Lakireddy Bali Reddy College of Engineering is the brainchild of the late Founder & Chairman, Sri Lakireddy Bali Reddy. Sri Lakireddy was a gold medallist who graduated from Osmania University with B.E in Chemical Engineering. In 1960, he pursued his MS degree from the University of California at Berkeley on a scholarship. Sri Lakireddy soon turned entrepreneur in the hotel and real estate business and became successful through patience, persistence, and perseverance.
Sri Lakireddy Bali Reddy was kind at heart. Helping people in need gave him joy. He, a son of the soil, understood the challenges and lack of growth avenues of the poor. A man with considerable compassion and generosity, he took immense pleasure in doing many acts of charity and philanthropy that benefited his beloved place of birth and its people. He set up Lakireddy Bali Reddy Charitable Trust, a non-profit organization fully funded by him in order to channelize the multi-faceted philanthropic activities towards the socio-economic and educational development of this region of Krishna District.
Later, in 1998, when the opportunity presented itself, Sri Lakireddy, along with his younger sibling, Sri Lakireddy Jayaprakash Reddy, founded Lakireddy Bali Reddy College of Engineering (LBRCE), a non-profit organisation wholly funded by him. His vision for the college is to empower students to become technologically vibrant, innovative and emotionally mature; and to train them to face the challenges of the quality-conscious globalised world economy. And today, the institute takes pride in its best-in-class infrastructure, excellent academic ambience, and robust research potential.
Extensive List of Programmes
Lakireddy Bali Reddy College of Engineering (LBRCE), approved by AICTE and affiliated to JNTUK, Kakinada is an Autonomous Institution since 2010 and has been accredited by NAAC with ‘A’ Grade (3.20 / 4 in Cycle-2), NBA (CSE, IT, ECE, EEE& ME) under Tier-I and ISO 9001:2015 Certified. It ranks in 251-300 band (Under Engineering) in NIRF India Rankings – 2022 and ranked 201-250 band (Under Engineering) in NIRF India Rankings – 2020.
LBRCE offers 9 B. Tech programs (CSE ,CSE(AI&ML),AI&DS, IT, ECE, EEE,CE, ME & ASE) and 4 M.Tech Programs in CSE, Thermal Engineering, Power Electronic & Drives, VLSI & Embedded Systems and MBA. “Our strength is in our best practices, choice-based learning system, flexible learning space, focus on practical learning through projects, internship, industry visits, choice-based learning system, good placement and other skill training facilities, great library facilities, research opportunities through advanced Labs, focus on the all-round development of a student’s personality and above all the attractive placement opportunities,” says Dr. K. Appa Rao, Principal, LBRCE.
Students from all engineering streams are given more electives to choose from new age courses like AI, Machine Learning, Data Sciences, Robotics, IOT etc. Additionally, industry-level tools/platforms are integrated into LBRCE’s labs in C, Python, AutoCAD, VLSI, Ansys, and Catia for real-time learning.
A Pool of Expert Academic Staff
LBRCE has a faculty pool of 280 with 81 doctorates and 100+ pursuing it. Dr. K. Appa Rao calls them the strength and the real ambassadors of the college, much like the students. He further continues, “We follow a collective decision-making process in all academic matters, with HoDs involving faculty in a curriculum design, evaluation, instructions, and other academic activities.”
These faculty members bring in high-quality academic experience and knowledge in diverse subjects to the table. The teachers of LBRCE regularly update their knowledge base through continuous learning programs like NPTEL and Coursera and by participating in various workshops, seminars and faculty development programs. Likewise, they actively participate in R&D projects and publish research papers in national & international high IF, peer-reviewed journals. They are also involved in patent publications and collaborations with national & foreign universities.
Efforts towards Industry Collaborations
“We believe in continuous and engaging partnerships with industry bodies and agencies for enhancing the skillsets and industry orientation among students,” reveals Dr. K. Appa Rao. As a result, LBRCE has collaborated with multinational companies such as Cisco, Wipro, Microsoft, Siemens, Salesforce, Ansys, LabView, NSIC, UiPath, Amazon etc. Moreover, students can also opt for certificate courses like CCNA, AWS, Redhat, RPA, Salesforce, Microsoft Technologies, Autonomic Systems Anywhere, and Service Now in partnership with the above industry bodies and with APSSDC, AP Higher Education Council, MHRD etc.
LBRCE has partnered with European Centre for Mechatronics APS GmbH, Aachen, Germany, for advanced training in Robotics to make students industry-ready. The Andhra-based College has also joined with NIT, Trichy, to utilise Siemens Center of Excellence for manufacturing facility and signed MoU with Efftronics, Vijayawada, for knowledge exchange. Dr. K. Appa Rao delightfully shares that LBRCE has recently inked an MoU with Thaai Castings, India, which will be very useful for students in core branches like Mechanical and Aerospace.
Emphasis on Placement & Internship Opportunities
LBRCE understands that recruiters seek students with essential skillsets and hands-on learning experiences. Dr. K. Appa Rao and his team shed utmost focus on imparting quality technical and soft skills training to students throughout the academic year. In Wipro TalentNext & Future Skills Programs, 600 students have completed industry-oriented skill training under the mentorship of 4 trained faculties. Also, LBRCE students have received internship-cum-placement opportunities under CTS digital nurturing Program. “A large number of our students attempt their internship through Internshala, in which we are ranked 340th at All India Level,” adds Dr. K. Appa Rao.
Owing to these efforts, many LBRCE students have been picked and placed by MNCs with high salary packages over the last 5 years. In the ongoing academic year, 1150+ placements have been bagged by its students with average packages of 5.40 Lacs, including the highest package of 14 Lacs offered by CISCO.
Igniting the Entrepreneurial Flame in Students
In 2017, LBRCE set up its own Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) on campus to promote entrepreneurship in students. This centre is registered as LBRCE- IC Foundation under section 8, companies Act 2013, certified by the minister of corporate affairs Govt. of India. CIIE aims to foster advanced creativity and innovative thinking skills in students to take the initiative, risk decisions, and accept responsibility to thrive in the challenging world. In short, its goal is to bring holistic development to students.
“Recently, in the ATAL Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA-2022), we were placed on the Band-Excellence by MHRD, GOI. Our Start-Ups include ‘CHAOS ELECTRONICS LLP’, ‘Intern Stump’, an Educational Management and Consultancy launched in 2020-21 and 2021-22,” remarks Dr. K. Appa Rao. In the previous years, the college has also given substantial internal funding for Green Bike, Smart Street Light and Race Car prototypes developed by its students. Through mentorship initiatives, students are encouraged and motivated to participate in various programmes organised by MHRD, AICTE and other premier institutes. Every year, CIIE also conducts an in-house Ideation contest and offers incubation support to the deserving ones.
Defeating the COVID-19 Challenges
During the early stages of the pandemic, LBRCE was able to reorient its academic activities towards the virtual medium and began conducting virtual classes as early as March 2020. After the lockdowns were lifted, the college followed all the precautions and social distancing protocols for managing its regular academic activities in hybrid mode as per the norms issued by Govt. of India. The faculty members utilised digital media, Microsoft Teams, and social media platforms for conducting classes and other activities. Faculty and students were encouraged to take online MOOCS courses, including NPTEL, Coursera & MIT etc. Moreover, LBRCE announced incentives for its faculty to engage more in R&D-related activities during this period.
Dr. K. Appa Rao feels that the post-pandemic world will be a mixed bag of experience, challenges, and opportunities. To stay relevant in this new normal, he would like to digitalise most of LBRCE’s academic systems and administrative processes and continue upgrading the hybrid teaching-learning model for more flexibility and dynamism in academics.
Gazing into the Future
While sharing his future plans for LBRCE, Dr. K. Appa Rao states, “Our clear focus is on achieving all round quality enhancements, to attain the highest grade in NAAC, make all our programs NBA accredited and most importantly, to be placed among the top 200 engineering colleges in NIRF.” In the R&D space, the team plans to focus more on emerging technologies like Blue Prism, Visual Augmentation, Cyber Security, Data Science, Robotics, Hybrid vehicle technologies, thereby bringing on board more faculty and students to work on a higher number of sanctioned projects.
Dr. K. Appa Rao says that he would like to see at least 50 per cent of students get actively engaged in research work at any given time. He further added that he wants to speed up digitisation of the infrastructure, making all classrooms, labs and other learning spaces smart and digitally enabled, and creating a virtual learning platform for continuous learning so that students and faculty get ample opportunities to work 24/7 as part of a dynamic learning ecosystem. His team will continue to collaborate with multiple companies, institutes and agencies for creating better learning and research opportunities for students and faculty, while empowering students to secure premium corporate placements with pay bands above 25 Lacs. He further added, “As a natural extension of our autonomy, we would like to attain the status of a Deemed to be university in the near future.”
For More Info: https://lbrce.ac.in/