Electives

During my 4 years of engineering I chose electives based on interest, seniors' opinion and course content. But one more criteria which I missed was alumni opinion on the existing pool of electives. So here is the post which will give you the inputs from alumni regd. various electives.

Electronics and Instrumentation:

Image processing, Operating Systems, Object Oriented Programming, ADVD, Telecom, Digital Signal Processing

I am not sure if Operating Systems is allowed as an elective but in almost all the technical domains like networking, embedded systems, VLSI etc., OS has its own use and applications. Telecom is for communication interests. DSP is good for communications and embedded systems. Image processing has received good interest from companies various companies. Apart from the technical courses, I suggest you to take few management electives like SAPM and do atleast 1 formal project (with hardwork and interest).

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Electrical and Electronics:
If given a chance to go back 3-4 years back in time and correct few things, I would say it would be Electives and Projects. Seniors had suggested a list of electives which would make or break one's career (Increase CGPA (easy to make A's) or Build a profile for MS (specialization)). Seniors on campus (including us) are tilted towards these notions. We could never interact with working bitsians to get their suggestions.

My take on this one :

Electives will NOT make or break one's career but performance in your CDCs might. Electives are for you to pursue your interests. Keeping this in mind I will say take 4 electives

Elective 1: Specialization in field of interest (advanced ADVD/ DSP/Microcontrollers /others) . Take this elective in psenti sem. Preferably only this one along with a project.

Elective 2: One general course in your discipline (DCN/Telecom/IP) or a tech course from compsci (comp arch etc ) or mech (robotics) etc

Elective 3: A Management / Finance elective (SAPM etc). Everybody will eventually have to manage money. A basic understanding of it in campus will help in the long run. Learning about them after joining work will need efforts.

Elective 4: Any other elective of individual's interest (Non techie). I should have seriously taken something in World war history or Origin and comparison of world religions :)

Keep categories Elective 1 and Elective 2 for 3-2 and Psenti sem . By then try doing the ones from other categories. By 3-2 you should be able to decide which field you will app, your interest in MS/MBA etc. You can use those 2 slots accordingly . Don't do any heavy tech electives until 3-2 .

Projects:

Do 1 or 2(max) GOOD PROJECTS. Look for a good mentor, who can spend dedicate time for you on the project you are working. General trend is to go for big names for RECOs . You will most likely end up wasting the project slots. Unless you are a born genius or very dedicated, you will end up dropping it or leaving it half way. These projects will later become a burden (Explaining these in interviews or MS applications is almost impossible! Think twice before you commit to a project!!!!). If you can squeeze in a publication, paper or international conference in your profile that would benefit you a lot for MS. CHOOSE A GOOD PROJECT GUIDE. NOTE: IF YOU ARE REALLY INTERESTED IN DOING A PROJECT, DO IT ALONE. YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THE WHOLE OF IT. MOSTLY, PEOPLE FORM GROUPS OF 2, FORMULATE A PLAN AND SUCCESSFULLY FOOL THE PROFESSOR (WHO IS EQUALLY DISINTERESTED)

3-2 is the ideal time to work on a project. All this, if you are interested to pursue an MS. Otherwise, you still have the elective slots available to pursue your interests. It is not necessary to do what everyone else is doing (at least for electives)

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Electrical and Electronics:

Electives to be taken (other than 1-2 of your core field/*depends on your interest, I am focusing on non-core jobs, here are the following): Security Analysis and portfolio management, Financial Management, e-business, PAVA etc.

Core ones: Data communication and networking, Image processing, Digital signal processing, Object Oriented Programming and many more

Projects: Do core project(s) under professors and some APOGEE ones also help. Projects done under management group faculty are more appreciated. The ones done in PS-1 and 2, are a major advantage. So give it your full.

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Mechanical:

Automotive vehicles, Refrigeration and air conditioning, Object oriented programming.

Do as many as formal projects under any instructor in your discipline and most important thing is the knowledge you have in your CDCs. Maintain a decent CGPA but keep in touch with your CDC books even during 4^th year. Also do CP and OOP seriously as a backup.

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Computer Science:

Object Oriented Programming, Data Mining, Artificial Intelligence, Network Programming, Fuzzy Logic and definitely projects. CS is very good for guys who are good at formulating problems and are eager to read books. At the end of two years, get ready to identify professors with whom you’d like to work, and talk to them.

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Chemical:

For s/w oriented – OOP and related courses, for core oriented – (i) for petro oriented – Petroleum, (ii) for process control oriented – Advanced process control, (iii) for nano oriented – Introduction to Nanotechnology offered by physics group, (iv) for algorithms oriented – Evolutionary Computation

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