In the age of Artificial Intelligence, how can

engineering students prepare for jobs of the

future? Ex-IIT director explains
17 Feb

In the age of Artificial Intelligence, how can engineering students prepare for jobs of the future? Ex-IIT director
explains© Provided by The Indian Express

(‘A Lesson from IIT‘ is a weekly column by an IIT faculty member on

learning, science and technology on campus and beyond. The column will
appear every Friday)

Intelligent Machines are revealing glimpses of a future envisaged long ago in

science fiction as they steadily morph from human-assist systems to systems-as-
human. The currently indispensable face obsolescence. The question in the minds
of students entering college is this: How to be future-ready?
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Now, one not only needs to be competent in a major area but also learn new
topics quickly and deeply and be able to work at the edges of disciplines, while
evolving constantly. Capability is judged not only by grades, but also by skills
demonstrated in complex situations.

Worth will also be measured vis-a-vis Artificial Intelligence. Critical and original
thinking, quality communication, IQ-EQ balance, and ethics will remain important
strengths for swimming through these rapidly evolving times.

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placement study explains

Shift in curriculum

Change is already in the air. Students and institutions are evolving, the former
much faster, to assimilate advancements and prepare for the times ahead. Good
colleges enable students to follow flexible pathways where learning happens
through four channels – core academics, external experiences, student-driven
activities and hostel life. Students are no longer strictly bound to the department
where they enrolled in first year and can find their passion in due course. There
are options for dual degrees, minors, specialisations across disciplines in their
home institutions as well as certifications from worldwide venues. External
experiences like internships in industry, academia, research institutions and start-
ups add value to a candidate’s capability repertoire.
Student initiatives

Student driven activities form some of the most exciting things they take up
nowadays. These include several dozens of focussed groups like Aerial Robotics,
Green Technologies to name a few, covering a broad range of areas. Students
form multi-department teams from first year to final year and participate in
various roles from trainee to developer to mentor during their college tenure.
They compete for prestigious awards in national and international arenas. Often
such outcomes surpass their core academic performance. I can vouch for the
energy, enthusiasm and commitment of the students, who find these activities
among their most enriching learning experiences. Many participate in sports,
cultural, literary, fine arts related areas where they are able to flower their talent
and hone their communication and networking abilities. Some take up important
social causes, mostly related to education of the underprivileged. Personality
development happens in the hostels, where they find avenues to imbibe life skills
like independent living, participatory self-governance, democratic processes,
financial management and leadership.

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Related video: Regulating Artificial Intelligence In Various Sectors In An

Enterprise | Young Turks | CNBC TV18 (CNBCTV18)
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Pieces of what is needed to prepare for entering the world are available in quality
institutions. It is up to the student to avail these for attaining proficiency in
handling an increasingly dynamic future. Inappropriate choices and lack of effort
can be more disastrous than it was earlier.

Here are some suggestions on how to fruitfully utilise these formative years.

1. Move across disciplines

A combination of core and transdisciplinary professional competence is the need

of the hour. To be prepared for the future, one needs to learn new things quickly
and thoroughly, constantly sharpening one’s cutting edge. This attitude needs to
be ingrained at this stage.

It is also necessary to demonstrate personal excellence in a few relevant areas.

Completing tasks well is really important. Average performance and shallow
knowledge are a recipe for disaster. This happens due to low effort or spreading
yourself too thin by randomly meandering through easy-looking avenues.

2. Learn to add value to machine intelligence

Automation is not only relieving us of mundane work but slowly and steadily
encroaching upon tasks meant for so-called intelligent humans and doing them
better. One must effectively grasp and utilise it rather than fear and shy away.
Many students are building amazingly smart systems using open source
platforms and off-the-shelf components with ambitions to take on giants. New
vistas are opening up on understanding the nature of intelligence, both human
and machine. Therefore, learning to add value to machine intelligence for solving
complex problems better is the mantra here. For this, one needs to understand
how it works, what are its current limitations and pitfalls, develop deeper insights
and innovate. Blind usage of Artificial Intelligence could be dangerous. The tiger
that can devour you has to be skilfully ridden and student life is the time to grasp
such competency.

Read |Why are over 60% IIT Bombay graduates opting for jobs not linked to their
branch?

3. Learn to collaborate

The next proficiency to develop is to be able to work both alone as well as in a

group, to creatively ideate, lead and collaborate towards success. Often, people
who work alone find it difficult working in a team and vice versa. Now both
aptitudes are required. One needs to spend short periods on solving many things
quickly, as well as devote long hours on one thing in a single-minded fashion to
take it to perfection. This requires a special bonding of steadiness with speed,
constant ideation with dogged persistence. Such an entrepreneurial spirit of
sprinting a long-distance race steadily, sometimes in a team, sometimes alone
will be needed at every stage of a career, whether at the peak of success or in the
trenches of failure.

4. Remain human

Technology has an interesting way of transforming human beings into

automatons without the victim being aware. With extensive usage, people begin
to think and behave the way machines work. Therefore, a critical aspect to
nurture is to remain human.

Human beings are often unaware of the potential and power of the heart, head
and inner spirit. This needs constant cultivation in a fast-paced programmed
world. Nourishing the left and right halves of the brain are essential for
intellectual-emotional balance and for replenishing the mind’s fertility. It is vital
to nourish a soulful side through sports, arts, culture, philosophy and
humanitarian work, not just as part of a curriculum, but as a passion where one
can be blissfully immersed, forgetting everything else for some time.

Making sure that one remains human is a critical trait that needs serious attention
throughout. It is a foundation without which wrong choices may be made in life.
The future of society is not as much dependent on whether machines will
become human-like but more on whether humans will become machines.

(The writer is former director of IIT Kharagpur and currently a professor at

the department of Computer Science and Engineering)