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The Director of Technical education, Dr J Letha,  has a long  career of  twenty seven years of service in teaching, research, consultancy and administration in the Department of Technical Education, Government of Kerala.

She has been serving the  Department of Technical Education of Kerala  on various capacities:

scan0001Director of Technical Education,

Principal,College of Engineering,Trivandrum.,

Dean, Faculty of Engg. And Technology, University of Kerala.

Registrar TEQIP.

Dean PG Studies,

Supervisor for  Ph. D students. & Co-ordinator for research projects

Nodal Officer  (Academics) Technical Education Quality Improvement Project -TEQIP - It is a World Bank Aided Project), Government of India.

Additional charge as observer to assist the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations in processing results and allotment of seats.

Member of Board of Governors of : IIT (Madras), IIITMK(Kerala), NIT Calicut., University of Kerala,  LBS Institute of Technology,  SCT , CCE-Kerala, TKM College of Engineering and  Pollution Control Board. Also,  Syndicate Member CUSAT, Senate Member University of Kerala,  Executive member Academic committee of  Govt. of Kerala.

An expert in Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulics Engineering, she has presented papers in the R& D Sessions of the international conferences on Fluid Mechanics & Power held in New Delhi. Also she has presented a Paper at the International Conference on Coastal Environment at Ashurt, UK in 2007, May 19-21

She obtained her PhD from IIT Madras in 1996 in Hydraulics Engineering. The title being “Unsaturated Subsurface flow in Irrigation & Drainage”. She was the Gold Medalist, when she passed M.Tech from IIT Madras in 1983. She graduated in Civil Engineering from College of Engineering Trivandrum in 1981.

She started her career as a Lecturer in Civil Engineering at NIT Calicut in the year 1984. Then onwards, until now, she has served in various capacities as Assistant Professor, Professor, Head of the Department, Dean and Principal. On 1st April 2011, she assumed the office of the Director of Technical Education, in which office she is continuing.

Since 1990 she has been active on various R&D programmes by guiding as much as 12 M.Tech. Projects, 5 PhD projects and a couple of R&D Projects.

She has been recipient of the following awards

Sl.No.

Particulars

Organization

Year

1.

Gold medal for M. Tech

IIT, Madras

1983

2.

Surendranath Mukherjee Award for best paper

Institution of Engineers

2005

3

ISTE- Research award for Best Teacher

ISTE-CET Chapter

2007

4

V.K.M John National award for Best Engg, College teacher

ISTE

2010

 

Being an active researcher she has published a total of 43 papers. It include 5 international journals, 5 national journals and 12 international conferences. The details of which are tabulated below.

 

Sl. No

Title of Paper/Report

Author(s)

Name & Vol. of Journal & Year

1

Flow analysis over cascade of planes

Dr. J. Letha &

Dr.B.S.Thandaveswara

5th Congress Asia and Pacific Research Division IAHR, KOREA.

18-20 August 1986

2

Remote Sensing- An operational tool for Groundwater Resources Development

Dr. J. Letha &

Sri.G.Anilkumar

National Seminar on Ground water Development in Coastal tracts, Jan 29-30 1988

3

Review of study on subsurface flow into drains

Dr. J. Letha & Dr. K. Elango

18th Int. Conf. on Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Power, 1991, Vol. 1

4

Simulation of mildly unsaturated flow

Dr. J. Letha & Dr. K. Elango

Journal of Hydrology 154,1994

5

Soil Moisture Characteristics-Experiment and Analysis

Dr. J. Letha & Dr. K. Elango

59th R & D session, CBIP, New Delhi, 1994

6

Simulation of Alternate wetting and drying in unsaturated flow zones

Dr. J. Letha & Dr. K. Elango

10th Int. Conf. on Computational methods in Water Resources, Vol. 1, 1994

7

Assessment of hysteresis in soils for a particular combined drainage cum sub irrigation system

Dr. J. Letha & Dr. K. Elango

National seminar on Water and Environment, 1994

8

Hysteresis in soils-Role of irrigation and drainage process

Dr. J. Letha & Dr. K. Elango

60th R&D Session, Int. Conf. on Energy 2000, CBIP, Vol II, 1995

9

A scientific approach to aquatic management in estuaries

J. Letha

10th APD Int. Conf., IAHR, 1996, Vol.1, Session 10

10

Modelling of soil moisture status under Check – basin irrigation

Dr. J. Letha & Dr. K. Elango

8th ICID Int. Drainage workshop, Nov 1999

11

Experimental, Analytical & Numerical Modelling of Flow over side weir

J.Letha & Pratibha Rani

3rd International R&D Conference, CBIP, New Delhi March 2000

12

Optimal design of water distribution networks – A comparative evaluation

Lekshmi M. S. & J. Letha

Proc. Of National Seminar on Interactive Integrated Tech. Advancement,2003

13

Computer aided cost effective design of water distribution network – A case study in Kerala

Sheeja & J. Letha

Journal of Institution of Engineers, Vol 84, Nov 2003

14

Distributed Dynamic Routing using Saint Vincent Equation a GIS approach

J. Letha, B. Thulasidharan Nair & Abhilash Pillai

Proc. of National Seminar on Integrated Water Resources Assessment Development and Management, Sep. 23-24, 2004

 

 

15

Irrigation Scheduling in a field using Water Balance Model

J. Letha, Lakshmi S.

Proc of National Seminar on Recent Trends in Technological Advancements, 26-27 Nov 2004

 

16

Water Balance Study of Pamba River basin

J. Letha, Reeba Thomas

Proc of National Seminar on Recent Trends in Technological Advancements, 26-27 Nov 2004

17

Interlinking of Rivers- An overview

J. Letha

Proc of National Seminar on Conservation and Management, Sep 23&24,2004

18

Watershed Information System for a typical river basin in Kerala

J.Letha & Chitra Vasu

6th National Conference on Technological Trends Vol.1

25-26 Nov 2005

19

Water balance Study for Pamba Basin

J.Letha & Chitra Vasu

Proc. Of 18th Kerala Science Congress

29-31 October 2005

20

Dynamic Simulation of Soil Moisture Movement in an Agricultural Field

Lakshmi. S & J.Letha

Communicated to Journal of Institution of Engineers

21

Seawater intrusion into coastal aquifers-a case study

Deepthi Krishnan & J.Letha

Int. Conference on Coastal Environment, Wessex Institute of Technology,UK May 19-21 2008

22

Assessment of Environmental Status of the Akkulam Lake

Sheela, Sabu Joseph and Letha

National Seminar on Emerging trends in Environment and Development 8-9 Oct 2009

23

Multi objective reliability based design of water distribution system

Deepthi,N,,Suja R & Letha,J

National seminar on Technological Trends-o9, Nov 6-7, 2009

24

A realistic pipe optimisation model for design of water distribution networks

Suja R & Dr. J.Letha

Proceedings of Int. Conference on Emerging Advances in Water resources, ASCE_India 2010 at IITM from Jan 5-7 2010

25

Performance evaluation of solutions generated by Single objective optimisation of water distribution networks by genetic Algorithms

Suja R , Deepthi, N & Dr. J.Letha

Proceedings of Int. Conference on Materials, Mechanics and Management, IMMM 2010 Jan 14-16 2010

26

Rehabilitation of Trivandrum water supply networks for improving its reliability

Suja R , Deepthi, N & Dr. J.Letha

Proceedings of Kerala Science Congress, 2010 January 29-31

27

An improved methodology for risk assessment of water distribution systems

Suja R , Ruxana S & Dr. J.Letha

Proceedings of Kerala Science Congress, 2009

 

 

 

28

Risk assessment of water distribution systems

Suja R , Ruxana S & Dr. J.Letha

Proceedings of National Conference on Technological trends 2009

 

 

29

Environmental status of a tropical lake system

A.M.Sheela, J.Letha, Sabu Joseph,

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment of Springer Netherlands, 10.1007/s10661-010-1658-2, 14-9-2010

 

30

Trophic state index of a lake system using IRS (P6 LISS III) satellite imagery

A.M.Sheela, J.Letha, Sabu Joseph, K.K Ramachandran, Sanal Kumar.S.P.

Environmental Monitoring and Assessment of Springer Netherlands, 10.1007/s10661-010-1658-2, 14-9-2010

 

31

Estimation of discharge of a lake basin and its effect on water quality

Sheela.A.M, Sabu Joseph, B.Thulasidharan Nair. & J.Letha

Proceedings of the First Kerala Women’s Science Congress organized by Shakti and St. Teresa’s College from 10-12 August

32

Assessment of Environmental status of the Akulam-Veli Lake, Southern Kerala with special emphasis on Organised Recreational activities

Sheela.A.M, Sabu Joseph, & J.Letha

Proceedings of National Seminar on Emerging Trends in Environment and Development. Abstracts – p.p 40-41 Full Proceedings – p.p 126-133

08-10-2009

33

Distribution pattern and factors affecting heavy metals in a lake system

Sheela.A.M, Sabu Joseph, & J.Letha

Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur

 

34

Identification of hot spot area of sediment contamination in a lake system using texture characteristics

Sheela.A.M, J.Letha & Sabu Joseph, Jobin Thomas

Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering, National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur

 

35

Evaluation of lake water quality using multiple linear regression modelling

Sheela.A.M, J.Letha &Sabu Joseph

Pollution Research, EMI Internationals, Pune.

36

Spatio-temporal distribution of total organic carbon (TOC) in sediments of a tropical lake system and its impact on water quality

Sheela.A.M, J.Letha, Sabu Joseph & R.S. Baiju

Eco Chronicle

37

A realistic method of selection of optimal solution of GA generated solutions for design of water distribution systems

Suja R , Deepthi, N & Dr. J.Letha

Journal of Water Resources Research

( under review)

38

A realistic pipe optimisation model for Water distribution systems

Suja R , & Dr. J.Letha

Journal of Indian Water Resources

( Under review)

39

Efficiency of multi objective optimisation in design of Water distribution systems

Suja R , & Dr. J.Letha

Journal of Institution of Engineers

( Under review)

40

Influence of lake morphology on water quality

Sheela, A. M., Letha, J., Sabu Joseph, Justus, J., Sheeja, R. V. (2011)

”. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, Springer, Netherlands,2011

 

 

41

Computation of Physical Characteristics of a Lake System using IRS (P6-LISS-III) Imagery

Sheela, A. M., Letha, J., Sabu Joseph, Ramachandran, K.K., Manoj Chacko.

International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, Elsevier,2011

42

Need for sustainable planning with respect to water quality and land use change”

Sheela, A. M., Letha, J., Sabu Joseph (2011)

Proceedings of NATCON 2011 organized by the College of Engineering, Trivandrum from 28-29 January 2011.

 

43

Prediction of water quality of a lake system by relating Secchi disk depth and IRS P6 radiance data

Sheela, A. M., Letha, J., Sabu Joseph, Ramachandran, K. K. (2010)

Proceedings of 11th National and 1st International Conference on Technological Trends organized by the College of Engineering, Trivandrum from 25-27 November 2010

 

 

 

Currently she is working on the following research works.

  1. Salt water intrusion into coastal aquifers- A case study : Ph.D work

  2. GIS based watershed modeling of atypical river basin- Ph.D work

  3. Study on the abundance and distribution of heavy metals in an aquatic system- Ph.D work



The landmark inovative schemes and ventures floated during her three year tenure as the Principal of the College of Engineering are worth noting. They include:

    1. Conduct of 4 national Conferences, 3 international conferences and a mega technical event CETEX 2010 during 2009-2010

    2. Research initiatives started by the Govt. Namely CERD (Centre for Engineering Research and Development) was established in the College.

    3. Research scholarships for doing research were granted to four Ph. D scholars under SPEED-IT Programme

    4. MoUs were signed with firms and Educational institutions like 1) IIT Madras 2)POABS group 3)Nest 4) HLL life care LTD. 5) CWRDM, Calicut 6) Mahindra & Mahindra 7) C-DAc 8) Kerala Historical Research Institute

    5. 56 classrooms are converted into smart classrooms under ICT initiative

    6. Knowledge/Learning Management System (K Base) has been introduced

    7. Video Conferencing Facility to its maximum Potential has been introduced and utilized

    8. Edusat programmes are run on regular basis.

    9. Software for admission to M. Tech courses has been developed and two centralised admission process have been successfully completed.

    10. Online allotment of seats for admission to Part Time B.Tech. courses has been introduced

    11. Online evaluation of staff by students has been successfully implemented

    12. In the year 2009-10 a total 45 Faculty development programmes were completed which belong to different categories like i)Refresh ii) CCE sponsored courses etc.

    13. A total amount of Rs.14.5 lakhs allotted under STEP4U programme were successfully utilized for the conduct of short term courses under 6 different areas for the underprivileged to make them employable

    14. Remedial classes for the weaker section of students and orientation classes for the newly admitted students were taken up and successfully completed. Many of the students who attended remedial classes got good placement too.

    15. Under Visiting faculty programmes we could complete 59 programmes in the last year which is the largest among all other colleges.

    16. The academic output of the students also improved considerably in aspects like pass percentage ( 80% for almost all branches), ranks ( Almost ten students in different branches securing 1st 2nd or 3rd ranks in University), placements( almost 80% placed with an average salary of 3 lakhs per annum), qualified in Gate and CAT examinations ( Almost 75 students qualified either in GATE or CAT)

    17. Research projects and research papers awarded to the faculty increased. Almost 20 research projects are obtained for the institute as on today.

    18. Many infrastructure works were initiated and some of the ongoing PWD works were completed during my period. Details are as follows:

MCA block completed

Electrical Engineering Block completed

Electrical PG Software lab completed

Dhwani open air theatre completed

CETAA hall renovated

Biogas plants and LED lighting for the campus completed

AS obtained and works started for i) New PG Electrical Block ii) Extension of Electronics Block iii) Extension of Civil Engg. Block iv) New canteen Building v) New Block for Ladies Hostel vi) Rennovation of CGPU Hall vii) Rennovation of Existing Canteen

MBA Block and Diamond Jubilee Building nearing completion

Parking space,golden walkway and landscaping with donations from Alumni have been completed

Wells are being dug for tapping the water resources of the campus

 

Now as Director of Technical Education, she is pushing up the following ventures.

  • E-Governance to its full capability in the Directorate

  • Establishment of Technological University ( on the anvil)

  • Establishment of TREST (Trivandrum Science and Technology Park) in the CET campus( Started)

  • Upgradation of all Polytechnics with Central Assistance (71 Crores received)

  • E-Governance extended to all institutions

  • TEQIP Phase II in six Govt. Engg. Colleges





Her personal Profile



Name : Dr. J.Letha

 

Date of Birth : 28-5-1959

 

Address  Office :

Director of Technical Education,Office of the Directorate of Technical Education

Padmavilasom Road

Trivandrum 695 023

 

Tel - ++91 + 471-2451369

9447002023(M)

 

 

Residence :

Midhila, TC 29/277

Thengapura Lane

Kaithamukku

Trivandrum- 695024

Kerala State, INDIA.

Tel – +91+471 2454747

 

e-mail – akglet2001@yahoo.com

lethajanaki@gmail.com