India goes engineering

People complain me about my blog to be “too technical”. I have decided to post something which is applicable to all students who got an opportunity to pursue engineering of any stream in any Indian University.

I like to reveal what is happening in universities here. Engineering (called as BTech in Kerala, BE in other states), is divided into many streams, say Computer Science, Mechanical Engg, Electronics, Electrical, Civil etc. But in the better side, we dont have Engineering in “Golf Management” or “Home Entertainment” like courses which are provided over there in Ausies or UK universities!!

The course duration is 4 years in which the first year is tragic and utter useless. It is common to all branches. Professors tend to support that system by telling you should have a base of all streams.

From a computer engineering student’s perspective, I would like to interpret the course content of first year (some say combined first and second semester) in this way.

Engineering Mathematics 1

People tend to give mathematics an exceptional authority, “Learning maths is never a waste!” I have heard this sentence many times from many people. Infact learning anything is never a waste. But learning something out of the context on the expense of relevant subjects is stupid. That’s what this paper does in the first year.

Engineering Physics, Engineering Chemistry, Engineering Mechanics

These subjects are relevant to the old branches of engineering - Civil, mechanical, chemical etc can use this. But what we as a computer engineering student going to do with this? Once in a discussion about this, I got a funny answer. “Your computer box is made using mechanics principles, your monitor works under principle of optics and the nuts and screws are prevented from rusting using knowledge derived from learning chemistry”. If this is the case, I dont have any counter arguments!

Engineering Graphics

This paper has nothing to do with Computer-Aided-Design (CAD). But it is something very different. The subject is taught using a gun shaped instrument what we call by name “drafter” and all that we learn is some tricks on how to draw various shapes. It has got 3 hours of lab every week, and those 3 hours is a wrestling with pencil, the gun and the paper. Why not do it on a computer as CAD? This might be useful, after all CAD is not included in entire BTech syllabus (for CS students) in my university?

Basic Civil and Mechanical Engineering, Basic Electrical and Electronic Engineering

An argument that supports these subjects, “an engineer should learn the basics of all engineering disciplines”. Ya of course, I should know the exact concrete mix needed for a dam, I should know the energy cycle graph of 2 stroke and 4 stroke engines, I should know about the various semiconductor devices (I hardly remember the name of atleast one), then about Nortan's theorem (and not about Nortan Antivirus)

Technical Communication and Social Science/Studies (I don even remember the full name of that subject) :P

I have got nothing to say about this subject. We call it TCSS. Those hours were really peaceful and almost everyone can snooze :P (and no one really cared about it!)

Computer Programming

Rain in the Desert. The only enjoyable and useful subject for computer engg. students in first year!!!