The best students and Teachers in the 1970s and 1980s chose mechanical and electrical technology as their majors. Computer science and electronics were still in their infancy at the time. In the decades that followed, the system reversed course. Most students decided to be educated as software developers due to the development in the outsourcing market.
While this trend holds, Sarit Das, director of IIT-Ropar and lecturer in the mechanical engineering department at IITMadras, feels that mechanical engineers will be responsible for many positions in manufacturing society. “Electric cars, digitally enabled gadgets, biotechnology, 3d printers, and sustainable sources are just a few of the industries where demands will be quite strong,” he adds.
Manufacture, engineering, and temperature engineering are three sub-disciplines of mechanical engineering. For example, in the electric car business, where battery management system is vitally important, an expert with a thermal engineering background can succeed. Some electric car makers in the nation have already begun designing the battery’s electronic circuit, concentrating on thermal control — how temperature is distributed uniformly across the cells – and safety procedures.
Mechanical engineers are in a growing market, according to Das, because of the notion of Industry 4.0, in which electronics and mechanical devices are interconnected and interact with each other to make choices sans human intervention. In addition, intelligent manufacturing is possible thanks to a mix of computer crime systems, the internet-of-things, and the internet-of-systems.
“In the history, mechanical engineering was classified as physical engineering, whereas computer engineering was concerned with managing commercial operations through converters. “Now you’ll have to make that connection, and manufacturers have the advantage,” Das explains. To cope better with cultural changes, he believes the branches require a mix of IT governance, data knowledge, and business intelligence.
To that end, Das is attempting to recruit teachers who have completed their undergrad programs in mechanical engineering but have pursued advanced masters in computer science and other areas to gain a more apparent viewpoint of battery mechanical engineer.
He acknowledges that hiring teachers in the industrial stream is tough because few people pursue other degrees in the field in the United States. Several did so generations earlier for an MTech or Ph.D. in industrial, but that is no longer an issue because the United States is no anymore a manufacturing powerhouse.
Aside from the electric vehicle industry and the interconnected factory, 3d printers are an emerging field for mechanical engineers, as it allows them to create products with far more intricate architecture than conventional manufacturing techniques.
Das has some advice for aspiring engineers: don’t base your career decisions on other people’s pay packages.
Conclusion
Engineering is a specialized field. It is similar to how a religion is equal before the law; similarly, civil, electrical, and computer engineering are never competing with one another. Instead, they’re all capable of understanding how a culture or a nation like India improves in each aspect. As a result, it’s critical to keep the location of the job you’re considering in mind at all times. However, if you can genuinely relocate to where the work is located, you will significantly increase the number of chances open to you.
