PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore : Forging Industry Ties

Every survey has its share of surprises. This time around Coimbatore based
PSG College of Technology surprised again with its #1 rank on Industry
Interface despite not making it to the Top 20. How does this institute achieve
this rather easily while others struggle? According to Dr R Rudramoorthy,
principal, PSG College of Technology, "We are very strong on industry-institute
collaboration because it is embedded in our culture. The promoters of this
institution are closely associated with manufacturing industry and in fact the
college started as a manufacturing training center and ultimately became an
engineering college in 1951."

Reaching Out

PSG College today has grown into one of the finest engineering colleges in South
India, offering about forty-eight full-time and part-time programs cutting
across engineering, science, and management. The institute has collaborations
with companies across verticals like manufacturing, IT, heavy engineering, etc.
There are speciality labs that function as R&D arms that expose the students to
some of the latest in those domains.

The close collaborations that the institution has with leading organizations
have resulted in the creation of speciality labs which act as centers of
excellence. Some of the centers doing cutting edge research at the institute
include the Siemens Center of Excellence in Automation, Rockwell Center, and
Infineon Embedded Systems Laboratory. Across disciplines, the institute has more
than thirty-five such speciality centers. Says Dr Rudramoorthy, "It was a
conscious decision on our part to bring in more industry exposure from the very
beginning. This approach has also greatly improved employability of the students
once they graduated, as they are well aware of the industry dynamics. Moreover,
as a group we have many manufacturing interests and Coimbatore being a
manufacturing hub acted in our favor."

Some of the domains PSG excels and has close collaborations are in
disciplines like aerospace, machines tools, software development, and consumer
durables.

Yet another strategic initiative the institute launched almost a decade back
that has helped in leveraging its core strengths with the industry is the PSG
Science and Technology Entrepreneurial Park (PSG-STEP). This initiative came in
collaboration with DST, IDBI, and ICICI to promote technology in areas like
software, mechanical products, textile, electronic products, and biotechnology.
A lot of knowledge sharing happens through PSG-STEP and it also instils the
concept of entrepreneurship among the student community as it extends the
incubation support to the first generation entrepreneurs in the technology
areas.

Shrikanth G

shrikanthg@cybermedia.co.in