Budding Electrical Engineers appear to have a healthy pressure ahead in deciding their areas of interest. With the advancement of smart grid technology, renewable energy technology, electric vehicles, prepaid electricity like mobile recharge, speech recognition, image recognition, wireless transmission, nano technology in Electrical Engineering, distributed generation and energy storage, it looks like the creation of new skill set and knowledge base in each of the above areas is mandatory. Interestingly, it is them who are likely to be the apt professionals to fill the gap for the above-said domains.
Electrical Engineering, as many would know, has the immense advantage of covering several specialisations, making the field very flexible and offering you a great chance of hitting at anything on the list and venturing on different areas in a short period of time.
"In the recent years, the development of new technologies like electric vehicle, smart grid, nanotechnology applications, have opened numerous opportunities to electrical engineers"
Some specialisations that you could find interesting are:
1. Renewable Energy and Smart Grid
2. Energy Engineering
3. Radio-Frequency Engineering
4. Signal Processing
5. Microelectronics
6. Control Systems
7. Power Engineering
8. Telecommunications
Prospects for Electrical Engineers
Electrical engineering is a profession that uses science, technology, and problem-solving skills to design, construct, and maintain products, services, and information systems.
Electrical engineering is a profession that uses science, technology, and problem-solving skills to design, construct, and maintain products, services, and information systems.
There are high demands for electrical engineers in India as well. In the recent years, the development of new technologies like electric vehicle, smart grid, nanotechnology applications, have opened numerous opportunities to electrical engineers.
Electrical Engineering is also a major contributor to the field of Mechatronics, which totally includes a combination of mechanical engineering, robotics, electronics, computer engineering, telecommunications engineering, systems engineering and control engineering. Now with the advent of sophisticated cars, features like self-driving cars, smart navigation systems, parking and traffic assists, adaptive cruise control, we have also witnessed the development of sensors, control systems, communication between vehicle to vehicle and vehicle to infrastructure, new fuels including electricity and safety features that complement the former's design and practice.
Manufacturing sector also deals with new technologies including computer control, advanced sensors and high end electronics. The above mentioned are inter disciplinary areas that require blending of mechanical engineering, control engineering, computer engineering, communications and electronics. Future developments in the industry are also predicted to be along the similar lines. Without doubt, Electrical Engineers with the above specializations can be tailor-made for the respective industries and also can couple with other branches of core-engineering to create waves in the industry.
Bridging the gap between Industry and Academia
To implement these envisioned industrial opportunities into proper professional practice, there is a conspicuous demand in intertwining the classroom-curriculum to the industry-based learning. This must also provide the adequate scope to understand how other branches work and stress on how, a possible alliance with them can lead to better technologies. Some of the suggestions that could possibly be employed in the institutions are:
1 Curriculum development and periodic updation: In order to improve the quality of engineering students graduating in the country, special focus must be given to update the syllabus as per the industry standards and requirements for engineers.
Currently the Thai Government is making strict amends to bring about 2nd generation engineering graduates through a revamped educational curriculum, more so to suit the modern engineering techniques adopted by industries. Further, besides creating more industry-specific learning centres of excellence, they must also make minimum 3-4 months of on-job industry training mandatory in all such graduate courses. Work experience can psychologically boost the student's confidence in their respective subjects.
While designing course curriculum, inputs from representatives of industry can be invited, who can share the exact industry expectations and demands, and contribute vitally to its amendments. The curriculum should also aim at creating and promoting entrepreneurs and self-financing businesses.
2 Project - based Learning: Project-Based Learning (PBL) is an instructional methodology that encourages students to learn and apply knowledge and skills. PBL presents opportunities for deeper learning of subject and implicitly prepares them to handle pressure and expenses- which are deemed to be vital management skills as well. PBL activities are inter-disciplinary, rigorous and student-centered.
3 Creation of new skill set and knowledge base in the domain area:Hands on training on real-time simulation with actual hardware, like power converters, electric vehicles, battery systems, and smart appliances would definitely enhance their domain knowledge and equip them towards employment and entrepreneurship ideas.
Adoption of the above methodologies would help students develop the 21st-century skills that they need to succeed in their future careers. Education is a vital step provided before exposing the students to the real world; deeper the learning, greater the heights one can dream to reach. Thus, with students of superior technical expertise and in-depth knowledge about the subject, good behaviour and positive attitude in the store, it becomes easy not just to crack any placement, but to delve on greater and more prestigious projects in their career.
Dr. A. K. Parvathy
Dr. A. K. Parvathy, Professor, Department of EEE, Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science has research expertise in Renewable Energy Technology, Power Systems and Advanced Control of Electrical Machines. She is also awarded Newton - Bhabha funding for a collaborative project with University of Leeds on Virtual Power Plants. She has published more than 25 research articles in the International journals and presented her research findings in more than 30 International conferences.
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