Monthly Archives: January 2022

Engineering

Civil engineering for 21st century in Tier 2/3 colleges & universities in India

Leave a comment

Civil engineering was among the first core engineering disciplines started in the engineering areas. Over time many other disciplines have evolved like computer engineering, instrumentation, bio-technology, mechatronics, electronics, communications, quantum, systems engineering and so on – on top of the other two core disciplines of mechanical & electrical. But even with so much evolution of engineering over the decades and years, Tier 2/3 colleges face a challenge of placing civil engineering pass outs in management & technology areas. Bridge courses do exist if pass outs join technology firms but these placements are few and far in-between with a steep learning curve. Trends for empty seats in engineering in Tier 2 / 3 colleges in last few years indicate similar points as mentioned in this blog.

Problems for civil engineers in Tier 2 / 3 colleges / universities in terms of employability include:

  • Super-specialized Master of Technology / Master of Engineering which are highly isolated from other disciplines like mechanical, electrical, electronics among others.
  • Bachelor of Technology being heavily focussed on core areas of civil with less skills being developed for collaborative working in management & technology areas.
  • Outside of design and super-specialization, civil engineers find employment in maintenance of bridges, buildings and so on other than construction management which is largely dependent on economy and thus, not always a good, long term, stable employment option.

Subjects in civil engineering especially in Tier 2 / 3 colleges in India fall into below categories:

  • Year 1 – Introductory courses of mathematics, physics, chemistry, mechanical, electrical & electronics engineering, engineering labs along with mechanics, engineering drawing and so on
  • Year 2 / 3 / 4 – Subjects from structural / earthquake / computer based design theories and engineering, environmental engineering, transportation, soil & foundation engineering, water / irrigation / hydraulics engineering, geology, surveying, town planning, basics of remote sensing, advanced mathematics and high level basics of programming and construction management

Persistent problem with above course structure is the lack of skills related to digital, technology, modern management and inter-disciplinary subjects. Employment & startup world in 21st century has shifted to technology, modern management, bio-technology, advanced applied engineering and similar areas over time. Core civil engineering jobs exist with good salaries as well but they lock engineers into those areas without an option to easily switch to other areas. Changes from civil engineering into MSc Computer Science and such are still not very popular though allowed now in India in recent years.

Here are my suggestions for Tier 2 / 3 colleges for civil engineering:

  • Year 2 / 3 / 4 should include more subjects of mechanical & electrical engineering
  • Many of the subjects around building & construction management should be converted to lesser credit workshop or practical mode and some credits should be saved from there. These credits should be switched to technology & modern management.
  • Multiple subjects around hydraulics, structural engineering, advanced mathematics, soil & foundation engineering and similar should be consolidated into 1 or maximum 2 subjects in each of these areas to make way for mechanical, electrical, technology & modern management subjects.
  • Geo-informatics & remote sensing should be taught in more detail including overlapping subjects with electronics like micro-processors / controllers & communications / networks.
  • Many courses like transportation should have a much larger component of practical, simulations, case studies, design software included in them.

Such changes would make the civil engineering course more relevant to modern 21st century job / startup / business / collaborative world. Also, switching from Bachelor of Technology / Engineering to Master of Science in Computer Science in post graduation should be encouraged. As of now students do shift from Civil engineering to MBA but other options as described in my blog also need to be considered.

Would be keen to hear thoughts of fellow civil engineers. Email me: Neil@HarwaniSystems.in

Yearly Review

My 2021 calendar year review

Leave a comment

I haven’t written any reviews for my years in the past. So this year I am writing a brief review for 2021, the year that just went by. Here is a list of things that happened in the year 2021.

  1. Year started with vaccinations starting worldwide and a sense of victory over COVID and hopefully we/all thought the COVID time was gone. Turned out challenges were far greater than initial victories in vaccine science & creation, namely – trials, approvals, supply chain, number of vaccinations applied worldwide, delivery, manufacturing and more – it turned out to be a worldwide exercise which ultimately ecosystem of vaccines was able to conquer. Vaccine delivery to people was outmatched by new infections initially although over time during the year vaccines became available and people readily got vaccinated leading to better outcomes. Scientists and all associated with vaccines brought down the vaccine creation and production cycle from 10 years in the past to approximately one year which in itself is an unmatched feat till now. Positive thing has been newer types of vaccines, collaboration in science across the world and the fact that the lockdowns or restrictions brought us closer to family members and network where the commute time got converted to time spent with family and network either digitally or in person. We could use the extra time to build better habits of reading and much more. It taught us to value small things and things that we have in a realistic manner rather than focus on other things.
  2. In the first quarter, I decided to move out of services to a technology product company which also supported me in forming my own private limited firm. Turned out to be a good journey of learning, exploration and working in a new area – “Customer Success”. It was an area which I had not been actively working on in the last 8-10 years but as the year progressed I could pick up with the company’s help and move ahead.
  3. Teaching wise I consolidated from teaching at 3-5 universities / colleges / platforms to only one university. I have been teaching at Nirma University now for 3+ years as a visiting faculty where I now have focus on subjects – Python & R programming, Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning, BigData & Hadoop, Business Process Re-engineering and taking few other lectures in co-teach mode related to information systems, programming, operations & data science at institute of management. Support from both places in terms of good mentors and colleagues where I work resulted in good quality output throughout the year.
  4. I could write about 11 blog posts in the year which is approximately 1 per month in varied areas. Lot of my past / current students or colleagues either in teaching world or industry or people in my network have triggered many of these discussions or the thoughts have come to me while randomly analysing many of these things. Overall I am looking for my network’s suggestions on similar topics continuously.
  5. Later, in spite of COVID and all the problems around it, Ahmedabad University and UCSD helped us to complete our GEMBA in online mode. All credit to them for running a top class program and keeping the same level of high quality delivery so that the whole batch could finish the program on time. I got a chance to do a 4 week certification on digitization of supply chains from NITIE and got admission to BITS Pilani for MTech in Software Systems as well – so time well spent.
  6. Looking forward to the new year – I hope everyone gets to put COVID behind and have a happy new year where people can spend time with family and network in a positive way plus have a career / job / business / startup / teaching / research area / spend time in a way that suits them.

Email me: Neil@HarwaniSystems.in