The dean of IIT Roorkee says what you learn in graduation will be obsolete in 3 years

• Basic software skills and thought process — the ability to think afresh — can help engineers keep up with the growing demand for artificial intelligence and automation skills.
  
• Blockchain developer is also the most sought after job role in India, as per LinkedIn.
  
• Domain-specific skills acquired by engineering graduates are short spanned — and may turn obsolete within a span of three years, Manish Shrikhande, Dean, Sponsored Research & Industrial Consultancy (SRIC) at IIT Roorkee told Business Insider.

The many engineers-in-the-making at IIT Roorkee are not worried that a bot will eat away their jobs in the future.

Not only are they being trained emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain and data science; they are also being equipped with ‘skills’ that will help sail through the era of disruption.

According to the dean of the institution, the answer lies in innovative thinking.

“The problems are not limited to one particular domain or expertise. However, the basic skills remain the same. But what differentiates an engineer from other professionals is the right attitude and innovative thought process — the ability to think afresh,” Manish Shrikhande, Dean, Sponsored Research & Industrial Consultancy (SRIC) at IIT Roorkee told Business Insider.

What gives engineers an edge is ‘the incremental improvement’ they can add while solving a problem. “When we are looking at an engineer graduating from college, we are looking at a productive life of over 30 years. That will only happen when they know how to think,” he said.

According to him, domain-specific skills acquired by engineering graduates are short spanned — and may turn obsolete within a span of three years.

But the skill that is most in demand is blockchain, especially amongst fintech companies. “The technology will act as a security device, an insurance against hacking and digital frauds,” he said on the sidelines of the Inter IIT Tech Meet 2019, the annual technical competition.

The three-day long event was aimed to move away from bookish learning and find “feasible solutions to real-life industry problems”. The focus of the event was on emerging technologies like data science, robotics, information security and mobility among others.

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