there is a lot of discussion on Cross functional teams and concurrent engineering, there is little in terms of education and practice that promotes concurrency in thought process that brings together the Science, Engineering and Management disciplines pertaining to any problem or solution. While we see every medical professional with a Stethoscope, thermometer and blood pressure monitor, practicing engineers rarely resort to active diagnostic tools to obtain the “Vital signs” of the process or solution they deal with. There is also a tendency to execute whatever they are asked to do or assigned, rather than constantly ask the question “Why?”
With out a system thinking outlook, engineers tend to work in silos and stick to their cubicles. Knowledge, which is available from many sources – suppliers, inside the company, customers, … – is rarely integrated in a deliberate fashion, since there is no framework readily available for such frame work. While tools like Fishbone diagram look at the Cause and the effect, they rarely focus on the “phenomena” or the science that links the cause and the effect. The effect itself is seen only in technical terms (what is the solution) and rarely in terms of the “Why?” or benefits to stake holders and the order of priority.
To address the above needs, a new course is being developed to be offered as an optional course for the 7th semester students. While the initial plan was targeted the ME and EE students, the college has decided to offer this course for all majors. The expected outcome of this course are:

  • Definition of any solution as the System: Input/Transformation/Output Scheme
  • Distinction between:

—    System Thinking (which underlies the) System Engineering
—   Task Orientation Vs. Solution orientation (System Thinking)
—   Technical Output Vs. System Output

  • The four components of the Inputs categories of any system or solution
  • Definition and distinction between Science, Engineering and Management
  • The role of each of the above three pathways for critical thinking
  • Transformation — What does it mean?
  • How to identify the “transformation” behind any solution?
  • Ability to frame any assignment, job or problem as the system and its parts
  • Ability to recognize the need for diagnostic tools and their use to probe the “Transformation”
  • Principles of the System Approach (Captured in the books referenced below)
  • Comfort level to know who the stake holders are (who are also the sources for inputs)?
  • Ability to seek them out for help and collaboration from both inside as well as outside the company.

 

 

    1. “Thriving in the 21st Century: Transformational Skills for Technical Professionals”, K. (Subbu) Subramanian, Srinivas U. Rangan, ASME Press, 2013, ISBN: 978-0-7918-6016-8