Webinar on 8th June 2020

Department of Electrical Engineering has successfully organized the Webinar on “Introduction to Machine Learning and Applications” on 8^th June 2020 by Dr. Enmei Tu. Dr. Enmei Tu is an Assistant Professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China. A total of 699 participants registered for the webinar. Out of that 458 participants attended the webinar. This includes 20 participants outside India. In this webinar, Dr. Tu explained the concept, algorithm and applications of Machine Learning.

Faculty Development Programme from 1st to 3rd June 2020

Department of Electrical Engineering has successfully organized the online Three-Days Faculty Development Programme on “Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) Applications in Power Systems” during 1^st June to 3^rd June 2020. A total of 305 participants including industry professionals, academicians, research scholars, postgraduate students across the country participated actively in this programme to understand the research opportunities in power systems with the applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning.  Eminent speakers were invited to this program to share their expertise with the participants. The speakers were Dr. Sushama Shelke from ARIN International Pune, Dr. Rajesh Kumar from Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur, Dr. Amit Sant from Pandit Dindayal Petroleum University Gandhinagar, Dr. V. N. Kalkhambkar from Rajarambapu Institute of Technology, Sakharale and Dr. Atul Koshti from Sapat College of Engineering Nashik. The programme was concluded with the hardware implementation guidance session by Prof. Pankaj Gautam, faculty at the department of electrical engineering and research scholar. The purpose of organizing this event was to provide a platform for participants to interact with researchers, make them aware of research opportunities and challenges in advanced fields like AI and ML and its application in Power System. 

Scope and Opportunities for Electrical Engineers

Browsing around the evolution of the human community from the ancient world to the modern era, engineering has played a very vital role at every stage. Human civilization has witnessed many stepping stones of engineering accomplishments and other inventions for better human interaction and communication. Engineers make use of the knowledge that they have within a specific industry to make things work and solve problems, whether this is with transportation, healthcare, construction, entertainment, robotics, space, or the environment. Engineering is behind everything so that the life of human beings is made comfortable. One of the means of doing this, i.e. reducing human efforts, is developing a variety of electrical devices. Although there are different fields of engineering, the role of electrical engineers becomes more important due to rapidly changing technology. They are at the frontline to develop new technologies in different industries. Electrical engineering is the blood of modernization. It is one of the reasons why we are able to use technology in our everyday life. This field has tremendous scope and opportunities in the future. This is quite apparent from the proposed plans and investments of the Government of India in the power sector.     

Opportunities in Power Plant Sector:

The Indian Government has recognized the power sector as a major sector of attention to ensure continual industrial growth. As per the Union Budget 2020, around Rs. 22,000 crores are allocated to the power sector and this allocation of funds is further going to increase as the energy consumption in India is estimated to touch 1894.7 TWh in 2022 due to an increase in population, electrification, and per-capita usage. Considering the issues of global warming and carbon emission, an additional investment of Rs. 8000 crores would be done in renewable power plants up to the year 2022 which will be extended to Rs. 25000 crores up to the period of 2023-30 to set up 500 GW capacity power plants. The budget is also proposed for installing large solar panels along railway tracks on land owned by Railways and establish grid-connected 15 lakh solar pumps for the agricultural sector. In reality, India has enormous potential for electricity generation. Out of the existing potential, we are using only one fourth. Although, generating electricity using renewable energy resources is on high agenda for the Government, the importance of the existing (old) fossil-fuel power plants cannot be ignored. Hence, the Government is also investing a lot to upgrade the electrical infrastructure of the existing fossil-fuel power plants to enhance efficiency. However, it will take time for India to attain maturity in renewable energy technologies. All these provisions are going to open new job opportunities in electrical engineering in public sector undertakings, like power-grid, NTPC, BHEL, State Electricity Company, etc.    

Opportunities in Electric Vehicle:

According to the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicle scheme of Government of India, India could attain enormous sales of electric vehicles (EVs) of which 30 % will be private cars, 70 % will be commercial cars, 40 % will be buses and 80 % will be two and three-wheelers by 2030. This will create huge openings in the design of hybrid and electric vehicles, battery management systems, retrofitting of conventional vehicles, energy-efficient motor designs, developing charging stations and related electrical infrastructures, vehicle-to-grid and grid-to-vehicle integrations, as R&D engineers, design engineers in the private sector within India and abroad, and will also promote start-ups. 

Opportunities in Developing Smart Cities:

After announcing 100 smart cities, the Union Government is escalating the Smart Cities Mission to all 4,000 cities in the country. The main objective of a smart city is to optimize the usage of resources, like energy, water, etc. From an energy viewpoint, a smart city will be able to optimize the electricity consumption of the city by recording real-time data with the help of smart energy meters. Net-metering has also opened avenues to generate energy and share it with the grid. This would help controlling electricity consumption and take-off the tremendous pressure on utility. Smart metering, net-metering, home automation, green building, promotion of distributed energy generation, and tie-up with the main grid are going to give birth to new entrepreneurs in electrical engineering. Also, it is projected to establish a network of metros and monorails of around 795 km in almost all the smart cities by 2025. This is also a promising area of future recruitments for electrical engineers.  

Opportunities in IT Sector:

Revolutionary developments such as industrial internet of things, data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence will make more than 3500 crore devices operational by 2022. Integration of these technologies with power engineering for efficient energy transfer, monitoring and control will open up new prospects for electrical engineers. Skills required for this are available on a single click and these can be easily acquired by attending online courses. With the basic knowledge of electrical systems and additional programming skills, the positions of electrical engineers as programmers, software engineers, and developers in the IT and allied sectors will be made secure. Major IT recruiters are Infosys, Cognizant, TCS, etc.       

Higher Studies, Competitive Exams, and Other Opportunities:

By 2050, it is anticipated that almost all the sectors will adopt electrification. In doing this, emphasis will be given for good power quality as it is crucial for the efficiency of the equipment. As a result, it will be increasingly important that electrical engineers use technologies to improve power quality. Here comes the role of power quality engineers as energy managers and certified energy auditors. As the industry continues to electrify, electrical engineers have to play an integral role in ensuring the smooth transition in all the above scenarios. 

Apart from these promising breaks, the scope for higher studies, like M.Tech, M.S., MBA, Ph.D. through national and international entrance exams, administrative, engineering and public services through competitive exams, like IES, IAS, MPSC, UPSC, etc. will perhaps increase day-by-day with ambitious plans and schemes of the Government of India.      

Finally one of the most important reasons why one should opt electrical engineering is that with the rapid expansion of technologies it is always easy to find a job in the electrical engineering market whether you are a fresh graduate or an experienced practitioner.