Dr Resmi R
In 2006, Dr. Resmi R. would stay back at her workplace after office hours, listening to lectures on her computer and downloading them to study later. Having completed her B.Tech in Electrical and Electronics Engineering the previous year, she had joined an IT company and found herself working outside her core discipline. Keen on returning to engineering, she found a way to prepare for technical interviews through NPTEL.
Nearly two decades later, NPTEL continues to be part of her life, although her reasons for learning have evolved. Today, she is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at TKM College of Engineering, Kerala, where she has been teaching since 2012. With an M.Tech in Industrial Instrumentation and Control and a Ph.D. in Control Systems, she now turns to NPTEL to deepen her understanding, prepare for classes, and support her research. In the early years, she primarily used NPTEL lectures as learning resources rather than certification(s).
Resmi began taking certification examinations more regularly in recent years, starting with courses in Control Systems, her area of specialisation. Scoring above 90% in an examination encouraged her to continue. Last year, she completed four courses and topped two of them, earning the NPTEL Believers Award. This year, she enrolled in four more, including ‘Applications of AI in Robotics’, ‘Multi-Agent Systems’, and ‘Outcome-Based Education’, acing the Robotics course with top scores.
Her interest in robotics is not limited to the classroom. She is currently pursuing research in the field, which makes the NPTEL course ‘Mechanics and Control of Robotic Manipulators’ especially valuable to her. The subject involves complex mathematics, but she found the lectures remarkably clear.
“Even though I did my M.Tech in instrumentation and control systems, many fundamental concepts become clearer through these lectures,” she says. The robotics course helped her understand the dynamics of robotic manipulators and the principles behind controlling them. She also appreciates the assignments, which challenge learners to work through problems and think carefully about the concepts. The knowledge she gains often finds its way into her own pedagogy.
Balancing these courses with teaching, research and other responsibilities can be demanding. Weekly assignment deadlines sometimes make her schedule hectic, but she values the flexibility to study at her own pace and choose courses according to her availability.
Her enthusiasm also extends to her students. TKM College of Engineering is an NPTEL local chapter, and she encourages her pupils to explore the courses and learn beyond their regular curriculum.
Interactions with faculty members from across the country during a robotics certification programme at IIT Palakkad introduced her to other NPTEL learners, including NPTEL Stars. Their experiences motivated her to continue taking courses herself.
Receiving the Believers Award was a special moment. Despite her inability to attend the ceremony in Chennai, she treasures the recognition and the NPTEL T-shirt she received, hoping to attend a future ceremony.
While she values the platform’s extensive technical offerings, Resmi would also like to see more courses in areas such as Psychology, Yoga and Fitness. These subjects interest her personally and connect with topics that have a place in student curricula. For her, learning is not something that ends with a degree or a professional qualification. She recommends NPTEL to students, teachers, and people working in industry, believing that everyone can benefit from the opportunity to keep learning.
“I strongly recommend lifelong learning,” she says. From staying back after work to study to exploring advanced robotics while pursuing research, Resmi has continued to find new reasons to learn. And she has one more aspiration: to teach a course on NPTEL herself someday.
After years of learning from the platform, she hopes that one day she will be able to contribute to it, too.
~written by Sania KJ
