Abdul Kalam asks engineering students to focus on clean energy

Thiruvananthapuram: Former President A.P.J.  Abdul Kalam's connection  with the capital city where he lived for 20 years is well known but why would the College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram (CET) have a special place in his life?

Every other person in Kalam's core team, which worked on India's first sounding rockets, are alumni of  this engineering college which is touted to be  one of the top 15 in the country.

As the Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) gradually increased the pool of scientists many from  CET entered the organisation and shared close affinity with Kalam.  This includes Madhavan Nair who went on to became the ISRO chief.

"Sasikumar who for the first time in the country mobilised many industries to support rocket launch projects hailed from CET. Our solid propulsion specialist E.V.S. Namboothiri, Integrated systems specialist Majid,  R& D specialist John Zachariah and even Madhavan Nair are from CET," said former president who was here to celebrate the institution's platinum jubilee. He reminisced about  passing the institution every day  during his stay at Sreekariyam.

Students and principals of 22 colleges were present when Kalam emphasised the need for interdisciplinary approach in engineering. He made principals promise that they will incorporate many projects in the curriculum where engineers of various streams can come together for one project. He emphasised  that students should focus on  clean energy.

"We live in a country that gets eight hours of sunlight and we have 250 million households. Clean (solar) energy for all these household will save a lot of energy. Students should innovate and work on technologies that will boost nation's economic development," Mr Kalam added.