Instructor:

Prof. J. Adinarayana

Motivation to take this course:

Interest in the field of modern agriculture and rural development

Sections:

Not a core course

Semester:

Spring ‘19

Course Difficulty:

Moderate

Time commitment required:

First half of course: 4-5 hours weekly Second Half of course: 5-6 hours (additional load due to course project)

Attendance Policy:

Not mandatory, but you can expect a call from the professor asking you about the missed lecture :)

Grading Policy and Statistics:

Very lenient grading: 1AA, 2ABs (total 3 registration only)

Prerequisites:

Small class so content is tailored according to the students’ past knowledge

Evaluation Scheme:

Quiz (10) + MidSem (20) + Quiz(10) + EndSem(35) + 3 Assignments (5) + Course Project(20) Not sure if the respective marks are correct Since students were not paying much attention to the course project, the scheme was changed in the end to give more weightage to the project. I am not able to find the final official scheme.

Course Contents (in brief):

First Half :- Theoretical Approach, knowledge about modern tools that is used in rural applications: data acquisition and utility, Information systems for agricultural management, precision agriculture, watershed management information system, decision support systems (DSS), Disruptive technologies and their applications in rural systems (Remote Sensing, Global Information System, IoT, Crowd-Sourcing etc.)

Second Half:- 2 lectures a week and the third one was allocated for the course project, students had to come to class and work on their project with TAs. Case Study Approach: the classes are interesting with discussions around professor’s past projects and other ground breaking projects in the field of rural informatics.

Mechanism of Instruction and Teaching Style

Self sufficient slides, professor discourages from taking notes and expects students to pay attention in class and actively involve themselves in discussion. In a small class where there is constant eye contact with the professor, it becomes very hard to take notes even if you wanted to.

Feedback on Tutorials/Assignments/Projects etc

All Assignments and projects are easy and TAs are highly knowledgeable and very helpful (2 TAs for 3 Students :p) but they are time consuming.

How strongly would you recommend someone for taking this course?

It is a very good course if you are interested in understanding technologies used/which can be used in rural systems

When did you take this course? What will be the ideal semester to take this course? Any other course which can be done before this?

I took this course in 4th semester (runs in even semester) With no prerequisites, in my opinion, 4th semester is a good time to take up this course when students are exploring different fields to find their interests.

Feedback on Exams:

Quizzes:- Format: completely objective, 30 minutes for 30 questions. Difficulty: easy to moderate

MidSem:-

Format: mix of subjective and objective questions. A 2 hour long exam can be easily completed in 1.5 hours. Difficulty: moderate

EndSem:-

Format: mix of subjective and objective questions. A 3 hour long exam can be easily completed in 2 hours. Difficulty: moderate to hard (full syllabus, preparation becomes a little painful)

Importance of course:

Decent exposure to the research happening in the field of sustainable agriculture

References used:

For examinations, slides are sufficient For projects and assignments: TAs share relevant research papers and manuals

Review by: Arvind Manimurugan