A career in Instrumentation Engineering

I am in inter second year (MPC). I am keen on pursuing instrumentation engineering. Please mention the colleges (in India and abroad) that offer this course, its nature of work and also the career scope? -Balaji, Secunderabad

Instrumentation engineering basically deals with the design, configuration and automated systems; and instrumentation engineers help in the designing, construction and maintenance of instruments and entire instrumentation systems of an industrial undertaking.

The nature of their work ranges from designing, developing, installing, and managing equipment which is used to monitor and control machinery and processes. They work with the industries with the goal of improving productivity, optimisation, stability, reliability, safety and continuity. Prof A Bhujanga Rao, from the department of instrumentation engineering, Andhra University says,

“This field is a multi-disciplinary stream and covers subjects from various branches such as chemical, mechanical, electrical, electronics and computers.” He adds that it is a specialised branch of electrical and electronic engineering and it deals with measurement, control and automation of processes.

It is one of the most complicated, but sophisticated branch of engineering; computer languages such as ‘C' and C++ are part of the curriculum and this stream can fit in both software and hardware sectors.

The careers of these engineers relate to continuous operating plants for various industry sectors such as chemicals, agro and petro chemicals, fertilisers, pesticides, insecticides, cement, paper, polymers, petroleum refining, power generation, oil and gas fields (onshore and offshore), industrial and scientific gas production, pharmaceuticals, breweries, distilleries, food production, processing and beverages, iron, steel and other metal refining companies, textiles and yarn. The job roles of an instrumentation engineer are:

• To design and develop control systems
• Construct and maintain the control systems
• Manage the control systems
• Collaborate with design engineers, purchasers and other staff members involved in the production processes
• Managing projects that also include cost and time
• Troubleshoot
• Ensure that the instruments comply with health and safety regulations
• Ensure that quality standards are maintained
• Provide consultancy support

The course is referred as B.Tech Electronics and Instrumentation, B.Tech – Control and Instrumentation in a few colleges. Whatever be the name the curriculum is the same.

A few engineering colleges in India offer BE/B.Tech programmes in Instrumentation Engineering as a separate branch or as combined subject with electronics. Colleges offering Instrumentation Engineering are:

• IIT Kharagpur
• Birla Institute of Technology (BIT)
• National Institutes of Technology, Trichy
• Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University)
• College of Engineering and Technology (Anna University); Andhra University
• Kakatiya Institute of Technology and Science, Warangal
• Ramrao Adik Institute of Technology, Mumbai
• Bharati Vidyapeeth’s College of Engineering, Mumbai
• Shri Guru Gobind Singhji Institute of Engineering and Technology (Nanded)
• Smt Indira Gandhi College of Engineering, Mumbai
• Dr BR Ambedkar National Institute of Technology, Jalandhar
• Dr MGR Educational and Research Institute University, Chennai
• NM Institute of Engineering and Technology, Odisha
• Sathyabama University, Chennai
• Bengal Engineering and Science University, Howrah, West Bengal
• Biju Patnaik University of Technology, Rourkela
• Chirala Engineering College, Chirala
• CVR College of Engineering
• Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, New Delhi
• Madras Institute of Technology, Anna University, Chennai
• Colleges abroad include:
• Stanford University
• Princeton University
• Cornell University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• University of California-Berkeley
• California Institute of Technology
• University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
• Georgia Institute of Technology
• University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
• Purdue University-West Lafayette

Industries today are switching almost all their processes to automation, and instrumentation and control engineers have a role to play in all the fields where there is automation because it is their core job and also automation is the buzz word in process industry.

The demand is so high in both private and public sector that every student finds at least two jobs waiting in the wings, by the time he or she completes her course, according to Dr Bhujanga Rao. Moreover, the growth in the space science sector, avionics and aeronautical sector has increased the scope for instrumentation engineers and there is a huge requirement for instrumentation professionals in the bio medical area too.

Industrial sectors that employ industrial engineers include:

• R&D organisations
• Steel plants
• Public/Private firms
• Thermal power plants
• Cement factories
• Chemical companies, etc

Few good non-PSU companies such as Honeywell Automation and Allan Bradley offer a good package in instrumentation job profiles. The other key recruiters include Aker Solutions, Chemtex, GS Consultancy, Jacob Engineering, Larsen and Toubro Ltd., Petrofac Ltd, Siemens Ltd, Tata Consultancy, Tata Power, Tecnimont ICB, Toyo Engineering, UHDE India Ltd, Chemtrols and Emerson. In the public sector, there are companies like EIL, BHEL, NTPC, SAIL, GAIL and ONGC.

By: Shehre Banu Kagalwala Bsc, MA, PGDPC, psychologist and career counselling for ADHD and learning disabilities; e-mail queries to [email protected]