Valuable lessons to take home

Learning Experience

Inter and intra-college project exhibitions and competitions turn out to be extremely beneficial for students. They not only encourage them to innovate and experiment but also sharpen many of their skills like organising, teamwork and stress management.

While engineering students have many such events — in which they are encouraged to come up with various kinds of models and applications related to their chosen field — others, like the degree and management students, showcase their expertise in dissertations and other projects.

“These competitions and exhibitions are extremely beneficial for us as we get to know the nitty-gritties of making that particular model.

I am a civil engineering student and these inter-collegiate activities, in which we compete with other colleges in the fields of town planning or making a model structure, help us in the long run.

Ultimately, when we enter the industry, we are equipped with at least the basic knowledge of our profession. We don’t require to start right from scratch. Moreover, these projects teach us so many things — we pick up tips from our peers, our teachers and learn the best practices of the industry,” says Shweta, a final-year engineering student.

Dhanush, an engineering student, points out that these kind of project-related competitions help students in identifying their competitors. “As colleges from across the state participate in these competitions, we meet many students from various streams and various places. We get a chance to observe what they are doing, talk to them, get to know more about their strategy and in the long run, it helps as they will be our competitors. Hence, it is not a mere competition — it gives us an overall view about the kind of competition we will face in the future,” he elaborates.

Students say the benefits of participating in these competitions are many and in the end, they come out learning lessons in teamwork and other skills. “We learn resource management, communication skills, stress management, teamwork, decision making as well as leadership skills. There have been instances where a team has had to start from scratch as their project developed last-minute glitches. These experiences teach us a lot,” says Archit, a student.

Srikant, a management student, adds that compiling these lengthy dissertations are tedious — but these are ultimately beneficial. “As management students, we need to submit a project or a dissertation on subjects like marketing, human resource etc. It’s a lengthy affair and we need to talk to a lot of people in the industry, get first-hand experience and understand how the industry works. I learnt a lot while compiling my dissertation. I know for a fact that when I get placed, I will have some idea about how the system functions,” he concludes.