It's two years since I'm out of college. All through five years, there were one or two papers that interested me each semester. Many reasons for the interest, either the course itself or the professor who handled it. Of them here is one of my favorite professors at PSG Tech.
Dr P. Navaneethan. He is a professor and Head of Electrical and Electronics Department (
EEE). He was professor in Mathematics and Computer Applications department when I was studying and usually used to handle Computer Networks and Computer Architecture. But being bored of taking the routine, he handled Java and Windows Programming. He always carried hand written notes for a subject. Just that. I seriously envy my seniors for whom he handled Computer Networks and Microprocessors.
He is one professor whose classes I did not want to miss. In fact I was present for all his classes for the entire semester except the last two classes I had to miss 'coz I fell ill. I have preserved the notes for Java. That would be my all time reference. I can still vividly remember the Consumer Producer problem he explained. He always had answers for questions. If not on the same day, it will be the next time we meet. Once we had a question in Java streams (if I'm right) and the next day he came back with solution after working until 2am that night. You dont see that from many professors! Also once he had a hand written proof for a problem running for pages and handed it over to us.
His evaluation of how students grasp his teaching is astounding. Most of his question papers will not be direct questions. Questions will always be based on the understanding on the subject rather than mugging capacity. Also once myself,
arun and
karthik were in a team demonstrating a Windows Programming package. After all days of late night coding we got ready for the demo. Just during the demo, there was an exception and it crashed. Each of us were confused as to why it happened. It's a bad impression when you are demoing it to your professor. But he said humbly, "Even Bill gates got a blue screen when demoing Windows.So take your time fix it and call me again.." We fixed it and had a great demo that day!
Also on of his work along with some of the brains of my dept that interested me was Panditham. An optimal character oriented protocol for Tamil and Multilingual computing. Also the brain behind
last week @ PSG tech news letter.
A humble and down to earth person. He is celebrating his birthday on April 25th. Wishing Sir a very Happy Birthday! Feeling lucky to learn under you sir!
Sankar P said:He is one of the two teachers, whose class room scenarios, I remember vividly, even after these many years.
At the end of each class, Selecting a person for: "To quickly summarize ..." is something I never forget. I use this same strategy in my company meetings (so that nobody sleeps ;) )
While correcting answer papers, he spots and mentions about mistakes in not just in the subject but also in the English grammar.
In the multitude of Indian lecturers who just talk theory and don't do anything practically, he is an achiever with his actions.
A humble and honest person who does not look at students either with ego or with "You are inferior to me" mindset, which is prevalent in Indian teachers.
The other person whom I mentioned in the beginning is Mr. Robert who handled Operating Systems for us. If I were to ever become a lecturer, Dr. Navaneethan and Dr. Robert on some aspects, will be my role models.
VijayaRagavan said:
I remember the BIS, DIS and the DataReader things he taught in the class. For my final project I told him that I dint code at all(i generally don't!) only my team mate Revathi coded. She in-turn said the ideas were his(like always :P). He immediately said not everyone code in a team and I got full credit from his side.
I asked him for the reco letters. I wrote him a template. He ignored that and wrote an altogether new thing and it was all about how I interacted in the class and my performance. I was amazed with words about me. It was a real privilege..
Apart from his professional career I simply love him for the social responsibilities he has. Everyone knows about this aspect. He hasn't changed one bit after he has become the HOD of EEE.
Happy Birthday Sir!
Srihari said:
Indeed he is our best prof. The great characteristic about him is to put forward his thoughts with a practical approach.
Personally i had the privilege to attend his class and i can proudly say that my practical approach took a drastic change because of his classes.
DK Arun said:
I can never forget his first week of Windows Programing class, the way he started and finally linked the whole workflow, too good...
Arun Ragavender said:
I was truly mesmerized by his teaching and he is the example I quote when ever I discuss something about lecturers/professors. His approach of taking a example application and explaining things based on that is what makes him amazing. He can think of examples that can help us learn a topic end to end.
I still remember when experimenting his example of RPC in Java, I called for help as his example was giving some runtime errors. He couldn't figure that out immediately, but the next day when I was in hostel I was flooded with messages from classmates and Juniors saying "Prof. Navaneethan is looking for you". When I rushed there, he said the problem is fixed now and gave me solution. The best part is he told me that he was working till 2AM the previous night to fix this issue. Where else in the world will we get such a good Prof. who works the whole night to fix a students doubt.
Great Job and Happy Birthday Sir!!
The whole student community needs a Prof like you. Keep Rocking.
PS: Anything you would like add, let me know in comments. I will add them here.
