12 Sep 2019

Faculty Feature : Assistant Professor Rahul Bhatt of Dev Bhoomi Group of Institutions Shares his Journey and Reflections

Assistant Professor Rahul Bhatt of Dev Bhoomi Group of Institutions Shares his Journey and Reflections

“A teacher can only teach when he is learning himself,” says Assistant Professor Rahul Bhatt of Computer Science Department, Dev Bhoomi Group of Institutions, Dehradun.

Guiding his students with practical examples and real-life demonstrations, Professor Bhatt, throughout his long stint as an educator, has truly helped his students become taskmasters.

After completing his master’s and Ph.D. (P). in Cloud Computing from Uttarakhand Technical University, Dehradun, he worked in the software development industry, honing his skills to create programs that help users perform a range of tasks. His professional values were pretty simple: learn by doing, update yourselves constantly, and look beyond a theoretical approach.

As it turned out, his decision to serve as an educator at Dev Bhoomi Group of Institutions (DBGI) shaped his career path, turning him into a maven with a research focus on cloud computing. This was the beginning of his real journey with his students where he understood and appreciated that the process of teaching and learning is actually two-way.

Over the past few years, Prof. Bhatt has overhauled the entire teacher-student experience by adapting to interactive classroom teaching, e-content teaching methodology, and open-door policies. Prof. Bhatt believes the technology-enhanced and practical patterns of teaching are more effective, efficient, and innovative. Opportunities like hosting guest lectures or encouraging students to participate in academic competitions are often at the top priority for Prof. Bhatt.

Sharing a moment from his journey, Prof. Bhatt said, “When I started out in the academic world, I constantly heard from the industry specialists that there are ample jobs in the market, but there’s a shortage of employable students due to lack of skills. From thereon, I focused on preparing my students with upgraded content as well as soft skills needed to be industry-ready.”

In addition to this, Prof. Bhatt lays special emphasis on student-engagement and bridging the industry-classroom gap by constantly seeking reliable anecdotes, tech tools that are being leveraged, and skills companies expect. He is also a big proponent of classroom debates and discussions. It’s not uncommon for him to sit with his students in the classroom or lab, running through videos and e-content sourced from sites like Udemy, Course Era, and NPTEL.

“I teach future leaders and managers who should be able to apply their classroom concepts to workplace experiences. I always tell my students that if you are into computer science, don’t believe in what I am saying, rather believe in what I am showing by performing a particular task in the lab. That according to makes the classroom a lot of fun.”

Sharing the best advice that he got during his early years, Prof. Bhatt quoted, “Learn wholeheartedly, question, and sharpen up your minds to become successful professionals. Do not cut other’s progress, rather focus on growing and giving.” He further added that his students’ support and curiosity to learn always encourages him to strive as a better teacher and human being.