Two engineering colleges from the State have applied to All India Council for Technical Education to offer engineering programmes in Tamil. These include Erode Sengunthar College and Rathinam Technical campus, both based in Coimbatore region.
While Sengunthar College has sought permission to start civil, mechanical and electrical engineering programmes, Rathinam Technical Campus has sought the nod for Computer Science and Engineering course.
The colleges are awaiting No Objection Certificate from Anna University. An official of Segunthar College said, “With the existing staff we can manage. We don’t see any problem in teaching the students.”
Chairman of Rathinam Technical Campus Madhan S. Rathinam said it would not be difficult to teach in Tamil. “The students are already learning quite a bit of it in Tamil. We don’t see any problem,” he said.
AICTE chairman Anil D. Sahasrabudhe said colleges can apply only if the programme for which they are seeking permission is accredited with National Board of Accreditation. Students who take the regional engineering language programmes would have to take a course in English in all the four years, however.
The Council had given approval for eight regional languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bengali and Gujarati. The aim is to expand it to 11 in subsequent years and later to 22 languages.
Mr. Sahasrabudhe said the Council had prepared translated textbooks for first year subjects. Work was on for the second, third and fourth year courses. The job was made easy for Tamil as the Indian Institute of Technology Madras was already translating course material for some time for the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) programmes.
The Council has created a pool of translators from among those who have taken NPTEL courses, They are tested on their ability to transcribe two pages from course content in their area of specialisation, which is vetted by an expert committee.
The technical terminology in engineering subjects are not translated into regional languages to ensure easy mobility for students when they graduate.
The Council has developed an auto translation tool using AI. “We have created a tool that is 90-95% accurate. Wherever there are errors the subject expert will provide the correct translation,” the Chairman explained.
The Council is also using language keyboard and audio text as additional tools to correct errors. The translator reads aloud the audio text to create an entire lecture audio file. Thus when the lecture is shown on the screen rolling subtitles or paragraphs will flow in the regional language, he added.
Mr. Sahasrabudhe said universities might use the learning material translated by the Council or continue to use their own textbooks, provided the textbooks were in line with the curriculum of the university.
