Undermining core engineering may endanger civilization

News of the collapse of bridges, which was once shocking, has lost its element of surprise due to its frequent occurrence. Alarmingly, these collapses occur in all seasons and cannot be attributed to natural calamities such as rain, floods, or earthquakes. A report tabled in the upper house of parliament in the monsoon session of 2024 indicated that 21 bridges comprising 15 built and 6 under construction bridges on the National Highway collapsed in the last three years. The collapse of bridges is continued in 2025 too, meaning thereby that the learnings from the reasons for collapse and gaps are yet to be plugged and faultlines corrected.

Likewise, the rains continue taking numerous innocent lives due to poor rainwater management systems in urban settings across the country. The instances of people falling in manholes, drains, roads washing off, inundation of habitat areas, etc. due to water logging /runoff in rains are very unfortunate. Besides there are a lot of other associated challenges like electricity breakdowns, disruptions in mobility, etc. that happen simultaneously. It apparently points to the fact that the growth of civilization is either non-sustainable or the efforts put at the back to keep everything rolling are not holistic. The sudden breakdown of civilizational infrastructure simply indicates the inadequacy of rigour at the planning, execution, and/or maintenance stages. Mishaps keep happening year after year, but the efforts to curtail them are insufficient either due to a lack of competencies in those managing these or their lackadaisical approach. The engineering community and governance must introspect and figure out why infrastructure collapses happen and also fix up the responsibility so that these could be controlled along with the technological advances yielding from the constant endeavour to satiate human aspirations to ease life and livelihood.

Presently, the failures may be stemming from the negligent attitude towards the profession, inadequate capabilities, lack of involvement and coordination, and dishonesty of certain individuals. But, the ensuing trends in the technical education landscape show the possibilities of the skewed competency of technical professionals over time.

Over the past few academic sessions, the majority of students aspiring for engineering have opted for admission to undergraduate programs in computer science & engineering across the country. This marks a paradigm shift in the perception of engineering education which happens to be a key driver for the advancement of technology and sustainable development of human civilization. Such changing perceptions about various disciplines of engineering education could be a risky shift to sustain civilization.

Currently, the number of technical professionals rolled out in the broad domain of computer science & engineering and Information technology with emerging specializations embedded in it have a lion's share in total technical graduates passing out every year as compared to those in other core engineering disciplines of engineering and technology like aeronautical, agriculture, automobile, chemical, chemical technology, civil, electrical, electronics & communication, electronics & instrumentation, mechanical, etc. These numbers ought to be seen as the culmination of the choices exercised by students and their families 3-4 years back. The perception of the demand of computer professionals is still continued and high-merit students continue choosing computer science and related domains for their careers.

Primarily, the preferences revolve around computer science due to the predominance of jobs in the service sector and the emergence of artificial intelligence, machine learning, data

science, etc. There are ample indications from the lopsided preferences that it could not be driven by latent interest and passion of students rather it is the chance of getting employment influencing the preferences.

However, it is not a matter of concern as the requirement of trained professionals to take the artificial intelligence mission forward is expected to be quite large and upcoming interventions of artificial intelligence will change the scenario around very fast, the technological advancements, sustenance of civilization, and economic growth call for a balance in competencies of human resource in all fields of engineering & technology. It goes without saying that the concentration of youngsters in the broad domain of computer science will adversely impact the diversity of engineers and technologists, which will create competency and innovation gaps in all sectors like infrastructure, transportation, communication, energy, manufacturing, metallurgy, space, etc. Also, the excessive number of computer science professionals will be saturating the job market and the availability of jobs commensurate to qualifications may be concerning.

Undoutedly, the fact of demand and supply of different types of engineers & technologists remains at the core of perception that influence the preferences. Nevertheless, young students and their families together should be informed about the importance and contribution of the sectors other than computer science & engineering in reaching up to the present state of civilization. This will help them make informed decisions and fulfil their dreams and passions together.

At times, the engineering aspirants are seen following the trend and take admission in disciplines of computer science & engineering merely for getting employed and their interests do not play any role. Under these circumstances, it is inevitable for all educational institutions at primary and secondary levels to counsel the students to take up technical, professional, and vocational education as per their interests and not only consider computer science & engineering as the only option in engineering education. The academics of higher technical education also need to consider the gravity of the challenge posed by the best brains not opting for the core engineering disciplines and work in mission mode to create awareness about the relevance of all disciplines among engineering aspirants and attract the best brains across all the disciplines. Timely interventions made today will begin to yield results in the next 3–4 years, helping to establish a balanced pool of technical manpower essential for technological progress and sustainable development. Without such action, inadequacies in human resources may trigger a series of manmade disasters.

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