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PALS hopes to become a centre of excellence

N Ramakrishnan Chennai | Updated on October 29, 2019 | Published on October 30, 2019 PALS, an educational initiative by pan-IIT alumni that is now in the seventh year, hopes to become like a centre of excellence that will create workflow and processes for similar such projects across the country. Mohan Narayanan, Chairman, PALS, says the programme launched in 2012 by IIT alumni to help improve standards of education by targeting both students and teachers can be replicated in other places where there is a strong institute-industry linkage to make a similar impact. It started off with six institutions in 2012 and now covers 32 engineering colleges in Chennai, Tiruchi, Coimbatore and Madurai. PALS, which earlier stood for Pan-IIT Alumni Leadership Series, has impacted more than 28,000 students and over 2,250 faculty members since its inception, according to him. In 2018-19 alone, it impacted more than 13,100 students and 1,250 faculty members. PALS has also tied up with more than 50 companies for eld visits. Narayanan, who has a Master’s in electrical engineering from IITMadras, says the need for a nishing-school kind of arrangement for engineering students where the IIT alumni could contribute was felt because of the gaps that were noticed when these graduates went for jobs, especially in the software industry. A few IIT alumni got together to see if they could help in bridging this gap, using the infrastructure  10/30/2019 PALS hopes to become a centre of excellence – The Hindu BusinessLine https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/education/pals-hopes-to-become-a-centre-of-excellence/article29825453.ece# 4/7 Published on…

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IIT-alumni body launches skill development programmes.

(PALS), the body comprising alumni from various Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the country, on Saturday launched its 2018-19 annual activities aimed at making engineering college students ‘Industry ready. PALS offer a year-long program with various activities for students, faculty and management of Engineering Institutions. PALS is supported by IIT Alumni Industry Interaction Centre (IITAIIC) and IIT Madras Alumni Charitable Trust (IITMACT) for the benefit of engineering college students in Tamil Nadu. Till Academic year 2017-18, PALS has positively impacted more than 15,000 students and 5,000 faculties across member colleges in Chennai, Tricky, Madurai, Coimbatore and Salem. Sharing his thoughts on the role he would like PALS to play, Prof M K Surappa, Vice Chancellor, Anna University, and the Guest of Honour, said, “The number of engineering colleges has increased exponentially in recent years. However, some of these affiliated institutions have difficulty in imparting engineering education at the same level as some of the top institutions. In the last four years, many engineering colleges have had trouble attracting students and have closed down. Perhaps, a body like PALS can prevent this from happening by focusing on elevating the quality of education.” Further, he added, “The roles of Social Sciences and Humanities have fast become vital for making engineers well-rounded. This has already come about in the West and now, in India too.” In its seventh year now, PALS started as a series of motivational lectures given by IIT Alumni at various engineering colleges’ campuses in and around Chennai. The…

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