Engineering is a field of study where the focus should be more on Practicals rather than theory. The employability of engineering graduates is a big question mark these days as the industry often feels that the candidate does not possess the necessary skills relevant to the Job Role. The dynamicity in the Job Roles these days is primarily due to the Introduction of Automation and AI across various disciplines. This has forced the recruiters to look in for the skillset that matches with the way the processes are handled in the Industry. In Spite of the changes made in the curriculum, the effective implementation of the same is left in the hands of the teachers and the institute. Any advanced courses introduced to match up with the industry requirements need a proper execution with more weightage given to the practical component such that the learner gains the necessary skills. However, there is a slackness in the implementation primarily due to the non-availability of trained faculty. Hence, having studied the subject which is in demand by the industry, the student is not able to grab the job opportunity relevant to that because of the fact that he/she might not have acquired the necessary skills.
To overcome this issue, one must reverse engineer the process of skill attainment through a top-down approach. Here, the students do not study something for the sake of curriculum, rather they start experiencing it by working in handson projects by gaining the necessary knowledge then and there. This may not be possible for the institutes that have limited autonomy to formulate their curriculum. In such cases, value added skill training should be introduced as an additional activity over the years. One such activity could be the formation of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) on emerging areas like Artificial Intelligence, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Internet of Things (IoT), Additive Manufacturing, Robotics, Mechatronics, Sustainable Development, Augmented/Virtual Reality (AR/VR) etc. and designing a comprehensive plan for offering course modules comprising theory, lab and internship components to enable the students to get complete hands-on experience for the students. Such an activity requires a great vigor as it involves capacity building of the faculty members in collaboration with the leading industry players. It's often mis-understood by the parents and students these days that there is scope only for limited courses like CSE/IT. The future demands all aspects of engineering right from Civil to Aeronautical, but not as a plain branch without specialization. The full realization of the Smart City project is yet to be witnessed in a country like ours as it requires literally every engineering department to contribute its share. If the parents and the engineering institutes continue to ignore branches like Mechanical, Civil, Electronics, etc. this way, a lot of opportunities that may arise in the future could barely be addressed by any Engineer leaving even CS/IT engineers with unemployment. Hence, one should pursue their branch of passion but carefully choose the institute that offers the value-addition in their chosen department. The amalgamation of the departments in the near future would necessitate the interdisciplinary approach in engineering wherein each student is expected to have some knowledge about the relevant branches of study.
"The amalgamation of the departments in the near future would necessitate the interdisciplinary approach in engineering wherein each student is expected to have some knowledge about the relevant branches of study."
Another buzzword in recent times is “Engineering Research” (ER). ER adds the crown to the specialization we were talking about so far as it helps the institutes to self sustain through student entrepreneurs and by creating a strong research culture. Research has been an activity of the PG students or faculty members so far and rarely UG students in India are exposed to research culture. ER helps the faculty and students to explore the application areas of emerging technologies and identify the limitations of the same. It allows the students to come up with innovative solutions or products that address the specific concerns of the society. ER enables the students to take part in competitive engineering like Ideathons, Hackathons, etc and benchmark their solutions with that of the others from across the globe. These competitive platforms offer experiential learning for the students and in some cases provides the best career or entrepreneurship opportunities for them.
With Automation and AI opening up possibilities for the Industries to take up challenging projects, they require their workforce to possess the necessary skill sets in these emerging domains along with the inquisitiveness to identify and solve the challenging problems. This could possibly happen only when the engineering departments give due importance for ER. Areas like Additive Manufacturing, Mechatronics, Robotic Process Automation require a lot of inter-disciplinary research to happen at institute level only then the future companies would be able to sustain. The massive growth expected due to 5G Technology and Industry 4.0 demands a lot of engineers with inter-disciplinary skills and exposure towards addressing real-world problems. I wish all the students who have their passion towards engineering, a happy learning ahead.
Prof. (Dr.) V.R. Raghuveer
The author of the article, Dr Raghuveer VR is the Principal of Indore Institute of Science and Technology, Indore, MP. He has a PhD in Artificial Intelligence and an expert in Learning Technologies. He is an advisor to leading institutes on implementation of Flipped Classroom through Learning Content Management System.
