Designs on engineers

CAREER OPTION

Sensing the acute shortage of design engineers, IT firms are tying up with universities. That engineering services offshoring (ESO) may be a $40 billion market and create thousands of jobs for engineers by 2020 is not lost on IT companies. Industry experts estimate that India will need around 10,000 CAE professionals in next three years. The annual yield of CAE engineers at present is only around 100.

Companies that supply Computer-aided Design and Computer-aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) software and tools to the computer-aided engineering (CAE) sector are already zeroing-in on technical institutions and universities to churn out ready-to-market design engineers to cater to the demand of the industry.

For instance, Altair Engineering, a Michigan-based product design and technology company, has launched Education Technology "� a programme that will focus on introducing simulation (CAE) as part of the curriculum in engineering colleges and universities at graduate and post-graduate level, according to Pavan Kumar, Managing Director, South-East Asia, Altair Engineering. But the course will not be free.

UGS Corp, a provider of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and services, is also looking at opening centres of excellence at various universities. It already has a centre of excellence at the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) campus in Belgaum, Karnataka, and is in talk with many other universities. The company has recently released a technical training manual on CAE drawing in association with VTU. "We want to

replicate this model across various universities to create a talent pool ready for the requirements of the industry. UGS will provide the tool and technology to these varsities to align their courses to the requirements of the industry," , says Vivek Marwaha, country general manager, UGS.

SolidWorks Corporation, a Dassault Systems S.A. company, that develops and markets software for design, analysis, and product data management, recently organised a design contest for CAD professionals to promote and showcase India's engineering talents. "India is a goldmine of largely untapped engineering talent," said SolidWorks vice president Asia Pacific Operations Ved Narayan.

The education sector also promises lot of business opportunities. "The global auto industry relies on streamlined, integrated supply chains to succeed. With a vibrant auto-ancillary industry, India is well-positioned to tap this exciting opportunity. Auto Cluster, partnering with various companies such as PTC, will facilitate to have right IT infrastructure to be competitive," notes V M Rao, MD, Auto Cluster.