Design, build, thrive
Vijay Gupta

Living in the times of technology-driven advancement, engineering is not so much a career as an expertise, which opens doors into a vast range of jobs; designing aircraft and submarines, building skyscrapers to maintaining a metro system, engineers touch every aspect of our life. No wonder, as a discipline, it has moved beyond obvious spheres like mechanical, chemical 
and electrical, opening new vistas

THE aspiring young engineers, who had worked hard for a number of years, are now faced with a bewildering range of options. There is a wide variety of courses and institutions, and an equally large number of league tables telling them the ranking of the various colleges.

The problem of choice is complicated by the fact that most of our kids have no clue of what they want to do with their lives, except perhaps that they want to pursue a programme that will lead to a job with a multi-national company with a nice ‘package’. Most of the league tables compiled by various publications are heavily biased by placement data (if not by advertising space bought by the college). Candidates look for the colleges with good placement records and seek disciplines which are perceived to be in demand.

All disciplines get placement
This, to me is quite sad. I believe a candidate should decide what she/he wants to do with her/his life; work to achieve it, and placement would follow. What programme has the most job potential? In my long experience I have never seen that a good student in any branch of engineering has a problem with jobs. And if there is any discernible pattern connecting placement to branch, I am afraid it has largely to do with the fact that the harder working students go to more popular branches, and they get jobs earlier than others because they are better prepared. On the other hand, a student near the bottom of a class, whatever is his or her branch, will always have a problem. I have always advised young persons that if, in the college of your choice a course titled Kite-flying Engineering is taught, and it fascinates you, go for it, provided you work to graduate near the top. After all, the college will offer that course only if at least some jobs are available in it.

Many things decide what you may want to do. A role model in the family, an aptitude for things mechanical, an interest in fixing electronic equipment, a few words of encouragement from your favourite teacher, the hobby that you pursued, all help to develop interest in you. In any case, there is no way of predicting what kind of jobs will be in demand in the year 2015. But be careful you understand what having an aptitude means. If you love being on internet all the time with the 1,000 connects on Face book, it does not mean that computer science is what you are good at!

But if you do not know what you want to do? Then the problem is simpler: choose a college, and select whatever is available in that college for your rank.

Engineering: Two kinds
Engineering jobs in modern industry are essentially of two kinds: one, supervisory, which require planning and execution. And the other involves development of product and processes and improvements in them. Jobs of the first kind require general awareness, habit of caring about the details, and good communication skills. The jobs of the second kind require deeper technical skills, understanding of engineering principles and ability to apply them.

Most of our colleges, outside of IITs and a (very) few NITs do not do an adequate preparation for the second kind of jobs. If you look at the league tables of the popular magazines, one thing immediately stands out: that the colleges near the top are all the colleges that sell the life-style rather than their education.. And there is a connection between this and the placement. Companies go to colleges near the top of these tables because students from more affluent families join these colleges, with better awareness and better communication skills.

So what are some of the better engineering colleges in the region that I list quite high? Given below is a list, in alphabetical order, of some of these colleges. I would invoke the standard disclaimer: This list is NOT based on a survey, howsoever defective, but on my impressions. And all these colleges bestow life-style kind of advantage, not necessarily technical preparation: Amity University, NOIDA; Chitkara University, Chandigarh; DAVIET, Jalandhar; Delhi Technical University, Delhi; ITM University, Gurgaon; Jaypee Institute of Information Technology University, NOIDA; Lovely University, Jalandhar; Netaji Subhash Institute of Technology (DIT), New Delhi; PEC University of Technology, Chandigarh; Rayat Institute of Engineering & Information Technology, Ropar; and Thapar University, Patiala.

IIIT, Dwarka, New Delhi is an institution in the region that is really good.

(Dr Vijay Gupta, author of over a dozen technical books, currently Director,
G D Goenka World Institute, Sohna, is a graduate of IIT Delhi.
He completed his Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Minnesota
and remained a faculty member at IIT, Kanpur, for many years.)

Make An Informed Choice

What do you look for: accreditation, recognition, placement history? The accreditation process that obtains in our country is very defective. Unlike what occurs all over the world, our accreditation is largely connected with inputs rather than the quality of education. But it is better than nothing. So prefer an accredited programme over the one which is not, even if the whole process of accreditation is quite suspect. On recognition, there is the same story. I have no clue of what recognition from UGC or AICTE means. At best it means that you can apply for UPSC jobs. If this is an option you want to keep open, go ahead and choose a recognized programme. But if you are interested in good application oriented engineering programme which would prepare you for the second kind of engineering jobs discussed above, you may consider some of the British universities programmes available, particularly in NCR. — VG

Top of the pops ENGINEERING colleges

y IIT Delhi
www.iitd.ac.in
Highly regarded B Tech courses
Seats: 857 UG
QS World University Ranking of 500 institutions across globe places IIT Delhi at 202 nd position

y PEC University of Technology,
Chandigarh
www.pec.ac.in
Seats: 385 for B Tech
USP: Rated amongst the top ten engineering institutes other that IIT's.
The college is pioneer in research work in Engineering arena

y DELHI TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
www.dce.edu
Seats: 910 at UG level
USP: Its BTech courses in Polymer Science and Chemical Technology and Production and Industrial Engineering much in demand.

y NETAJI SUBHASH INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, Dwarka
www.nsit.ac.in
Seats: 305 at UG level
USP: Among the 30 best technical colleges in India.

y NIT Hamirpur, HP
www.nith.ac.in
Seats: 509
USP: Academic excellence, sports facility, social work with Prayaas, 2000 acres of picturesque surroundings facing snow capped Dhauladhar ranges

y Thapar University , Patiala
www.thapar.edu
Seats: 760 for BE and B Tech
USP: Center of Relevance and Excellence (CORE), a Science and Technology Entrepreneur's Park (STEP), in collaboration with Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. Ranked amongst India's top technical universities

y National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra
www.nitkkr.ac.in
Seats: 540
USP: An area of 300 acres with facilities for advanced research in science and technology, with hostel facility.

y B R Ambedkar NIT, Jalandhar
www.nitj.ac.in
Seats: 93 seats in each discipline
USP: An IT park is set up to facilitate industry-institute inter-face.

y Institute of Technology and Management ( ITM) Gurgaon
www.itmindia.edu
Seats: 120 in comp sc and 60 in info technology
USP: Emphasis on practical work, tie up with several UK and Singapore based Universities

y J P University of Information Technology, Waknaghat, Solan
www.juit.ac.in
Seats: E&C 120, Com Sc 60, Biotechnology.30, Civil 60, Bioinformatics 30
USP: International exposure for students. All India ranking of universities ranked it at 82nd place.

AIEEE ranking based admissions in all the colleges listed here.

(Based on selected lists from India Today, Outlook and other surveys)

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