- Chetan D. Pahlajani It’s the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) season, and so amidst the anxiety and anticipation capping years of hard work, you possibly find yourself wondering: “If I can make it to one of my preferred IITs, which BTech programme should I choose?” You look up the top choices: “Okay, Computer Science, then. But I think Mechanical or Electrical Engineering may be much broader. What about Chemical or Civil?” There’s input from friends and family, which might not all of is necessarily helpful. And then, perhaps, you love the sciences, but are ambivalent about engineering, and wonder: “Is engineering even the right choice for me? Perhaps I might be better off pursuing an Integrated MSc in the physical sciences.” These are difficult questions with no easy answers, and so, when the time comes, one will have to make an important life decision with incomplete information. The good news is that very often, one’s academic and professional trajectory and eventual success may not depend so much on making the perfect choice, but simply on making a good enough choice. Part of the reason is that a good BTech programme at many of the IITs is a remarkably good springboard for a variety of career paths, as is evident from the biographies of numerous distinguished IIT alumni. However, I want to turn my attention to the last group of students mentioned above, passionate about science but unsure about engineering. I too once belonged to that group, and following conventional wisdom at the time, chose engineering (though not at an IIT). What followed were a few not-so-happy years, but I fortunately had the opportunity to take several advanced Mathematics courses, and secured admission to a PhD programme in Mathematics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I wrote my doctoral thesis in Probability Theory guided by an advisor who, interestingly enough, had also started as a student in Electrical Engineering and then switched to a PhD in Applied Mathematics. I got a postdoctoral position, worked in the US for a few years, joined IIT Gandhinagar (IITGN) in 2014, and lived happily ever after. More or less. Anyway, back to you and your predicament. Well, one thing I have learned over the years is just how versatile an engineering degree can be, provided one can also take courses in one’s area of interest, whatever that may be. This brings me back to the IITs, specifically IITGN, since it is the only IIT where I have worked. Two big strengths of the BTech programme at IITGN are equipping engineering students with a solid foundation in the basic sciences, and providing students the chance to explore numerous courses outside their major. With Mathematics, all students are required to take a few core courses: single and multivariable calculus, ordinary differential equations, linear algebra, and numerical analysis. Additionally, each engineering department may require their students to take specific courses. Although IITGN is a relatively young institution, we can offer a wide range of courses in numerous disciplines, allowing BTech students to take MSc/ PhD level courses in Mathematics and the Sciences (or Humanities and Social Sciences, for that matter). Further, students who have completed at least four semesters with satisfactory academic performance can also apply for a joint BTech/MSc dual degree, where the additional MSc degree can be completed in a reasonable amount of time. We recently had a BTech student from Mechanical Engineering take this route, also completing an MSc in Mathematics in the process. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Mathematics at Ohio State University. The take-home message here is that with a bit of flexibility and access to Mathematics and Science courses, an Engineering degree can be an excellent launchpad for pursuing higher education and a career in these fields. Besides academics, Mathematics PhDs have found careers in Quantitative Finance, and more recently, in Data Science. And so, if you think your dream is to study the Navier-Stokes equations or Algebraic Geometry or Particle Physics or Neuroscience - but you’re not yet sure - a good BTech programme might not be a bad place to start. (The writer is an associate professor of Mathematics at IIT Gandhinagar) (A Lesson from IIT is a weekly column by an IIT faculty member on learning, science and technology on campus and beyond. The column appears every Friday)
