An essential guide to completing engineering

Tomorrow is my review. 

First things first, if you aren't an engineer or aren't studying in an engineering college,you aren't going to understand the intricacies of that word.

A review is like a trickle of sweat on a chilly day, like the sinking feeling in your tummy when you see a question paper you don’t recognize, like a “fuck you” directly from the heavens…. All that and more

Let me explain.

We have 8 semesters. For the first 7 semesters we get the unimaginable delight of exposing our undeveloped intellect to the world of engineering and technology.Six subjects every sem totals to forty-two subjects till date plus a few labs !

The 8th semester however is a different ball-game altogether- the icing on the engineering cake:

" The Final Year Project"                                                 

After all that learning, the project allows us to do something innovative and present it to get a decent grade.

Now a final year project (henceforth referred to as FYP) ain’t your “creative What-an-idea website that could bring ebay down”. Oh no!

To do an FYP

1)      You need a guide.

Pay heed . This guide is THE single source of happiness for the next 4 months.If he/she likes you, then congragulations, you’ve passed the first test. Otherwise, anything and everything you do is going down the drain. Being a little quick and reserving a nice guide before someone else does is very essential.

2)      An IEEE paper.

Wiki calls IEEE as “The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE, read I-Triple-E) is a non-profit professional association headquartered in New York City that is dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence”.

The people who write IEEE papers are sophisticated PhDs ,MS, BS and research scientists who are born geniuses and been reading one single subject for the last 10 years. What an FYP entails is selecting an IEEE paper, assuming you understand its title ( bet you they deliberately complicate names )  theres even lesser chance of understanding what they are trying to explain.

Presuming you understand and like this paper, it forms the crux of your FYP. We selected a paper by the number of pages it had but do not repeat that mistake. Fewer pages are dangerous. These authors make references to 20 other IEEE papers that will in turn refer to 20 more papers each !

3)     An idea sirjee.

After crushing the paper a few times and cursing yourself for selecting the paper, you might have understood the concept of the paper. But that’s not all. I only said the paper forms the crux of your FYP.What you are going to have to do is understand the drawbacks of what this great genius scientist author suggests and come out with a solution to that. Being a lowly qualified 12^th pass from State Board has no significance. Elementary my dear Watson!

4)     Implementation

Coming up with an idea is no big deal. When we’ve found a 100 different ways to cheat in an exam , thinking of a solution to an IEEE paper  is a piece of cake.

You can come up with all the creative,mind-boggling ideas .But you’ll have to implement and show it.

For example if you propose a flying bicycle taking energy from the sun rays, you might as well be ready to build one.

Brilliant way to keep you grounded!

5)     Review

It’s the scary situation when all the most senior, intelligent staff in your department tears apart all that hard work that you’ve attempted to do on the FYP. It all boils down to this event. They ask all the right questions and make you wonder why you picked such a stupid idea in the first place. Presentations, printouts and some compulsory golmaals are an essential for getting through this without a panic attack.

Take backup. Take backup. Take backup.

My team lost all the documents that we had to present at a review just 30 seconds before it started. What are the odds!

These reviews are unpredictable. Prepare well and go, the panel rips you apart and when you least expect it, they give a pat on the back( never happened to me yet)

Only piece of advice: Work hard,learn and soak in the creative world of technology .Get yourself published in an IEEE journal.

 Haha!

Chill. My real advice: Grit your teeth and get through it. Aint no other option unless you want to spend a couple of thousands and buy the FYP outside ( No chance of that working in my college)