Transforming Infrastructure Industry, An Opportunity for all Engg. streams

Infrastructure, whenever we hear this word we always relate it with building construction or construction of roads, bridges etc. After hearing Mr. Prasad Pandit about Infrastructure Industry, our overall perspective for this industry has broadened.

In his session, Mr. Prasad shared interesting insights about Infrastructure Industry, and how this industry is now multifaceted, multi-disciplinary and how this industry is backbone of any growing nation. He also elaborated plethora of opportunities this industry offers to budding engineers from all disciplines. He also shared well-crafted story about his own college project done in 1997 and how he would do it now.   

Infrastructure industry in today’s world provides big growth impetus, growing rapidly and contributing to approx. 30% GDP of the world. It consists of many areas such as Roads, Ports, Railways, Airports, Energy, Water, Telecom and Buildings. In India as per McKinsey Survey in 2018, India is poised for tremendous growth with new Metro Railway Projects, growth in Railway Network, Roads, Bridges and Tunnels & Cities to develop.

Infrastructure industry in today’s world provides big growth impetus, growing rapidly and contributing to approx. 30% GDP of the world. It consists of many areas such as Roads, Ports, Railways, Airports, Energy, Water, Telecom and Buildings. In India as per McKinsey Survey in 2018, India is poised for tremendous growth with new Metro Railway Projects, growth in Railway Network, Roads, Bridges and Tunnels & Cities to develop.

Another interesting area Mr. Prasad highlighted for students to explore in Infrastructure Industry is virtualization and standardization. While all the projects are not of same type or of same design, still it has huge scope to standardize the process and make components on one platform, which will be utilized as a product for any project in Infrastructure industry. It will help to improvise the productivity in this sector. Mr. Prasad indicated that colleges, professors can play constructive role in helping infrastructure industry in such a standardization drive.

Most relevant and transforming area of Infrastructure industry is 3D Digital Cities or we call Smart Cities. Mr. Prasad provided examples of Virtual Singapore and Jaipur Smart City projects which are completely developed and simulated using 3DEXPERIENCE platform. Mr. Prasad Pandit shared a vision for infrastructure industry as “Virtual Twin” that means create virtual environment for building, factory, Infrastructure, township and even cities. These twins will help to simulate many scenarios to identify and solve key problems in rapid urbanization happening globally and make required changes physically post finalizing the solutions. This way we can build sustainable infrastructure for all kind of projects.

He also explained about the role of each streams right from Electrical, Mechanical, Electronics engineering to Computer Science streams to transform this industry which is labor heavy and less productive as compared to manufacturing industry which adopted automation in late 60’s and Digitalization from 80’s to reach 4^th renaissance today. Infrastructure industry needs to leapfrog from 1^st generation to 4^th generation technology of Cyber Physical Systems, it needs to improve in Design Engineering, Procurement & Supply chain management, On-site Execution, Digital Technology & Upskilling of workforce. He emphasized Virtual City / Smart City projects, Metro Railway projects executed by many major cities across the world provides great opportunities for all streams of students to explore for their career.

Most fascinating part in the Webinar was paradigm shift in execution of project due to advent in technology. Mr. Prasad Pandit shared a wonderful example of his own project of “Pre-fabricated Dome” which he did as a part of his college project way back in 1997. He expounded how this same project can be done in today’s world using latest softwares and performing advance simulations & 3D Printing. He explained that powerful tools that are now available to develop digital prototype provides lot of flexibility to students to validate various designs, what If scenarios compared to Physical Prototype, to validate your design thoroughly. Also now we can use IoT sensors, digital environment to test our design, render it with realistic material, visualize its behavior in storm, winter or rainy season. So many possibilities are now possible for students to explore.

While concluding a session, Mr. Prasad also guided students to have ‘Clarity’ in mind on what you want to do and other important aspects like Health, Finance, and their goals to shape their future.

It was very interesting, informative and very relevant session with a deep dive in the Infrastructure Industry topic. Mr. Prasad thank you very much for such an interesting session, sharing your valuable experience in this domain and guiding students about innumerable project ideas to explore.  We are sure the students could visualize many interesting avenues and projects ideas to explore in this domain.