Was engineering the best choice I could make?
Disclaimer: This article is meant to make you feel lucky about choosing engineering (if you are someone who has chosen engineering, that is!)
Being done with high school, a question that every Indian child from the science stream has got to face is- ‘Beta, medicine or engineering?’ Hailing from the country of IIT’s and AIIMS’s, what more do you expect? Having the courage to say ‘none of the above’ might be something extra-terrestrial. You don’t want to be seen as someone belonging to Area 51, do you? Let’s not talk about those lucky ones for now.
From the hierarchy in the question, you are expected to understand how medicine is, not only superior to engineering, but is also the most elite profession in the world! Call yourself completely doomed if you have a doctor or two in your family (glee). Through years of practice (tonnes of NEET question papers), perseverance (a few lucky years in the prisons of Pala), determination (meh), many of my friends have finally joined a medical college this year while I’m almost done with my UG. How’s that? Now, that’s what you call ‘Engineering’.
A B.Tech or B.E degree is an undergraduate professional degree, which, in a course of four years, trains you to become anything you dream of. Some of it you can pick up from the syllabus, while there are so many skills you learn from your peers, through online resources (thanks to the Internet) and being part of working for your college events like techfests and conferences!
The importance of engineers in our society cannot be understated. Of all the professions, it is only the engineer who prays that you have a good time. Doctors want you sick so that they can treat you, lawyers want you to commit crimes so they get cases while engineers want you to have a good time, because only then would you hire them!
Engineers have the ability to imbibe things from every pillar of support they get and create new pillars to support the generations to come. These are things I tell myself when assignments and tests pile up overdue, and I hunt for motivation amongst the wall hangings opposite my study table.
Not working:/ Google to the rescue- “Ok Google! Why is engineering important to the society?” She replied, ‘Engineering is a profession in which scientific knowledge and mathematics is used and experimented with to develop ways that benefit mankind, making it extremely important to society for several reasons.’ Wow! Thanks for that! The only two words that managed to penetrate my partial attention and reach my brain were… ‘Science’ and ‘Mathematics’. If it weren’t for the two of you, I wouldn’t even have been here. I’d be somewhere else, chilling…..in peace (hehe)!
Jokes apart, engineering is something that’s just really important to every facet of this world, and its contribution to society and the impact it has on our lives is beyond tremendous. In fact there’s little doubt that engineers have transformed the world with their innovative ideas.
Want to gain first hand knowledge on how exactly Engineering impacts the society? Then you have to be at the Engineering Summit!
So what exactly is this event all about? It is a national level summit, a conference to teach participants what it takes to become a real engineer working in the industry. With prominent personalities in their respective fields talking about the latest cutting-edge technologies, this summit is sure to enlighten you on the variety of prospects of engineering.
Where is it being held? Am I too late to join?
Relax! It is to be held on the 26th of October, at IMA House, Kaloor, Kochi. It is conducted by Govt. Model Engineering College, Thrikkakara as a pre-event to their tech-fest Excel, 2019. There will be a general track followed by multiple track sessions and finally a mentoring session, where participants get to interact with top minds from various fields of technology.
Is it for a particular stream alone?
Not at all. The highlight of the event is that you get to choose the tracks you want from the set of parallel tracks that cover a wide range of topics from biotechnology to nuclear power. As a matter of fact, they even have a non-science track this year!
The speakers this year are M. Chandradathan, one of the top minds in Indian space research who always advocates the societal importance of engineers; Robinjith Kalpaka, a personality with 18 years of experience in the retail domain; G. M. Nair, the advisor of the Kerala Biotechnology Commission (KBC) and the Institute of Advanced Virology, founder, the Inter-University Centre for Genomics & Gene Technology and A. V. Sathish, an MBA holder from IIM Calcutta, with 28 years of experience working in different nuclear reactors as a Scientific Officer.
Where can I get more details?
All you have to do is log on to es.excelmec.org for more details as well as for registering for this potentially sound event. What could be better than an entire day spent with friends with an added bonus of gaining some cool knowledge, rather than having to go through boring class hours? Yup, get your friends to come along too!
Engineering is never tough. It’s as simple as pulling a rope through a needle. You have two choices- either change your needle, or pull apart the rope into tiny pieces and pass them through one by one! Don’t be a quitter; you might end up too successful.
Take it from someone who has been there and done that!
