1. Project Oriented Mentoring and Supervision of Studentsby
Jayanta Mukhopadhyay
Computer Science and Engineering.
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

2. Advisor vs. Mentor
Advisor: usually limited to supervision of academic progress.
Mentor: wholesome development of a person through
interpersonal engagement,
sharing of experiences, and
providing guidance on ‘to do’ activities.

3. Quality of a mentor A mentor is someone
to whom a student looks forward to discuss about any problem or challenge to her development.
Easy to approach.
Listens with interest.
Expresses transparent, unbiased opinion.

4. Project based learning
Active
Objective
Inductive
Collaborative
Applied
Experiential
Outcome driven

5. Motivation of students for approaching you for a project
To get exposure and experience of research in a field of interest.
Publication, Networking, Contact
Working in a team to solve challenging problems.
Robo-soccer, Aerial Robotics, Autonomous Vehicle Navigation, Object recognition, Traffic management
To learn latest techniques and technology.
Clear the credit requirements.
BTP, MTP, MS Project
Letter of recommendation

6. Benefits to Students Help Reduction of stress.
in advancement in academics and research.
in securing professional placement.
in promoting engagement in the field.
Reduction of stress.
Knowledge of someone to take care of problems
Co-ordination of collective activities

7. Benefits to mentors Learning through interaction and participation.
Attracting good students
Enrichment of professional network.
Personally satisfying to see growth and success of students.

8. Background of students
Strong in fundamentals and sound knowledge in the domain.
Strong in fundamentals and some exposure.
Strong in fundamentals but zero exposure to the area of research.
Weak in fundamentals, but intelligent and strongly motivated.
Very weak, needs assistance in clearing academic requirement.
No motivation, but forced to work for clearing credits.

9. Offering project topics
Research problem: requiring development of strong background in an active research area.
Development of tools and applications.
Introspective: New areas where you would like to explore.
Encourage innovative ideas of a student.
Salvage cases: A study based on experimentation and reporting of results.

10. Model code of conducts
Act with integrity and honesty in every kind of activity.
Be transparent.
Admit limitations and recognize strength.
Identify and avoid conflicts of interest
Collect and use data responsibly
Fairly award authorship credit
Cite source materials appropriately
Use research funds ethically
Treat animal or human research subjects properly

11. Person to person interaction
Be transparent about your expectations and gap.
Encourage open and healthy discussion.
full attention and time
encourage to open up
minimize interruptions.
Be patient while arguing with a student.
Try to convince not to coerce.
Encourage student to explore his or her own ideas, how silly it may appear to you.
Encourage on collaboration with other students.

12. Constructive criticism
Be objective.
Praise when deserved.
Provide alternatives.
Suggest remedial measures.
Acknowledge your errors and deficiency.
Be patient on expected outcomes.

13. Monitoring Keep track of students’ progress and achievements.
Regular group meeting.
Encourage Senior-Junior mentorship
Setting milestones
Acknowledge accomplishments
Identify stages of progress.
Modify the problem statement to more achievable targets if necessary.

14. Sharing experiences
Share stories of your learning stages from the past.
Acknowledge the process of mutual learning.
Take them to workshops, and conferences.
Help them in networking with other researchers.
Involve them in reviewing, editing, writing papers, conference presentations, and grant writing.

15. Long term mentorship of Students’ groups
Students’ groups focused to developing a technology
Participation to international and national competitions.
Organization of events
Solving a very challenging problem
Providing logistic help
Arranging funding from Institute.
Laboratory space
Facilitating participation and organization of events

16. KRSSG Kharagpur Robosoccer Group (http://krssg.in/)
Started in 2009 for organizing a competition
Builds a team of soccer playing robots.
Annual membership: Approx. 70 students
Four teams:
Mechanical, Embedded System, AI, Management
About 60 students (mostly from first year and a few second year) stay in Summer working for development of various modules.

17. KRSSG –Annual Activities
participate in one of international robosoccer competitions (FIRA and Robocup)
Organizes an event called “Code-O-Soccer”
Organizes internal and external workshops.
Mentor student groups of participating colleges

18. ARK (Aerial Robotics Kharagpur)
Formed in 2014
Build aerial robotic (Drones) systems
About 60 members: Software team, Control Team
Participation to Int. Aerial Robotic Competition (IARC)
Involved several application oriented projects.
Drone ambulance, Remote waste management, Agriculture

19. A few tips
Independence on planning and management of activities, team selection, etc.
Regular meeting
Be with the students during the events.
Check on policy decision.
Sponsorship
Participation of events: Which event?
Broad goals and objectives
Rules of evaluation (organizing competitions).
Appreciation and acknowledgment
Annual review meeting
Involve Institute’s Administration

20. THANK YOU!