Industry experts call for renewed focus on core engineering subjects

To develop an interest in core engineering subjects, it is necessary to conduct sensitisation programme for school students and parents, industry heads have suggested.

For several years now students are shunning core engineering branches in favour of IT and Computer Science Engineering. To change the skewed preference for CSE-centric courses, Anna University organised a sensitisation programme on ‘Why core engineering still matters’ on Wednesday. 

College principals and chairmen participated in a panel discussion with senior officials from manufacturing companies and human resource personnel from the IT sector.  The meeting included a distinguished scientist, a HR personnel, the heads of manufacturing companies, besides college principals and chairmen. 

The industry participants in the panel discussion moderated by J. Innocent Divya, Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation, suggested that industry-related emerging technologies be included in the syllabus as core courses and that faculty also should learn them.

The senior heads of industry dwelt on their personal experience to point out that students must be enabled to develop self-learning skills. For this to happen, they should learn the art of questioning at school to make them inquisitive and enable them to apply the fundamentals. 

Higher Education Secretary K. Gopal said the event had been organised with the aim of safeguarding the nation’s future. At a time when the country had set an ambitious goal of sustainable energy independence, it depended heavily on core engineers, he said.

“As we work towards achieving these goals, we need a new generation of professionals who are not only vested in cutting-edge technologies but also grounded in the principles and practices of core engineering. Today is a call to action for educators, industry leaders and a call to students as well, to recognise the vast potential and career opportunities that exist in core engineering fields,” he said, adding that the engagement of the college heads was “crucial in shaping the future direction of engineering education. We owe it to our students and industries to make a robust, well-rounded education system.” 

Participants in the discussion, included Suseendran K.M., Techno HR leader, Head, Academic Alliances at TCS, K. Subramanian, Senior Vice-President at Ashok Leyland, P. Sivakumar, Distinguished Scientist and former Director of CVRDE, P. Kaniappan, Managing Director of ZF Commercial Vehicle Control Systems, and Career guidance specialist Ramesh Prabha. R.M. Kishore, Vice-Chairman of RMK group of institutions, represented the colleges.

The other speakers, included Shankar Venugopal, Vice-President at Mahindra and Mahindra and Srivats Ram, Chairman, CII TN State Council and Managing Director of Wheels India.