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Sona College of Technology: Many academic, research and industry-linked advances in 2025

by Trans World Features | @twfindia 17 Dec 2025, 03:24 am

The Sona College of Technology, known for its SonaSPEED motors powering ISRO’s Chandrayaan among other space missions since 2009, stepped up facilities to prepare talent for on-chip design and cybersecurity, in addition to launching a series of education initiatives to produce better student outcomes.

In 2025, the NAAC A++ (3.65 CGPA) accredited institution introduced four new BTech programs—VLSI Design, Cyber Security, Safety, and Fire Engineering— taking the total seats to over 1600. A Rs 10-crore investment in advanced EDA tools, under the ChipIN initiative, enabled students to explore next-generation chip design at the 5-nanometre level aligned to global semiconductor technology.

Reinforcing this academic thrust, the institution’s multidisciplinary team advanced its research partnership with Canada’s University Health Network in smart medical textiles, leading to several new prototypes during the year. The total number of patents applied, accepted, and granted touched new highs at 490, 465 and 47 respectively.

With its newly set up IDEA Lab that promotes Innovation, Design Thinking, Entrepreneurship, and Application-Oriented Learning, the college sought to instil stronger hands-on abilities and real-world problem-solving skills among its graduates.

Student Outcomes

Strong student outcomes, with placement for nearly 945 graduating students of the Class of 2025, reflected sustained industry confidence in Sona’s talent pipeline. Top 3 recruiters from IT companies alone picked up nearly 50 per cent of the batch while the manufacturing sector hired nearly 25 per cent. Placement with Japanese companies touched 32.

Ranked among the top 200 engineering institutions in NIRF 2025, the Salem-based institution also secured the top position nationally in NPTEL’s Faculty Performance Rating for the seventh cycle, earning an ‘AAA’ rating. This distinction reflects the institution’s sustained commitment to quality teaching–learning practices and faculty development year after year.

Endorsements for Faculty, Students

The institution earned major awards for innovation, ESG leadership, and the CII Industry–Academia Partnership Diamond Award 2025, with renewed NBA accreditations for Mechanical Engineering and Fashion Technology programmes.

The year was exceptional in terms of student and faculty achievements. Sona students excelled at the Capgemini Engineering Brand Quest 2025, winning both the Best Engaged Institution Award and the Student Champion Award, the latter secured by BTech EEE student Vijay B after outperforming 250,000 competitors nationwide. Several student teams earned laurels at national competitions, Smart India hackathons, MATLABS (MathWorks) awards and industry challenges. The Institution of Engineers (India) bestowed the College the Engineering Education Excellence Award.

Faculty members received state and national recognition for research, teaching excellence, and intellectual property contributions, collectively strengthening the institution’s academic ecosystem. The Sona Incubations team incubated 18 startups and disbursed Rs 60 lakh to five early-stage startups from Startup India Fund.

Elaborating on the gains of global partnerships Prof SRR Senthilkumar, Principal, Sona College of Technology said, “Our four new global partnerships will enhance our focus on collaborative research as well as student and faculty exchange will promote interdisciplinary learning in addition to enhancing international exposure.”

Summarising the year 2025 Chocko Valliappa, Vice Chairman, Sona College of Technology said, “2025 was a defining year in which Sona College enhanced its role as one of India’s most dynamic institutions shaping future-ready engineering talent.”