Santosh J Jagtap

I completed my graduation in Electronics Engineering from Rayat Shikshan Sanstha, Satara. I got the best experience of life during my graduation. I realized that education itself is life; it’s not just a preparation for life. I was most impressed by some teachers who laid the foundation of my career as a teacher. They not only taught technical education but also taught us ethical values of life. As a teacher, I follow them and impart the same to my students.

After my graduation, I got the opportunity to work in industries like Automatic Electric Limited and Enkay Telecommunication India Limited where I realized “Knowledge is actually a potential power; it becomes kinetic when acted upon.”

I really understood the practical aspects of engineering in my three years of industrial experience. While working on servo stabilizers and AC voltmeters at Automatic Electric, I understood how minor design problems can create major changes in engineering products. I learned there how to identify engineering problems, how to develop a mathematical model in order to make reliable and cost-effective products. Enkay Telecommunication provided me a platform not only to work on technical problems and deployment strategies of key telephone systems, but also how to tackle customers’ problems. It was really a very good experience to work on component-level repairing and design issues of the voice announcement unit at Enkay Telecommunication.

The industrial experience laid the foundation for the development of my teaching model and methodology. In my 19 years of teaching experience, I am integrating the four steps into my teaching, namely problem statement, modeling, analysis, and implementation, as an integral part of my teaching.

I taught various telecommunication subjects to undergraduate and postgraduate students using different teaching tools, methodologies, and the best resources provided by Vidyalankar Institute of Technology. I got the opportunity to develop a laboratory for optical fiber communication where my students are conducting real-time measurements for a 25 km long fiber. My undergraduate and postgraduate students are effectively using the modern simulation tool “OPTSIM” for the design and analysis of optical systems. Many students have completed their projects in linear and nonlinear optics using OPTSIM. The laboratory facilitates research in recent trends in optical communication such as SOLITON transmission, Raman amplification, DWDM optical systems, etc. My postgraduate students have undertaken projects in these domains and presented papers at national and international levels. One of the students received the best paper award in Singapore for a paper on Raman amplification.

I strongly believe in imagination as the best engineering tool. My hobby of reading books on different topics helped me to develop my imagination and mind power. I am effectively using imagination and virtual thinking as a part of my teaching to create technical spark and curiosity among the students.

I would like to tell my students to be prepared for the challenges of life. Make yourself very strong, self-dependent, and have a passion for quality and a peaceful life. Define your goal and strive to accomplish it happily, not just for happiness but also for health. Remember, if you want to live a healthy and happy life, tie it to your goals.