Instrumentation engineering in demand

Nature of work of an instrumentation engineer ranges from designing, developing, installing, managing equipments that are used to monitor and control machinery.

Just imagine a world without instruments. It would be like traversing into a time that probably goes even beyond the Stone Age. Man has always been fascinated towards instruments and the quest to invent and innovate on new instruments has pushed mankind beyond barriers to an age where instruments have become a part and parcel of the life. Today, we find instruments at home and at workplace, and this was possible only because of the science instrumentation.

In scientific terms, instrumentation is defined as the art and science of measurement and control of process variables within a production, or manufacturing area. The science has further opened up the realm of instrumentation engineering.

The discipline of instrumentation engineering branched out of the streams of electrical and electronic engineering some time in the early part of 1970s. “It is a multi-disciplinary stream and covers subjects from various branches such as chemical, mechanical, electrical, electronics and computers,” says Prof. A. Bhujanga Rao, from the department of Instrumentation Engineering, Andhra University.

The professor adds that instrumentation engineering is a specialised branch of electrical and electronic engineering and it deals with measurement, control and automation of processes.

Scope

Almost all process and manufacturing industry such as steel, oil, petrochemical, power and defence production will have a separate instrumentation department, which is manned and managed by instrumentation engineers. “Automation is the buzz word in process industry, and automation is the core job of instrumentation engineers. Hence, the demand for instrumentation will always be there,” says the professor.

The growth in the avionics, aeronautical and space science sectors has also increased the scope for instrumentation engineers. Instrumentation engineers can also fit in both software and hardware sectors.

Apart from covering core subjects such as system dynamics, industrial instrumentation and process control, analytical and bio-medical instrumentation and robotics, the students deal with software and hardware topics such as microprocessor and micro controller based instrumentation, VLSI and embedded system designs, computer architecture and organisation and computer control of processes. Computer languages such as ‘C' and Fortran are also part of the curriculum. This makes an instrumentation engineer fit for both the hardware and the software industry. Moreover, since instrumentation engineers are presumed to be good in physics, the logical ability is expected to be on the higher side, which is a basic quality needed to excel in the software industry.

The demand is so high that every student finds at least two jobs waiting in the wings, by the time he or she completes her course, says Dr. Bhujanga Rao.

Nature of work of an instrumentation engineer ranges from designing, developing, installing, managing equipments that are used to monitor and control machinery and processes.

“Though there is a demand for instrumentation engineers from the software sector, we prefer the core area, as that is where we can showcase our creativity and knowledge,” says Srinivas a third-year student.

The shift towards core sector is not only due to the opportunity to showcase ones creative talent and knowledge, but also because of the long term stability and quick growth. Bio-medical is another area that is fast catching up and there is huge requirement for instrumentation professionals.

Instrumentation engineering that made its way as an exclusive engineering discipline in the early part of 1970s was earlier known as M.Sc. Tech Instrumentation in many of the colleges. It was then a three-year PG course. Even today, it is referred to by different names by various colleges. While some call it as B. Tech- electronics and instrumentation, a few name it as B. Tech – control and instrumentation. Whatever, be the name, the curriculum is the same.

The GATE advantage

Apart from reflecting the relative performance level of a candidate, GATE scores serve as a value-add.

Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) is an all-India examination being conducted and administered by the Indian Institute of Science and seven Indian Institutes of Technology. It is conducted by the National Coordination Board GATE, Department of Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India.

In the present competitive scenario, where there is mushrooming of universities and engineering colleges, the only yardstick to measure and test the caliber of engineering students is the GATE. There is a misconception among students that GATE exam is meant for ME./M.Tech which finally leads to a teaching career only.

The GATE advantage

In this context, the following points are worth noting about this examination:

Many public sector undertakings such as BHEL, Indian Oil Corporation, NTPC, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (there are PSUs totalling 217 in number) are using the GATE score for selecting candidates for their organisations. Students who qualify in GATE are entitled to a stipend of Rs 8,000 per month during their M.Tech course. Better remuneration is being offered for students of M.Tech/M.E as compared to those pursuing B.Tech /B.E. A good GATE rank assures a good job. After joining M.Tech. at IITs and IISc, one can look at a salary package ranging from Rs 7 lakh to 30 lakh per annum, depending upon specialisation and performance.

Clearing GATE is also an eligibility clause for the award of Junior Research Fellowship in CSIR Laboratories. M.Tech. degree is mandatory for those wishing to apply for research positions in R&D centres. The GATE score is valid for two years and those who qualify this test are eligible for doing Master’s degree at NUS, (National University of Singapore), Singapore. A GATE score definitely gives one an edge when it comes to joining reputed companies as well as off-campus recruitments. For those who couldn’t pursue their BTech in IIT, it provides another opportunity to study in the prestigious IITs. Above all, it certainly gives you a huge technical edge over others in all your interviews and career planning.

Raising numbers

In the recent years the trend is very significant. From 1.66 lakh aspirants in 2008, the number of aspirants touched 5.5 lakh in 2011 and is expected to touch eight lakh in 2013. It is one of the toughest examinations in our country where competition is very high and requires focused study in a planned manner.

It aims at rigorous testing of the students’ capability in engineering concepts along with managerial skills. Engineering subjects cover 70 per cent weightage while General aptitude and Engineering Mathematics cover 15 per cent respectively.

The three-hour GATE paper has a total of 65 questions, out of which 30 questions are of one mark and 35 questions are of two marks. The two-mark questions further include two pairs of common data questions and two pairs of linked answer questions.

To secure a high a percentile one should remember that a candidate is being judged relatively and not absolutely. The overall rank achieved depends upon the preparation level of your competitors.

Scoring tips

The following tips would certainly help you in scoring well in the exam:

Go through previous years’ question papers along with solutions, and analyse the subject pattern and focus on those subjects which have maximum weightage.

Books can further be divided into two categories: Books that deal with the fundamentals and focus on conceptual clarity. Here textbooks by reputed publishers are a must. Books that provide a great deal of difficult and time-consuming questions and are used essentially as practice material.

Do not rely on just one book for a topic; instead consult a couple of books for the same topic. Prepare notes after completing each chapter.

Practise the maximum number of questions possible on a given topic. This certainly strengthens your preparation.

Keep in mind that those topics which are not in GATE syllabus could be certainly left out.

Make a list of topics in which you think you are ‘weak’ and focus on them. Have all essential formulae on your fingertips. Try to see if there are shortcut methods for a particular problem.

Joining a coaching institute is beneficial as you would be exposed to a regular systematic study. Also, joining a peer group would make one more competitive. Online coaching classes/test series are beneficial too.

Theory preparation should be completed one month before the exam and then practise many number of times.

Keep oneself updated about any changes or developments in the GATE examination for the coming year.

How to tackle the paper

Start the paper with one-mark question (25 in number). Since these are easy to attempt, they will help in building confidence. Proceed then to two-marks questions from Common Data and Linked Answer Questions.

Attempt this part with caution. These add up to eight more questions in addition to the 25 attempted above. Then go to General Aptitude section of 10 questions. All these will add upto 43 questions attempted. All these should be done in a timeframe of 100-110 minutes.

Now we are left with 22 questions in the technical portion and we can allot 50 minutes to this comfortably. At the end, you must have 15-20 minutes for a quick revision of the answer sheet to ensure all is in order.

While attempting the paper, leave questions which you are not sure of. The most deciding factor is negative marking. Avoid making any guesses and try to eliminate choices by analysis and calculations.

Dangerous assumptions

TOPICS

human interest

people

Drawing baseless conclusions often leads to anything from wasted time and lost opportunity.

“Assumption is the mother of all mistakes,” a good friend once told me, while discussing how one could get students to think critically and carefully. “And that’s the first rule I put up in my class, in big bold letters: Do not assume anything.”

Cut to 20 years later. I am waiting in my office for a student who is scheduled to meet with me. My door is closed as I catch up on work in the meantime. Time passes, but she does not arrive. I take a quick walk down the corridor to talk to someone and catch a glimpse of her waiting in the lobby so I go back to my room expecting that she will come by any moment. More time passes, but no sign of her and I get caught up with something else. Later I find out that since my door was closed, she thought — assumed — I was in a meeting, and therefore hesitated to disturb me. Net result: we had both wasted our time waiting for a meeting that never happened, despite the fact that we were both ready and available to meet.

We all routinely act on assumptions. In fact, we can’t get by in life without assuming some things. That trains and buses will run on schedule. That a cloudless sky means no rain. That paying for a service will result in its being rendered. That people will behave in certain expected ways. That thirst will be relieved by drinking or hunger by eating.

Four kinds

But assumptions sometimes stand in the way of things happening, and can prevent us from taking full advantage of opportunities. In my experience, there are at least four kinds of assumption that can limit what we learn, what we do, and what we get out of life.

About our own abilities/aptitudes: Either because people have told us we are good or bad at something or because we have convinced ourselves that this is so, we tend to avoid certain activities or areas of doing/learning. If we think carefully about why this has come about, we may find that the judgment of our abilities was based on very flimsy evidence. We may have performed poorly in a few tests or not found some lessons interesting enough to apply ourselves. We begin avoiding certain types of exposure because we think we’re not “suited” to it.

About what is expected: Most of the time, when someone asks us to do something, we just jump into doing it without thinking through why we have been asked to do it, and whether we understand the requirements completely. I’ve talked about this earlier, the need to understand clearly what is asked of us. We assume too much, and therefore end up delivering either too little, too much or something completely different from what was required.

About other people: A student once told me that no one took me seriously when I said they could come and knock on my door to talk any time, that they could come discuss doubts and assignments at any point in the semester, and if I was not terribly busy, I would make myself available. Given his past experience with the system he (and others) assumed this was just one of those things people said without meaning it. By the time he realised I was actually as accessible as I had indicated, it was already the end of the semester—we had all lost many opportunities to interact and learn from each other. It’s important to keep an open mind about people; avoid making judgments without giving them a chance. If you’ve heard the expression “try me,” this is what it means!

About situations: We need to develop the ability to “read” our environments critically. This means that we make use of our own eyes and ears (and other senses) and use the evidence to understand or make meaning of a situation. Of course, we should also not disregard earlier knowledge but we do not depend on it entirely. We need to weigh the evidence produced by our own senses against other facts we may have access to, and make a decision accordingly.

Coming back to the situation with my student, I must admit to having been tripped up by my own assumptions. When I passed the student in the corridor, I assumed she had seen me and would then come into my office. It wouldn’t have taken much for me to go back and invite her in, instead of taking it for granted!