Are Our Colleges Readying New-age Engineers?

What are the new-age engineering courses that will prepare us for the next big techno wave? The possibilities are many, meeting at the crossroads of AI, ML, IoT, data science, digital reality and so on

We are increasingly encountering chat-bots on every site we log onto—be it our bank’s website or the gro-cery shopping e-commerce site. Technocrats are feeling driven by the many prospects of Artificial Intelligence, seen as the “next big technological shift” and its applications in various industries ranging from smart homes to health monitoring. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and drone engineering and programming courses are already gaining traction abroad, given multiple opportunities in e-commerce delivery, law enforcement, and disaster management. Aeronautical and astronautical engineering courses are looking at next century flight and space trajectories.

The prospect of creating futuristic engineering courses that train a new generation of technologists who will live and work in a world radically different from now, is holding out much promise. Industries, shop floors, retailers, manufacturers are all showing interest in harnessing latest technology transformations. In a world increasingly dominated by conversations around Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) and driven by data, a handful of educational institutions in India are quickly feeling this pulse and demand for non-conventional engineering programmes. Our economy is progressively fuelled by an explosion in the use of internet and mobile devices, with expansive penetration of smart phones in the market; the 5G wave is just around the corner and is sure to take over India with gusto. There is a remarkable increase in the use of online services, social media, e-banking and e-shopping even in tier-3 cities, with the government offering a great push and incentive for it, with initiatives such as Make in India, Digital India, and BharatNet.