Engineering is the application of science and entails deployment of knowledge for the purpose of analysis, designing, or construction. It is a widespread term that includes numerous sub-disciplines and professions. In order to pursue engineering as a profession, one has to imbibe proper knowledge by studying the domain at college level. The following article discusses about engineering as a field and the education needed to enter it.

The Field of Engineering

Engineering is the creative utilization of scientific principles to develop structures, systems, manufacturing processes, machines, or designs. It is a significant driver of human development. Those who practice this profession are known as engineers. This formal designation is not easy to earn as it is awarded after immense hard work and dedicated training. The first step is to understand the concept of engineering. This can be done by enrolling yourself for an educational course in one of the reputed engineering institutes.

These institutes offer a vast range of engineering courses under various specializations and sub-disciplines. Each category is linked with developing defined set of products or services by utilizing specific kind of technology. However, all engineers base their work on math and physics. They derive at highly logical conclusions using scientific methods. The multiple options of solutions will only compel engineers to explore all possibilities and weigh all available choices and pick the best solution that matches their need. Engineering demands one to recognize, understand, and deduce the constraints of a strategy to get a favorable outcome. By exploring the constraints, engineers create specifications for the limits in a particular system. These constraints can be related to the availability of resources; imaginative, physical, or technical restrictions; or rigidity for future alterations and additions. Other elements that can be regarded as constraints are cost requirements, marketability, safety, production, and serviceability.

The Sub-Categories of the Discipline

Engineering as an industry is vast and all-encompassing. It has numerous specializations that one cannot count on fingers. The following are a few of the sub-disciplines that are popular and offer ample job opportunities for beginners –

• Mechanical engineering — Mechanical engineering is a wide field of engineering involving the use of physical principles for designing, assessment, manufacturing, and maintenance of mechanical systems or machines.
• Civil engineering — Civil engineering entails the planning, building, and conservation of structures, or public infrastructure that is associated with water, earth, or civilization.
• Security engineering — Security engineering is the domain of engineering that involves operations with the security and integrity of everyday systems and processes.

 Education in Engineering

Engineering education includes learning theories and practicing them. It involves the preliminary education for becoming an engineer, followed by specializations and advanced training. There are various tests that one has to take in order to take admission in a respectable engineering college.

India boasts many engineering colleges that offer undergraduate and graduate courses in engineering, applied engineering and sciences. The National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are the most coveted and prestigious institutes for engineering.

The following is a list of top ten Indian engineering institutes –

Rank	Institute	Private/Government	City
1.	IIT	Government	Kharagpur
2.	IIT	Government	Delhi
3.	IIT	Government	Mumbai
4.	IIT	Government	Kanpur
5.	IIT	Government	Chennai
6.	IIT	Government	Roorkee
7.	IT-BHU	Government	Varanasi
8.	BITS	Private	Pilani
9.	Delhi Technological University	Government	Delhi
10.	NIT	Government	Tiruchirapalli

 Comparison with Other Disciplines

Engineering students are being offered better remuneration packages in comparison to management students. All along, graduates from both the fields have been considered intelligent and at par. However, current trends show a shift in the way the industries pay graduated from the two areas.

According to a recent campus placement session at Gujarat’s Parul Group of Institutes, engineering graduates were offered an annual salary package of Rs 8.50 Lac, which was the highest package offered. During the same recruitment session at the Waghodiya campus, the management graduates were offered a maximum pay package of Rs 4 Lac a year. This demonstrates the difference in the remuneration trends between both the industries.

Presently, the average cost to company (CTC) of engineering graduates is nearly Rs 2.91 Lac per year, while that of management graduates is about Rs 2.26 Lac a year. In spite of the recessionary trends, nearly 85 organizations have conducted campus interviews at the institute, out of which a headcount of 258 engineering graduates were hired.  On one hand, the placement of engineering students has led to the placement ratio of 85 per cent. On the other hand, more than 270 of the total management students have been appointed in 61 different firms, taking the placement levels to just 82 per cent.

Devanshu Patel, the managing trustee of Parul Institute, announced the figures during an interaction with the press. He declared that the training and placement sessions for the batch of 2012-2013 saw the arrival of 24 pharmaceutical and research-centric firms, such as Alembic, Osaka Pharma, and Piramal Healthcare. These pharmacy manufacturing and research organizations ended up hiring more than 35 pharmacy graduates. The highest offer of Rs 2.51 Lac was made to a student by Sanofi Aventis.

About 700 students have been chosen for summer internship projects for diverse industries.

In the stream of engineering, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has been the biggest company to recruit the maximum number of students. It appointed 18 graduates from the total lot. Whereas, companies such as Asian Paints, FAG, ICICI Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank have been the major recruiters for students from the management field.

 Devika Arora is a prolific writer who compiles relevant facts and analyzes the current state of affairs pertaining to the domain of education in India. She is currently writing informative articles, news stories and blog posts on Indian educational institutes and the various engineering colleges like IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, DTU, IPU and many more. The above article discusses about Engineering.