Engineers' Day - What is the Importance of Engineers Today?

15th of September is celebrated as the Engineers' Day. On this occasion, some IT industry leaders have expressed their thoughts about the relevance of the role of engineers in today's context. Given below are their statements.

“Our engineers are the backbone of our industry. They have invested their time and energy to build a robust technology ecosystem that has put us on the global map. Today, India has become a leading tech innovation and resource hub, fueling growth for both domestic and overseas markets.

At Saankhya Labs, from being the country’s first fabless company to developing the world’s first Software Defined Radios (SDR) chipsets, our journey has been incredible because of our deep-tech engineers who have innovated and contributed to our growth immensely.

As we celebrate National Engineers' Day to commemorate the great work of engineers, I thank all our engineers for accelerating our tech journey and making India a technologically advanced nation. With the perfect blend of skilled youth and the world’s best tech institutions that have produced engineering talents who are today leading global tech giants, we shall continue to innovate and create better, more sustainable solutions for the world.”

--Hemant Mallapur, Co-Founder and EVP Engineering, Saankhya Labs

“For thousands of years, engineers have amazed their contemporaries by making advances, defying the laws of physics, creating innovations that have changed the course of history. Innovating is at the core of everything engineers do, from smart vehicles to space exploration, from architecture to antibiotics. Engineers have transformed the way our world functions. Engineers are creative problem solvers, and artists who consistently come up with innovative solutions and make things better and more practical. The playing ground for engineers is shifting via digitization and technology advancement. Today, engineers have access to more real-time data, utilisation of resources, tool performance, allowing them to consider improvements that can be achieved in months through algorithms (rather than years or decades). The computing capacity has gone exponentially up where every individual carries computing device (in form of mobile) with them.  Engineers can greatly increase the adoption by having greater user experience, in a connected world via Cloud, IoTs, AR/VR, AI/ML, Quantum to optimise the output/performance of tools. In order to keep the engineer’s productivity at an all-time high, both corporates and academics together need to create a culture of continuous learning, and invest in their future by providing training, and promoting innovation.”

--Munishk Gupta, EVP, Fulcrum Digital 

“Engineering has always been a dynamic field. Advances in the way artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality, and cloud technologies are used has set the technology sector on an upward trajectory. This in turn has given rise to ample opportunities to create and innovate. As companies across the board step up investments in IT infrastructure, having the right engineering talent is the lifeblood of any technology company. To keep pace with the highly dynamic nature of the field, engineers need to continuously upskill as well.

To build a successful career, engineers need to develop systematic and analytical thinking along with programming and design skills to be able to solve complex challenges. As the role of AI and machine learning (ML) continues to rise, the demand for engineers who are equipped in these areas will increase too. Communication is yet another skill that engineers must develop to be able to convey their ideas with clarity.

My message to budding engineers will be to embrace a growth mindset and act like an owner in your focus areas.”

--Anu Mangaly, Principal Engineer, NetApp India

“We celebrate 15th of September every year as Engineers' Day. In this digital world, where new-age technologies are playing an integral role in our daily lives, the role of engineers has become more critical than ever. Every company today is heralded by digital technologies. For instance, a bank is now a technology company with a license to offer credit. In such a scenario, companies need to be extremely agile and go-to-market faster with their innovations. Hence, reskilling and upskilling of engineers is one of the key priorities of companies. Marc Andreessen once famously said that “Software is eating the world”. This is possible only because of the talent and hard work of engineers.”

-- Lakshmi Mittra, VP and Head – Clover Academy, Clover Infotech

“For decades, Indians have contributed greatly to the global technology landscape. Having been an engineer and a leader for the past 25 years, I can certainly say that engineering is an ever- evolving field that adapts to changes swiftly according to the needs and demands of the world. At present, the planet is under a dire crisis of destruction and the hope lies on upcoming engineers to focus on sustainable technological advancement that aim to achieve a greener future.

Sustainability is a necessity today, and organisations are increasingly stepping up their efforts to achieve a greater positive impact on the environment. For the preservation and well-being of the environment, young people who aspire to become engineers should anticipate more in the effort to design, implement, and create a sustainable pathway. The new generation of engineers should emphasise creating solutions that can eliminate the world's fundamental issues, such as pollution and waste management. As the leaders and change-makers of tomorrow, their core objective should be to facilitate cooperation with other global leaders by implementing a holistic approach to engagement and dialogue to promote a safer tomorrow.

On this Engineers’ Day, we, at Pi Green Innovations, pledge to foster perspectives that empower the young engineering community to have intelligent ideas, incorporate sustainable development, and contribute toward an ideal world to live in.”

--Umesh Sawant, Chief Operating Officer, Pi Green Innovations

“In today's hyper-connected world, with the increasing dependency on new-age technologies, the demand for everything-as-a-service is mounting exponentially. From small businesses to large conglomerates, every organization is exploring ways to augment its systems and workforces with technology. Cloud computing lays a foundation for as-a-service models as it offers companies, convenient models to access infrastructure, platform, and software offerings on a pay-as-you-go basis. According to IDC, India's overall software market will grow at a CAGR of 14% by 2025. And Gartner predicts that over 85% of organizations globally will embrace a cloud-first principle by 2025.This accelerated cloud migration has propelled businesses to build a robust cloud strategy that can enable more cloud-offered software services such as collaboration, CRM, HRM & ERP services, messaging applications, and security services, among others. But some of the key challenges are, first, strengthening the existing security framework, given that many of these SaaS apps now need to integrate with each other through API; second, the need for rapid expansion in the Data Center capacity and lastly, the availability of low latency data. However, with IoT and edge computing gaining popularity, we can expect several service-based models to emerge in the near future, ensuring greater openness and more efficient business models to develop. To keep pace with evolving technology and the consumer landscape, at Cisco, we are catalyzing innovation across areas like cloud-delivered cybersecurity, collaboration, analytics, data center, etc. Cisco IoT Operations Dashboard is based on cloud-native primitives and leverages the available cloud-native infrastructure and tools for enabling a successful transition to hybrid and multi-cloud architecture."

--Anand Patil, Senior Director, Systems Engineering, Cisco India & SAARC

Especially for the IT industry which runs on constantly evolving knowledge of engineering, it is very important to understand the value of Engineers.

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