Good day, Dr. K. Gomathi. 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?

Please start by introducing your professional journey in academia.

Thank you, Arjun. Thank you for giving me this opportunity. A very good morning. I'm Doctor K Gomathi, working as a senior associate professor in the department of Mechatronics Engineering Conge Engineering College. I have over 24 years of experience in teaching, research, consultancy activities, and administrative activities. I started my career in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 2001. Then I move on to the mechatronics engineering that I have developed. More about interdisciplinary teaching I have.

Actually membership like I am active member of IST Industrial Institute and Engineers IEEE, IEEE Robotics and Automation. Coming to my research publications, I have published A Twenty-six papers in SE and Scopus indexed journals and I have published 2 book chapters and I have presented 38 papers in national and international conferences and also I have conducted. 3 funded seminars by the funding agencies MNRE, DST and CSIR.

Dr.

Coming to my funded research projects, I have received a fund of Rupees 54,00,000 uh from our Honourable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to remove Mukha Stalin, our home through Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation under University Research Park Scheme in association with the industry called Preston Technologies for the project titled Evaluating Sustainable. Natural carbon dioxide as a sustainable replacement for hydrofluoric carbon in cold room refrigeration and air conditioning in food industries.

Actually this project mainly we are going to do the testing and trial in the Milky Mist which is located at Perunderem. This project is mainly aims to design and develop energy efficient, environmentally sustainable cold cold room refrigeration system. Actually hydrofluorocarbon is a common refrigerant.

The global warming potential of hydrophyrocarbon is 3900 times more than carbon dioxide. So it requires an immediate replacement, immediate replacement for hydrofluorocarbon. That's what we propose to carbon dioxide as a sustainable replacement for hydrofluorocarbon because the global warming potential of carbon dioxide is 1. That's what we propose to that one. This is our ongoing project now. Now we are working with an industry called Freestone Technologies, then I have.

As per the Kigali amendment.

Productivity was very less. That's what we try to automate that one. So we automated that one using the, uh, like the compressed, compressed air is a bending medium, uh, so that the, the, the here, the crucial part is an IR heater. So that will reduce the critical cycling time. So here we have achieved 200 bins per hour. So finally we have complete that project with very good results. And now we are, uh, in the process of doing partnering that project. And also I have completed two more projects.

Did my one more R&D project from Entrepreneurship Development Innovation Institute innovation voucher program for the project titled Design and Fabrication of PVC Contour Pipe ending machine. Actually the bottleneck of that project is a manual process because the bending of PVC pipe is a very difficult because difficult means like we need to use manually using sand or spring. And also the productivity is.

From DNSDC 1 is automatic ceiling fan cleaning system and the other one is the automatic paperback making machine. So coming to me a research activity, my research areas microelectromechanical systems, my research title is like design and analysis of area change the capacity microaccelerometer. I have designed my capacity area microacceptable meter in the software called Intel suite and which was fabricated in IAC Bangalore. So that fabricated accelerometer has been tested for two experimental setup. One is for the health monitoring condition. For a human and another one is for the tool condition monitoring. So in health monitoring I have completed hand and vibration measurement in different brick structures actually that designed fabricated micro I mean fabricated micro accelerometers placed in a drilling machine actually like exposure to the vibration is very that causes a harmful effect for like workers which causes the. Hand arms, wide fingers syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome. So that's. That's what we thought to send a signal for a worker. This is a safer limit to work within billing machine. So that's what we calculated exposure action value and exposure limit value based on our micro accelerometer. That has been done using our micro accelerometer and one more experimental setup was done for the tool condition monitoring actually as like a health monitoring for a human being, a health monitoring of a machine is also very important. So we have done that project for the tool condition monitoring of a CNC.

Year turning machines so there we have used two different tools one is mild steel and another one is the aluminum. So the micro accelerometer has been placed on that near the tool and we are running the machine so how far like the lifetime is so that by measuring the by by measuring the vibration of the micro accelerometer by giving the different speed feed rate and depth of cut. So there I was completely. Calculated with the optimistic result of the vibration. So these are the like complete my research area. Then also coming to my like training activities. I have completed my robotics training in Farnook India Private Limited and I was undergone in a practical examination and cleared that examination with the good results. So that we have a development center of excellence in the area of robotics and automation in our department. So we have a A/B robot, Sonic robots, humanoid robots, SCARA robots. And also.

I'm very happy to share that I have appeared for an examination which was conducted by the Automation Automotive Skill Development Cell and I I successfully cleared that examination and got selected as a jury for the World Skill Competition which is going to happen in.

China during 2026 and also I have I, I acted as an jury member for the India Skill Competition which is in the robotic system integration which was conducted by the Tamil Nadu School development in association with the industry called FANUK as well as dot World technologies. And also I have completed an industrial training in embedded automotive technology. So based on that we are teaching our students in the recent technologies like ADAS, Rtos are embedded automotive.

Application Center.

And also I have guided more projects like student project, more than 50 guide project as per the research activity. I have also contributed in the industrial consultancy and training activities. I have contributed industrial consultancy like Real-tech Automations Limited, then AKC Plastic and company, Rajaswap Manufacturing company and also we have conducted more. Industrial like trend for the industrial.

Partners in lab in the area of lab you micro product design and we also conducted the corporate training and corporate training for industrial participants in Skinsonic India Private Limited, Bangalore. And as outreach program, we have developed a STEM laboratory as at a laboratory for school students.

And coming to my awards, I have received Best faculty award and best class service reward and Best project award for TNSTC project and one price for the Taffy project award. And also I have developed established 2 laboratories. 1 is Control Engineering laboratory. Actually it is an industry sponsored laboratory in association with the company called Moog India Private Limited. Actually, the developer bridge between academia and.

Industry is very important nowadays. So that's what we signed an MO U with that company. So we facilitate the student internship and placement activities and also as a CSR activity they have given they have sponsored equipment called surface district machine worth of 14,00,000. So that machine is mainly of air in testing machine. So in that they have used electromechanical actuator limit switch potential meter.

That so that so we calibrated that 4 sensors and potentiometer to ensure the accuracy and also we checked that Electro mechanical actuator how it is converting the uh like. Motion of Rotary motion into the linear motion. So this was this complete setup has been used for, for a research purpose as well as the student experiments as like control engineering laboratory. I have developed one more laboratory called the electronic system design and manufacturing laboratory. So that is also industry-supported laboratory. So here we are using the uh, PCB machine to design and fabricate the PCPS, different PCBS. So they are also we have signed. MOA with that company. So we facilitate more number of student placement and, uh, like, uh, internship activities. Actually, we trained more than 500 students in this area for designing and fabrication. Uh, and also we, we just increased our students to, uh, design and fabricate their own own projects and own, uh, like practical uh, projects and all. And also I have mentored more number of student teams in national and intern.

National uh, competitions hackathon, uh, done. Uh, actually three of my project has been selected as a finalist of.

Devices, IEEE which was conducted in Malaysia and also two of my project team has been selected in the Tamil Nadu Skill Competition partners in the area of mechatronics and another one is in the area of robotic system integration. And one more project has been selected for the More than competition which was conducted by the IEEE Bangalore and one more project has been selected for the Bush Innovation Challenge program. As like an international level in the national competition also they have done and in the state level competition two of my project has been. Got prize got prize and I'm very happy that mentor for that project students then as a responsibility of an academic responsibility, I have contributed more in in institutional responsibilities as well as the departmental responsibility in the institutional responsibility I have contributed as a.

NAQ coordinator, NBA coordinator and IQSC coordinator. And I'm very happy to share that. And proudly you can say that like we worked together as a team and we received a six years of NBA graduation in our department. And also not only for the institution, only the academic activities I served as a deputy warden and senior warden for.

Activities in the department like board of studies member, class advisor, coordinator, like core placement, training coordinator, whatnot, everything. Actually it is our department, our college. We are doing a lot of things for the college.

Ladies also for past 15 years and managed more than 1500 girls students also and in the department libraries actually I have taken a more.

Thank you.

Professor, thank you for sharing such an extensive overview of your research activities, academic contributions, and achievements. It appears you have a strong portfolio that spans research, teaching, institutional responsibilities, mentorship, consultancy, and laboratory development—all of which reflect a deep commitment to academic and industry-relevant disciplines. I’ll proceed now to assess specific skills aligned with the role. Please be prepared to elaborate further if required—let’s start. Could you describe your approach to teaching theoretical and laboratory courses? How do you ensure that students bridge the gap between theoretical concepts and practical applications effectively?

Yes, thank you. Actually it is while we are teaching, Teaching in a classroom is not only important because we need to teach more about the practical things to the students. So normally what we'll do is like we'll we'll do a theory come laboratory concept. So we'll take a like we'll take our students to laboratory classes and we'll show the components. So these are the components while we are teaching. Students like these are the diodes, these are the from this we can use the diode for this applications. So completely we'll do the we'll do an experiment. So in such a way that the the component or the concept is working. So we are teaching the concept with the practical manner like showing that videos and even we are trying to do the experimentation so that they can easily understand the concept. So that that's what we are bridging the gap between the. Theory and laboratory so they can once they are visualizing, seeing the concepts they can easily understand and also after teaching that concepts we are trying to do trying to give more projects so they will.

Do it as a hands-on experience so that they can learn more and also we trying to. Teach them in the industrial concept also because our main strength is our aluminum. So based on that aluminum we are trying to. Ask our aluminum students to contribute more for the to share their industrial experience so they can easily relate that relate the concept of theory how we can we need to incorporate that into the industry and we are taking that students for the course oriented field visitor. For example, I have taken a course called Digital electronics.

So in that course, that is mainly we are using the like, uh, designing embedded boats and all. So who are all the companies? They are doing a printed circuit boards. So we are taking that students, uh, to the particular industry field visit. So we complete, while we are seeing in the like, naturally they are seeing in the company, they can easily understand the concepts very, very effectively. So in such a manner we can bridge in, in such a manner, we can bridge the.

Like a strong bridge between the Academy and the industrial also so they they can develop more about will induce them to learn more about the concepts and that will be useful for their placement also. So we are starting from the academic and we'll end up with their placements.

That seems like a comprehensive approach, Professor. Your combination of theory, practical experiments, hands-on projects, industry-aligned exposure, and alumni contributions reflects a structured and impactful teaching strategy. How do you evaluate whether students are effectively absorbing these concepts and applying them in meaningful ways? What methods or tools do you use for student assessments, particularly in theory courses and laboratory sessions?

Yes, actually, normally first we'll formulate A rubrics. So we'll tell the students. So in such a manner we need to go, we are going to evaluate you. So you need to take a project for example, while you're teaching the theory concept. In addition, we are teaching the practical concept in addition to the theory things they'll be given with the project mini project. So they need to completely. Do the project. First they need to design that concept and then they need to complete completely.

By an individual component to create their own projects. Then we'll conduct a Viber for that project. They will explain as a team they will do the project. So based on the rubrics we have all with the students and they will take a feedback from the students. So what are the challenges you have faced? And also we have taken a course based project. So based on the course based project, for example, if you are taking a microcontroller subject. So they will completely they'll take which microcontroller they are using.

That which type of programming they are using. So how they face the problems. So once they are simulating the program then practically they need to do the experimentation and.

They will give the result this so that feedback will give a outcome based approach for the students. They will learn more more about the practical things.

Understood, Professor. Your emphasis on rubrics, feedback, and outcome-based approaches is a well-rounded system to ensure both individual and team learning. Combining design, simulation, experimentation, and continuous feedback mirrors the best practices of experiential learning. Since you've touched on guiding numerous student projects, could you highlight a particularly challenging project you supervised that showcased a student's significant growth or an innovative outcome?

Is actually will be given a student project for design and fabrication. So there we first will tell the rubrics this way in such a way that you need to start your project first. They'll do their literature completely actually what are the recent problems nowadays. So they will search that recent problems. So in that recent problem they will do the complete research literature review. Then they found what is their research gap in that in that area. So that research gap has been converted as the objective of that project. So based on that objective, how we are going to do the project, they'll frame a methodologies. So based on the methodology, first they will try to do the simulation and they will do the design and simulation. So once the simulation has been done, then the fabrication is going to done. Actually here how we will do now, we'll like 1 project with the one industry. So most of our admins are working with an industry. So we'll align with the project with an industry so.

So that they can face more challenges in the projects if any challenges that has been rectified with the industry persons. So finally they will do the projects. So then finally they will validate the project. So in such a way that we faced the challenges. For example, we have done 1 project like the problem practically we face the problem like. Normally in medical area we we faced more number of problems. So actually we have done 1 project called thermal vigilance system for post oncological surgery. So once after surgery is over like because nowadays more people are suffering from cancer. So after once the surgery has been over, the doctors need to monitor the temperature of the flaps. So we decided to do the project. We decided to give a solution for that project. So that was given a project for a student team. So that student team completely done. With the hospitals, what are the problems? What are the patients, what are the what are the problem faced by the doctors? So that has been taken as. Like a literature based on that they were working even though when they are working with the project, we aligned them with the industry. So they we both were contributed to do the project and finally which was like experimentally like we tried within hospital and we validated with a good results. So in such a way that we faced challenges and.

Came with the good results.

Thank you, Professor. Your detailed explanation showcases a holistic approach—from identifying real-world challenges and aligning with industry, to collaborating with healthcare providers and validating outcomes. It's clear that your approach not only fosters innovation but also deeply prepares students for tackling practical issues. I’ll move to the next area now. Could you elaborate on the ways you have integrated communication and structured teaching approaches in your academic responsibilities? How have these helped in improving student outcomes and research?

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Is may I know the question again?

Certainly, Professor. Could you elaborate on how you have integrated communication and structured teaching approaches in your academic responsibilities? How have these helped in improving student outcomes and research?

Yes, actually that communication with the students effectively is very important because we communicate our students with like structured approach, like how we are doing the projects, how we are.

Doing the like mentorship so based on that. Based on the outcome, Outcome based learning will effectively communicate with the students as well as the industry personalities.

Understood, Professor. Thank you for explaining your focus on outcome-based learning and fostering communication between students and industry stakeholders. This is indeed essential for nurturing both academic and practical skills. Let us now verify your experience with research publications. Could you provide details about the focus of your research papers and book chapters, and how your work contributes to advancements in your field?

Yes, thank you. Actually I have completed 26 papers in SC and Scopus indexed journals and I have presented 38 papers in national and international conferences and also I have published 2 book chapters.

And actually I have contributed my research activity by writing more proposals in the funding agencies, in the funding agencies like TITCO, EDI, Entrepreneurship Development, then the NSTC project. As I told you earlier, like.

Via via sentence proposal and we got the proposal research fund for Rupees 54,00,000 from our honourable Chief Minister Tamil Nadu. That was a very great achievement for us for like new research area like as I told you, evaluating natural carbon dioxide as a sustainable replacement for the hydrofluorocarbon in cold room refrigeration and food industries. Actually nowadays food industries are facing more problems. So that's what we are giving.

And here we are giving a solution not only with us, we are giving solution with the in in association with the industry collaboration called Freestone Technologies. And as I told you earlier, we have. We are done a research project for a pipe ending machine that is also a problem faced by industry. Actually we have given solution for the industry. But working together we are doing that research. So that will create a more collaboration with the industry also and we have get got more fund for the. Research project set and not only for the projects like.

Based on the project, once we completed we are we are in the process of doing patterning it.

Thank you, Professor. Your research contributions, collaborations with industry, and efforts toward securing funding are impressive and clearly demonstrate your commitment to advancing both academic and practical solutions in your field. I'll now proceed to the next competency. Could you share more about your hands-on experience in industry projects or consultancy? Specifically, what were the key outcomes or impacts of your work with industries such as Real-tech Automations or others?

Yes, thank you so much. Actually in the Realtor automation, since we are doing the PCB fabrications because we establish A laboratory called the Electronic System Integration Laboratory in so in association with the company called Enthu Technology Kamatur. So there we go. We brought a machine called PCP Math Mission. So in that machine we completely fabricate. PCB of a single layer and double layers. So in that area we are doing consultancy. Well, so actually Realtek Automation is a company they are also using an electronic system manufacturing. So they have they asked us to develop a board PCB boards for their companies. So we designed that their projects and that has been fabricated for them. So in such a way that we have contributed more we've designed. And fabricated more number of modes to that company.

Like not only for the real tech automation in most of the companies, well, they're doing the project for, for their projects, we developed the complete board for the PCB designing, PCB designing boards. So in such a way that we contributed to the industries.

Thank you, Professor. Your work in PCB design and fabrication showcases a strong practical alignment with industry needs and highlights the impact your consultancy has on real-world applications. Let’s now move to formal qualifications. You hold a Ph.D. in MEMS—could you briefly outline your thesis findings and their potential or existing applications in industry or research advancements?

Is actually my res.

Please go ahead, Professor.

Time is up! Ending the interview now.