The Gap

I've often wondered how physics relates to engineering. Well people may take me for a fool but I believe that in spite of the obvious links between them, they are in some measures, disjoint. Well, no use bickering. Let me start from the very beginning.

When I was an overenthusiastic (and I don't mean it in the good sense) student in high school, I was always fascinated by physics. I used to dream physics, drink physics, eat physics and even sleep with physics(not in the way you think). 

     

Then came a dark phase in my life which is no stranger to an Indian student: 11th and 12th standards. Well, I had opted for science and I really loved it. There was absolutely no doubt there. However, owing to popular media, I was gripped by what I refer to as the 'Engineer Fever'. This fever was so intense that it made me forget my love for physics and only concentrate on scoring high on the JEE scale. 

Well fortunately, I did a moderate take. While I was all set to go for a degree in Computer Science, my dad, owing to his intensive research, happened to come across IIST. I found my love for physics again and enrolled for engineering physics. Okay, enough backstory. Back to the point.

In the beginning, I used to think like any normal student: that engineering is influenced by physics and requires physicists to work together with engineers. While some of it is still true,I still realized how the opposite is actually followed. As  students of a dual degree, we were ridiculed and ignored by the rest of our peers. We were treated as outcasts. So, I started to research on why this was so.

I found that both the parties were at fault. Some of the students from Engineering Physics regularly ridiculed engineering students for not understanding the basic fundamentals of physics. And the engineering students criticized us for not having labs or work(cause only going to the lab means you're working). 

But I also found something more disturbing. I found a general apathy amongst my peers from engineering regarding some fundamentals of physics. For instance, whenever I would mention quantum mechanics, people would flee the room. It affected me so adversely that I ceased talking about it altogether. This created a huge gap between the engineers and physicists at our college. Funnily enough, the physicists (or at least I) would enquire about the engineers' research with active interest and even suggest feedback. 

It was until I met a few like minded individuals from the engineering department that I realized where the problem lay. Engineers are never taught how significant fundamental physics has been to engineering. They're probably not aware of the fact that their antipathy to quantum mechanics is funny considering the fact that every electronic device uses this principle. Their reluctance to bear with relativity is laughable when one considers the fact that GPS and location tracking is indispensable without it. 

However, even if you have an epiphany, seldom can you attempt to put it to good use. I'm afraid that I am not at all interested in bridging the Gap unless the engineers are willing to extend their hands. And similarly, the Gap grows in leaps and bounds with every passing year. I shudder to imagine the magnitude of this gap nationwide if it's so intense in a particular (national) college. I guess, that's why we haven't been able to integrate the two core branches of science yet.