Engineering Design Unfolded — Sashank Tirumala

Hey there, I am Sashank Tirumala, I’m right now a sophomore in the Engineering Design branch in IITM.I’m also a deputy placement coordinator. Last year I was in your position. I was not sure at all of which branch to take. I was stuck choosing between electrical, mechanical and other branches at top 5 IITS (Bombay, Delhi , Madras , Kanpur, Kharagpur) vs all courses at other IIT’s and dual vs 4 year. My goal with this article is to give you enough perspective and information to make an informed choice. I am going to focus a lot on placements since I know many people will worry about that. I can’t tell you which choice will make you the happiest but I can tell you what to expect from every choice you make:

1.Dual Degree vs 4 year B-Tech:

My sister did her dual degree from electrical engineering in IITM. Taking her input and general observations here are the facts:

1. Dual degree often has same if not better placements than a four year b-tech course
2. Dual degree gives you more time to write a good thesis, do a better project, giving you an advantage when applying for MS abroad
3. In IITM and most other IIT’s, B-Tech students can convert their degree to dual degree at the end of third year. (many do)

Taking these facts into account I can advise you:

1. If say you are interested in electrical but you are only getting dual degree course, you are however getting four year mechanical course then just choose electrical dual degree. You won’t lose anything except a year. College life tends to be better than corporate life so, you may end up being thankful for the extra one year. Thus if your interested branch is only in dual degree format, take it without much thought.

2.Old IITs vs New IITs:

From a purely placement perspective join an old IIT. This is because in any branch in an old IIT, you have a good chance of getting placed very well. This is because many people from IIT’s join jobs that are not necessarily from the engineering sector (non-core) jobs. Quite a few of these jobs as business analysts and consultants pay very well. They mostly come to the top 5 IITs only (IITM, IITB, IITD, IITK, and IITKH) and are open to all branches. So even from a lower- perceived branch if you work hard, take up positions of responsibilities (PoR’s) and excel then you can get placed very well.

And contrary to what you may think most people from IIT’s join these jobs.

Also college life in old-IITs is significantly better. There are a large number of clubs to accommodate your interests.We have interesting and high-profile fests. Top notch academic and sport facilities. (I have to warn you though, your hostel is 100% worse than home and so is the mess but that’s true for all IIT’s) .We get lots of exposure to industry and academia in the form of seminars, workshops, industry collaborated projects and internships.Believe me,The 30,000 plus strong Alumni network is a huge advantage.

On the other hand if you have a strong interest towards a certain engineering branch and don’t want to waste learning something else then by all means follow your passion.

After doing my research last year, I joined a relatively new branch Engineering Design in IITM. At the time I made my decision on my gut-feeling. Engineering Design excited me, no other branch did. I was sick of studying after JEE. I didn’t want to get stuck into the same cycle. I wanted to choose a branch where I could enjoy studying. So I made my choice. After spending a year in this branch and seeing all it has to offer I will hopefully try to give you more information so that interested people can make a more informed decision

3.Engineering Design, why was it started?

In 2000’s the Indian government decided that every IIT should have a speciality for which it should be known throughout the world. This is why in 2006 IITM started the engineering design department through significant donations from Ashok Leyland and Bosch. Other IIT’s too have their specialities. The new ones may not have established theirs yet but all old ones do. For example IITB has energy engineering.

IITM decided to establish design engineering because of the true and still prevalent statistic of a really low number of engineers being produced from IIT’s and India in general. The world’s demand for engineers is increasing in double digits rate and unfortunately India isn’t keeping up. Majority of people from IIT’s go ahead to work in Non-Core and IT sector as either analysts, consultants or software and data engineers. I am a deputy placement coordinator, thus I have quite a bit of true stats which I will present to you at the end, when I only talk of placements.

Thus the engineering design department was created whose goal was to create Engineers well versed in real life engineering skills required for building products.

What is engineering design curriculum like?

1. Our curriculum draws inspiration from design engineering curriculum from the imperial college of London (Rank: 8 World-Wide).
2. Interdisciplinary from Many Branches (first 2.5 years):

The focus is on being able to make products. The curriculum includes whatever basics our professors think is necessary. Thus we have courses like

1. DESIGN OF MECHANICAL SYSTEMS 1 AND 2
2. DESIGN OF ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS 1 AND 2
3. DESIGN OF THERMAL SYSTEMS
4. DESIGN OF FLUID SYSTEMS
5. DESIGN OF ANTENNAS
6. MACRO-MATERIALS FOR ENGINEERING DESIGN
7. MANUFACTURING PROCESSES AND PHYSICAL MEASUREMENT
8. DATASTRUCTURES AND ALGORITHMS FOR COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY 1 and 2

As you can see we have courses from mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, computer science and material sciences.

1. 2 or Possibly 3 specializations:

As of now we have two specializations. A specialization is a stream a student chooses at the end of 2nd year. Our HoD announced three specializations last year. The third one (Robotics) is being implemented and will most probably be ready by the time you guys reach third year.

1. Automotive Engineering
2. Biomedical Engineering

This year or next year Robotics Engineering will be added to the specializations. Thus this is what our curriculum delves deep into. We learn basics of design of all forms of systems (mechanical, fluid, thermal, electrical, material) in our first 2 years and then delve deep into one of the specializations mentioned. To give you an idea, if you choose Automotive Engineering, you will learn as much of Mechanical and Electrical, Material engineering required to design automobiles.

1. Only M-Tech degree in design engineering( and no branch change option) :

The reason for this is very practical. Firstly people do a b-tech in a branch and then go on to do an M-tech in Design-Engineering as a specialization. Thus as an m-tech or MS degree engineering design is very well known and understood. Every top engineering college by QS world rankings provides an MS in design engineering. Thus by doing this our branch eliminates the issue of employers not understanding what a b-tech in engineering design means.

Also we have a compulsory 6 month internship as a part of our curriculum in IITM. The end goal is to be able to design products for real world usage, thus this internship has to be in a core sector and is during 8th sem. The internship truly makes us real-world ready for design and the philosophy was again probably taken from Imperial College of London Design Engineering Curriculum. To accommodate this internship our course was extended by a year.

ED HAS NO BRANCH CHANGE!!!

All other branches provide opportunity to students to change their branch after the first semester based on their GPA. ED does not offer this.

Note: But the good news is that efforts are being put to give the option to ED students from 2017 and the chance of it materialising are quite high.

1.Lots of focus on Projects/ Labs:

In the second semester itself we had an end-sem project that involved making a product to solve any every-day problem. I decided to make a door opener, to solve the need of walking to a door to open it. The focus was not on the end product alone but also on our process we followed to make a product. Our seniors all did a semester long project on building a product. They really came up with amazing stuff like : A biogas Engine, A page Flipper for the blind, An automatic break system for cycles, , an IOT inspired door opener( where you open your door with your phone’s fingerprint sensor from anywhere) and so on. Quite a few of these are documented well on our website under product design lab. We often have projects to implement what we learnt from our labs and courses.

2.Includes A Bit of Art and Business Management:

Right now we have 3 courses on aesthetic design and art spanning the first 3 semesters. We also have 2 courses on business administration type topics like Choosing a market for your product, analysing product growth and value, S-curves, QFD and so on. If you have an interest in aesthetics of design, this is the only branch which lays some emphasis on aesthetics in its curriculum. You you wish you can further pursue art through electives offered by ED and humanities department in IITM.
Note: Contrary to popular belief, it is not an art based course with only 3 art courses of maybe 54 courses we have in our curriculum.

How is life in this department like?

Lots of Labs/ In class hours:

In Engineering Design labs are a serious matter since practical skills is what our branch focuses on the most. Each lab is 3 hours. Missing more than 2 labs gives you an automatic fail grade in the course. And in second semester itself we had 5 labs which is a record for any branch in IITM. And then we proceed to have 4 labs in 3rd semester, 4 labs in 4th semester, this trend never really stops. Each lab generally has an assignment to submit which by my experience takes about 2 hours. Thus weekly this branch is quite busy. Also most of the work is in terms of assignments and weekly scheduled work. Thus if you have no interest in the curriculum, you cannot choose a more frustrating branch to be a part of. If you do like the curriculum, then you will have a very enjoyable experience.

How are ED labs/ courses like?

Till now every ED professor I met is a stickler for punctuality. Most of them don’t give attendance if you are even 5 minutes late. (One of them locks the door the moment he enters).

Our labs are something I in general found very interesting.

1. We had our product design lab in 2nd semester. In that lab we are given a product every week and then given tools to dismantle the product. We then have to figure out how the product works and write a report on the product. This was really fun for me and such experience is invaluable. It is rightly one of our flagship lab courses.
2. Another flagship lab I’m told by my seniors is the vehicle dynamics lab. In this lab the students are given a working car fixed with a large number of sensors. Students then experiment with the sensors, to understand how much force a tyre takes, how much force hits the chassis etc.
3. Our branch is also the hub of robotics with its large mechatronics lab. Often you will find a number of students working on some robotic arms, or other projects in here. Most robotics courses in IITM are offered by our department. We are going to have a specialization in robotics. We have lots of research being done in robotics by our faculty. Also as you’ll see quite a few of our students get jobs in the robotics industry.

In total there are about 10 labs in engineering design with a few more being constructed. We have rapid prototype lab that has 3 state of the art 3D printers in IITM. You can find out more from our department website.

One thing I like is that our professors are enthusiastic in teaching. In fact in my experience most professors in IITM are enthusiastic in teaching. They want students to truly learn, something severely lacking from my coaching back-ground. I remember when my friend copied a Wikipedia page for his lab report and was given 0 in his report with a comment, copied line by line from Wikipedia.

Apart from these, I can say till now most of our courses are fairly peaceful if you submit all assignments regularly. Unlike other departments where the focus is on theory and tests, making it stressful for the students, Engineering Design department focuses on practise and practical knowledge. A simple example is that the electrical course I had last semester had a tutorial test every week that was easy — moderate while our 2 quizzes and end semester exam were hard. They promoted learning through tests. On the other hand my ED course last semester had a moderate assignment every week (the assignment couldn’t really be copied) with moderate quizzes and a hard end-semester exam. It depends, some students thrive in the first climate (similar to JEE coaching) while others in the second. Personally I find the lesser stress of the exam in the second method really enables me to learn while in the first method I sometimes resorted to mugging up concepts to get marks.

ED Students are also Budding Entrepreneurs:

Most of the technical club heads are from ED (Aero, I-Bot, Web-Ops), and many are involved in technical projects.

Ather Energy , a start-up that aims to make an electric scooter & dubbed as India’s Tesla is cofounded by an Engineering Design alumni — Tarun Mehta and is mentored by an engineering design professor.It has been awarded as the best hardware startup of India by Economic Times and has reached a valuation of around 900 crores within 3 years of its inception.Taking about the relevance of Engineering Design Curriculum in his success, Tarun Mehta said “The multi-disciplinary curriculum of Engineering Design really helped me to be involved in developing all aspects of our electric scooter and in hiring the right team.”

Healthcare is a sector where a number of students have built high impact companies like Predible, Bruno Health care to name a few.

Placements in ED:

This was probably what most parents and many students will worry about. Probably why many of you stuck with this article for so long. I am a deputy placement coordinator which means I have access to all placement stats of ED so my information is truer than many other random sources online.

Average package offered to ED students this year is 11.5 Lakhs per Annum with a highest package of 19 lpa. If we rank the branches by highest averages we get:

1st — Computer Science, 2nd — Engineering Physics, 3rd — Electrical, 4th –Engineering Design, 5th- Biotechnology and so on.

Average package doesn’t really tell the full story, so I’ll proceed to give the full story about ED placements:

We have mainly 5 sectors that look for ED candidates for engineering:

• Biomedical companies. These companies generally offer 5–6 lakhs per annum with a few exceptions. (Highest offering was 20 lpa).
• Automotive companies offer about 8–12 lakhs per annum again with few exceptions. (22 lpa was highest by an automotive company).
• Robotics offers the best at 10–14 lakhs per annum and quite a few high paying robotic companies.
• Manufacturing and Product Design are relatively smaller and their salaries vary and are not really high.(8–12)

ED students are also eligible for jobs in companies which do not insists on any specific branch such as ITC, HUL, Shell and so on.

A note on NON — CORE Sector:

Students from Top IIT’s have a much better chance in non-engineering jobs compared to others…

Non-Core basically means a job that doesn’t mention engineering in its profile. This includes jobs from the IT (Information Technology), FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods), Consultancies to name a few. Almost all non-core companies allow candidates from every branch to attend interviews. Most of these companies don’t need specific engineers. They need someone with good logical problem solving, good with numbers, good presentation skills etc.

Many people from IIT join non-core jobs. This is because due to our education system many people join an IIT without any interest in engineering. Some join only to later realize they don’t have an interest in engineering

• Old IIT’s have a significant advantage in the non-core sector. This is because, the big and well-paying non-core companies only come to the top IIT’s.
• Non-core placements average at about 12 Lakhs. The best non-core jobs are what makes the news with their 1 crore placement ( It’s about 160,000$ US dollars generally offered by investment banks with lots of conditions)

This year 50% of ED students chose a job in the core-sector while 50 % went to the non-core sector. This is the highest percentage of students choosing core jobs in a branch in IITM. It is probably due to the high focus towards practical engineering in our curriculum that leads to students developing a passion towards it.

A short note on applying for MS:

Many students come with an aspiration to do MS/PhD from a large university abroad. ED offers a unique position where you can opt for MS in mechanical engineering topic or an Electric Engineering Topic with less difficulty. In general I would like to say that doing MS in an unrelated branch is totally possible (contrary to what you may have heard, there are many examples). However a b-tech in mechanical going for an MS in Electrical engineering or Mechatronics will find it more difficult to cope than an M-tech in Engineering Design.

ED students till now have joined a number of French and German universities because of our departments reputation and networking. We’ve had a few alumni join Ivy League Universities like Princeton, Cornell etc. IITM is very helpful and generally provides lots of assistance to students looking to pursue masters abroad. This is one of the advantages of studying in IITM.

So my final review is:-

• ED is a good fit for students who :-
• Are interested / passionate about engineering and product development.
• Are interested in mechatronics, a mix of electrical and mechanical.
• Are not quite sure about electrical or mechanical or computer science as they haven’t explored any area and this curriculum excites them.
• Are passionate about art and want to fuse it with engineering. I was not passionate about art but many friends who were had a blast first year.
• Note: Remember that there are only 2 compulsory art/aesthetics based courses out of 50 courses we might have in the 5 years of education.
• ED is a bad fit for students who :-
• Are extremely sure of what interests them. Be it mechanical or electrical or computer science. (If its mechatronics then ED is for you.)
• Are more interested in theoretical aspects of engineering and not its practical aspects. (If solving tough theoretical problems is what interests you more than understanding why your design isn’t working in lab, testing alternatives). I find this tough to explain but solving a problem theoretically and practically are two different things entirely. Practically it’s a lot about ensuring you get good feedback and then trying alternate approaches based on past iterations. Theoretical problem solving is a lot like JEE. Maybe try building a robot now, or a simple application for that matter and see if you like it.
• Not passionate about engineering. Basically with the consistent weakly course load, ED can be frustrating if engineering doesn’t interest you. Take an interest to the assignments and it’s a whole other ball-game.

And also for IITians your branch doesn’t matter as much as you think it does. All our students are given lots of opportunity to do what they want. If electronics interests you, you can always join the electrical and electronics club and start working on a project. IITM has clubs on automotive, aero, programming, machine vision, robotics and so. The amazing thing I find is that all these clubs are open in the truest sense of the word. Anyone can literally join. No prior experience required, no test nothing. You join, you learn and you can work on what you want with other interested people. So if you’re not getting your ideal branch please don’t feel miserable, don’t feel compelled to repeat, join an IIT and you will have lots of opportunity to pursue what you want. I’m looking forward to have you guys as my juniors !!! And hopefully I gave enough information for you guys to make an informed decision. If I didn’t don’t hesitate to contact me on Facebook.