There may not be anything unusual about National Institute of Technology – Tiruchi (NIT-T) students winning international scholarships.
So what is special about M. Ramraj, a research scholar from the Microwave Group, securing the Graduate Student Exchange Programme (GSEP) Scholarship for the Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship Programme (CCSP)?
Diligence, perseverance, hard work, dedication… These traits were what equipped Mr. Ramraj, hailing from Kanniseri Pudur Panchayat in Virudhunagar district, to conquer poverty and make inroads into academics.
After managing to complete class X in Tamil medium with 397 out of 500 in 1996, he pursued Plus One only to discontinue after some months due to financial difficulties. To ease the burden of his mother, Ramapushpam, a farm worker , Mr. Ramraj opted for government-aided VSVN polytechnic the subsequent year and completed his Diploma with 93 per cent score; the performance ensured lateral entry into B.E. second year at Government College of Engineering, Tirunelveli.
Since teaching was in his mind all through, Mr. Ramraj scored well in TANCET to be offered M.E. admission to a top-notch college in Coimbatore.
Factoring in his weak financial position, he sought admission at Mepco Schlenk Engineering College at Sivakasi, an equally good institution closer home. “To sustain my academic pursuit as also support the studies of my younger brother in a polytechnic, I took on lease a small match factory and ran it dividing my time,” Mr. Ramraj recalled.
He considers himself fortunate to have met his present research guide S. Raghavan, Professor, Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering, NIT-T, while working as Assistant Professor at Sethu Institute of Technology in Madurai. Constant encouragement and guidance from Prof. Raghavan landed Ramraj in the Ph.D. programme with MHRD scholarship.
As a member of Microwave group, Mr. Ramraj’s focus area is Bio-Medical Microwave Imaging for Breast Cancer Detection. For the last three months of this year and the first quarter of 2013, Mr. Ramraj will be gaining more research experience and skills in his focus area at College of Engineering, University of Saskatchewan.
Mr. Ramraj intends to get the research output of his project work in Canada published through refereed international journals and conferences. The study, he explained, will lead to developing new imaging based algorithms for improvements in the performance of the imaging system.
