Highway to success

• Q: What is highway engineering and where is it taught?

— Rohit Chugh

• A: Highway engineering is the process of designing and construction of highways and roads. It has its roots in civil engineering. Highway engineers design, plan, survey and construct all types of roads, bridges and other structures that connect cities and dwellings.

The projects are executed after detailed designing and calculations. A highway engineer also supervises the work at construction sites, keeping in mind quality and proper maintenance.

Construction companies handling large projects such as townships and housing complexes employ highway engineers. There are openings in the government sector, defence services, harbours and ports.

Standards of highway engineering are continuously being improved. Concepts such as grade, surface texture, sight distance and radii of horizontal bends and vertical slopes in relation to design speed and in addition to road junction design (intersections and interchanges) are important elements of highway engineering. Most developed nations have extensive highway networks.

Since the government is giving top priority to the development of core infrastructure, including roads and bridges, the career prospects of highway engineers have vastly improved. The National Highways Authority of India and state government agencies are giving contracts worth thousands of crores to private companies to construct roads and bridges, thus opening up opportunities for highway engineers.

You need to be a civil engineer with a specialisation in highway and traffic engineering, which is taught in colleges like Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, or those under Anna University (www.annauniv.edu). Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Nalanda Parisar, Indore, offers a one-year PG diploma in the subject.

Shape up or ship out

• Q: How does one get the job of a surveyor with the Indian Register of Shipping?

— Ninay Ghosh

• A: The Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) advertises vacancies every three months. Around 50-60 persons, all first class graduates in naval architecture and different branches of engineering, are recruited every year. They are provided training, which could extend up to four years. Only after completion of five years, are they authorised to undertake surveys under the supervision of senior surveyors.

During construction, IRS surveyors verify the material at shipyards, supervise welding procedures, check fabrication and inspect all essential machinery during manufacturing installation at the shipyard. They also go to manufacturers’ works to inspect essential machinery and equipment at various stages of construction.

Engineering dreams for Eves

• Q: I am a student of Class XI with physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology as subjects. Could you tell me whether I should opt for medicine or engineering? How many women engineers are there in India?

— Meera Khaneja

• A: Making a career decision is not the easiest thing in the world. There are plenty of women engineers. While there may be relatively fewer women in the traditional branches of engineering like civil or mechanical — which involve working outdoors, on site or on the factory shop floor — their number is growing. And there are any number of hotshot electronics, computer and even aeronautical engineers who are women.

The same goes for doctors.

But please don’t let mere statistics guide your choice of career. Numbers don’t count. Your calibre does.

Both medicine and engineering are top-of-the-line options, which leads me to believe that you are keen on pursuing a professional career. It’s therefore essential to go by your interests, aptitude and inclination rather than conform to outdated beliefs and assumptions. This is certainly not to belittle certain practical considerations. For instance, if you are keen on medicine but don’t savour the prospect of being on call round-the-clock, you may opt for fields like dentistry, ophthalmology or dermatology and plastic surgery, which pose fewer emergencies. By the way, should you wish to have the best of both medicine and technology, you could opt for biomedical engineering / science or biotechnology among others.

Whatever you do, keep in mind that if women continue to opt for the typical soft options they’ve been traditionally pursuing, they’re bound to remain confined to conventional age-old stereotypes. True, to get ahead, a woman may have to work twice as hard as her male counterpart, but fortunately, that’s not at all difficult. Also, do make a realistic SWOT analysis to assess your strengths and weakness. This will make for greater clarity and help prioritise your goals.