We cannot imagine a civilized society without the contribution of civil engineers. Fast technological advancement, growing population and rapid urbanization is demanding creative infrastructural solutions like never before.From buildings and structures, water and sanitation to transport and energy, the way modern infrastructure is designed, delivered,administered and maintained has a phenomenal impact on everyone’s lives today. Civil engineers are taking up a significant role of managingthis complex, ever increasing and constantly dynamic changes of society and environment.
Since time immemorial, civil engineers have stepped up and innovated to solve issues and helped society overcome grinding obstacles to transform the lives of people. No matter what the challenges are, agile and innovative civil engineers can unlock great opportunities and help society progress with faster, cheaper and effective infrastructural solutions. In this article, we will explore why and how modern civil engineers can play pivotal role in building the foundation of a smart nation.
Smart Civil Engineers are in Demand to Support the Growth of Smart Cities
The advent of “smart city” concept has necessitated the emergence of civil engineers with digital thinking and capabilities. Present day civil engineers need to work with better connectivity, greater availability of data and phenomenal rise in processing power. Effectively trained civil engineers will be empowered to combat challenges and design advanced infrastructural systems to support the development of smart cities.
New Skills for the New Age Civil Engineers to Thrive in this Smart Age
In order to thrive in this competitive-era, aspiring civil engineers need to imbibe new-age skills and rewrite their strategy of equipping themselves with relevant education. Today, the engineers need to address challenges with an adept understanding of digital technologies vis-à-vis soft infrastructures governing human behaviours. Civil Engineering in the modern age is not only about construction of hard infrastructures but this discipline also needs tobridge the gap in soft infrastructures. The civil engineers today must be trained to develop the ability to lead change with innovation and data insights.
Civil Engineers Today Need to Rebuild Existing Infrastructural Systems
A modern city is a convergence of new and old infrastructural systems. Civil Engineers with an integrated approach to deliver solutions also need to focus on restoring ageing infrastructures or replacing them to maintain the overall safety of cities and also meet the needs of the citizens. Over and above creating, upgrading, maintaining and operating individual infrastructure projects, new age civil engineers must have a concept of productivity and also ensure that their infrastructural control systems are able to efficiently improve outcomes for people.
Wider Societal Challenges are Being Addressed by Modern Civil Engineers
Present day civil engineering professionals also play a great role in improving the overall well-being of the society.Directly or indirectly, civil engineering contributes to solving environmental challenges, including wide-reaching issues such as scarcity of resources, climate change and inequality. The responsive engineering institutions are equipping civil engineers to handle the twin challenge of providing solutions those are resilient to environmental changes. Future civil engineers will also be expected to deliver with minimum consumption of energy and natural resources.
Civil Engineers Need to Create Value with Citizen-centric Thinking
Career scope for proficient civil engineers who can think from the shoes of modern citizens is increasing every day. Modern civil engineers need to discover new ways of collecting data insights, understand the ramifications of digital lifestyles and create more effective digital interfaces to ensure positive impact on the quality of life of the people.
Industry is looking for cutting-edge civil engineers with innovative mindset and faster processing power to meet the demands of this dynamic domain. As a result, visionary engineering institutions like Dream Institute of Technology are upgrading their pedagogy to help modern civil engineers break the status quo of the civil engineering profession and move forward with a vision to develop better ecosystems.