How to make a successful Automobile Engineering Career right from your undergraduation !!!

How to make a successful Automobile Engineering Career right from your undergraduation !!!

Under gradation (Bachelor in Automobile Engineering) is the right phase to ensure successful career in big companies such as GM, Ford, Suzuki...etc. We are serious about this since it is the time when students build strong foundation in terms of understanding fundamentals, developing innovative ideas, having curiosity about different technologies and having lot of questions about the available concept or design. How do you really get this all. The answer lies in how do you really take your under graduation. By this we mean, what path you really choose in your under graduation in selecting courses, internships, projects, industrial exposure & paper publication. Appropriate path definitely leads to strong foundation leading to confidence in what ever technical work you do or present ultimately leading to jobs or successful ventures . Better understanding of concepts gives creative insights in to it resulting in efficient modification of the design or concept.So, in this article we are going to discuss about how you should foster yourself in your undergraduation years ie we will help you decide what kind of courses, projects, internships you select and how do you develop yourself as confident and successful automobile engineer right from the day one of your start of under graduation.

Requirements of an automobile engineer?????

So, before choosing the path you should have clear understanding of automobile engineering and what is expected from an automobile engineering after graduation.Automobile Engineering in simple terms is the study of concepts & working of different vehicles used all over the world. It includes sub-units of Mechanical Engineering, Thermal Engineering, Electronics, Safety and many more, concepts of which are used in the designing, production, quality management & operation of the vehicles used all over the world. Keeping the above definition in context, following are the requirements of an automobile engineer and what should be done to fulfil these requirements:

·        Mastering Design & Analysis Software: It is very important to have a sound knowledge of working with different design software like Solidworks, CATIA, ProE, and Analysis software like ANSYS, Hyperworks, specially, for the one who wants to develop his/her career in Design & Simulation department.

·        

     Learning from internship Opportunities: It is an important part of Engineering. Most of the interview questions are asked from the Intern & College projects. Punctuality & Sincerity towards the project not only improves the knowledge but provides a strong base for a successful career.

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    Having Hands on Experience: Practical Experience comes from the projects done in College, Internship and most important is participation in National Level SAE events like BAJA, SUPRA, Effi-cycle etc. Companies prefer a candidate with an experience of Team compatibility, Technical Knowledge, Positive Thinking. Role in the team or Project shows your involvement in the project and thus the qualities a company is looking for.

·       Strong Auto-Sector Knowledge: It is very important to be updated about the on-goings in the automobile industry. New technologies, new cars reviews etc. Specially, if you are planning to develop a career in Sales, Service & Marketing. It is always recommended to go through each edition of Auto Car & top Gear.

·     Innovative Thinking: The most important factor besides the technical knowledge, if you want to develop your career in the Research & Development Field (Toughest & most challenging job).

·    Logical Thinking: It is must for an R & D Executive. It’s not always innovations, but sometimes you need to troubleshoot the existing facility going wrong. 

Looking at the above requirements, it is important here to emphasize the way these requirements could be met. Following section describes in detail  various ways of doing it.We suggest a year wise development of solution throughout four years of undergraduation.

Building a Strong Foundation is most important!!!

There are many factors for building a strong foundation for a better future, like

·         Important subjects.

·         Extra-Courses.

·         Projects.

·         Habits.

·         Participation in Events and many more

For a stress free and effective output, it is not expected to give to attention all the above mentioned factors simultaneously. Each of the factors has its own importance at a particular time. 

So, let’s discuss Year-wise activities:

First Year

·         Important Subjects

o  Physics: Builds a strong foundation for upcoming core subjects. Since Automobile sector is highly based upon the basic physics concepts like Friction, Force, momentum etc.

o    Engineering Mechanics: It develops the vision of an automobile into simple mechanical system and thus is easy to understand the very working of the vehicles and studying about its motion.

o     Material Science: Subject is considered to be a tough one, but the importance of the subject is incomparable to other subjects. It has a great importance in the production or manufacturing side of the industry. Knowledge of Material can create a lot of scope for a better future.

o   Engineering Graphics: Basics of Engineering design. It’s very important to understand the designs and make design that can be understood by all the workers. It involves the representation of your imagination into a paper (2-D).

o   Workshop Technology: Familiarization with the tools & basic methods used for production.

·        Habits: Habit of reading magazines like Auto-Car & Top-Gear. Watching Automobile shows.

·         Extra Courses: In the break between 1^st & 2^nd year you can utilize the time by indulging in activities related to automobile repairing. You can visit auto-repairing shops and observe the working of different automobile components.

Second Year

·         Important Subjects

o   Thermal Engineering: Important for understanding the concepts of heat and its utilization in an Engine.

o    Strength of Materials: Highly important to design a structure with given loads and material.

o   Applied Fluid Mechanics: Important for studying flow characteristics related to vehicle. For ex. Aerodynamics, shape and design of the vehicle.

o   Components of Automotive Chassis: Core Automotive subject, introduces you to the basic components of an automobile.

o   IC Engines: One of the most important core auto-subject. Highly recommended, if you want to develop you career in Engine design, Engine Testing or R&D.

·        Habits: Habit of reading magazines like Auto-Car & Top-Gear. Watching Automobile shows. Reading Technical Papers about new generation automotive technologies.

·     Extra Courses: In the break between 2^st & 3^nd year you can utilize the time by doing a design software course of ProE, solidworks etc. with an Analysis Software like ANSYS.

·        

        Projects: Involvement in projects like BAJA, SUPRA & Effi-cycle is highly recommended to improve your practical hands-on experience.

·   Extra-curricular: Be an active SAEINDIA Member and follow the articles, Seminars & Webinars regularly.

Third Year    

·      

        Important Subjects

In the 3^rd and 4^th year of B.Tech you are mostly studying the core Automobile Engineering Subjects. So, all the subjects are very important this year to improve your knowledge about automobile and its working. Still, the most important subjects include: 

o   Automotive Chassis & Component DESIGN: Introduces you to the design requirements of an auto-component.

o   Vehicle Dynamics: Introduces to the design of Suspension system, theoretically & Aerodynamics concepts.

o   Transmission Design.

· Habits: Reading Technical Papers about new generation automotive technologies. Writing Technical articles & review papers

·      

     Extra Courses: INTERNSHIP.

·          

   Projects: College project should be chosen effectively, Involvement in projects like BAJA, SUPRA & Effi-cycle is highly recommended to improve your practical hands-on experience.

· Extra-curricular: Be an active SAEINDIA Member and follow the articles, Seminars & Webinars regularly.

Fourth Year 

·  Habits: Solving Aptitude questions daily, Revising Technical Concepts & if possible participating in a test series.

·      Extra Courses: If you want to apply for government sector in India go for GATE preparation. If MS is the your  aim  go for GRE .

·      Projects: College project of a R &D Level is recommended, Involvement in projects like BAJA, SUPRA & Effi-cycle is highly recommended to improve your practical hands-on experience.

·   Extra-curricular: Be an active SAEINDIA Member and follow the articles, Seminars & Webinars regularly.

·   

     Paper publication: Highly desirable. If you get involved in any R&D project, supply chain management project etc you must aim to publish paper in journals having high impact factor.

Following the above path with all the strategies mentioned, we ensure that you will develop high level of confidence and strong understanding of fundamentals which is highly highly desired by the recruiters during the job hunt and universities (in case you are planning to pursue PhD/MS).

We hope that you all will be benefited by this article and in case you have more questions please feel to type or email us.