Impact of Technology on Engineer

Well technology has impacted every profession dramatically in general and engineering in particular. In fact engineer of 80s vs engineer of 2010s, there is so much difference in working that it is really difficult to imagine that we are talking period of just 30 years.

I typed my BE project report on a manual typewriter in 1989. Can you believe it??? When I joined Tata Electric in 1989, there were just two PCs in the Instrumentation department. When I joined TCS in 1993, we used to queue up to use PCs for our reports!!!!!! When we did one project with engineering company in Vadodara, there was an army of draftsmen preparing engineering drawing on drawing board using drafters!!!!!! In 1996 when I joined the bank, we did not have email for communication. In one instance, I have myself photocopied 12 sets of documents for circulation and dispatched those documents to everybody via internal courier. Imagine how many trees I must have cut then!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fast forward today. Engineering drawings are made on CAD. Nobody uses drafter. 2/3 engineers are controlling and operating entire power plant. All structural designs are done using software. I do not think anybody is putting pencil to paper for these designs. Bid drawings are submitted on CDs, not on paper rolls any more. If on a given day, PC is not available, I really do not think any engineer would know what to do!!!!!!!! All innovations are happening using technology. All engineering breakthroughs are happening through technology.

This poses a real challenge for the engineer of yesteryears. It is no longer sufficient to be conceptually clear about physics, maths and science. You need to use these concepts and integrate them with technology to be an outstanding performer in an organization. Paradigm shift!!!!!!!!!!!

Milind Kulkarni

19th April 2010

milindinpanhala@gmail.com