Best Practice 1 – Innovative practices for Participatory Learning

Traditional methods of delivering higher education have become less motivating to many students. The traditional teaching method, which predominantly relies on lectures, is inadequate to sustain the students’ interest and help them become industry-ready. To enrich the students’ learning experiences, FISAT has implemented innovative participatory learning techniques. This would make the teaching-learning activity more effective and foster global competencies among students. To motivate students in this regard, the institution has constituted several cells, clubs and chapters of professional associations that organise numerous co-curricular activities and events to create a positive attitude and approach among young adult learners. This participatory learning practice of FISAT offers a lot of application-oriented and skill-based activities for students, which helps to develop superior learning, critical thinking, problem-solving, and technology-specific skills.

A diaspora of activities ranging from Hackathons, International and National Conferences and Seminars, Panel Discussions, Extension and Outreach Activities, Project Exhibitions, Onsite learning and field visits, Creativity workshops, Product Development, Expert Talks, etc. are organised by different cells, clubs, and Professional chapters viz. American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Indian Concrete Institute (ICI), Instrumentation System Automation (ISA), Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The students have won international accolades, scholarships, and awards, including the American Society Of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Foundation Scholarship, Christopher L.Hoffmann Memorial Scholarship, and International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI) Scholarship. These innovative practices enhance the student’s technical skills along with Professional self-initiative and Entrepreneurship skills. The student chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) received grants worth 2848$ in the year 2021 and was selected as the best student branch chapter (SBC) in IEEE Robotics & Automation Society (RAS) Kerala chapter. Several international conferences have been organized with professional bodies, and the number of student publications has improved.

Best Practice 2 – Social Outreach and Extension Activities

FISAT has a tradition of community engagement, and the institution is always committed to the progress and development of the local community. The institution has been organising several programmes to empower society and help the downtrodden. The programmes’ objectives were highly in tune with the Ministry of Human Resource Development initiatives on “Fostering Social Responsibility in Higher Education Institutions” in 2012. FISAT keeps social transformation and justice well above individual prosperity and success. One of the core values of the institution is “social commitment”. The institution has organised many programmes to educate and help society through continuous community engagement and extending support. The National Service Scheme (NSS) unit of FISAT and several other clubs and cells organise outreach and extension activities.

The institution’s social outreach and extension activities can be categorised as

1. Activities for Social Change and Community Engagement – Blood donation drives, organ donation awareness campaigns, regular visits to orphanages, old age homes, etc.
2. Activities for Knowledge Sharing – Technology Popularisation Programme under the banner of Mobile FABLAB to reach out to the school students in rural area. Computer Literacy programmes are conducted regularly for school children of rural areas.
3. Activities for Disaster Management – Technological support and Manpower offered to Government bodies during unforeseen situations such as Kerala floods 2018 and 2019, for completing surveys, reconstruction and rebuilding of destroyed property. In addition, support was offered to local self-government and Angamaly Taluk hospital to complete Covid vaccination drive in record time.
4. Unnat Bharath Abhiyan – The institution has adopted five villages Thuravur, Karukutty, Manjapra, Mookkannoor and Ayyampuzha under UBA programme of MHRD in 2018.