Directorate of Technical Education is nearing its golden jubilee. Plans are afoot to make it a memorable year since technical education in Tamil Nadu has gone a long way in offering to the country quality engineers from its very humble beginnings. Committees are being formed to celebrate the academic and co-curricular achievements in a big way. Any suggestions from our alumni would be welcomed since they are one of the major strengths of GCE. The alumni can perhaps think about a Golden Jubilee Alumni Scholarship for the first rank holder among the freshers admitted to various disciplines. Merit cum Means might also be considered. Was just thinking aloud.

The principal today congratulated the two of us - Dr.Senthilkumar/EEE and me for the doctorates. It felt a little funny to be called Dr.Chitra Lakshimi. It sounded like someone else. Perhaps, I have to learn to accept it. The thesis was on material design for a Value Education Programme for engineering students using the Harry Potter books. Four main elements of the thesis were establishing that the witches and wizards of HP are innovative, identifying the entertainment values, identifying the educative values and finally designing model lesson plans to imbibe values through discussions, reflection, introspection etc. The teacher is here only a facilitator, infact, there just to keep the ideas rolling in. I believe democracy in expressing one's ideas will clarify one's values.