Introduction

With a keen eye on the ever-evolving technologies and processes in the field of computer engineering as well as a natural flair for helping his students ace their game when it comes to imbibing the same, Dr. G. T. Thampi is a shining example of a leader who leads with a vision and a strong determination to achieve his goals.

Founded by Hyderabad (Sind) National Collegiate Board in 1983, Thadomal Shahani Engineering College (TSEC) is approved by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and Affiliated to University of Mumbai. It offers a 4-year Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) Degree program in Artificial Intelligence and data Science, Information Technology, Computer Engineering, Electronics & Telecommunication and Chemical Engineering. The College offers Ph.D. programs in the subject of Information Technology, Computer Engineering, and Electronics & Telecommunication.

Principal Dr. G. Thampi has taken on the task of realising the mission of the prestigious institution i.e creating entrepreneurs and ‘game changers’ in the field thereby helping the economy of the country.

And to say that he is doing an incredible job of the task undertaken by him would be an understatement.

It was probably the sheer love for the subject as well as his immense dedication that veered Dr. Thampi towards computer engineering. Despite being at the nascent stage in the 80’s, the emerging technologies held a lot of promise to young, impressionable minds at that time and helped them to achieve a mastery over it. Speaking about this, Dr. Thampi says, “I am a 3rd generation educator, and I used to teach my colleagues even as an engineering student. After graduation in the early 1980’s , I started learning  courses in information technology , more specifically post graduate diploma in information Technology offered by Directorate Of Technical Education of Maharashtra. I developed an irresistible passion for learning evolving computer engineering subjects and even attended multiple classes to learn emerging technologies and its literature.

There was a massive shortage of teachers in engineering colleges to teach IT / Computer engineering subjects, which was evolving in accelerated mode. I thrived on teaching programming languages of all kinds in a private setting and after some time joined an aided engineering college as a faculty member.”

Speaking about the prestigious Thadomal Shahani Engineering college, he elaborates about the programs that are used to facilitate the holistic growth of its students, “Early 2010 we as an institute started promoting the culture of coding/ Computer programming (Conversion of problem to logic) and that resulted in graduating  pupil successfully as well as demonstrating  their productive competencies to personnels coming for campus placements. As time progressed, we could channelise the juvenile impatience towards competency building activities to contribute to further the cause of industry/ businesses, where the pupils are getting placed.”

Besides this, the college also undertakes every day discourses which comprises sustainability issues of the world and which in turns enhances the desirability of pupils and develops emotional and spiritual quotient for one`s structural stability as a professional.

These programs have helped Dr. Shahani in his self-development as an educator thereby massively influencing dramatic changes of curriculum/ syllabus of multiple courses of both faculties of engineering / science. He  also successfully supervised 25 research scholars to get their Ph.D. degree in the subject of Mechanical Engineering, Information Technology and computer science.

Besides this, he evanglised the making of coding as the core competency of Thadomal Shahani Engineering college and productively modified the collective consciousness to make “ Hackathon” pervasive and ubiquitous in the institute.  He states, “Higher education sector shall remain committed to the Supply Chain of Human capital for various enterprises, independent of the agenda of various interest groups. Focus shall be on helping the learner develop intellectual, emotional and spiritual quotients to contribute to multiple stakeholders.”

With technology taking over most parts of our lives, how can an engineering college remain untouched? Speaking about the same, he says, “The single most reason for the AI revolution in the global marketplace has been NVIDIA’s capability in producing affordable AI chips and provoked enterprises to invest in multimillion dollar projects which in turn created AI enabled software and LLMs. LLM’s Metamorphosed into Generative AI tools capable of generating multimodal contents and other data analytics. We as an Engineering college would like to create new knowledge in the realm of AI and develop competencies in integrating these tools and technologies in various USE CASES, which shall offer efficiencies. “

He further elaborated, “Pervasive, ubiquitous digital technologies and generative AI tools shall be leveraged to create customised learning content/ instructional content. Educational Enterprises shall also leverage AI driven software solutions for all kinds of data analytics including forecasting of future trends to take necessary measures to remain prepared for the inevitable.”

All in all, one cannot deny the role of engineering in the development of an economy like India. Shedding light on this, Dr. Shahani says, “Availability of quality engineering graduates (Human capital) is the bedrock of investment in a geography. India as a country with a large number of professional graduates offer cost and quality arbitrage for the global players to invest their capital for long term benefits.  Developed countries have started promoting China +1 strategy for setting up global supply chains and India shall emerge as an attractive destination for investment especially as the country offers rich dividends in terms of demography and massive domestic consumption market.”

The future plans of Thadomal Shahani Engineering College is “to foray into research and study of quantum computing , which can facilitate radical changes in the way we conduct business processes and allow people to practice “ Economy of Velocity”. We are also evolving as a centre of excellence in intelligent  robotic process automation in all conceivable fields of human endeavour to build efficiencies of all kind” he explains.

Computer engineering is steadily taking over most aspects of our lives. No wonder, the mission of Mr. Shahani is in the right direction as he says, “My current mission of contributing to make India a powerhouse in Artificial Intelligence has been gaining lots of momentum. And I am nudging corporations to develop a middleware to integrate AI modules to be integrated with existing enterprise software to build intelligence. This is opening a massive opportunity in the global marketplace to offer solutions in building intelligence to existing software systems without scraping existing ones and building again from scratch.

And what does he credit his success to? The answer is simple, “Focus is most important. Also one has to be motivated enough to achieve the set goals. I am dedicated to lifelong learning which gives me a sense of purpose. Along with this, what is also important is the need to develop a spiritual self to be physiologically stable. When one has achieved that, it is easy to follow your goals and find success and true happiness” Famous last words.

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