Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Oct 19: The students pursuing engineering degree courses in the state will henceforth be required to study biology as an additional subject along with other technical courses.

Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) has made teaching of biology mandatory from the current year. It is introducing a subject, 'biology of engineers' in the fourth semester with the purpose of equipping the students with the knowledge of biology.

The way doctors and engineers functioned during a crisis like the one created by coronavirus is well known. The university officials say that they have understood that the students need to have medical knowledge and therefore they introduced the said course.

The engineering students play a stellar role in the production of medical equipment. This field has good employment potential. In many surgeries, artificial intelligence and technology are being more and more used. If the engineering students acquire medical knowledge, they can conceive better products and release into the market and therefore this course gains importance, subject experts of the university stated.

The university has framed the syllabus with the support of industrialists. These entrepreneurs take classes for the students. Services of subject experts will also be borrowed from outside to teach the students, they said.

VTU vice chancellor, Karisiddappa, says that the students need to necessarily acquire scientific knowledge and when technology and science merge, quality products can be designed and produced and therefore biology is being taught to engineering students.