Attracting engineering college students

CEans,

CE is a great place to get answers to most of the questions engineering students face. Till now, we haven't been involved in any kind of active advertisements, marketing etc.

What are your ideas/suggestions about reaching out to thousands of engineering students?

Addendum:

Starting January 2010, we are going to target engineering colleges in India. The plan is to send our 3-4 banners to each college. We'll inform the principals about CE and how it can benefit college students & staff and request the colleges to post our banners on the notice boards.

An estimate says that over 3,50,000 engineers graduate each year from India. If executed well, we'll reach over 12,00,000 engineering students in India alone. This initiative, when combined with our regular viral growth will bring huge members [and many of them will become active].

The challenge will be to cater to the needs of so many engineering students who'll be visiting us. If the initiative becomes successful, we'll aim for engineering colleges around the world.

I look forward to your ideas, feedback & support in this initiative.

Also how do you like the idea of our regional teams [comprising of you!] visiting local colleges to deliver 3-5 minutes of introduction of CE to students?

I believe lot of students after or in engineering look for project ideas and resume formats.

We are aganist providing project ideas since it doesnt help people.

But there are many resources on Internet where in ready made projects are available.

Most of the students opt for those since they need not put any effort in it.

Can we do this??

Take some project idea for example "Running Stepper motor using MC"

We start a thread with this name , we give the objective of the project.

We give what are the resources required in that project.

Such that they can design the procedure.

If we can we can even complete it using MATLAB etc and keep the results with us for reference.

We ask students to give circuits and we can analyse and provide the correctness of the same.

Am I making sense?? Is this possible?

The_Big_K

Addendum:

Starting January 2010, we are going to target engineering colleges in India. The plan is to send our 3-4 banners to each college. We'll inform the principals about CE and how it can benefit college students & staff and request the colleges to post our banners on the notice boards.

An estimate says that over 3,50,000 engineers graduate each year from India. If executed well, we'll reach over 12,00,000 engineering students in India alone. This initiative, when combined with our regular viral growth will bring huge members [and many of them will become active].

The challenge will be to cater to the needs of so many engineering students who'll be visiting us. If the initiative becomes successful, we'll aim for engineering colleges around the world.

I look forward to your ideas, feedback & support in this initiative.

Also how do you like the idea of our regional teams [comprising of you!] visiting local colleges to deliver 3-5 minutes of introduction of CE to students?

i loved the last part. it is exciting.....
i have been thinking about it for the past few weeks too biggie....
some other community representatives visited our college to make themselves known. and i was thinking we could do the same for CE.
banners are a good idea too.😁

YA I agree with english_scared..we should start such kind of threads..

the main reason i joined this forum was that i didn't have any interest in doing my engineering .then one of my friend suggest me to join this site to create interest in engineering ..and today i have some interest in my field..now my classmates call me a crazy...

i am ready to support you in your campaign and there is no need to ask the principal for posters ..one can simply go and paste it..in my college maharaja agrasen institute of technology ,rohini delhi i will do the job if you say so..

to attract the college students you can do the following things

1. help them in making the practical files of software labs like c,c++,matlab,autocad ,pro-e,etc.
2. by adding free tutorials link on the forum a separate sub forum for this.
3. helping them in channelizing their effort to achieve their goal .

only thing is when you give them the material which they need only then they will come to the forum...

The_Big_K

Addendum:


Also how do you like the idea of our regional teams [comprising of you!] visiting local colleges to deliver 3-5 minutes of introduction of CE to students?

yes this will surely happen!!!😁

we can have the regional teams(yeah including me 😁 ) and it might work better than the banners...

let's do it biggie 😎

hey it’s a great idea Big_k

I think you should select area leaders from our active members from each locations and give banners to them. It will be easy for you and those leaders will ask the principals about CE and they can tell them how the CE is useful for there students
And you can also find some groups from particular colleges like yahoo, orkut groups etc, or gather information from our members about their college groups and invite them to join CE

We can tell about CE to a college principal.

Yes its true!!

For a friend I can say , Dude you can see awesome stuff there just join I will guide.

But if we are saying it in college say for a group of people we need good presenters and a good content for the presentation.

We simply can't say join it there are competetions , people around the world etc..
We should make them virtually join through the content we present to them.

For example , If we like to say about collequium then we need to carry the presentation and explain them about it.

wat say?

English-Scared

We can tell about CE to a college principal.

Yes its true!!

For a friend I can say , Dude you can see awesome stuff there just join I will guide.

But if we are saying it in college say for a group of people we need good presenters and a good content for the presentation.

We simply can't say join it there are competetions , people around the world etc..
We should make them virtually join through the content we present to them.

For example , If we like to say about collequium then we need to carry the presentation and explain them about it.

wat say?

yeah i think ES is right
when we talk to a principal or a group of students we have to be equipped with some content and some presentation and should be able to present them with a detailed view of what the site holds and how it can help them and others....😛 .we should spark some interest in them to join CE like suggested.... 😀

Awesome response 😁

I guess I should have used word 'poster'. We can request principals to put our posters on notice boards of their college, just like the techfest posters are put up. I believe every student reads posters and notices on notice boards.

We'll tell students in simple words that they can get answers to questions, project help, interact with other engineers, keep themselves updated with latest updates, find jobs etc. through CE forum all for free.

What do you think?

We'll tell students in simple words that they can get answers to questions, project help, interact with other engineers, keep themselves updated with latest updates, find jobs etc. through CE forum all for free.

I can say one thing biggie, We should be clear about the section called Project help.
Since Engineering students dont do projects they opt for easy ways.
We should be clear in saying that one.
Next is find jobs , we are not posting anything as such here :?

So we may get huge people but if they dont find updates about jobs they dont continue with CE.

Instead can we post all the openings (genuine) here for experienced and freshers?

The_Big_K

Awesome response 😁
We'll tell students in simple words that they can get answers to questions, project help, interact with other engineers, keep themselves updated with latest updates, find jobs etc. through CE forum all for free.

What do you think?

it does look like a lucrative deal but don't you think there is lots to be done ....😀

I agree that the scope of the section needs to be defined. The job posting policy also needs to be defined. The forum structure has been evolving continuously. Lately, people have said they don't see 'electronics and communication' as separate section on CE, so they didn't join.

I agree that there's lot of work that needs to be done.

placement placement placement placement placement placement

is the only word by which you can attract the college going students..just say that we will help you in your placement like CE members will get an advantage over others ..then lots of students will join it...definitely

The_Big_K

Awesome response 😁

I guess I should have used word 'poster'. We can request principals to put our posters on notice boards of their college, just like the techfest posters are put up. I believe every student reads posters and notices on notice boards.

We'll tell students in simple words that they can get answers to questions, project help, interact with other engineers, keep themselves updated with latest updates, find jobs etc. through CE forum all for free.

What do you think?

Hats off to you biggie ,its a very good initiative you are going to be take...well as i read above suggestions its a good one for putting banners.or just a seminar or presentation to guide the students properly...
one more idea i can suggest is that if u talk to college principal and can discuss to put your link in the colleges sites.because most of the students visit their own colleges sites or the site where from the college is being affiliated..like UPTU(uttar pradesh technical university ) has under 400+ colleges..

yadavundertaker

placement placement placement placement placement placement

is the only word by which you can attract the college going students..just say that we will help you in your placement like CE members will get an advantage over others ..then lots of students will join it...definitely

Yes students will be interested in placements.

But for that to happen on CE , we have lot of pending tasks here on CE.

If they join now they will be disinterested we can just increase the members count and nothing more!!

So if we have some process in place we can attract and retain people.

So I suggest , one most important option on CE the upload option.

We can upload practice papers and papers of all companies and we can discuss over them.

But if that's the case it may become a job site rather a engineering site.

*thinking*

Guys, your interest inspires me! I agree that there have been delays in implementations. Couple of my own engagements didn't leave me with as much time I should have invested here. I've been saving my a$$ with those excuses, but not anymore.

We'll have a 'downloads' section where engineers will be able to download all important papers, articles etc. We may even work out a business model for the benefit of content authors [that's you 😀 ].

I'll be back with some concrete plan with a timeline attached to it. Its high time for CE to evolve into something bigger & better - and its IMPOSSIBLE without YOUR [take this personally, please 😀 ] active contribution.

Who knows, we might be in the process of making a dent in the world 😉

Yeah, Great idea.
We all will contribute in this plan big_k

I will help you biggie definitely.

cooldudeiet

Hats off to you biggie ,its a very good initiative you are going to be take...well as i read above suggestions its a good one for putting banners.or just a seminar or presentation to guide the students properly...
one more idea i can suggest is that if u talk to college principal and can discuss to put your link in the colleges sites.because most of the students visit their own colleges sites or the site where from the college is being affiliated..like UPTU(uttar pradesh technical university ) has under 400+ colleges..

yeah i think sites are a better option too
1)less time spent
2)more reach
3)you can do with a demo sort of thing too just like the ones you get when you create a new account in yahoo or other sites. they guide you through the different facilities in it and how you could access it.
it would be awesome if we could do it for CE......😛 😁 😛


but an awesome on the whole.....
LETS DO IT!!!:smile:

That's indeed a great suggestion. This can surely be included in our communication. 😀

My mind is running faster now 😁. You all can help us list out colleges in your regions/universities 😀

I can already imagine over 5,00,000 CEans on CE by our 5th Anniversary 😀 !

The_Big_K

That's indeed a great suggestion. This can surely be included in our communication. 😀

My mind is running faster now 😁. You all can help us list out colleges in your regions/universities 😀

I can already imagine over 5,00,000 CEans on CE by our 5th Anniversary 😀 !

it would be wonderful too.
in Tamil Nadu the Annauniversity web site (Home - Anna University) is the trump card as it responsible for all admissions to all engineering coll. in its region. it is also responsible for publishing the results for all UG,PG students in that region.that means there would be thousands of people browsing the site and will discover the bliss of CE.

even during my holidays after 12th i used keep visiting the net to keep note of happenings during counselling.even now i go to the site to know about the results....

hello biggie i have a suggestion also regarding to attract engineering students that we can make a e-magazine in which we provide the technical knowledge about newest software/technology and also a section of posts of student activities like poems,blogs and all.....by downloading they can grasp knowledge offline also and then if they have some queries they can back to post the related month/week magazine section.

Magazine sounds bit ambitious and requires team effort. Also, it ain't an easy task. Magazine will follow as soon as we are done with our basic aim of reaching all the engineers out there in India [to begin with].

I'm estimating there are over 3000 engineering colleges in India.

English-Scared

Yes students will be interested in placements.

But for that to happen on CE , we have lot of pending tasks here on CE.

If they join now they will be disinterested we can just increase the members count and nothing more!!

So if we have some process in place we can attract and retain people.

So I suggest , one most important option on CE the upload option.

We can upload practice papers and papers of all companies and we can discuss over them.

But if that's the case it may become a job site rather a engineering site.

*thinking*

great idea dude to have a upload button ...by this we can upload various papers and ebooks which we downloaded from searching a lot .it will definitely help the students to have all the materials from one forum..it is awesome...........

The_Big_K

That's indeed a great suggestion. This can surely be included in our communication. 😀

My mind is running faster now 😁. You all can help us list out colleges in your regions/universities 😀

I can already imagine over 5,00,000 CEans on CE by our 5th Anniversary 😀 !

it is great to have 5,00,000 CEans by 5th Anniversary.........then we will have a large number of technical brains discussing on various issues..

yadavundertaker

great idea dude to have a upload button ...by this we can upload various papers and ebooks which we downloaded from searching a lot .it will definitely help the students to have all the materials from one forum..it is awesome...........

UPLOAD is a good option...😛
we can all share the different resources we have there by make CE a better place to think in......😁 😁 😁


COME ON LETS MAKE CE ROCK!!!😁😁😁

but we should also check that only good and useful stuff should be uploaded to CE if we have upload button on Ce.........

yeah the quality of stuff uploaded does matter
that would be up to each and every CE-an to be serious in what they post.

Biggie,

I think it looks good , if you give the details of the upgradations going to happen and the dates here!!

If we can list down depending upon people's interest we can have the upgradations.

Few people can also help in doing those things, i mean doing some tasks for you 😀

What are your comments on this?

Hi E-S: The 'downloads' section is a good idea and has been on the list since long. Another long awaited update is the CE Gear Store. There were few issues with the CE store and it took a backseat.

There's one more exciting functionality we can expect before the year ends, but I'm choosing to keep my mouth shut 😉

I had been seriously thinking about following two things:

1. Unified look throughout the site: Costs involved are way too high 😔
2. Few changes to sections, for better organization of posts: May hamper our SEO a lot!

I have an Idea, genuinely interested people can work on the things you mentioned through some means say cloud and help you make things faster.

To gain money we need polularity , if we start advertising colleges then CE can earn lot of money.

So we can change our to do list 😀

1. Attract colleges, make students join and advertise the college and earn money will that work.. Will this work? lets try!!

I Guess we can work on CE Gear store , to design images. Buying options etc.

1. Option #1 - make students advertise and make money was evaluated long time ago. It might attract lot of members - with sole purpose of earning money than contributing to engineering discussions. We can even turn lot of visitors into members simply by closing down the forums.

We seriously want people who join because they see value.

2. This can be worked out. We can ask our members to design t-shirt slogans. When a t-shirt with slogan submitted by a CEan gets purchased, the slogan owner gets royalty.

Good idea 😀

The_Big_K

1. Option #1 - make students advertise and make money was evaluated long time ago. It might attract lot of members - with sole purpose of earning money than contributing to engineering discussions. We can even turn lot of visitors into members simply by closing down the forums.

We seriously want people who join because they see value.

2. This can be worked out. We can ask our members to design t-shirt slogans. When a t-shirt with slogan submitted by a CEan gets purchased, the slogan owner gets royalty.

Good idea 😀

That can be a good option biggie..i have started mouth publicity as much as i can ..but is there be good to start a session or seminar in the colleges for understand the concepts behind this site working and to make use to it..and we can also do this more by sponsorship of technical events which is generally held in colleges..

We are regularly associated with colleges for tech fests. However, the response isn't very great. That's why putting up our posters on notice boards sounds like a terrific idea. Let's at least make people aware of CE.

@cooldudeiet: Keep up the good work. CE continues to achieve great milestones only because of active CEans like you.

thanks a lot biggie..your these words gave me more confidence to do much.. 😀

If you were to promote CE in your college - what all do you need?

1. T-Shirts to wear.
2. A pamphlet (??)
3. A power point presentation

Anything else?

through links on college sites and ad in college journals,magzines

The_Big_K

If you were to promote CE in your college - what all do you need?

1. T-Shirts to wear.
2. A pamphlet (??)
3. A power point presentation

Anything else?

Good idea 😀

Except 2 everything is ok..

Is it necessary to print a pamphlet? Since it makes wastage of paper !!

Instead we can place a big banner in the college ??

Yep, as I already mentioned, we'll be sending our banners to colleges in India. I'm sure that will get us lot of publicity and great activity on CE.

I'm wondering if few of us can visit their own colleges and talk to students about CE. If you were to do that - what would you need?

ya i think puting posters will be a better option ...n will talk to our registrar n put it on notice board....m in b.k.birla institute of engineering and technology......n will give u full co-operation in promoting ce

Mohit parnami

ya i think puting posters will be a better option ...n will talk to our registrar n put it on notice board....m in b.k.birla institute of engineering and technology......n will give u full co-operation in promoting ce

That's awesome 😀 .

Just to have everyone informed, we'll begin our first ever promotion for CE beginning January 2010. I look forward to your continued support 😀

CE is big - let's make it LARGE!

surely apart from this another activity i feel that must be included in it...is to prepare same culture up with techies on board in the MNC's across .This will flood in more popularity acorss board tables & we"ll have more concrete solutions to tech queries across

just2rock

surely apart from this another activity i feel that must be included in it...is to prepare same culture up with techies on board in the MNC's across .This will flood in more popularity acorss board tables & we"ll have more concrete solutions to tech queries across

That's a very good suggestion, J2R 😀 . Well, reaching out to corporates is also on the list. However, we need to work out how to reach these folks.

Any suggestions?

it will be a big strategic plans as :

1.firstly we have to see on CE who's are in which organization
2.request them to spread that on office coleagues over their personal mail id's
3.Once that reaches we already have a follow-up of good corporates on log in,if they reply their colleague that one in CE of their user id ...we can start tracking footprints
4.Sametime we have to start focus on regional MNC's nearby your office,home ,society to help spread CE using same "Banner's,group discussion's etc"
5.Lastly Hub of good techies across😁
Enough now pls send my consultancy fees...only $1000000000000000000000000000000000

Very nice suggestion J2R 😀

Lets start impementing something !!

Ya when are you planning to start

sarveshgupta

Ya when are you planning to start

At present, the plan is to start the activity in the first week of January. We've chosen January because that's the perfect time all the students will start attending colleges, post holiday season.

The work on posters is already underway and I'll be able to share it with you as soon as I get the first print copy.

We'll begin with Maharashtra [around 400-500 colleges] in January and see the response. We'll then continue to do it in other states [with cooperation from our CEans, of course!].

I'll lay out the detailed plan for everyone in December. We had to wait 4 years to get 60,000 members. Now the aim is to cross 100,000 in just 2-3 months.

why to start only from maharashtra ...you can simultaneously start the program to many states ....

he biggie do you personally go to colleges to promote CE?....

if yes then make sure to come to DELHI......

in January ,February maximum colleges will have there fests ..so we can approach to the colleges at that time because at that time maximum strength of students will be there not only from that particular college but also from other colleges .....

Well, we can start from anywhere, the choice of state doesn't really matter. What we want to evaluate is the effectiveness of this activity.

I've opened another thread specific to this activity. Please provide your feedback there.