Dr. R. Balasubramanian, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics at IIT, Roorkee.
Dr. R. Balasubramanian obtained B.Sc from A.M. Jain College (University of Madras) in 1994, M.Sc from Madras Christian College (University of Madras) in 1996 and Ph.D from IIT-Madras in 2001. During his Research tenure at IIT Madras, he was selected with full financial support twice by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy to attend five weeks of special short term courses in the field of Image Processing and Control Theory. He was a PDF at University of Missouri Columbia, USA in 2001-02 and a Post Doctoral Associate at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, USA in 2002-03. He joined Department of Mathematics at IIT-Roorkee as Lecturer in 2004 and became Assistant Professor in 2006. He was a Visiting Professor and a member of Computer Vision and Sensing Systems Laboratory in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University of Windsor, CANADA during May - August 2009. His area of Research includes Vision Geometry, Digital Watermarking using Mathematical Transformations, Image Fusion, Biometrics, Secure Image Transmission over Wireless Channel, Content Based Image Retrieval and Hyperspectral Images.
Balasubramanian has guided 6 Doctoral and 63 Master's theses, has published three book chapters in Springer Verlag, and has more than 120 research publications in reputed journals and conference proceedings. He has also successfully completed a number of research projects of national importance. He is the recipient of prestigious BOYSCAST fellowship awarded by DST in 2008-09. He is also the recipient of "Outstanding Teacher Award 2010" awarded by IIT Roorkee on Teacher's day. He is a member of IEEE Society, Uttar Pradesh section and nominated as a Joint Secretary in the IEEE Uttarkhand Sub-section.
Was your decision to take up teaching a chance or was it intentional?
First of all, I dedicate this noble profession to my father, Mr. P. Raman who is a retired Physics teacher. Frankly speaking, I wanted to become a primary school teacher but GOD's grace I ended up as a Professor in IIT. When I was in the NSS at Madras Christian College, I used to teach Mathematics for 7th Standard students in one of the Government schools in Tambaram, Chennai. When the students felt very happy with my teaching, I decided to take up this noble profession as my career. I thank my Ph.D supervisor Dr. K. Swaminathan from IIT Madras and my role model Prof. Manoj K. Arora from IIT Roorkee to identify me to this world as a teacher and as a researcher.
What kind of teaching methods do you use to keep students interested in your classes?
I teach both Mathematics as well as Computer Science Courses to IIT students. I prefer Chalk and Black board for Mathematics where as I prefer power point slides along with a white board for Computer Science courses. I maintain course website for each courses and separate groups in facebook (a social network) for each courses so that students can post their doubts, questions etc... and they can also be in touch with their seniors. I insist real world examples in my classes. Main idea of my teaching is that the students should not memorize the concepts. Eye to eye contact of each and every students is very important to all the teachers. Chalk piece pressure on the black board must be taken care by all the teachers so that students from the last bench also should see what the teachers have written. I don't miss the above two in my classes. I always conduct Surprise Quizzes so that this will create lot of Interest towards the subject.
Do you discuss teaching methods or class experiences with colleagues?
Anything you learnt from each other?
Yes. I learnt a lot from them and further I have got lot of ideas in the nuances of teaching.
What are the challenges you face from students and how do you overcome them or turn them around?
A very good question. I want to answer this with an example. Teaching a course "programming Languages" to the students is an art to any teacher. This is the only course, a teacher can find all kinds of students. A master level (would have gone through some programming classes), moderate level and the beginners. I use to classify them in the beginning of the class itself. I ask some hard questions to the master level students and 99.99% they wouldn't answer such questions and I use to advise them they have to study more and whatever they learned are incomplete. On the other hand, I ask some easy/moderate questions to the beginners and moderate level students and I am 101% sure that they will answer and I encourage them that they are catching up the master level students. While doing so at one point of time all the students will be at the same level. Here is an example. One of my students presently a Senior Software Engineer in the US, a Big MNC. Herewith I copy-paste what she wrote in my Guest book of my website:
Name: Deepika Khandelwal
HomePage:
Time: Mon Dec 25 08:11:12 EST 2006
Comments:
I remembered those days, when i came to this IIT-Roorkee. The first class was of Computer Application. I was afraid coz i dint know A B C also of computers. But I am very thankful to Bala Sir. He is very much friendly to his students. Under him i learned two computer papers and now i got a software job. The credit goes to him. Thank u sir, Thank u very much. Deepika Khandelwal M.Sc (Applied Mathematics)
What else a teacher wants!. Whatever be their questions or doubts, I try to give them in the classroom itself. Sometimes I use to get tough questions from the students in the class. These hard questions made me a good learner as well as a good teacher. Whenever I teach the same concepts in the next time /next year I remember those hard questions and the students too.
What according to you is the one key quality or skill a teacher should possess?
Hard work
Do you do any industrial consultancy? if yes, do you involve your UG/PG students in such work? How do they respond?
Yes. Many UG/ PPG students are involving. Their performance is amazing!
If you have interacted with students or teachers in private engg.colleges or degree colleges, what has been your experience? What needs to be done immediately in these colleges?
I have interacted with the teachers in terms of Research (in private engg.colleges or degree colleges). I usually meet them in National/International conferences/workshops/ Short term courses. They have the energy and research potential and some of them are publishing in very good journals but most of them are not publishing in quality journals. Even some one say this fact to them, they are not ready to accept this. This mindset has to be changed! They should start interact with premier Institutes in India and abroad universities to know the nuances of research methodologies. I feel quality research is necessary for quality teaching.
Any memorable moments as a teacher - something that had a major impact on you.
5/9/2010, On Teachers day, when I got an Outstanding Teachers Award at IIT Roorkee is one of the best moments so far as a teacher in my life. This award totally changed my career. Other best moments are that wherever I go in the globe, the students are coming and meeting me. As a teacher I am very proud of my students!
Moments of frustration?
In personal life a lot but not in my profession.
How can we get competent post graduates to choose teaching as a career?
One has to pay more salary than MNCs. In the last 8 years of my career, I have seen so many good students have gone to MNCs. They should be there in teaching profession. Some students are taking late decision to switch back to academic after 5 or 6 years experience in MNCs. According to me, If one pays more salary than MNCs then there will be a chance that they can take up teaching as a career.
Dr. R. Balasubramanian's Profile
