In my SCRA interview I was asked a simple-sounding question, “So you want to be an engineer? Can you name five engineers of the country?”
Pat I replied, “Vikram Sarabhai, Meghnad Saha, Satish Dhawan ... .” The interviewer corrected me, “They are scientists. I want names of engineers.” “Umm...” I said, “Visweswaraiya.”
“Correct, give us four more names.” I couldn’t.
A scientist gives us a new theory, even a new design. He gives us a Fast Breeder Nuclear Reactor, a Chandrayaan or DNA Sequencing. An engineer puts the science through a multiplication process. He sets up factories and economic means to mass produce satellites, rockets, reactors and Automatic DNA Sequencing Machines. He converts the wispy dreams of scientists into concrete, steel and semiconductors. A scientist is often allowed to fail, not an engineer.
I am privileged to have worked with a brilliant team of engineers in the Integral Coach Factory that designed and put together the Train 18, or the Vande Bharat Express, the first ever semi-high speed train made in India.
The Vande Bharat Express has run uninterrupted for seven months without a single failure or mishap. Unfortunately, its success became its undoing just as its mass production plan was laid out.
Pat I replied, “Vikram Sarabhai, Meghnad Saha, Satish Dhawan ... .” The interviewer corrected me, “They are scientists. I want names of engineers.” “Umm...” I said, “Visweswaraiya.”
“Correct, give us four more names.” I couldn’t.
A scientist gives us a new theory, even a new design. He gives us a Fast Breeder Nuclear Reactor, a Chandrayaan or DNA Sequencing. An engineer puts the science through a multiplication process. He sets up factories and economic means to mass produce satellites, rockets, reactors and Automatic DNA Sequencing Machines. He converts the wispy dreams of scientists into concrete, steel and semiconductors. A scientist is often allowed to fail, not an engineer.
I am privileged to have worked with a brilliant team of engineers in the Integral Coach Factory that designed and put together the Train 18, or the Vande Bharat Express, the first ever semi-high speed train made in India.
The Vande Bharat Express has run uninterrupted for seven months without a single failure or mishap. Unfortunately, its success became its undoing just as its mass production plan was laid out.
No comments:
Post a Comment