The early 21^st century living standards and comforts for humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) and technology-based lifestyle has become possible because of the foundations laid by breakthroughs made in Science and Technology, Innovation through Automation and Mechanization during the 20^th century. However, the 22^nd century is going to be shaped by Unification of Science and Convergence of Technologies – a single theory which can explain the working of planets and at the same time show how atoms and subatomic particles behave. This necessity to find single unified theory in science is enabling the convergence of Nanotechnology (material technology), Biotechnology, Information Technology and Cognitive Technology which is laying down the platform for an intelligent future world. In everyday life we can observe the technological enhancement happening in simple gadgets and devices around us. Today there are microprocessors which have 1 billion transistors which indicate that microelectronics will slowly phase out and be replaced with Nanoelectronics. 30 years ago nobody would have believed that a touch screen as thin as human hair now available  in devices like mobile , tablets and other devices available in the market today would have been a possibility.

Cyborgs which we have seen only in movies are becoming a reality in laboratories through Nanobioelectronics and Neurobioelectronics because of the convergence in biotechnology and electronics at nano dimensions. There are many devices and techniques like memory resistors and brain machine interface which are being developed to replicate the functionalities of human brain. These developments have become the foundation for Cognitive Technology with rapid progress in last 10 years in the fields of Brain Science, Neuromodulation, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), Robotics, Machine Learning and implantable Neuroprosthetics. Travelling into space will slowly become a normal lifestyle due to convergence in other technologies related materials (Nano, Energy), working with living cells and biomaterials (Bio), replicating the processes and decision making abilities of neurons (Cogno) and high speed, high volume data analytics through computing processors (IT).

The present crisis in environment, energy, population growth and sustainability of human species can only be solved through this convergence of technologies. It is agreed in the research communities that the IT age, will be followed by Nano age, to  be followed by Cogno and finally real space age. Being a country of 1.3 billion population and still growing strong, India’s contribution to progress of modern Science and Technology in the last two centuries, is very much limited. Off late we have become a country of service engineers, doctors and managers who are dependent on developed countries for the economic growth & technology. At the same time we proudly display the gadgets and other technological marvels created in these developed countries and boast about our growth and recent IT service based success stories.

Remember, it is a globalized world, and only countries which create, discover, invent and innovate and contribute in the real sense to modern technology and scientific development are powerful and will lead from the front. That’s why today Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have destabilized the Indian IT service industry which was totally dependent on developed countries for VISA, projects and profit margins. Low-cost skilled laborers alone cannot sustain a country.  More inventors and innovators are needed to make a country independent and developed.

In this context only contributors are remembered and revered. Einsteins, Ramans, Mendels, Faradays will be valued and their work will be studied in detail as long as the human species exists. But how many Indians are listed in any Science, or technical books or how many scientific laws are there named after Indians?  Which of the gadgets that we use in our day-to-day life like mobile, television, radio, satellite, communication system, aircrafts, missiles, X-rays, MRI, were invented in India? Much of the progress that has been made in India in last 70 years has been due to the contribution of genuine researchers who are less than 10 % of the population.

The problem faced by this country could be solved only by making indigenous cost-effective technology for localized problems. And this can happen only if our education system which has become factory that produces   “Literate English-Speaking Skilled Laborers” starts revamping itself towards quality research. This has to be coupled with open minds and freedom for young minds to dream and imagine. Hands-on experience with creativity ably supported with right theory and skill sets are the need of the time (as depicted in Bollywood movie 3 Idiots).

Young Indian students should take up research as a career with passion which will take this country back to its glory days 5000 years ago when Science and Technology prospered.

Author Name:

Prof.Rabinder Henry

Director

Pralhad P Chhabria Research Center (PPCRC), Pune

Prof. Rabinder. Henry is currently the Director at Pralhad P.Chhabria Research Center, Pune (A Project of Finolex). His thrust areas of work have been in transforming the education system specifically in Engineering Higher Education by making it more applied intelligence oriented. Formerly been Director for Engineering Colleges and also been CTO in the industry. He has a Master of Science Degrees in RF & Microwave Engineering (1) and Photonics (2) from Technical University Dresden and Master of Science in Medical Systems Engineering (3) form University of Magdeburg, Germany. He has worked with Fraunhofer Institute for Photonics Microsystems, Institute for Mikrosystemtechnik, Magdbeurg and Helmholtz Zentrum Rossendorf, Germany. His areas of interest include Microwave Engineering, Microfabrication, Bio implants, Photonics, Nanotechnology and convergence of technology. Professional member of many bodies IEEE, VLSI Society of India, ISTE, and ISC etc. Established Institutes at Meerut, Jaipur and Pune.

His profile has been published by Marquis Publications in Who’s Who in World 2009. Global Young Leader by UNDP (United Nations Development Program) for Peace Initiative in 2008. Awarded by Society for Reliability Engineering, Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM) for Innovative Applications of Information Technology in Interdisciplinary areas in Science and Technology, December 2009.

Over the last four decades; starting from 1971, when the fabrication of the first microprocessor with 1MHz operation happened, there has been an unprecedented rapid development in Computer-based solutions and operations across all aspects of human life and activities. Similarly in 1983 with the invention of hand-held mobile by Martin Cooper and team at Motorola, came the mobile revolution starting from early 2000. Currently, miniaturized microprocessors and microcontrollers along with the evolution of high speed internet have been transforming the world since 2010. The tremendous growth in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and their convergence has made human life much easier. Collective intelligence and behavioral aspect of socially networked population which enjoys high speed communication, touch screen based gadgets, has transformed the community into a device-addicted society. In last five years starting from 2012 there have been major breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence and automation that has led to new and emerging domains which were just imaginary a decade ago.

So it necessitates an aspiring engineer to widen his/her thought process and look at fundamentals more seriously in order to be part of the upcoming active workforce. Couple of years ago an engineering graduate with limited knowledge in specific domain could have easily landed a job in the IT-based service industry; particularly in India. All that was required was basic arithmetic and good communication skills particular in the English Language,  But now domains like Artificial Intelligence , Cloud Computing, Big Data Analytics, Internet of Things, 3D Printing, Flexible Manufacturing, Nano Satellite, Machine Learning, Digital Agriculture, Intelligent Healthcare   have taken over  the world. There have been remarkable changes in job skills required and career growth patterns in the Indian context due to these new technologies which require different sets of skills and knowledge in specific domain.

So, if an individual who wants to be an engineer he/she should have some idea about what domains he/she may end up working in after passing the basic bachelors degree in engineering, technology or science. Though the domain names changes continuously over time, the fundamentals remain the same. Most of the current emerging disciplines are based on earlier developed technologies. For example, the Internet of Things (IoT) is the product of convergence of Automation, Sensor Design, Actuators, Embedded System, Wireless Communication and Networking.  So what the industry is looking for is a passionate engineer; one with strong fundamentals in one particular domain and sufficient understanding of related disciplines. Since programming has become must for all, that alone as a skill cannot suffice the industry requirements any more. Secondly, with the growth in automation and AI it has become a must for an engineer to have in-depth knowledge in a specific engineering discipline. AI and Machine Learning is all about providing intelligence to the already available in conventional machinery and equipment. In this context let’s have a look at few of the emerging disciplines by 2025.

IoT-Wearable Electronics

The present day technology offers solutions to reduce the cost and at the same time provide quality diagnostic, monitoring, therapeutic solutions for management of patients’ healthcare.  The major focus of this research area is towards developing low cost embedded solutions for real-time data collections from patients. Simultaneously it focuses on developing technology to communicate sensor’s data wirelessly for IoT applications.

To pursue a career in this domain, students would require a B.E. degree in Information Technology (IT) / Computer Engineering (CE/CSE/ CS) / Electronics & Telecommunication (E&TC) / Chemical Engineering / Mechanical Engineering.  But more importantly, they should have additional skills in Embedded Systems Design / Programming Languages and ability to work with interfaces.  Specializations in Embedded Systems, Wireless Communication, Mechatronics, Biomedical Engineering or Communication Engineering at Masters Level is also required.

3D Printing Technology

3D Rapid prototyping have seen tremendous growth in recent years. But it is still at its infancy in India. The main aim of this technology-based research is to design, develop and implement low cost prototyping systems and flexible manufacturing systems to focus on indigenous requirements.

A passion for 3-D based design alongside a B.E. degree is a must to look at opportunities in this field.  Sound knowledge of inter-disciplinary areas of Mechanical and Embedded Systems Design is essential. Being electronic based, a passion for hardware is also expected.  To enhance knowledge after under graduate (B.E.), students must try and pursue a Masters Degree in Flexible Manufacturing / Industrial Design / Product Design / Mechatronics / Biomedical as well; as many biological materials are now being printed using this technology.

Satellite Engineering

 Micro and Nano satellites have been restricted to academic research in the last two decades. Availability of powerful, low cost and less weight processing systems have created new commercial space for development of Nanosatellites for low altitude applications. Research in this area is focused towards two sectors – one, developing Stationary High Altitude Relay Platform (SHARP) and two, developing swarm based Nanosatellites for space applications.

A B.E. in Computer Engineering (CE / CSE / CS) / Electronics & Telecommunication (E&TC) / Information Technology (IT) / Electronics is a pre-requisite for considering a career in this area.  More importantly, students should have good skills in using tools like Labview / Matlab or any CAD tools.  A Postgraduate specialization in Satellite Engineering or Wireless Communication is also vital if one wants to be successful in this sphere.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)

 Autonomous & Remotely Controlled UAV and terrestrial vehicles research is focused on developing application specific systems. The applications include agriculture, defence and remote monitoring systems. The development also includes integration with IoT platforms specifically for civilian use.

If a student is keen to pursue his / her career into this area, he/ should first obtain a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering / Electronics / Electronics & Telecommunication (E&TC) / Computer Engineering (CSE / CE / CS) / Information Technology (IT).  The basic degree needs to be augmented with a sound knowledge of Embedded Hardware and design skills using CAD / CAM tools and a Post graduate specialization in Aerospace Systems / Robotics / Mechatronics / Aviation Engineering or Technology / Space Communication.

Alternative Energy Systems

 The alternative energy scenario has been growing steadily in the last two decades. Solar and Wind based energy solutions have developed rapidly with breakthrough in semiconductor technologies and turbine design. The goal is to develop low cost monitoring and energy management systems for IoT applications. These applications include Smart City solutions and remote monitoring systems.

To take up a career in this challenging sector, students would have to complete a B.E. / B.Tech in Electrical Engineering / Chemical Engineering / Mechanical Engineering; but being inter-disciplinary, it is imperative that students utilize their under graduate time to develop a passion for Embedded Systems / Basic Electronics.  This will help them get into the industry directly.  A PG / MS / M Tech in Energy Systems / Solar Powered Systems / Nuclear Engineering / Production Engineering /  Power Electronics will augment a student’s career growth in this field.

Aeroponics

 Aeroponics is a new technology based on soilless growth of plants. Considering the climatic changes and decrease in land used for agriculture, Aeroponics offers solutions to use the open spaces as well concrete structures available for maximum production of agricultural products. The researches in this area are focused on developing low cost portable systems as wells large area smart monitoring systems for agriculture. The systems include interfaces for IoT and remote sensing technologies.

Though the domain is related to agriculture, technical skills are what are important.  A student who wishes to develop his / her career in this field should hold a B.E. degree in Electrical / Electronics & Telecommunication (E&TC) but must definitely has a passion for Embedded Systems Design / Wireless Communication as well as an enthusiasm for agricultural techniques and farm equipment.  With these knowledge, students can directly get into the industry; if not, they can pursue their Masters / Research in Digital Agriculture / Urbanized Agriculture / Environmental Sciences / Energy Systems.

Intelligent Transportation system

 With evolution of hi-quality cameras and sensor design, self-driving cars have today become a reality. Cost and energy consumption have been the major stumbling blocks for the evolution of self-driving cars; but precise brushless dc motors and energy storage technologies have significantly upgraded the self-driven system. Self-Learning Systems, Machine Learning and allied domains have enabled the computing platform in cars to take decisions that are similar to human thought processes.

To passionately engage in this domain, students would have to successfully complete a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering / Chemical Engineering / Electronics.  Besides, they would have to develop an interest in understanding and working on Embedded Systems and/or Wireless Communication.  Besides, learning some CAD tools is very important too especially in the area of 3-D modeling.  This will get into directly into the industry where they can apply their knowledge.  Higher education into Masters can be pursued in Robotics / Energy Systems / Automotive Embedded Systems / Production Engineering.

Photonics

 Photonics is an emerging technology that co-exists with VLSI and microelectronics. To overcome the limitations posed by Silicon-based chip design, light based technologies are making rapid progress across the world. Photonic Integrated Circuits have consistently emerged and are part of most of the Chip design CAD tools presently available in the market.

If a student wishes to take up a career in this sphere, he/she would have to complete a B.E. in Electrical / Electronics / Electronics & Telecommunication (E&TC).  Capability and efficiency in using simulation tools like CAMSOL / ANSYS will be an added advantage.  More importantly, the student should be focused towards research.  Keenness to study further in Photonics Engineering / Optical Communication Systems / Nanotechnology / Micro Fabrication is imperative.  Alongside this learning tools like LUCEDA / PHOENIX / PHOTON DESIGN will be advantageous.  

Those who are passionate about becoming an successful engineer in these spheres must have inherent interest towards Creating, Building And Analyzing Things Scientifically. Programming skills and the ability to build with hands is a must for all irrespective of the educational qualification one chooses to pursue..

As an engineer one needs to start with a basic undergraduate degree B.E. and follow it up with specialization at the Masters level.  This can guarantee a stable career. As the IT service industry stabilizes from the recent setbacks due to technology and visa related issues, the pay packets at the entry level are predicted to go down to almost half of what is was a year ago.  For an individual with a yearning to learn, the ability to manage things independently and progress, entrepreneurship can be a good option. But caution has be to taken that ideas are good only if they can be commercialized. Service-based entrepreneurship is purely dependent on consumers’ spending ability and application tools android ( like Ola and Uber kind of apps). Most successful ones are the ideas wherein the core is product, like Elon Musk who began with small software company but later was able to combine his skill with passion to create SpaceX and TESLA motors. Far sightedness and having genuine interest are the keys that make successful technocrats.

Author Name:

Prof.Rabinder Henry

Director

Pralhad P Chhabria Research Center (PPCRC), Pune

Prof. Rabinder. Henry is currently the Director at Pralhad P.Chhabria Research Center, Pune (A Project of Finolex). His thrust areas of work have been in transforming the education system specifically in Engineering Higher Education by making it more applied intelligence oriented. Formerly been Director for Engineering Colleges and also been CTO in the industry. He has a Master of Science Degrees in RF & Microwave Engineering (1) and Photonics (2) from Technical University Dresden and Master of Science in Medical Systems Engineering (3) form University of Magdeburg, Germany. He has worked with Fraunhofer Institute for Photonics Microsystems, Institute for Mikrosystemtechnik, Magdbeurg and Helmholtz Zentrum Rossendorf, Germany. His areas of interest include Microwave Engineering, Microfabrication, Bio implants, Photonics, Nanotechnology and convergence of technology. Professional member of many bodies IEEE, VLSI Society of India, ISTE, and ISC etc. Established Institutes at Meerut, Jaipur and Pune.

His profile has been published by Marquis Publications in Who’s Who in World 2009. Global Young Leader by UNDP (United Nations Development Program) for Peace Initiative in 2008. Awarded by Society for Reliability Engineering, Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM) for Innovative Applications of Information Technology in Interdisciplinary areas in Science and Technology, December 2009.

We, the youth, are the ambassadors of the 21^st century; the millennium when we have witnessed transformations in all dimensions and horizons. Ever since the revolution of technology began and the ‘Digital India’ mission kicked off, almost all services and applications are intended to migrate to the world of binaries; right from astrology to astronomy, horoscope to medicines, technology to business and what not. An amazing paradigm shift is apparent from the very fact that businesses like small-scale, medium-scale and large-scale have been and are migrating to digital platforms. The advent in technologies from multidimensional perspectives has paved the way to all classes of people, right from the naïve technology user to the experienced technology professional, to help adapt and adopt technology. However, not to be rude, 21^st century should be titled as the Age of Dissatisfaction.

In the run to bring out new innovations, providing faster access to technologies and end-to-end product deliverables, somewhere the human race has forgotten that these things are being developed to satisfy the needs and not desires. Mahatma Gandhi once aptly forecasted, Earth has enough to satisfy everyone’s need but not everyone’s greed. Man has developed these technologies to help the human community bring peace, comfort and social harmony. While developing these technologies, the intension at the back of his mind should be to bring forth something that would have super-amazing and assertive impact to the lives of the people, the community the nation and the world at large. As quoted by a spiritual leader, “People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason why the world is in chaos is because things are being loved and people are being used.” This statement has made a severe impact on me and thus compelled me to jot down my thoughts.

To discuss this topic extensively, let’s consider a graph that consists of an X-axis, a Y-axis and a Z-axis. Here X-axis represents the human needs and Y-axis represents the human desires. Having studied software modeling and design, let’s give this a UML spin. The entities plotted in the graph are the actors that are plotted as per their desires and needs. Here I can expressively list out three prominent actors- naïve person, normal person and a passionate person. A naïve person is near to the center as he has less desires and less needs. A normal person has moderate needs but less desires. A passionate person has both more needs and more desires. All the three actors here not satisfied at all and have some sort of desires and the probability of this desires increase with the successful satisfaction of previous desires. Greater the urge to satisfy themselves, greater is the probability of dissatisfaction at the longer run. And because of this the Z-axis comes to picture that is happiness and on it hardly any actor has found the place to plot it.

As a soon-to-be Software Engineer, I have realized that, off late, there are a lot many things that have been developed that help make software development anyone’s cup of tea. There has been a change from the way we used to code earlier to the way we code now. Earlier we used to write 20,000 lines of code entirely on our own. Then came the frameworks. Java, being my girlfriend, I will speak on her behalf and will be loyal to her. Earlier the codes were written extensively on notepads, environments were setup by using global and local variables and then were run on command prompts. If there are 10 java files then all these files had to be compiled collectively and debugged individually. Well, that really tested one’s patience. To overcome this drawback, various frameworks were introduced to the market by our grandfather / father of open source, Apache. Apache Foundations brought forth various frameworks like Ant, Maven, for integration and collective building of files. Then came integrated development environments where all the codes were written and compiled automatically and also built automatically. And then… (my favorite part) came the celebrities with cut-throat competition- development frameworks – Java Server Faces (JSF) with amazing user experience plus robust design, Spring with appreciable Inversion of Control (IoC) and Dependency Injections (DI), Hibernate with amazing object relation mapping capabilities and what not. These things really amazed me. But again technology continued to surprise me when Docker, Jenkins and Bamboo were introduced in the market.

Well, these technologies have proven themselves time and again; especially when faster, integrated and test driven development is concerned. Earlier these were the only things that amazed me until I came to my B.E. (final year) and was appointed to serve as the Chair of the I²IT ACM Student Chapter. In my third year of my engineering I only studied the technologies and did nothing constructive with that knowledge. When endowed with the responsibility as Chair, I realized that more capable than technology is HUMAN BEINGS, because he is the one who has developed these technologies. As usual I took the primary task of developing the ACM student chapter portal along with the webmaster of the chapter. I thought my portal will play the primary role in attracting the most registrations. But it was the people (members) who were the primary drivers of registrations and they brought in around 90+ registrations. While conducting a national level project competition event, I was appointed as the team lead, hence was the overseer on all aspects of the event. Being the person at the helm of the affairs, I was ridden with anxiety, worry and tension about the forthcoming event; after all my reputation and credibility were at stake here.  The comforting words of assurance and unflinching support from my team members and juniors laid my worries to rest. And that is when I realized that my girlfriend (Java) never gave me this assurance… ever. And that led me to believe that research is about collaborating with people primarily and technologies secondarily. It is imperative to understand that in this run that we all have been part of, we have forgotten to love ourselves and other humans and have begun embracing technologies / gadgets which do not allay our emotional worries and ultimately only push us to live in the state of anxiety and all-time-tension.

To conclude, I would say that while technology plays a very vital role in our lives – now and in the future as well, it’s a need as well as a desire to use it wisely and judiciously in various aspects like social campaigning, correcting the mislead and unguided lobbies, educating the under-privileged and alleviating the lives of our fellow beings. Then and only then would be all be together on the fast track of the growth of societies, nations and the entire human race.

To be a good human first is the key to be good engineer or a professional!

Author Name:

Harsh Khajgiwale

B.E. (IT)

I²IT, Pune

The author is a graduating student at International Institute of Information Technology (I²IT), Pune, Maharashtra, India.  He will be graduating in Summer 2017, and has a genuine passion for J2EE based application development.  He developed the open innovation platform for “Kalam Research and Innovation Community (KRIC)” for I²IT and has taken various initiatives to facilitate research and development at academic level among the student community.  He aims to apply his knowledge and skills learned to build a career in web based application development.