Has Engineering lost it's sheen??

Greetings all!

 Let us go back by a few thousand years and look into history, say 3000 B.C. A man walks by the riverside and accidentally hits a log lying on the ground. He notices how easy it is to move the log when it rolls and slowly makes use of rounded logs for transportation. And there is mankind’s most significant mechanical invention of all time – the wheel!

It is almost impossible to imagine any mechanized system that would be possible without the wheel or the idea of symmetric component taking a circular motion on an axis – from a tiny watch gear to automobiles, jet engines and computer disk drives – the principle is the same.

This ladies and gentleman, this is Engineering – using the basic laws of science and making something sophisticated out of it. So now let's think again, is it “this” engineering that has lost its sheen or if it is really something else that has!

Let me quickly run you through the evolution of engineering. Let me start with Archimedes in 200 BC who devised the Archimedean screw, Leonardo da Vinci who bore the official title of “Ingegnere Generale”. There was Galilee in the 16th century and numerous developments in math, calculus and physics in the same period. And then came Newton with his calculus based mechanics. It was then that engineers changed from practical artists to scientific professionals.

College engineering curricula were well established and graduate schools appeared. Workshops turned into laboratories, tinkering became industrial research and individual inventions were organized into systematic innovations.

Now tell me again, are we really talking about “this” wonderful field of engineering losing its sheen?

Today, students who hate math and physics find their way into engineering colleges. And there are generations of students who graduate as electronics engineers without ever touching a single silicon wafer. If today’s engineering is all about getting enrolled in a college, graduate in 4 years and end up in a job in a BPO, an I.T firm, or even worse, a BANK!, then we really are not talking about engineering losing its sheen! It is in fact a disgrace to the engineering I previously spoke about!

Students for the past few years have been unfortunate victims of today’s commercialization of education. And finally, many of them have realized that they need not be one among the sheep in the herd to fall into the engineering pit. So, engineering has lost its sheen!

And although the craze for an engineering degree is not fully gone, at least the percentage of these time and money-wasters has reduced over the past few years. So my dear friends think twice before you act. Do not just go where the path may lead. Go instead in a new path leaving a trail for others to follow!

Thank you!