Saikat Chaterjee, Author at Adamas University

Corona Positive or Positive Corona: A Mechanical Engineer’s Perspective

Be it the talk over a cup of coffee or the table talk by the leaders of the world, Corona Crisis is the buzz word. At present times, our mornings start with a dip into the negative impacts of COVID 19. With the industry hit hard, an uncertain future looms large before the graduating engineers and young aspirants. But is there another side of the story? I thought of reaching out to my readers with the findings that hint at transforming thoughts and positive drives catalysed by the global pandemic.

Mechanical Engineering Industry @ Positive Corona

As per VDMA (Mechanical Engineering Industry Association), majority of the industries are focusing on technology transformation to return to the ‘New Normal’. The pandemic has triggered the need of a complete overhaul of an organization’s technology systems encompassing hardware, software, network architecture, data management favourably affecting all of people, process and the technology. Though the Mechanical and Plant Engineering industries were already in the process to adopt Industry 4.0, the technology transformation timeline has been positively brought forward with the emergence of this global pandemic.

The crisis driven high tech mechanization will bless the industry with better product realization, flexibility, and reliability.
Lessons learnt from the global crisis will prompt a rational focus on the product portfolio and risk profile of the company.
As per United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), manufacturing sector has earned its place as a mainstay of the recovery strategies of post-COVID-19 economies.
Demand of counter COVID-19 products has opened up a new horizon before the Mechanical Engineering industry focusing on scaled up production of medical devices and appliances.
Projected investments in future technology such as Collaborative Automation may soon see the Collaborative Robots (Cobots) ushering in Industry 5.0 ready industry.
In the post-Corona world, entrepreneurship is expected to witness a spike. There will be surge in the start-ups with deep-pocketed investors willing to invest in the areas of clean energy, healthcare, food and agriculture, drone technology etc. which will be attractive propositions for a Mechanical Engineer.

The Corona Crisis will pass, while the strategies developed during the turmoil will continue to evolve the industries stronger and fitter for the future.

Mechanical Engineering Education @ Positive Corona

The ‘New Normal’ will require more skilled engineers than ever before. With the industry poised to adopt the crisis driven technology transformations, the traditional Mechanical Engineering education is revamping itself with a modern curriculum. The essence of automation, cyber physical systems, digital communication, Industrial IoT (IIOT), digital manufacturing, robotics, cognitive computing methods, and their integration are finding the place among the core Mechanical Engineering concepts. With students taking up such allied domains as Minors will only boost their preparedness for the multi-disciplinary environment of the industry.

The pandemic has seen a rapid shift to a model of blended learning with the teaching community turning out to be more tech savvy ultimately transforming the pedagogy. Creating virtual & interactive Mechanical Engineering laboratories has always posed a great challenge. The concept of ‘Lab on Laptop’ has received a tremendous boost with the need of online mode of teaching-learning during the crisis situation. Importantly, the crisis has reinforced the intense academia-academia and academia-industry collaborative teaching-learning through online seminars, guest lectures, colloquiums, virtual industry internships etc. The wider canvas of Mechanical Engineering dealing with systems- big and small, human-powered and AI driven- is expected to be immensely benefitted through the rich spectrum of online mode of collaborations.

Mechanical Engineering Research and Innovation @ Positive Corona

Any crisis is always is always a strong driver of creativity and innovation, and the same is also true for the Corona crisis. In COVID-19 times, the research world of Mechanical Engineering focused on fighting the pandemic.

Mechanical ventilators with artificial intelligence capabilities to automate the functioning of the ventilator.
IoT-based system to create a Ventilator Management System.
Positive Pressure Respirator System (PRPS) as a substitute of N-95 masks.
Disinfection chamber and isolation shelter.
Autonomous robotic disinfection system along with capabilities of serving medicines, food, and collecting samples of patients.
Internal combustion engine emission study techniques adapted to research new mask materials.
Improved HVAC systems to reduce the incidence of human-generated airborne COVID-19 transmission (ACT) in public spaces.
MEMS sensor technology into 3-D printed mobile ventilators and wearable wireless sensor systems to enable electronic tracking of physical distancing.

Post crisis, the manufacturing industry is expected to sanction boosting research and innovations in green manufacturing, digital technologies and big data, product material passports, traceability technologies such as use of sensors. Mechanical engineers will be taking up the task of innovating technology upgrades in the area of medical devices especially for the strongly evolving mechanical ventilator industry. Necessitated by the crisis, automotive industry has realized the need of accelerating research on autonomous vehicles, touchless transactions, e-scooters, kickboards etc. The pandemic has brought forward a unique opportunity of collaboration between researchers cutting across disciplines which is certain to promote academic research as well as industrial R&D.

Is Mechanical Engineering a Lost World?

One of my relative’s daughter opted out of the JEE counselling process last year as she was offered a seat in Mechanical Engineering. Of course, she had her own strong reasons:

Mechanical Engineering doesn’t possess that charm anymore
Job prospects are poor with a degree in Mechanical Engineering
Being a girl, I don’t prefer to work alongside heavy machineries

I never intended to tear her down for her decision. However, I decided to utilize the free time of hers during this lockdown period, and unlock her mind to the scope and versatility of the contemporarily rich field of Mechanical Engineering.

Mechanical Engineering doesn’t possess that charm anymore

Enjoying the luxury, comfort and functionality of a modern automobile; sitting in a cool room and sipping a cool pack of kiwi juice delivered from a distant part of the world preserved through HVAC system; accessing the latest versions of utility products, clothes, medicines, food, shoes mass produced through smart manufacturing; savouring the enabled dexterity while playing the video games blessed by the motion sensor designs; utilizing robots to sanitize the house- Isn’t it really charming to be a part of the driving technical team of Mechanical engineers who conceptualize, design, fabricate and maintain such real life products/processes.

Further, the charm is to rise up to the right occasion. Worldwide, Mechanical Engineers have joined hands to design and develop COVID-19 response related products. A contributory effort towards product realization in terms of detection kits, disinfection robots, laser cut disposable face and eye shields, rapid prototyping of masks, PPE respirators, anti-microbial coating in medical equipment, trolley mounted large area sanitization equipment, UV sanitization handheld devices, automatic mist based sanitizer dispensing units, and many more in the pipeline.

Job prospects are poor with a degree in Mechanical Engineering

The famous Thomas Industry Insights, a service wing of Thomas International, upholds the fact that Mechanical Engineering has a much bigger engineering canvas, mainly due to the field’s smooth blend with the other areas of professional study. A recent survey by Times of India brought out the expanding prospects of Mechanical Engineering cutting across geographic boundaries and disciplines in the industry sectors to name a few:

Industrial Design, Aerospace, Automobile, Electronics, Marine, Defence, Consumer Goods, Construction, Materials and Metals, Energy & Power.

Remember the video of the song ‘This Too Shall Pass’ by the American rock band OK GO. The song was played with the band members singing alongside a giant Rube Goldberg machine whose parts were synchronized in time with music. In a recent TED talk, Adam Sadowsky, the American entrepreneur, described the features of the gigantic machine as a marvel of Mechanical Engineering. Special effects in the films heavily rely on Mechanical engineers specialized in computer aided design and prototyping. The point I like to hit home is:

Mechanical Engineers have a big demand in entertainment sector.

A recent survey projected 11% growth in the jobs for Mechanical engineers by 2026. Mechanical Engineering graduate job opportunities span the professional roles including:

Designers, Technical Managers, Analysts, Business Operators, Technical Sales Managers, Project Managers, Technical Inspectors, Software Engineering role in product and service-based companies.

In particular, National Design Policy (2007), Indian Design Council (2009), and CII published India Design Report (2018) envisions Design Enabled Indian Industry, thus, opening up further job avenues. Moreover, with the Make-in-India campaign in place, the empowerment of the manufacturing sector shall see the big players setting up their manufacturing plants in India. Additionally, alternative career roles exist in government organizations, Public Welfare Departments, banking sector, and consultancy.

The need of the hour is to choose an effective Mechanical Engineering programme, amongst the various offerings, which delivers the right skill set. Graduating with experiences in the latest trends in the field will, in turn, pave the path for a lucrative career in industries along with better scopes for switching-over career roles. Undergraduate experiences on traditionally rich Mechanical Engineering programme need to blend with the modern day demands of expertise in:

Design Engineering, Smart Manufacturing, HVAC Engineering, Micro & Nano Engineering, Smart Materials, Welding Engineering, Electric Vehicles, Bio-mechatronics, Automation and Robotics, Artificial Intelligence Applications, IoT enabled Mechanical Devices, Energy Systems Engineering.

The underlying fact is that the industry is ripe with opportunities but there is a shortfall of skill set, industry is presently looking for, among the candidates graduating with Mechanical Engineering degrees. It’s high time; an aspirant develops awareness and chooses the right programme to give a scintillating start to his/her career.

Being a girl, I don’t prefer to work alongside heavy machineries

It is not very unusual that girls have a feeling that it is brawn (boys perceived to have a marginal advantage) that matters in the field of Mechanical Engineering. Notion is ripe that girls fail to manage the production line when she gets into an industry. Perceptions are viral that Mechanical industries are highly gender biased. This is 21^st century, and it’s time to break these stereotypes.

It needs to be understood that Mechanical Engineering is not all about oil spills, dirty hands and dirty apparel. Mechanical Engineering is not only about Machines, and a common Mechanic who repair things. Who else can defy the misconceptions better than the leading women Mechanical engineers?

Lila Poonawala- Padma Shri awardee professional Mechanical engineer who acted as the chairperson of Alfa Laval India and TetraPak India.
Karen Nyberg- An American Mechanical engineer and NASA astronaut.
Alba Colon- She hailed from Spain and ruled the Stock Car Auto Racing as the Programme Manager of General Motors.
Kate Gleason- She was instrumental in giving birth to Gleason Corp. which is one of the world’s top providers of gear manufacturing machines, tooling, and technologies.
Priya Balasubramaniam- An engineer with a background in Mechanical Engineering, supply chain management, marketing and software engineering. She is currently the vice president of Core Technologies Operations and iPhone Operations at Apple Inc.

Nowadays jobs are based on talent and are not gender biased. It is no wondering that while scouting through any job site, the search results yield a large number of companies hiring female Mechanical engineers. Companies like Cummins India, leading technology innovator in turbos and fuel systems, hire female Mechanical engineers to be a substantial part of its workforce. With Government policies endowing certain privileges to companies with equal sex employee ratios, girls are always welcome to Mechanical field. Being a Mechanical engineer, girls have a bigger basket to choose from:

Design and Analysis, Vehicle Integration, Electromechanical jobs, Quality Assurance, Planning and Purchase, Vehicle Inspection, Software Development, Project Management, Technical Consultancy, Entrepreneurship.

Mechanical Engineering is a stepping stone for specialized fields of Aerospace Engineering, Automobile Engineering and Marine Engineering which are proven to be the exceptionally preferred destinations of female graduates. With its attraction of a work-life balance, research & teaching has also received big thumbs up.

Redesign your thought process, fuel your think-tank, and gear up for a journey to the prospective and vibrant world of Mechanical Engineering.

Virus and Vibrations

The Inquisitive in you:

It is a well-known fact that the yogis of ancient times practised meditational techniques to get rid of diseases and stay healthy. Meditations induce the positive vibrations which are known to kill many of the harmful microorganisms which get into our body. Recent frontiers in technology are exploring the possibility of using external excitations to vibrate a virus to its death.

Can we develop virus-killing vibrations?

The Biologist in you:

The genetic material of virus is DNA/RNA enclosed within the protective protein shell (Capsid). Every cell in human body has a natural tendency to vibrate at frequency known as the natural frequency, and so the virus. Natural frequency values of these vibrations are very high compared to healthy cells, and depend on the molecular structure and differ from virus to virus. For example, lowest natural frequency of HIV: 18 GHz; Hepatitis B: 37 GHz; Ebola: 19 GHz.

The Technologist in you:

Every physical system has a set of natural frequencies at which the system vibrates naturally (Free vibration). Such systems can also be excited by externally applied mechanical vibration (Forced vibration). Resonance occurs when the excitation frequency matches with any of the natural frequencies of the system, and may cause severe damage to the system. A typical example will be an opera singer shattering a wine glass. Here, the sound waves produced by the singer shatter the wine glass due to resonance.

The Bio-Technologist in you:

Protective protein shell (Capsid) of viruses is influenced by mechanical excitations in the form of Ultrasonic Waves, when focused on it. Ultrasonic waves are very high frequency sound waves not audible to human ears. Excitations tuned to the natural frequency of virus shell result in resonance. At resonance, for sufficient wave energy, the protective shell undergoes alternating compression and rarefaction which induce mechanical stress severe enough to shatter the virus shell just like the wine glass. Virus becomes inactive with the destruction of its protective shell. Though there are benefits of this technology over antiviral drugs, the challenges are plenty. Presently, one question looms large before us:

Can this technology be used to stop the menace of novel Coronavirus?