Mid-Tenure Review: General Secretary Academic Affairs UG

Link to the Mid-Term report : UGAC Mid-Term Work Report ’24-25′

Link to the GS-Meter : Click Here

General Body Meeting : General Secretary of Academic Affairs

The recent Undergraduate Academic General Body Meeting (GBM), led by the GSAA UG Arjun Saikumar Simha and the institute academic council, covered a broad range of topics, addressing both ongoing challenges and upcoming plans for the academic community at the institute. The meeting provided an open platform for students to raise their concerns and receive updates on various initiatives.

WORK REPORT – POINTS

Questions from Insight

In the current internship policy, most companies don’t allow Dual Degree(DD) students to apply. What has been done in this regard, and what is the update on the implementation of the Prof. Kishore Chatterjee report?

Response: Now, there is only a dual degree in electrical engineering. The problem is that professors from the Electrical department don’t allow internships in the 4th-year summer, and the proposal needs to be passed by the Electrical professors; hence, we cannot do it alone.

Follow up –The previous councils had planned reforms for this, what is the update?

Response: In the last tenure, we got the response that the professor’s permission was needed.

Follow up – What has been done for IDDDP and DD converts?

Response: If demand arises, then we will look into this. We need only one professor to help us with this.

Follow up –What will be the mode of escalating the grievances of these students?

Response: The students can request the respective DGSecs to take it up. The DGSecs will convey this to the Heads of Departments (HODs), and the HODs on board, along with  UGAC, will pass this to the UG/PG-PC (Undergraduate/Postgraduate Programmes Committee) as an agenda. If professors in the UG/PG-PC find it fit, then it gets pushed to the Senate.

There has been less communication from the DAV team. As every new tenure team has a different agenda, is there potential for a standardised agenda in the future?

Response: We do put out midterm and full-term work reports on Instagram. We do not plan to standardise the work soon as needs keep changing.

Follow-up –DAV hasn’t released any recent report on its Instagram. What is the update on the release of the student persona course feedback survey?

Response: We had analysed our placement statistics earlier, but putting them out is restricted by the institute. The student persona feedback is only for internal needs, so we don’t plan to publish them.

Based on your feedback, we might release a progress report and any new product we develop with the DAV team.

Follow up: How is the DAV Bot different from the existing InstiGPT?

Response: The DAV Bot aims to have a three-layered answering approach consisting of:

LLM(Large Language Model)> ISMP(Institute Student MentorshipProgram)> UGAC(Undergraduate Academic Council). 

The DAV Bot is trained to assist with academic-related doubts, unlike InstiGPT, which is trained to address general institute-related queries.

Question – What is the update on the Quant Trading division, which was set up, and what is it working on right now?

: Answered by the Finance Club Manager:

The team has four members right now. We plan to learn quant strategies and participate in Tower, Citadel, Da Vinci, etc., led competitions.

Follow up: Can all students or only the quant team participate in those competitions?

: All students can participate. We are just having the Quant team do it specifically as they are being trained from our end to see how much of a productivity boost or performance boost we can get.

Question: Why has there been no announcement from UGAC about the Student Grievance Redressal Committee?

Response: The Dean SA has instructed us not to mention it.

Question: Department-level committees have been established in the Mechanical and Chemical departments, so is there any update as to when it will happen across all the other departments?

Response: There is no exact timeline, but we can hope to see it in the Civil and the Metallurgical Departments as well by the middle of the next semester.

Question: This is in regards to uniform grading across courses, which has been done by some professors of the mechanical department. How are you planning to enforce it in other departments? 

: In the earlier tenure, the then GSAA (UG) Ayush Dahale brought up some changes in the Mechanical department. It got solidified later and was brought to the Chemical department as well this year, but there is no systemic change; it can only be brought if profs are on board with each other. 

Also, we are trying to adhere to the Prof. Anindya Dutta’s committee recommendations, which is also one systemic change we are trying to bring through this committee.

Right now, is it just a suggestive measure, or is there any push from your side?

Response: Yes, it is not something we can enforce. We can just inform the professors about the needs of the students.

In regards to the students-led feedback mechanism brought by UGAC, Why was this done with the DGsecs and not with the DAMP Team?

Response: It is easier to coordinate with DGsecs, as they’re in touch with the grassroots-level problems in the department, and therefore, I decided to best go through them.

Follow up- How many responses have been gained based on the survey as of now?

Response: Till now, 50 responses have been gained. However, there is nothing actionable as of now we’ll have to wait for the next three or four years when they will look into revising the curriculum.

Follow up- What insights have you gotten through the student feedback mechanism?

Response: Students feel that what they learn in their 5th-semester course is different from the basics taught to them in earlier introductory courses.

The departments converted from DD(5 years) to Btech(4 years) feel a lack of depth in their courses.

Why is the Consult club competition timeline very cramped, and also, what competitions are planned next?

Response: That is not in our control as most of them were external ones where companies gave us the opportunity, and we forwarded them. For example, Brahmastra was an inter-IIT event, ConsultX and BCC were internal. Due to midterms, they got a bit cramped.

There will be more case competitions during the winter vacation, and we have two competitions planned for the next semester.

Currently, ConsultX is not right now focused on the internal issues of IIT, which was its founding vision.

Response: Founding views changed, and we look at the needs of students and change our vision accordingly.

When will the career-building program be released, as the internship session is almost over?

Response: We plan to release it in January as only 20 to 30 per cent of people have gotten an internship till now and the majority of students will be apping in January.

For the manifesto point “Propose the introduction of student-run crash courses under a Course Buddy Program to tutor students and improve academic performance in specific course re-examinations”, which courses have been identified and how the onboarding of TAs will happen?

Response: We have not identified any specific course yet. Any first-year course with significant FF grades is a contender, and as for TA onboarding, only previous TAs will be considered. Selecting the TAs will be the same as how professors select them.

What is the update on the query booklet? When will it be released, as the work on it was already done in the previous tenure?

Response: We have scrapped the old one, so we will release it next year. The work has begun. To be specific, we are expecting to release it by the end of the next semester.

How will you start the initiative of rating the professor on Resobin?

Response: Some changes need to be made in the already running Resobin systems, and we expect it to be done by the end of January. The rating system will be based on parameters like the difficulty of exams, attendance, etc, to help people choose electives. The contacts of people who rated it will also be given.

Follow up- This initiative is already being done by Resobin?

Response: We will be making it more specific to rating the professor rather than rating the course.

Follow up – Is it just for students or professors as well?

Response: Most of the parameters on which the rating will be done won’t matter for professors, such as attendance, grading, etc, so this is focused on students only.

Students can take 54 or more credits in the last semester. However, if the student has more than 54 credits as backlogs, how is it helping students?

Response: Students can take up the required number of self-study courses from NPTEL and finish their degree in the summer without enrolling in the next semester.

Audience questions

How is Resobin different from the DAMP blogs?

Response: We are mostly focused on professors, as emphasized in the earlier question.

Follow up: DAMP blogs, which are very similar to the proposed idea of professor reviews, got feedback from professors that it was creating a negative bias against them, and students were being discouraged from taking up their courses. 

Response: In the Electrical Engineering department, it can be an issue, but other departments will mostly be okay with the reviews. If there is a disagreement, we will try to negotiate with them, and if we see a strong pushback, we will have to remove the rating for that specific professor.

Question: What is the update regarding the manifesto point of “Pioneering the creation of the IIT Bombay Undergraduate Research Journal”?

Response: As of now, we are waiting for the board of governor meeting to be held in January. The papers that students have put forward either through their BTP or DDP can be recommended by their guide. They will also be cross-checked, i.e., peer-reviewed by another professor from the same department.

Follow up: Will you be accepting papers from outside?

Response: No, it will only be for IITB students so that they get recognition for their papers if they can’t publish in major journals. The aim is to showcase the research done by IITB students.

Closing Remarks  

The End of GBM

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