How does a country which produces 1.5 million engineers every year manage to innovate so little? What is a Stress-equation and how does it shed light on this problem? 

The topic, being very close to my heart, naturally resulted in me writing my lengthiest article till date. So, please stick with me.  

To begin answering the question we need to get a clear idea of the problem in the first place. Therefore, in order for us to get an idea of the problem, let us take a look at two air crafts which took to air around roughly the same year.

Seen below is a picture of the Hansa aircraft built from scratch by the National Aerospace Laboratories, India.

Take a good look at this picture. Observe the air frame, the propeller and the landing gears because the next picture that I am showing is a slightly different one.

Shown below is a picture of the Russian made fighter aircraft Sukhoi 30. Take a moment and take good, long looks at the two pictures.

Having seen the two pictures, let us get to know what they are all about. The Hansa, as seen in the first picture, made it’s first flight in 1999. Designed and developed by the National Aerospace Laboratories, India, It is an all-composite, commercial two-seat trainer aircraft used to train amateur pilots and also used for hobby flying. What should have been a low-weight trainer, ended up weighing 750 kilograms (the whole point of a composite body is to weigh less when compared to it’s metal counterpart). Other commercial planes which belong to the same category as the Hansa weigh as little as 350 kilograms with an all-metal body. Yes, with an all-metal body. Digging deeper we find that over eighty percent of the components used in the Hansa are imported from other nations (including, of course, the engine). It was a commercial failure. A basic two-seat trainer aircraft built by the nation’s most prestigious Aircraft R&D facility was a failure.

Interesting fact, 01: The trolley needed to carry the imported General Electric Jet-Engine for the Indian-made Tejas fighter-jet had to be imported from General Electric, which caused an additional delay in its deadline. 

Next, let us learn about the aircraft shown in the second picture. The Sukhoi-30 fighter jet is a 100-percent Russian made (including the super-complex jet engine) supersonic fighter jet. It made it’s first flight in the year 1996. What took to the air in ’96 has since made history. Arguably the most destructive and feared 4th-gen fighter aircraft of all time is an engineering masterpiece which is unrivaled in its segment. One can talk endlessly about the Sukhoi but I think this gives us a fair idea for now.

Interesting fact, 02: The Sukhoi-30 is Indian Air Force’s main fighter jet. 

We are now beginning to understand what exactly is the problem. How did a country with a population of 1.3 Billion (which produces 1.5 million engineers a year) manage to fail at making a two-seat, light weight beginner level trainer aircraft? And how, on the other hand, did a country with a population of 144 million manage to produce the great Sukhoi-30, three years before the Hansa made it’s maiden flight?

With a country so diverse and so populated, the problems that arise as consequences of the same are bound to be complex. The problem in our education system, hence, is certainly a complex issue. But, sometimes, the most mystifying of problems are explained successfully by the simplest of reasoning. I do not claim to have found the solution but a brief idea of where to look.

I recently had the honor of finding myself in the class of a great human. Let us call him by the name Dr.A for now. Dr.A was the Head of Department of an important department at one of the premiere defense R&D establishments of India. For reasons that are best not mentioned here, Dr.A resigned from his post and started his own Firm. With degrees, patents and medals that run into several sheets, one can say that he is a clear authority in his field. The first thing he did when he entered the class was to write the stress equation on the board and asked us to explain what the equation truly conveyed.

This is what the stress equation looks like:

The stress equation is the most basic of the engineering equations that is taught to all freshers irrespective of their field of engineering. It states (as explained to us, students, without exception) that the stress produced in a body can be defined as the load applied on it divided by the area of cross section of the body at the region of application of the said force. Simple and spot-on isn’t it? Oh, how I wish it was that way too!

“Wrong!”, he shouted!

Dr.A, having written four books (yes, four books) on this one topic alone explained how one could not make a more fundamental error on such an important foundation topic of engineering. For the sake of the theme of this article, let us not look into the exact definition of stress equation. But, to ease your curiosity, here is what I learnt from Dr.A’s explanation in brief:

1. It is impossible to measure the magnitude stress.
2. The concept of load, as explained in the conventional definition, is wrong. Load is nothing but an illusion. A concept used to simplify things for us.

1.5 million students every year are taught the same faulty thing over and over again he said.

“1.5 million” , he stressed.

He continued with his explanation.

“A tank with no water in it is of no use to the tap connected to it and subsequently of no use to the people who come to it seeking water” , he added.

This reminded me of an interesting passage I had read in a book. Richard Feynman, arguably the most influential physicist of the 20th century, writes in one of his books, a particularly noteworthy event in his childhood. It goes something like this:

Feynman, who often used to visit the woods with his dad, is asked by his dad one day, to name the bird which they had spotted a few meters ahead. Feynman, as enthusiastic as ever, names the bird (a Thrush, I believe) in more than one language. To this, his father replies,

“Good. Very good. You know the name of the bird in several languages, but what does that tell about the bird itself?”

This very small event, as Feynman points out, led him to understand a profound lesson. The lesson that knowing something by it’s name and knowing something about it are two completely separate things.

Interesting fact, 03: Feynman was a part of the Manhattan Project. The project that led to the development of the Little Man and the Fat Boy bombs used to nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War 2. 

The teachers who talk so freely about the stress equations, what do they actually know about it? Which leads us to a very disturbing question. The 1.5 million students who call themselves engineers, what do they actually know about it at the end of it all? As Dr.A puts it, the same person who could not draw any water from the empty tank is of no use when it comes to sharing and contributing water with others. So, what do these people end up becoming? They end up becoming empty tanks themselves.

“An empty tank which has no water to share ends up creating a hundred other empty tanks around it.”

“Imagine an  educational institution inside the industry itself. Imagine the student walking through the machine shop, the fabrication shop and the testing departments everyday on his way to the class. Imagine if the student is trained by the very people who work in those industries. How beautiful would that be?” , Dr.A said.

“1.5 million engineers would come out. True engineers”, he added with a spark in his eyes.

Interesting fact, 04: There are very few written exams in the Russian education system. Exams are sometimes conducted interview style where the student has to explain the subject to a layman and the professor alike. In some universities, only people with a minimum of 15 years of experience in the industry can even apply for the post of professorship.    

“It is exactly for this reason, the Hansa failed. Because of empty-tanks controlling the shots. It is because of people who know the fancy names of theories but not the intricacies behind them, taking all the decisions“, Dr.A said.

Dr.A stopped his lecture and gave us time to digest all the things he had just shared with us. He gave us time to drink the water of knowledge that his brain had just shared. It gave me time to ask some important questions. I was forced to wonder at his simple explanation of such a complex subject.  I was forced to think about the state of Indian education if each and every student asked these questions to themselves.

So, what do you want to become? An empty tank? Or a Dr.Tank? 

 

PS: I completely understand and acknowledge that there are thousands of people in these institutions who are ever so deserving to be recognized for their works. But the problem in general exists nation-wide. So therefore, I hope I have not offended anyone with this article. Many generalizing statements were made in this article and it was done not to hurt/offend any one particular individual or a group but to explain such a complicated issue in simple terms. If you have felt offended by it, then I am truly sorry for that. I meant no personal provocations.