Conducting Research: A Personal Technical Experience
-Part VIII: At M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology (MSRIT)
By JIRARA
© JIRARA, September 2022, Published by JIRARA, on matrubharti.com
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Disclaimer: This is exactly the same as in the previous parts of the story.
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Preamble: I had retired from NAL after serving as the head of the FMCD from January 2001 to July 2007. The MSRIT was looking for an emeritus professor, and one assistant professor, Ms. Prabha Ravi of the department of bioengineering, approached Dr. V. P. S. Naidu, a scientist of FMCD for this; whereupon he suggested my name (interestingly, this scientist was in the same dept. as hers before joining the FMCD, NAL); and then she came to my residence to discuss the plan, where for she wanted such a professor for her dept., and I had agreed to work; I had to go to MSRIT twice a week and be there from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm (as suggested by me), and the salary (taxable) was Rs. 20,000/month. When she had approached the principal of the college, she was told that I was more suitable for the dept. of Instrumentation Technology (IT); and hence I had then joined this dept.; subsequently I had also worked for the dept. of electronics and communications (E&C) of MSRIT.
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1. At the dept. of IT:
In fact, at this dept. I was only from September to December 2007; and during which for a period of one week I had gone to Pretoria, South Africa on the invitation (from CSIR, SA) to deliver three guest lectures on the topics of soft computing, and multisensory data fusion, and to discuss my future long-term visit to work in their robotics group. During these four weeks at the IT/MSRIT, I got some familiarity with the academic culture, a kind of which I had left long ago (first in 1974 and then in 1986).
I had helped the dept. head and one professor to organise one departmental workshop on MSDF that was held in December 2007, of course during which I was not present, since I had gone to my native place, before my scheduled trip to SA on 31st December. A few faculty members of the dept. were pursuing their doctoral studies, and I was introduced to them, and I got a first-cut idea of the research they were doing, they were in the beginning phase of their doctoral program, and I had told them, that I would be ready to help and guide them in their pursuits, since one of my assigned roles was to mentor the faculty members of the dept., but during this period of four months only one of the three doctoral research scholars had approached me, and I had taken him to NAL and arranged a meeting with one sr. scientist to discuss his research problem, since this scientist had some expertise in the area of the topic that this professor was pursuing, but subsequently what happened I don’t know.
2. At the dept. of E&C:
I had returned to Bangalore from my abroad-trip (SA, Canada, and USA) in the May end of 2009, and from August that year had joined the E&C dept.; since when I had approached the dept. of IT, I was told that they had already got a new emeritus professor; though I was offered to join it again, I had preferred to join the E&C department.
In the beginning, in a meeting of the faculty members, I had made some points about the research, and had said that I was ready to formally guide anybody who wanted to register for their doctoral studies. In the course of time of next two/three years (2011-2012), two assistant professors from EC dept. and three assistant professors from TC (telecommunications) dept. had joined the Jain University (JU), Bangalore for their doctoral program under my sole guidance, for whom I had given the research topics.
Also, five more faculty members had joined other universities for their doctoral studies and I had given the research topics to them also, and I had decided to be their co-guide, since I had already five candidates to guide.
I had helped all these 10 professors (of which one was a professor, another associate professor and the remaining were assistant professors) for choosing and finalising their research topics, and in preparing their research proposals (Ph.D./doctoral synopses), and also how to face the selection interviews for the admissions, etc. I had also advised them on what subject-papers they should take for their first phase of the studies. For the ones who were under my sole guidance I had to teach them three subjects, one core paper and two related to their research topics, and I had to do this across the table, since their research topics were different from each other, in some specific ways.
I was supposed to teach these subjects to them, and keep the records of the hours that I was spending for this, and I had to give the assignments, check these, and submit their marks to the JU. This was an arduous task for me, since I used to go to MSRIT only twice a week and hence four times a month, and I had to adjust the days’ work schedule to suit the doctoral research scholars (DRSs), since they had also their own teaching-schedules.
In the process of time, I had devised a plan for each one of these DRSs how to proceed with their research after they had cleared their compulsory course work, and I named it as DRAs, the doctoral research assignment; and I was very much convinced that if they followed the DRAs given to them very faithfully and worked diligently (almost to the tune of 90%), they would get their theses approval almost surely. I had divided their DRAs in the sub-tasks of six to seven modules, and each one to be finished in a period of four/six months, and hence in nearly 3 to 4 years they would complete their work for their degrees, the first one year goes in the course work, and the presentation of their synopsis to the committee appointed by the JU.
3. At the dept. of IE again:
This dept. had two professors without Ph.D. degree, and no one else had a Ph.D., and they wanted to start a master’s program for which it was necessary to have a professor with a Ph.D., and they found that I was suitable person for this, so I was appointed as a regular professor with the IT dept. but, with a fixed salary; so, I worked with the dept. for nearly seven months (from March to September, 2011) as a research professor; unfortunately, the IT dept. did not get permission to start the new PG program, and hence I was relieved. Then, I had again joined the dept. of E&C as an emeritus professor.
During the period, we had organised (jointly with EE dept.) a National level conference on ‘Control Systems’ (I don’t remember the title exactly). I had drafted the brochure, invited the papers, got them reviewed, and planned the schedule of the presentation, etc.
During this stint of mine with IE dept., the two faculty members who were pursuing their doctoral programs with VTU got in touch with me, and had started discussing their problems with me, and I then continued to technically guide them, although I was not their formal guide or even co-guide.
4. At the dept. of E&C again:
Here, I continued from October 2011 to November (?) 2013, and continued to guide all the doctoral research scholars for whom I was sole guide as well as for whom I was co-guide.
In October 2013, I had written a letter to the then principal for increasing my monthly salary, since I had worked for so many years, and initiated and promoted so much research. The letter is copied here:
From: Dr. J. R. Raol
Prof. Dr. XYZ, Principal, MSRIT, Benguluru
Dear Sir:
Now, it is almost more than five years that I have been associated with the prestigious MSRIT as a professor emeritus though with different departments for different periods/durations. After my retirement from NAL in July 2007, I was with the Dept. of Instrumentation Technology (IT) during Sept.-Dec. 2007, and coordinated/organized a WS on multisensory data fusion – ever a first of its kind in the dept. and MSRIT.
Subsequently, I visited a research laboratory in Pretoria, South Africa as a visiting research scientist and was there during Jan 2008 - March 2009. After returning I again joined MSRIT but was with the dept. of E&CE for a long time – during which time some faculty members (FMs) were inspired to register for their doctoral program (DP):
i) Mrs. Mallika (asstt. Prof., Dept. of E&CE): Reconfiguration control with fuzzy logic type II (VTU)
ii) Mr. Shreedarshan .K. (asstt. Prof., Dept. of E&CE): Object Tracking and retrieval using image and kinematics fusion from a video stream (VTU)
iii) Mrs. Myna A.N. (asstt. Prof., Dept. of ISE): Image fusion sing fuzzy logic type II (VTU)
Subsequently I was appointed as a professor in the Dept. of IT and I guided some FMs for their DPs:
iv) Mr. Sarvanan A. (asstt. Prof., Dept. of IT): Adaptive control using fuzzy logic type I and II (Annamalai Univ.)
v) Mr. Ramachandran A. (Prof. , IT): Intelligent motion planning algorithm for coordination of multiple robots
While at the Dept. of IT, I worked on my new book: Mobile Intelligent Autonomous Systems, which was published in 2012 by the CRC Press, USA. I also jointly, guest-edited one sp. Issue of the Def. Sc. Jl.: Aerospace Avionics and Allied Technologies. I had also, jointly organized one National Conference on Advanced Control Systems as a part of celebration of the 50th year of MSRIT.
After wards, I moved to the Dept. of E&CE and continued to inspire/guide the research and some more FMs registered for their DPs:
vi) Mrs. Parimala, A. (asstt. Prof., Dept. of TC): Image centroid tracking and fusion using square root information filtering (with Jain University-JU)
vii) Mrs. Lakshmi S. (asstt. Prof., Dept. of E&CE): Decision fusion using fuzzy logic type II (JU)
viii) Mrs. Reshma Verma (asstt. Prof., Dept. of E&CE): Fuzzy logic augmented H-Infinity filtering for target tracking and situation assessment (JU)
ix) Mr. Shivashankarappa, N. (asso. Prof., Dept. of TC): Synergy of missing data and out of sequence measurements in wireless sensor networks (WSN) (JU)
x) Mrs. Swetha A. (asstt. Prof., Dept. of TC): Robust estimation of model error using H-Infinity framework (JU)
All of the above FMs as doctoral research scholars (DRSs) are at various progressive stages of their work for whom I am full guide or co-guide, and many of them completed the pre-PhD course works and/or the comprehensive examinations.
Additionally, I have technically guided several batches of B. Tech. and M. Tech. project students.
This year I have also completed my new book: Data Fusion Mathematics (with a chapter form Dr. Sethu S. Selvi, Prof. & Head, Dept. EC&E) which would be published by Springer (Germany) in 2014 (*).
In nutshell, the above is a brief account of my work and interactions with the FMS/DRSs.
I just wish to state that, in the light of the above engagements and several interactions, I would wish that my monthly remuneration be appropriately and adequately enhanced to match with my involved participation in furthering the R&D base of the MSRIT in the high science/high technology areas of the control and systems engineering. The present remuneration of Rs. 20,000 p.m. is a relative very small amount. It would be fair to raise the remuneration upwards, since the present scale is existing for several years.
As of now I plan to come to the college twice a week (for 8 days in a month), however, a few times I might come for 4 days in a month (due to some personal/traveling reasons), then the amount should be appropriately adjusted and may not be considered as one half of the amount for 8 times.
With thanks and best wishes,
Dr. J. R. Raol
Thr’: HOD, E&CE.
(*) The book was subsequently published by CRC Press, Taylor & Francis, USA, in 2016.
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Interestingly, and ironically the principal never called me to discuss this matter, and I got a letter that they have decided to give me Rs. 25,000/ per month, and continued my position as an emeritus professor with the dept. of E&C. I did not reply, and after a month I stopped going to the college, meaning I discontinued the job. However, I continued to guide all the DRSs, but since I was not going to the college, some of them, especially the ones for whom I was the sole guide, used to visit my house for technical guidance.
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Various aspects of interactions with certain DRSs:
1. In case of two DRSs who had not interacted for two years with me, since I was not their guide, had faced a problem that their guide who was in the different dept., than their own, had expired and they had to choose a new guide from yet another dept., since in their own dept. there was nobody with a Ph.D. degree. In one case the lady prof. had already spent nearly more than 7 years doing research for her thesis, and this was a last chance to submit the thesis; so, she had approached me, and I had studies anew her subject-topic, and helped her improve her thesis draft. In her case, after submission of the thesis, no external expert was ready to review her thesis, and after some more names were suggested by me, that one expert was ready to examine her thesis; which was finally cleared, and she became the professor and even head of a dept.
2. In another case, a lady DRS, for whom I was not the guide, had submitted her thesis, but it was rejected by one external expert and had given too many comments, and the other expert, though had not rejected her thesis also had given several comments. This DRS had not interacted with me at all earlier, despite her guide had told her to do so; and on receiving the comments came to my office and shed tears and said that she did not want to redo the thesis. I consoled her and encourage that since she had already spent nearly 8 years, so much work had already done by her, so she can do some more work and revise the thesis and submit again; whereupon she had agreed to do that, for which she took nearly 9 months, and then she got her degree, and was promoted to the position of the professor, and even the head of a dept.
3. Three DRS for whom I was co-guide quit the doctoral program, after I had stopped going to the college; one prof. retired and lost interest in continuing; the other two, maybe they had found it difficult to pursue in the absence of proper guidance and/or motivation.; I do not know real reason.
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