Making Engineers in India
Last week at Hannover Messe in Germany, India unleashed its lions on the city. India was the official partner country of the fair.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted in his speech at the inaugural session of the event how the “Make in India” lion is the symbol of a new India.
It is inspiring 1.25 billion who live in India with a big focus on creating job opportunities for 800 million youth.
Modi notes that “Make in India” is not a slogan or a brand but a new national movement. I was fortunate enough to visit India last month and I left inspired by what is happening in engineering education.
Sunil Mathur, managing director and CEO of Siemens India said recently in Make in India: Maximising manufacturing competence that if India is to scale up its manufacturing, firms need to focus on advanced practices and technology tools as well as enhancing skill development.
To that end, India’s government is investing heavily in training the next generation of engineers. I visited two newly opened Siemens Centers of Excellence in Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat. The centers teach the entire product lifecycle using Siemens software and hardware in labs for product design and validation (simulation), advanced manufacturing, automation, electrical, mechatronics, CNC, process instrumentation, computer-integrated manufacturing and rapid prototyping.
Students learn NX, Tecnomatix and Teamcenter along with production automation through programmable logic controllers and induction motors. Here are a few scenes from the labs:
The professors at Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU) gave me this lovely little 3D print of the Taj Mahal to bring home ;-).
In addition to visiting these centers, we joined GM in India to announce two new PACE schools.
In researching the skills gap in India before presenting at the schools, I was surprised to see on a recent manpower study (India Skills Report pdf) that only 17% of engineering graduates are employable.
It emphasized the need for Make in India to develop job opportunities for the large youth base. It also reinforced the need for real-world labs like the centers of excellence described above and the newly opened PACE labs. They connect academia with industry in real-world project-based curriculum and competitions that can close that employability gap.
We welcome MS Ramaiah and PSG to the PACE family and thank them in advance for training a future PLM workforce.
MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology in Bangalore
PSG College of Technology in Coimbatore
You can read/watch more from these events on the links below.
- PACE Partners Welcome PSG
- PAS Partners Welcome MS Ramaiah
- PACE centre inaugurated at PSG Institute of Technology
- PACE Lab Opening Ceremony and Media Announcement Event at MSRUAS
Special thanks to my colleague Rahul Sehgal who gave students and faculty overview training on all the Siemens software now at their fingertips.
While these PACE labs are new, Siemens has a nearly 150-year long partnership with India.
Siemens PLM Software’s academic program is dedicated to building a stronger pipeline of engineering and digital manufacturing talent for 77,000 customers who use our software around the world. My colleagues in India have been working very closely with academia and government to upskill India’s youth. They treat skills as a global currency and realize with the right technology and training, India could have a global demographic advantage in the years to come.
Stay tuned to the PACE blog and our academic community for the latest best practices in engineering education.
Special thanks to my India colleagues Satheesh Kurup, Bhaskar GVS and Suman Bose, who are delivering leading-edge programs to develop highly skilled and heavily recruited future engineers in India.
– Dora
