Skyfi Labs: Changing the Realm of Engineering Courses in India Date:   Thursday , May 07, 2015 \"You don\'t spend your life hanging around books without learning a thing or two,\" the American author Daniel Handler once quoted. This quote holds relevance even in today\'s Indian education system where students are becoming only textbook intellects and are lagging behind in practical knowledge. Even the Bollywood movie, \'3 Idiots\' dealt with the lives of engineering students who were forced to become textbook geniuses but lacked practical skills. Keeping in mind the significance that practical knowledge through interactive education creates a deeper impact in the minds of the students, Skyfi Labs was incepted in 2010 by two ex-IITians from Kanpur Pavan Ponnaganti and Aditya Chundi. The venture was born out of a mission to groom engineering students to become employable and not merely textbook geniuses. The company offers them ample practical exposure thereby making them proficient in their field of study. Headquartered in Bengaluru and funded by The Chennai Angels who guide and mentor their performance, Skyfi Labs offers practical training programs to engineering students by signing MoUs with their colleges which are spread all across the country. Their courses were also part of prestigious institutes including IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi. Skyfi believes that industry-ready resources can be created only by trainers who have knowledge at par with the current technology trends and give their employees the necessary trainings and opportunities to develop skills on latest technologies. This is why; Skyfi has built a team of 60 professionals whose technology knowledge & skills matches with the industry standards. Skyfi\'s team comprises of two departments namely engineering and marketing & sales with a ratio of 40:20 respectively. Understanding the core work ethics and requisites of both these departments, the company has established two offices focusing on one department each. While the engineering team has a more flexible work atmosphere where the prime focus is on innovation, the marketing & sales team follows a more disciplined and rational work culture where the work is done keeping the deadlines and targets in mind. The venture is a much celebrated place to work at as it has a grand appraisal policy for its employees where the best performers get enormous incentives. These performers are judged on the basis of reviews which are conducted after every three months to evaluate the professional growth of the employees. The employees are provided with trainings in association with industry partners to help them brush up their practical skills. Skills are imparted to engineering students in the fields of AerotriX,, Roboversity , Civil Simplified and Code Instruct based on which, they develop demonstrable models. Skyfi also organizes cross team interactive sessions between the teams where ideas are exchanged and the growth of the company is discussed. \"We focus on two areas - one is the people and the other is our product. We believe that until we have experts on-board, we will not be able to create experts on the ground level. This is why we stress on providing best training to our employees and their performance review,\" says Pavan Ponnaganti, CEO, Skyfi Labs. The company also conducts workshops for colleges in Dubai and Malaysia. This provides a hands-on experience on a global platform, thus further enhancing the skill sets of the trainers and exposure. With the core objective to offer true value to its customers, Skyfi plans to come up with more innovative solutions to take it closer to its vision of making students more skillful and employable.