Good day, Dr. Dhinesh Balasubramanian. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

Yes, I'm ready to start. Thank you very much.

Please start by introducing your professional journey in academia.

I thank you very much it's great to be here and I just started my career from Congo Engineering College Erode where I completed my bachelors in mechanical engineering with NCGP of around 8.32 and post that I did my full time masters in Anna University Madras Institute of Technology campus and I was expertise in automobile engineering. Before that I cracked my GATE exam and with the gate exam and stiffen person I completed my masters.

Program in the same UH institute in the same department where I completed my PhD in a tenure of close to uh three years with uh good quality publications uh from Energy Conversion Management, Applied Thermal Engineering and Journal of Energy and Institute Engineering. So with good quantum of work and good publication post my PhD in full time with the span of three years, I joined my course Link Engineering College as an assistant professor.

Uh, that I completed close to, as of now, 8 to 9 years with a span of nine years. I have a good quantum of research output and academic excellence in this particular span of nine years.

Do you want me to brief more about my research expertise on the academic excellence in the span of nine years?

Thank you.

OK, thank you. I just joined in my post link engineering college on 2017 and I just worked there for three years. And in meantime I just got my guideship and I have got my first PhD scholar and who has now completed his PhD and has also joined as an assistant project in the same institute. So as of now I have completed one PhD scholar and three are pursuing PhD currently under my guidance and post that I completed my.

You're welcome, Professor. Please proceed.

Post Doctor fellowship in concert University toilet SO which deals with an expertise of electric and hybrid vehicle technology. And later on I just got an international collaboration project between India and Taiwan which is a bilateral project which has a lump sum of close to 6G lakhs by 3030 lakhs belongs to the Indian partner and 30 lines belongs to the Taiwan partner. Currently I am in the closing state of this project. The project ends by May.

10/20/26 May 10/20/26 and we have another five months of.

Time scale. And apart from that, I have been invited as I'm visiting professor, uh, uh, in NCK youth Taiwan, which I'm currently associated for this project. And that university is having an QS ranking of around close to, I believe 200 in, in even 2026. Apart from that, I have visited European, uh, Union, where I have visited Hungary as an invited speaker and, and conference.

Which talks about the cognitive mobility. Currently I am associated with them for past three years and the last conference entire conference publications was editor and has been published now in Spenger chapter, book chapter. And next to that I have been invited as a visiting professor in Poland.

Apart from that, I have also been associated with the Wellness Tech University in Alutha, India, and in Poland, I have been associated with Krakow University, Poland. So these are my expertise and the research background related to international collaboration and project expertise. And I have also been invited as an visiting professor in Thailand.

And Thailand. Thailand University. So that is where I did my post doc and later on with another university in downtown.

Of toilet in a hotel so that that is about King Sloan University. Print. Songkhla University.

Uh, in those project uh, within uh, seed amount of 50,000 and uh, to Tamil Nadu state government student projects, which deals with the basic idea of electric and hybrid vehicle technology. Apart from that, I have been granted with a total uh, patents of around 80 to 80 pattern and 1 design pattern has been granted, uh, under my and my team members name and majority. In most of the cases, I have been as a lead member for this patents.

A toilet and this is about the international collaboration and moving to the the project expertise Part 1 DST project is currently running within international collaboration between India and Taiwan and I have completed one.

Uh, next to that, talking about the research publication, I have an, uh, good quantum of publication number, which comes close to a number of 120 and my current h-index is 40 and my current citation comes close to 5000 plus.

So this is my expertise.

Thank you.

Thank you, Professor, for sharing your detailed accomplishments and expertise. Let's explore some aspects of your skills and experience systematically. Starting with your experience in guiding student projects and research—can you explain how you approach mentoring PhD scholars to ensure their research aligns with academic excellence and innovation?

I have good research expertise and I completed my PhD within span of three years so that gains be more knowledge about how to do PhD in full time. So even now I'm guiding 3 DHD scholars and one has completed his PhD. So even that particular scholar has good quantum of publication. So I just approached them with the friendly manner and I I spent most of time discussing about the research outputs and the future plans.

Timeline and road map and that we need to start and when we need to jump on to the next research progress and when we need to publish and when we need to submit our these and synapses part. So the entire plan will be scheduled before we start with them. And I'll give them a proper guidance how to approach the journal, how to do the research and how we can handle the failures in it. So because of it, my first candidate completed is a PhD in part time mode.

What we have to do and we have a proper.

With a span of close to 3.5 years and as of now 2-3 more scholars are completely currently doing PhD under my guidance. So all three have come up with a good publication in a better.

Rather than good impact factor and slowly they have started to write their thesis part also and all belongs to the area of electric and hybrid vehicle technology. And I'm trying to align with the current research domain and the existing demanding area where the research need to be focused on.

So this is how I, uh, enjoy setting and, uh, working with my PhD students and at the same as replicated for my master student and the undergraduate student. So even with a good collaboration with my master student, I have come up with two publications in uh, SCA Q2 journal and with my bachelor students, I have come up with and uh, patent and a publication. So I'm just working closely associated.

With them, I spend most of the time on, uh, research perspective to train them how to, uh, view the problem in the clear way, uh, how we can approach them in a better, uh, perspective and how effectively we can solve the problem in a minimal time scale.

Thank you for the detailed explanation, Professor. It’s clear from your approach that you emphasize structured guidance, collaboration, and alignment with current research demands. How do you balance guiding student projects while maintaining progress in your own research and international collaborations?

That is really very good because I have very good international collaboration. I just encourage my students to have a visit to the university, whomever I have, and very good collaboration. Even my PhD scholar has visited NCKU Taiwan, which has a good QS ranking of around 200. He has spent nearly three months over there. And I'm just also encouraging my undergraduate and master students to visit the.

Universities abroad and I'm having a good contact with the professors over there, so they just acquired the student and asked them to work with them in an international exposure part for one or two months to understand how the world look the problems in from different region. So that is what I do and I try to manage everything in a clearer view. So I plan the entire. Progress for next 5 to 6 months so I just.

Visit the abroad yearly once or twice that would be planned particularly in the in the time of vacation rather than focusing on the academic time scale. So I the academic part would be clearly completed and after completing the part, I try to visit abroad to have a mutual collaboration. So that is how I balance my academic and research domain.

Understood, Professor. You seem to have a well-structured approach to balancing academic commitments and fostering international collaborations, which reflects strong organizational skills. Let's now discuss your experience in teaching theory and laboratory courses—how do you ensure that your teaching methods are engaging and impactful for students across different levels of understanding?

Thank you. So I had the electric and hybrid vehicle mobility.

Domain in or institute. So where in most often cases I used to teach teach fundamentals of electric and hybrid vehicle and energy management system for electric vehicles. So what I try to do them was I will try to give capstone project or small projects for the students and slowly we used to have hands on experience based learning for them.

To understand the core concepts more clearly rather than having just book based learning. And I used to invite my colleagues who are at a better positions in industries like Ashok Leyland, Volvo and Mahendra and Mahindra. So I used to often have a three days special course like programs for the students that is related with my current syllabus and the expectation of the industry to have more.

A real time understanding to bridge the gap between Academy and industrial. So in general, I used to conduct one or two special courses related to my subject and bridging the grant between Academy and industry to have a better interaction between students and the industrial demand.

That approach reflects a strong commitment to ensuring students gain both theoretical knowledge and practical insight, Professor. By integrating hands-on experience and industry exposure, you demonstrate an effective alignment between academic learning and real-world applications. Speaking of industry, can you elaborate on your consultancy or industry projects related to automotive systems or energy technologies during your career?

Yeah, as of now I have applied for 2 Horizon project, 1 deals with close to 8 to 9 consortium members which has an interesting collaboration. And even now I'm having an project based interview schedule on coming 28th next week, which is an Academy on industrial collaboration project that is particularly on battery. Fire suppression techniques. So in that part I haven't signed NDA with.

Kerala brace startup AB industry and I have unsigned mutual.

Technical advisor part with Good Life Mobility in Madurai. So I'm closely working with them. I discuss the the real time case studies and real time research gap, what industry actually phases on day-to-day life, and I'll try to incorporate that into my research background and try to find some possible solutions so thereby we can try to handle the real time.

Cases rather doing some, uh, just progressive, uh, research work from the existing, uh, articles or resisting, uh, publications. So that is what I usually follow and that is how I interact with the industrial, uh, persons because I have good number of, uh, friend circle, which industrial, uh, persons who, uh, did PhD along with, uh, me in my, uh, time scale in Anna University.

MIT Campus.

Thank you, Professor, for sharing those details. Your ability to derive innovative solutions to industry-specific challenges and actively integrate industrial collaboration into your academic research demonstrates significant expertise and value in your domain. Let’s move to your communication approach—how do you adapt your teaching and mentoring methods for students with varying learning needs or academic backgrounds?

Uh, I just bridge them into, uh, different groups and I'll try to clearly pinpoint the, uh, the level of understanding of the students, uh, just after the first internal test. So I'll just make them into a cluster of group members and try to have an interactive learning. So that makes them more.

Enthusiastic and uh, uh, more knowledgeable rather uh, working us uh, as a self steady person.

That's an effective method, Professor. Group-based interactive learning often fosters collaboration and helps students support each other while advancing their understanding collectively. Let's now delve into your research publications—could you briefly outline the process you follow to ensure your work is recognized in reputed journals?

I'm just working on with the research publication from 2070. It is nearly 8 to 9 years and during my masters and PhD time, we have a culture that we work in Group rather than working as a single person with my mentor and my supervisor, sorry, my mentor and the student. So thereby we have a good collaboration with.

Our similar group members who are doing PhD at the team. Time scale. So thereby we will have offer, uh, group discussion and offer discussion about what is their research area. So we, we get aligned with each others and slowly started to working on the articles. And before working on the articles, we, we try to study what is the current, uh, scenario or what is the current, uh, pattern the research articles is focused on. So we used to, uh, uh, collect the higher impact factor journals close to 10 and above and try to understand or try to.

I don't know how they approach the article or how they present their research work in an A clear manner. So I'll try to break it down in a clearer way. And I'll try to teach them to my masters students and bachelor students even. As I said, even my masters and PhD bachelor students have come up with an SC IQ 2 publications before completing their or close to the time they have completed their degree. So I I clearly break down break the public.

Approach in the clearer view and I'll just discuss with them and slowly we'll start writing into it and we will have 4 to 5 revision. So after having a revision and a clearer version, we'll just approach the journal. So at the time the disk projection or the rejection from.

The reviews would be very minimal so that does the reason why I have a good number of application with the span of close to 9 to 10 years crossing close to 100 in number.

Thank you for outlining your systematic and collaborative approach, Professor. It’s evident that your emphasis on group discussions, targeted journal selection, and iterative refinement has significantly contributed to your high-quality research output. Let us now discuss your experience in curriculum development or accreditation processes—what specific contributions have you made in these areas?

Till 2021, there was no particular domain known as electric and hybrid vehicle in my current host institution. So after 2020 then we have a plan to structure a curriculum for electric and hybrid domain. So I was adding that electric and hybrid domain. So in that part we discussed what are the that has a default schedule pattern of in this particular domain you need 6 subjects.

The close to 16 to 18 credits need to be covered in their in in its entire process. So I just sit down and look through the leading universities and frame the six subjects and that is also interdisciplinary. It is not only pure mechanical based domain. So in that 3.

3 subjects or from mechanical, 2 is from electrical and one is from easy and discussing with the faculty members from Tripoli and Eze we just.

Demand and we framed it and after that we have also incorporated that the students whomever pick this subject must pause on this six courses apart from that they need to fabricate their own electric bike. So they clear the subject they have hands on experience on fabricating their own electric bike and we will just move pick this team to attend various E by key ones in and around Tamil Nadu and India. So possibly for every.

Frame the syllabus uh, meeting the industry and the worldwide university uh.

Those I have picked the students and visited ebike events and they have achieved a good ranking in the EBIC E1 competition also. But we have not obtained the first or second rank as often because the students whomever picked this electric and hybrid vehicle domain will be close to just 10 to 15 members. So after that we need to put an additional.

Bit hard from their current academic shift, but anyhow, year by year from 2021 to 2025 till last year, the the progress in in the ranking is really good and the students are doing well. And whatever the failure or whatever the issues that we face in the previous events and the previous.

Students and started to work on fabricating the ebike. So that was.

Bike.

Has been updated in the next years.

That's a remarkable contribution, Professor. Establishing an interdisciplinary curriculum for electric and hybrid vehicles, aligning it with industry demands, and incorporating hands-on fabrication projects reflect a deep dedication to academic excellence and practical learning. Let’s conclude this discussion by delving into your patents. Could you explain how your patent contributions align with advancing automotive systems and energy technologies?

As of now I am working on battery fire and battery fire suppression issue. So even now slowly electric vehicle population is increasing in India and worldwide people are having a small hesitation on battery fire issue. And you might have come across the users in and around the world that battery vehicle has facing fire issue because of the thermal runway condition. So my primary. Research focus as of now is understanding how thermal runaway occurs in patterns.

And how it can be effectively suppressed with different thermal suppression techniques. So that is what is my current research focus and it is exactly aligned with the real world scenario and the industrial expectation.

Thank you, Professor—your focus on addressing critical issues such as battery fire suppression and thermal runaway conditions demonstrates your alignment with global and industry challenges. This underscores your ability to translate academic research into impactful, real-world solutions. We’ve covered critical aspects of your expertise systematically, and your profile reflects significant contributions to academia and industry. Thank you for your time and insights, Professor.

Thank you, It is happy to discuss with you.

Professor, to begin, could you share which introductory course in mechanical engineering you find most rewarding to teach and why?

Uh, I'm just more uh, convenient with the, the electric and hybrid vehicle fundamentals, energy storage system for uh, electric vehicles, talking about uh, batteries, ultra capacitors, flywheel, energy storage and battery management systems. So that is my core expertise area and I am also currently working on hydrogen storage part and hydrogen. Leakage part, so I'm closely aligned with hydrogen storage rather than hydrogen production.

So hydrogen protection is not my expertise area. I work on hydrogen storage part. So that particular based curriculum would be much more convenient for.

Thank you, Professor. Given your expertise in energy storage systems and hydrogen storage, how do you typically ensure that concepts in these advanced topics are accessible and well-understood by students, particularly in an introductory course?

Attract the students to work on this particular domain. So thereby I can just pull in the students to work on these particular domains, which is currently, uh, the need of industry and the world. So because when you talk about, uh, electric vehicle battery as in primary storage and in the another part, fuel cell and hydrogen is the primary source. So people in number of people are working on fuel cell based setup and the PEM fuel cell in the remaining part, but my focus is on the hydrogen.

I have good number of research based output based on this and I have done small capstone projects with my project students so that can be effectively presented by the students and that would be an eye-catching part and would just.

Storage time, so where you're going to place the hydrogen storage tag and if there is any issue in the hydrogen leakage or hydrogen fire issue, how we need to handle it. So my perspective was closely related with the safety on electric vehicle and the safety on the field cell based vehicle, particularly on the hydrogen cylinders.

With the current, uh, print.

Professor Dhinesh Balasubramanian, let's explore the connection between your research and classroom teaching. You led the project investigating alcohol-blended fuel performance and emissions in spark-ignition engines. How would you present that research to undergraduate students in a mechanical engineering course to make it engaging and educational?

That project is an student innovative project that has been funded by Tamil Nadu state government on the student project scheme that does my project students. So I just taught them automobile engineering and give them a brief idea about enhancing the percentage of alcohol level in the existing patrol. That is what is currently. The Tamil Nadu government is doing. We are just trying to bend ethanol with the petroleum for you. So we try to increase the ethanol percentage.

Project batch so where I taught them automobile engineering so as I tried to give some real time scenario cases to them so with that we sit down and draft a short proposal for that particular call and we just apply for it and it was been granted by the Tamil Nadu state government. But it is not a very big number in terms of project funding it is close to 7500 but even though.

And try to understand how this can be effectively incorporated in the internal combustion engine. So that batch is currently my undergraduate.

As an undergraduate student, it just increased them because it is a highly competitive for them.

So for the entire institution, it was awarded to only two batches. So it was an highly competitive grant for their perspective. Even though the fund is very minimal and it just encouraged my upcoming batches also to work on a similar area. So the next projects on battery thermal management system is my next project batch student. So at that time scale, I have started to teach the fundamentals of electric and hybrid vehicles. So whenever I try to teach them, I will give some real time.

Scenario cases and we sit down and try to find some possible solution for it and with that possible solution we will write a small project for the students and ask them to apply for some the Funding Agency. So thereby with that fund we can effectively do a small projects for their carrier growth.

Yeah, very good. I just try to make them understand the theory first. It is not directly moving into, uh, jumping into the hands on training. So first we they need to imagine the concept and they need to have a clear visualization. And after that with their imagination and visualization, they need to see how that project actually works. Because whenever you give the exact object to them, the imagination would slowly get suppressed. So first I'll start with theory. And after that I will try to increase the imagination skill.

You have clearly invested effort in bridging real-time innovations and academic foundations for your students, Professor. Reflecting on the methodologies you've described, how do you judge the balance between introducing theoretical concepts versus integrating hands-on project experience? For example, do you emphasize theory first or align it directly with practical applications when you teach?

And after that, I will move on to the practical session. So as I said, the electric and hybrid vehicle domain offices subjects possibly it starts from the 4th semester and the electric bike fabrication will be in their 6th semester. So I'll teach them in the fourth semester, I'll teach them in the fifth semester and I'll give more.

Uh, theoretical base teaching to them. And after that in the 6th semester, they will try to implement this in their practical process after studying with me or after working with me for one year. So they will have some good, uh, real time cases, imagination, uh, thinking and critical thinking. So thereby they can handle the situation after one year of theatrical run.

Professor, your systematic approach of fostering imagination and gradually transitioning to hands-on application demonstrates thoughtful pedagogy. Considering your engagement in future-focused domains like electric and hybrid vehicles, how do you adapt your curriculum when addressing students with varying levels of theoretical understanding and practical readiness in such cutting-edge areas?

Time is up! Ending the interview now.