Defective trend in engineering education system and its role in the collapse of bridges & trains.
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Bridges collapsing and trains colliding have become a commonplace incident in the country.
To many it may be on account of large scale corruption in building of such infrastructure like bridges or ROB etc.or violation of protocol as regards running of trains on tracks.
In case of bridges and ROBs some hold these incidents occurring due to lapses on part of the agency which is awarded work to execute after tender finalization.
While it is not untrue it's not the whole picture. Apart from above which is perceived to be the direct cause of such mournful incidents, I hold the present technical education equally responsible for such mishap or accidents in its own way.
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A very close relative of mine (the son of my wife's sister) cleared JEE Advance a few days ago. But he is not very excited. The reason is he doesn't see any prospects of getting admission in computer science in any IITs except a few like IIT Patna or Bhuvneshwar. Though I am told that he would easily get admission in any core branches like civil,electrical or mechanical in any of the five original IITs of our times.
I am also made to "know" that civil, mechanical or electrical branches of engineering as an option of pursuing engineering education are no longer in demand simply because of near loss of job opportunities in these branches.
According to some who claim to have some special knowledge on the matter,say seats in core branches viz civil,electrical or mechanical even in IITs like 'd' or 'k' don't become full these days to their allotted capacity.
I don't know if it's true.
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In our times civil engineering, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering used to be the traditional and core branches where a lot of rush prevailed amongst the candidates who cleared JEE or states'CEE.
In fact other branches of engineering education were not even considered "engineering" by the guardians of most of the candidates from rural backgrounds.
In their eyes only civil, electrical or mechanical branches of engineering were the branches of engineering to be truly called as such.
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I understand from all I hear that it's no more the present trend. Today as far as I am told computer science has relegated all other branches to the background. Now everyone wants to get admission in the branch of computer science only.
A majority of students and their guardians hold that no matter what your branch of engineering study happens to be, your work profile in an organization is such that it mostly seeks knowledge of computer science rather than knowledge of civil, electrical or mechanical engineering that you may have studied during your B.Tech or BE.
Besides, they say, the job market for a civil, electrical or mechanical engineer is said to be conspicuous by its absence.
The result is that even in top rank institutes the seat in core branches like civil, electrical or mechanical remains vacant.
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Therefore it should not surprise us that we do not produce competent civil/electrical/mechanical engineers. These agencies keep on their payroll only such engineers who know everything except engineering.
It's these so-called engineers who prepare design,DPR etc.
Needless to say they do so with the assistance of a number of apps on Google without any basic and original knowledge of engineering who they pose to have on the basis of some "degree" obtained from some private colleges upon paying rupees in lakhs in the name of engineering education which is far from it.
On balance, I would say unless the present dangerous trend of giving too much importance to the branch like computer science at the cost of core branches is done away with, we can't expect society to produce quality civil, electrical or mechanical engineers.
I ask- Does the present skewed trend in favor of computer science at the expense of core branches have something to do with operation & maintenance of trains on tracks or the bridges so built?
After all, computer science is not the fit for all solution to all engineering civil, electrical or mechanical engineering is far far beyond the reach of computer science-I believe.
It reflects an engineering mindset which is beyond the reach of mindset defined by a computer or computer science. The later is at most programming exercise rather than engineering feat.
If we think that all of designs ,DPRs etc. are computer or software-app based where merely by filling data in terms of length, breadth and width is all that civil, electrical,mechanical engineering is , we are bound to meet with these types of incidents & accidents more and more in future.
Guardians and students alike together with the government should heed to this aspect of the problem that we face today.
R.R.Prabhakar.
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