Impetus 2012 — the two-day technology fest organised by University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) — kicked off on Friday. The speakers emphasised on the need to keep environment conservation in mind while developing technology.
“Engineers have a task for the future generation and that is to make sustainable living a priority,” said MS Gopinatha, an UVCE alumnus and employee of Siemens. “Green living and green architecture is something that should be focused on. Green design is nothing more than an extension of this,” he added.
Gopinatha also spoke about the need for technology to be on par with societal needs. “We can see right now how technology affects the society and some of the challenges for engineers in the future are about designing products that can be recycled and harnessed for renewable energy, and propagate environmental conservation,” he said. Yet another aspect Gopinatha stressed upon was the need to turn away from traditional career options.
“Now is not the time to go after the same jobs. We should be creating an entrepreneurial society in India. Wealth should be created by the youth and they should also be creating opportunities for future generations. There is no point now in going for jobs in America, as there is saturation there. We should be creating jobs for the world now,” he added.
UVCE principal Prof KR Venugopal, who presided over the event, blamed brain-drain from the country as the reason for lack of top-class technological innovations. “A good engineer wants to go abroad. We are developing good doctors and engineers, but they are not staying here. Ancient India was at the forefront of technological innovation and according to all polls published in recent times, India will once again be on top,” he said.
