This slide deck will help students and parents to get an insight about different Engineering streams and to choose Engineering branch wisely before taking admissions.

1. Guide to help you choose your
Engineering Branch wisely
Ashwin Barve, Abhishek Kshirsagar, Sanket
Nipunage, Satej Kulkarni, Sayali Rajwade, Chinmay
Mishra, Ashwin Phadke

2. The Big Problem
• Indian education system mandates students to decide the
Engineering branch before taking admission to a college.
• Students do learn the basics of different streams in the first year
but unfortunately they need to decide the branch while taking
admission.
• Many students aren’t aware of the different branches of
Engineering which makes it difficult for them to take a wise
decision.
• This decision is very important in deciding what the student
eventually wants to pursue in his or her career and life.
• The purpose of this slide deck is to give some insight about these
branches to the students and parents.

3. Electronics and Electrical
Chinmay Mishra
• Electrical Engineering and its derivative, Electronics Engineering are
considered as one of the core engineering streams.
• The Electrical stream deals more with high voltage applications like
power Engineering and Optical Engineering. Electronics is a more
recent branching in this field dealing with low voltage applications
like Power Electronics, VLSI designing, Embedded systems to name
a few. Robotics and Telecommunication streams also overlap with
this field.
• A lot of work in the Electronics field revolves around transistor logic
and construction along with design and fabrication on silicon. While
the highest level deals with the actual programming of the said
silicon chips for particular purposes like smart systems as well as
components of modern computing devices.

4. Electronics and Electrical continued…
• The Electrical stream is more traditional and deals with the twin
concept of the motor and generator and their applications and
design in the broadest of sense.
• Inadvertently all streams mingle together in some shape or form. It
is but your choice in deciding in which pool of knowledge you want
to swim in.
• The question to ask oneself is whether one is interested in
designing real world meaningful systems on a personal level or on
an industrial level, because both these streams in their myriad
shape and forms is used in one or the other.
• If you are ready to learn continuously then this is a wonderful field
to invest your whole life in.

5. Telecommunications
Ashwin Barve
• 1. Wireless Communications: Wireless is basically over the air
communications using electromagnetic radiation. Wi-Fi technology
and cellular technology (LTE) are currently the 2 hot topics in
wireless. Majority of the coursework in many universities focuses
on these two technologies as far as wireless communications is
concerned. Wireless is definitely an upcoming branch since more
and more users are getting or are trying to get access to the
Internet thereby making Wi-Fi a ubiquitous technology and a
necessity. So if you are passionate/interested in knowing exactly
what the modem/AP in your room does, this branch is for you.

6. Telecommunications continued…
• 2. Computer networking: Terms such as IP addresses, routers,
switches, OSI model, Software Defined Networking, DHCP, DNS,
Layer 2 and Layer 3 technologies, etc. come under this sub-
category. A network engineer basically understands how the
Internet works. Some part of wireless engineering is also involved
here, for e.g. understanding how a wireless router works or how
does a wireless access point ultimately transfers packet to the wired
backhaul, etc. Computer networking coursework is mainly focused
on understanding the concepts behind routing and switching. IPv6
and SDN are the next big things in this field. I recommend you to
read and try to understand the above mentioned terms and then
decide if this is what you are passionate about. Trust me this branch
is very interesting :)

7. Telecommunications continued…
Ashwin Phadke
• 3. Security: Security, as a specialization, encompasses more than
just Telecommunications. Depending on the related discipline, there
are various other categories like Information Security, Network
Security, Application Security, Software Security and many more.
These are the different layers of security that are required in any
enterprise or a business. As a result, the list of skills required for
being a good security engineer is endless.
As a security engineer:
- You need to be able to understand the network infrastructure, as
most of the threats are network based.
- You do not need to be a programmer or a coder but you need to
understand and debug code. You also need to have a general idea
about different hardware devices, mostly network based.
- You need to be constantly aware and vigilant about latest threats
and vulnerabilities.
- And above all, you need to be able to think like a hacker.

8. Mechanical
Sanket Nipunage
• Mechanical Engineering is a very generic branch and can be
considered to be one of the few core engineering streams.
• The main divisions of mechanical engineering can be Product and
System design, Industrial or Manufacturing, Automotive,
Electromechanical, Renewable Energy and Robotics & Controls.
• If you have interest in any of these fields then this is the
appropriate branch for you. Any moving part or an object around
you has some principles of mechanical engineering associated with
it.
• As a mechanical engineer, you should be curious about how these
things work. There is a lot of Physics and Mathematics associated
with mechanical engineering and if you were never interested in
these subjects throughout your school years then I don't think
mechanical engineering is suited for you.

9. Mechanical continued…
• But the main advantage of mechanical engineering over other
branches is that you can actually see the working of the systems
and this makes the understanding of the subject easier as
compared to the other engineering streams where you cannot
witness the actual working with your own eyes.
• The most important factor before going for mechanical or any other
branch as a matter of fact, would be to ask yourself one simple
question. 'Am I willing to spend the rest of my professional life
learning and working with these systems/concepts?' If the answer is
yes, mechanical engineering is the branch for you!

10. Civil
Satej Kulkarni
• Civil engineering is a very broad branch and is one of the so called
core branches of engineering. In fact, it really is the oldest branch of
engineering along with military engineering.
• Though it is a really broad branch, the main disciplines that come
under the umbrella of civil engineering are Structural,
Transportation, Environmental, Water Resources, Coastal
Engineering, Railways and Airports etc.
• Transportation primarily deals with the design of Roads and
Highways and to a certain extent Railways and Airports.
• Structural is the design of the buildings. An architect designs how a
building should look like, a structural engineer ensures that it can
take the weight and forces. Water resources is concerned with flow
in rivers and canals, dams, irrigation, water supply etc.

11. Civil continued…
• Environmental has 2 distinct sections, Solid Waste and Water. Solid
waste deals with garbage disposal and landfill management. Water
sections with drinking water treatment and wastewater treatment.
• Coastal engineering, though may be a part of structural is
concerned with the design of coastal structures, flood protection,
oil rigs, offshore platforms etc.
• Then there is Infrastructure Engineering, which deals with huge
projects like building dams or bridges or power plants.
• Last but certainly not least is project/construction management,
these folks manage construction activities, manage budgets,
inventories and ensure construction is fast and efficient while at the
same time maintaining a safe construction environment.

12. Civil continued…
• As you can see I really had to struggle to keep this short, because
the simple fact is that this is a very vast branch. The options for
finding work are endless. I always like to say, what are the things
essential for life? A house, food, clean water, transport,
entertainment, etc. Who do you think is integral to provide these?
Why Civil Engineers off course; design of houses, roads rail and air
(for transport of food and everything else), drinking water and
sewage treatment plants, design of hospitals, movie theaters etc.
etc. Definitely exciting work.!

13. Computer Science
Sayali Rajwade
• Computer Engineering involves the integration of electronic
engineering with computer science. Hardware and software
together constitute computer engineering.
• Hardware engineering involves study of computer systems and
components, computer architecture, designing microprocessors,
etc.
• On the other hand, software engineering involves creating software
and applications which run on computers, mobile devices and
more. This software/programs help automate different tasks.
• As part of the curriculum, computer engineers have the following
subjects: Data Structures and Algorithms, Operating Systems,
Computer Architecture, Computer Networks, Compiler
Construction, Computer Graphics, Databases, etc. These subjects
cover both the hardware and software parts!

14. Computer Science continued…
• As a computer engineer, you should be prepared to code and on
the same time learn about system architecture and design.
• Coding and labs are a very important part of computer engineering.
Coding would mostly be in languages like Java, C++ and also
assembly languages for microprocessors.
• So, all in all computer engineering is a best choice if you love
writing algorithms, solving problems and applying logic to code in
order to automate stuff.

15. Industrial/Production
Abhishek Kshirsagar
• Industrial or Production engineering includes designing of
manufacturing processes and optimizing resources for creating any
product.
• Industrial Engineering deals with making optimum use of resources
like manpower, machines, raw materials and money to create a
finished product that the customer values. It includes sub-branches
like supply chain management, simulation and modelling, data
analytics, production and inventory control etc.
• Production Engineering deals with designing manufacturing
processes for manufacturing of a product. In an organization, the
R&D team designs a product that the company has to manufacture.
Production Engineers design the manufacturing processes and the
machines that should be used to manufacture the product.

16. Industrial/Production continued…
How is mechanical engineering different from production/industrial?
• Mechanical engineering includes fluid dynamics and
thermodynamics which is not needed in industrial/production
engineering. Similarly, production engineering includes operations
research, optimization and some basics of management that are
not the main focus in Mechanical Engineering.
• An industrial engineer needs to have good analytical skills and
strong mathematical and statistical background to succeed in
industry.

17. Email IDs
• Ashwin.Barve@colorado.edu – Telecommunications Engineer
• Ashwin.Phadke@colorado.edu – Telecommunications Engineer
• 25sayali@gmail.com – Computer Science Engineer
• Satej.kulkarni@hotmail.com – Civil Engineer
• Abhishek.kshirsagar92@gmail.com – Industrial/Production Engineer
• Sanket.nipunage@gmail.com – Mechanical Engineer
• cmishra@kuatrotech.com – Electrical and Electronics Engineer