Project engineering is the answer to career growth

A new revolutionary concept in engineering study, project engineering (PE), is fast gaining acceptance in various institutions as the only practical aspect of engineering curriculum.

Campaigning to introduce the new concept of PE in existing engineering curriculum, Subhendu Moulik, from Delhi, who has the distinction of having developed the novel concept for engineering education system, was recently in Pune. He presented a paper on the subject during the International conference on business, engineering and industrial applications (ICBEIA-2011) at Hotel President.

With his 18 years of experience in engineering procurement and construction (EPC) industry, Moulik said that for the benefit of engineering education, PE must be introduced in the existing engineering curriculum.

“There are gaps between industry requirement and present engineering curriculum. Project engineering is a practical aspect of theoretical engineering design study, which will bridge this gap. It is logical and necessary to teach students PE to add more value to their career,” he said.

On why PE is necessary for engineering education, Moulik stressed that in a multidiscipline work environment most important is the integration of different engineering disciplines and PE provides that together with cost consciousness.

“It is PE, which adds immediate value to the engineering student’s growth. It is important as to how students are getting familiar with other discipline’s engineering deliverables (calculation outputs) and make sure that they know when each of the disciplines are co-related,” he said.

Conventionally, Moulik said, “Students pass out of a university with very sketchy knowledge of other engineering disciplines that are taught in the first year of engineering. This neither adds much value to the student’s career nor helps in real professional life in multidiscipline work environment.”

About summer projects conducted by universities, Moulik said, “If universities think that by conducting a summer project they have finished their duty towards a multidiscipline and practical engineering education then they are incorrect. These days, industry expects that students know much more than the regular conventional engineering design studies.”

He further said that aspects like value engineering, cost optimisation, quality engineering, construction, commissioning, safety and operability are given less importance or at times the university has no means to teach students these subjects. Project engineering is a practical engineering programme to be taught after theoretical understanding, insisted Moulik.