Guide to choose engineering branch wisely
- 1. Guide to help you choose your Engineering Branch wisely Ashwin Barve, Abhishek Kshirsagar, Sanket Nipunage, Satej Kulkarni, Sayali Rajwade, Chinmay Mishra, Ashwin Phadke
- 2. The Big Problem • Indian education system mandates students to decide the Engineering branch before taking admission to a college. • Students do learn the basics of different streams in the first year but unfortunately they need to decide the branch while taking admission. • Many students aren’t aware of the different branches of Engineering which makes it difficult for them to take a wise decision. • This decision is very important in deciding what the student eventually wants to pursue in his or her career and life. • The purpose of this slide deck is to give some insight about these branches to the students and parents.
- 3. Electronics and Electrical Chinmay Mishra • Electrical Engineering and its derivative, Electronics Engineering are considered as one of the core engineering streams. • The Electrical stream deals more with high voltage applications like power Engineering and Optical Engineering. Electronics is a more recent branching in this field dealing with low voltage applications like Power Electronics, VLSI designing, Embedded systems to name a few. Robotics and Telecommunication streams also overlap with this field. • A lot of work in the Electronics field revolves around transistor logic and construction along with design and fabrication on silicon. While the highest level deals with the actual programming of the said silicon chips for particular purposes like smart systems as well as components of modern computing devices.
- 4. Electronics and Electrical continued… • The Electrical stream is more traditional and deals with the twin concept of the motor and generator and their applications and design in the broadest of sense. • Inadvertently all streams mingle together in some shape or form. It is but your choice in deciding in which pool of knowledge you want to swim in. • The question to ask oneself is whether one is interested in designing real world meaningful systems on a personal level or on an industrial level, because both these streams in their myriad shape and forms is used in one or the other. • If you are ready to learn continuously then this is a wonderful field to invest your whole life in.
- 5. Telecommunications Ashwin Barve • 1. Wireless Communications: Wireless is basically over the air communications using electromagnetic radiation. Wi-Fi technology and cellular technology (LTE) are currently the 2 hot topics in wireless. Majority of the coursework in many universities focuses on these two technologies as far as wireless communications is concerned. Wireless is definitely an upcoming branch since more and more users are getting or are trying to get access to the Internet thereby making Wi-Fi a ubiquitous technology and a necessity. So if you are passionate/interested in knowing exactly what the modem/AP in your room does, this branch is for you.
- 6. Telecommunications continued… • 2. Computer networking: Terms such as IP addresses, routers, switches, OSI model, Software Defined Networking, DHCP, DNS, Layer 2 and Layer 3 technologies, etc. come under this sub- category. A network engineer basically understands how the Internet works. Some part of wireless engineering is also involved here, for e.g. understanding how a wireless router works or how does a wireless access point ultimately transfers packet to the wired backhaul, etc. Computer networking coursework is mainly focused on understanding the concepts behind routing and switching. IPv6 and SDN are the next big things in this field. I recommend you to read and try to understand the above mentioned terms and then decide if this is what you are passionate about. Trust me this branch is very interesting :)
- 7. Telecommunications continued… Ashwin Phadke • 3. Security: Security, as a specialization, encompasses more than just Telecommunications. Depending on the related discipline, there are various other categories like Information Security, Network Security, Application Security, Software Security and many more. These are the different layers of security that are required in any enterprise or a business. As a result, the list of skills required for being a good security engineer is endless. As a security engineer: - You need to be able to understand the network infrastructure, as most of the threats are network based. - You do not need to be a programmer or a coder but you need to understand and debug code. You also need to have a general idea about different hardware devices, mostly network based. - You need to be constantly aware and vigilant about latest threats and vulnerabilities. - And above all, you need to be able to think like a hacker.
- 8. Mechanical Sanket Nipunage • Mechanical Engineering is a very generic branch and can be considered to be one of the few core engineering streams. • The main divisions of mechanical engineering can be Product and System design, Industrial or Manufacturing, Automotive, Electromechanical, Renewable Energy and Robotics & Controls. • If you have interest in any of these fields then this is the appropriate branch for you. Any moving part or an object around you has some principles of mechanical engineering associated with it. • As a mechanical engineer, you should be curious about how these things work. There is a lot of Physics and Mathematics associated with mechanical engineering and if you were never interested in these subjects throughout your school years then I don't think mechanical engineering is suited for you.
- 9. Mechanical continued… • But the main advantage of mechanical engineering over other branches is that you can actually see the working of the systems and this makes the understanding of the subject easier as compared to the other engineering streams where you cannot witness the actual working with your own eyes. • The most important factor before going for mechanical or any other branch as a matter of fact, would be to ask yourself one simple question. 'Am I willing to spend the rest of my professional life learning and working with these systems/concepts?' If the answer is yes, mechanical engineering is the branch for you!
- 10. Civil Satej Kulkarni • Civil engineering is a very broad branch and is one of the so called core branches of engineering. In fact, it really is the oldest branch of engineering along with military engineering. • Though it is a really broad branch, the main disciplines that come under the umbrella of civil engineering are Structural, Transportation, Environmental, Water Resources, Coastal Engineering, Railways and Airports etc. • Transportation primarily deals with the design of Roads and Highways and to a certain extent Railways and Airports. • Structural is the design of the buildings. An architect designs how a building should look like, a structural engineer ensures that it can take the weight and forces. Water resources is concerned with flow in rivers and canals, dams, irrigation, water supply etc.
- 11. Civil continued… • Environmental has 2 distinct sections, Solid Waste and Water. Solid waste deals with garbage disposal and landfill management. Water sections with drinking water treatment and wastewater treatment. • Coastal engineering, though may be a part of structural is concerned with the design of coastal structures, flood protection, oil rigs, offshore platforms etc. • Then there is Infrastructure Engineering, which deals with huge projects like building dams or bridges or power plants. • Last but certainly not least is project/construction management, these folks manage construction activities, manage budgets, inventories and ensure construction is fast and efficient while at the same time maintaining a safe construction environment.
- 12. Civil continued… • As you can see I really had to struggle to keep this short, because the simple fact is that this is a very vast branch. The options for finding work are endless. I always like to say, what are the things essential for life? A house, food, clean water, transport, entertainment, etc. Who do you think is integral to provide these? Why Civil Engineers off course; design of houses, roads rail and air (for transport of food and everything else), drinking water and sewage treatment plants, design of hospitals, movie theaters etc. etc. Definitely exciting work.!
- 13. Computer Science Sayali Rajwade • Computer Engineering involves the integration of electronic engineering with computer science. Hardware and software together constitute computer engineering. • Hardware engineering involves study of computer systems and components, computer architecture, designing microprocessors, etc. • On the other hand, software engineering involves creating software and applications which run on computers, mobile devices and more. This software/programs help automate different tasks. • As part of the curriculum, computer engineers have the following subjects: Data Structures and Algorithms, Operating Systems, Computer Architecture, Computer Networks, Compiler Construction, Computer Graphics, Databases, etc. These subjects cover both the hardware and software parts!
- 14. Computer Science continued… • As a computer engineer, you should be prepared to code and on the same time learn about system architecture and design. • Coding and labs are a very important part of computer engineering. Coding would mostly be in languages like Java, C++ and also assembly languages for microprocessors. • So, all in all computer engineering is a best choice if you love writing algorithms, solving problems and applying logic to code in order to automate stuff.
- 15. Industrial/Production Abhishek Kshirsagar • Industrial or Production engineering includes designing of manufacturing processes and optimizing resources for creating any product. • Industrial Engineering deals with making optimum use of resources like manpower, machines, raw materials and money to create a finished product that the customer values. It includes sub-branches like supply chain management, simulation and modelling, data analytics, production and inventory control etc. • Production Engineering deals with designing manufacturing processes for manufacturing of a product. In an organization, the R&D team designs a product that the company has to manufacture. Production Engineers design the manufacturing processes and the machines that should be used to manufacture the product.
- 16. Industrial/Production continued… How is mechanical engineering different from production/industrial? • Mechanical engineering includes fluid dynamics and thermodynamics which is not needed in industrial/production engineering. Similarly, production engineering includes operations research, optimization and some basics of management that are not the main focus in Mechanical Engineering. • An industrial engineer needs to have good analytical skills and strong mathematical and statistical background to succeed in industry.
- 17. Email IDs • Ashwin.Barve@colorado.edu – Telecommunications Engineer • Ashwin.Phadke@colorado.edu – Telecommunications Engineer • 25sayali@gmail.com – Computer Science Engineer • Satej.kulkarni@hotmail.com – Civil Engineer • Abhishek.kshirsagar92@gmail.com – Industrial/Production Engineer • Sanket.nipunage@gmail.com – Mechanical Engineer • cmishra@kuatrotech.com – Electrical and Electronics Engineer