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I entered Chemical Engineering at IITK with modest prior knowledge of the field. What I discovered was a transformative journey beyond imagination.
After my JEE Advanced exam, when I had adequately rested for a month after those grilling 2 years, and those JOSAA seat applications were nearing, I watched a few YouTube videos to get an idea of Chemical Engineering, assuming it to be related to Chemistry that I had liked so far . And, oh boy! My assumption was way off. Chemical Engineering is in no way like Chemistry. Those videos gave me a good initial idea of what a Chemical Engineer does. I liked that, and hence, I chose Chemical Engineering at IITK based on my JEE rank.
Yet, Chemical Engineering at IITK surprised me with the depth and rigour it had to offer in Chemical Engineering beyond the basic idea provided by those videos. A degree in Chemical Engineering lays the foundations to become not only a true Chemical engineer to address environmental, social, and ethical challenges across all industries and sectors of modern society, but it also prepares you as an upcoming leader of the future generations, something that is expected of you as an IITian. Needless to say, I don’t regret my decision to pursue Chemical Engineering at IIT-K even one bit.
My involvement in Chemical Engineering has helped me develop important skills such as problem-solving, communication, teamwork, critical thinking, and attention to detail. The best thing is that these skills are important everywhere in today’s world, no matter in which field you go.
For solving a Chemical Engineering problem, you need to consider a ton of factors and smartly work your way through it in order to efficiently solve it. This helps you flex your problem-solving muscles. Furthermore, you also need to work with different people from a variety of backgrounds, and collaborate effectively to achieve common goals. This requires teamwork skills. Similarly, you have to think critically, and pay attention to detail, keeping in place safety measures for anything you design. Even minuscule errors can give rise to huge disasters! Again, all these skills are important not only in just Chemical Engineering, but in all facets of your life.
Being a part of the Chemical Engineering world has molded me into a practical problem-solver with a deep-rooted passion for making the world a better place using sustainable, innovative and creative ways. I've honed my skills to tackle real-world projects with the ability to create positive change in society.
As you study more and more about Chemical engineering, and do projects, research, and/or industrial internships in Chemical Engineering, your knowledge of Chemical Engineering keeps evolving. Chemical Engineers are resourceful and multi-faceted individuals, and they fulfill a lot of roles. Hence, even while working as a Chemical Engineer, you always keep on learning and improving with experience.
My initial expectations about Chemical Engineering, as I shared above, were guided by YouTube videos. I thought, all Chemical Engineers do is to set up new and new factories (Spoiler alert: That happens very rarely in real life. Instead, it is quite a long-drawn task due to the immense complexity and many governmental regulations).
Over the years, however, I realized the rigorousness and the breadth of knowledge that a Chemical Engineer must be aware of. From Thermodynamics and Fluid mechanics, to Mass and Heat transfer, from Reaction engineering and Process control, to Chemical process and Industry Design, from familiarity with lab work to sufficient coding skills for simulations and rapid numeric analysis, there are a lot of things to cover . However, it’s not something to be afraid of. The department and its unparalleled professors do an exceptional job of covering all these and more, with the potential to deep dive into so many possibilities for further research, if you so desire.
All of this knowledge is required for a Chemical Engineer in order to efficiently utilize resources as inputs, and produce desired outputs with the least amount of undesired side-effects happening, keeping industrial safety at the top of our minds.
As you study more and more about Chemical engineering, and do projects, research, and/or industrial internships in Chemical Engineering, your knowledge of Chemical Engineering keeps evolving. Chemical Engineers are resourceful and multi-faceted individuals, and they fulfill a lot of roles. Hence, even while working as a Chemical Engineer, you always keep on learning and improving with experience.
My involvement in Chemical Engineering has helped me develop important skills such as problem-solving, communication, teamwork, critical thinking, and attention to detail. The best thing is that these skills are important everywhere in today’s world, no matter in which field you go.
For solving a Chemical Engineering problem, you need to consider a ton of factors and smartly work your way through it in order to efficiently solve it. This helps you flex your problem-solving muscles. Furthermore, you also need to work with different people from a variety of backgrounds, and collaborate effectively to achieve common goals. This requires teamwork skills. Similarly, you have to think critically, and pay attention to detail, keeping in place safety measures for anything you design. Even minuscule errors can give rise to huge disasters! Again, all these skills are important not only in just Chemical Engineering, but in all facets of your life.
Being a part of the Chemical Engineering world has molded me into a practical problem-solver with a deep-rooted passion for making the world a better place using sustainable, innovative and creative ways. I've honed my skills to tackle real-world projects with the ability to create positive change in society.
Yes, the department and its professors offer you wonderful opportunities to work on research projects not just at IITK, but also worldwide. Being a part of an esteemed institute gives a lot of weight to your credentials if you want to explore research options anywhere across the world, in absolutely any field that you find interesting (be it working on a cricket ball swinging, or how chocolate flows, and what not!).
In my journey at IITK, I blame myself for not deep-diving into research, despite having numerous opportunities to do so, and having excellent friends in my own batch and my seniors who have done exceptionally well in the field of research. I have done a couple of UGPs (Under-Graduate Projects) under professors in the department, but in my opinion, my tasks were partially research-oriented at best. Still, it isn’t the case that I didn’t gain any learnings from them at all. I’m glad that I did those projects, not just for the technical skills that I learned along the way (which I did), but also for getting the feeling of being continually mentored by an esteemed professor for a semester-long project that I had to create. That gave me some flavour of how research feels like, even without doing a research project explicitly. And I’m an ardent believer of the statement that “There’s nothing that you learn from your life experiences as a young adult, that doesn’t help you all throughout your life!”. Each and every experience in life genuinely teaches you a lot!
Hence, I encourage future students and my juniors to give a fair shot, and an honest attempt at research, even if you’re aiming for a corporate life (which is not a lesser goal to have in life).
After wrapping up my undergraduate journey in Chemical Engineering, my game plan is a bit like a chemistry experiment – full of exciting reactions and unexpected outcomes!
I'm eager to apply my acquired skills to real-world challenges, and make a positive impact in the world through my work. I am particularly interested in working in areas where Chemical Engineering and Machine Learning can be used to improve people's lives, such as environment, healthcare, and energy issues.
I am confident that my skills and passion will enable me to make a difference in the world. The future holds a world of possibilities, and I'm ready to dive in, bringing a mix of expertise and enthusiasm with me!