Skill lab initiatives at NMAM Institute of Technology, Nitte

Training in 12 different Special Laboratories of NMAMIT for 1070 first year BE students admitted during the academic year 2021-22, is the new initiative that has been taken up by the institute. This is in line with the broad objectives of the new National Education Policy (NEP 2020).

Under this initiative, all students admitted to BE program during 2021-22, will spend 3 hours in each of the specialized laboratories mentioned below, in the first year of their course:

• Automotive skill lab
• Welding skill lab
• Fluid Power skill lab
• Robotics skill lab
• Biofuel skill lab
• HAM Radio and Internet Radio skill lab
• Skill lab on App development through collaborative tools
• Skill lab on Land line marking
• Soil testing skill lab
• Skill lab on Waste management
• Aeromodelling and Ship model building skill lab
• Skill lab on troubleshooting electrical equipment

Faculty coordinators and well-trained senior students from the respective departments will train the first year students in batches of 30. A regular time-table for these special skill training labs has been drawn and the training curriculum has been finalized after several rounds of discussion at the highest level in the Institute. After a few initial hurdles, the skill lab training is now running smoothly and the students have started enjoying these sessions.

Going forward, during subsequent years of their study in the college, the students can identify any one or two of these special labs which interest him/her most, and take up some mini projects under that domain. The Institute level FabLab which is going to be set-up under Atal Incubation Center (AIC Nitte) in the next 2 months at a cost of about Rs.60 lakhs, will provide enough support to the students to take up such mini projects. These skill-based mini projects will be in addition to the regular mini projects which students have to undertake as per their regular academic requirements.

The college management and the administration strongly believe that this initiative of implementing the skill lab training for all first-year students in a very systematic way will go a long way in training students to become skilled engineers, which is the need of the hour.