Become Real Engineers, Build Real Things

Bangalore: When I joined B.Tech in Electronics and Communications nearly two decades ago, I was told that whatever I learn in the college will be of little use to me in my life because we will not be using any of the stuff taught in the program. I took that advice quite seriously. Instantly I convinced myself that it didn't really matter if I did not pay any attention to the classes. I just had to pass and somehow make it through the 4 years. The campus itself had enough reputation that it will carry me through in my life, so why waste time in studying something which is of no use to me in the long run?

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The graduating seniors who had passed out came back a year later to visit us and reaffirmed the same opinion, that not much of what I learn in my B.Tech will be of any use in 'real' life. Because the 'real' life is so different that I would end up doing something quite different. It was true. Most of my seniors who graduated from the college ended up in MS programs in USA but had already switched to Computer Science, while few others got into IIMs thereby leaving nearly 95% of our subjects behind, and some others got into jobs at Hindustan Lever, Infosys, HCL, etc, securing jobs in marketing or software for health, insurance, banking, never having to bother with B. Tech subjects ever again.

I guess I was always a 'big' picture person even as a student. My 'big' thinking suggested that the scores and marks in the B.Tech subjects will not affect my life at all. I decided not to study more than what was required to pass the exams. Why unnecessarily waste time on something that is irrelevant in 'real' life? Instead, I spent time on other things which seemed to make sense- like painting, art, debating, and of course, making friends and falling in love. Since I believed these other things will remain with me for the rest of my life, it made sense to invest in them.

An engineer uncle told his graduating engineer nephew that he will not use more than 5% of what he studied. That's what we have been told and that's what we believed. After nearly 16 years since my graduation, I have a completely different story to tell. I hope this reaches out to some of the passionate engineers in the colleges of India. I am a part of a technology product company in wireless space and this is our story.

During my first year in engineering, we had a course in English. I skipped most of the classes, and for the exams I spent only 2 hours of studying, enough to pass. We all reasoned, 'we are engineers, so why do we need to learn this language?' Today, I write many articles, prepare brochures, and write letters and reports to customers and investors. I write business plans and analysis on various topics in the industry. And I need to be correct, concise and lucid. I speak in public on a regular basis. There is so much importance to language in my daily work that nearly 50% of my job is communication. If I had known this I would have paid more attention to those English classes 20 years ago.

Then we had Chemistry. Since I wasn't a chemical engineer I told myself this is another subject of waste. Today, we paint our wireless units with the right kind of paint taking into account the temperatures it has to withstand. We deal with various kinds of materials and choose the best ones that withstand rains and overcome the problems of rust. We experiment with materials that have right amount of conductivity, electrical resistance and other chemical properties.

Then we had a course in Physics. I was passionate about physics so I learnt a lot. But I always bemoaned that an engineer may not actually use it ever. Fortunately for me, now we deal with convection, conduction, radiation, and other shock and vibration characteristics while designing our wireless units which work in extreme weathers as outdoor units. We spent nearly 24 months on engineering a product that could cool itself and during this exercise we went back again and again to our basics in physics.