Is Computer Science Course (2022 Beyond) an Opportunity or Obsession? Fad or Fortune? Vertical Skill or Horizontal Skill? Read this perspective

Dear Friends and Students

The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) revived the American economy but it also created a significant negative impact. Indigenous societies were attacked, approximately 3 lakhs people migrated to California from the rest of the US and abroad, gold worth tens of billions were recovered, which led to great wealth for a few, but for many a little. One large negative aspect of the Gold Rush was how it affected the environment around it, miners devastated the surrounding ecosystem and flooded the rivers with sediment, the sediment washed downstream and flooded farms, and ruined the crops.

What is the connection between Gold Rush and CSE Crush? Looks like both are creating a similar impact. As per statista.com, Number of students enrolled in engineering at an undergraduate level across India in 2020, by discipline (CSE 9.35L, Mech 6.84L, ECE 6.11L, Civil 4.84L, EEE 3.7L). Furthermore, in the last 2 years the number of seats in CSE have dramatically increased! A few colleges converted traditional core engineering seats to CSE. A few colleges increased intake in CSE. A few colleges added new branches of the CSE family (AI-ML, DS, IoT, Business Systems, Blockchain, Cybersecurity etc.) For e.g., the state of Tamil Nādu increased seats in these courses by over 50% this year (2021- 35K, 2022- 57K).  

Multiple Signals now point to Europe/ U.S. Recession. The link between the US slowdown and IT is always significant. Margin pressures are increasing for all IT companies. As A Result, there would be slowdown in lateral hiring, campus hiring may happen but delayed onboarding, significant layoffs, risk for professionals on bench, expecting deep expertise from the freshers and so on.

How does this situation impact aspirants wishing to join CSE only? Today out of 10 enquiries, 9 enquiries for CSE, 1 for ECE and rest almost nil! This is not a good sign. This is a clear obsession! Computer Science students are of 3 Types- Type 1. Deep Algorithmic & High Reasoning/Problem Solving ability (only 10% have this) Type 2. Reasonable Coding Knowledge with average reasoning (>60%) Type 3. Low computational thinking (30%). Type 3 students are unfit for the software industry.

Today Type 2 students possess basic programming, a little bit of data structures knowledge, peripheral view of databases and a few software tools. They are called CSE graduates. These students suffer a lot during a recession. If a mechanical/EEE/Civil/Chemical student with basic programming, basic database & data structures orientation, can outperform Type 2 CSE students. They learn worldly knowledge through their core domain skills. With basic automation skills (Programming and IoT orientation), they can bring more business to organizations. They can also contribute towards Engineering automation.

The Departments of CSE and ECE are no longer Vertical Skills!! It is a hard truth. Mechanical, Civil, Chemical, Electrical are Vertical departments. CSE/ECE are horizontal departments. They provide support to Vertical departments in their automation pursuits. Core engineering domain industry needs people with good domain skills, programming skills, and engineering software usage skills. These students are more productive than Type 2 CSE students in future. CSE AI-ML and Data science branches need students of CSE Type 1 level. They need a good understanding of Math, Statistics, Programming, and domain orientation. Type 2 CSE students merely use the algorithms developed by Type 1 CSE. Even Mechanical/Civil/Chem/EEE can use (not create) these ML algorithms and can be called Data scientists.

Institutions suffer if they keep on depending on CSE Glory. They have to quickly divide whole education into verticals and horizontals. Horizontal departments should offer skills/electives and make them compulsory for every vertical student. Horizontal departments students should groom towards Type 1 level. Type 2 CSE/ECE students have less market sustainability.  Hence, they need to be moved upwards (Towards Type 1). For e.g., they need to be trained in competitive coding or VLSI design/IoT expertise, etc. If they cannot go upward, they should be trained in Management and Entrepreneurship. Type 3 students should be quickly identified and push them towards their passion. If this strategy is not implemented in the institutions, CSE crush becomes CSE crash!

Convert Obsession to Opportunity! A Fad to Fortune! Avoid Crush to Crash!

Are you Type 1 CSE/ECE or Type 2 CSE/ECE or Type 3 CSE/ECE? If you are Type 2 go upwards or change your hat quickly! If you are Type 3, wear a new dress altogether!

Ravi Saripalle

 

75 Years of Independence! What is India’s Greatest Asset that has remained till date? Which Asset is put at risk and imperiling?

Dear Friends and Students

 

Finally, we crossed 75 years! Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is an initiative of the Government of India to celebrate and commemorate 75 years of independence and the glorious history of its people, culture and achievements. The first half of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav is a great success!! These celebrations started on Fri, 12 Mar, 2021 and will end by Tue, 15 Aug, 2023. It has instilled Nationalistic fervor among the people. This celebration is a form of respect for the Indian independence movement which was a series of historic events lasting between 1857 and 1947.

Now time has arrived to examine the assets and liabilities left in Independent India! Assets have to be preserved and Liabilities are to be converted to opportunities. There are many assets and liabilities but the greatest asset ever could be the “Family and Culture”. The immediate question would be which asset is at risk? In my view the answer is again “Family and Culture”.

Quantitatively I may not be able to write this article but thematically I try to represent the situation.

75 years back a family means parents, their 5-6 children and their children together living in a single house. Couple of them work, a couple of them serve, a couple study and you will see all varieties​ of services available under one roof. This is called sharing of wealth. Old age, illness, unemployment, loneliness, stress, divorce, well-being of children, their personality development, marriage alliances within family and friends, zero food waste and many more are under one-roof managed! A small business managed by father and sons (backup plan, shift plan, roster plan by father as Project Manager). Today we have to purchase every piece in the above list as a service (SaaS or PaaS etc)? Is it an economic gain or loss or Family & culture gain or loss or both? In my view, Loss!

75 years ago a piece of land was cultivated by a group of brothers! Division of families is inviting farmland shrinking.  Part of the land is cultivated for rice, adjacent pieces used for commercial crop, another brother mortgaged for educational loan, another brother sells it for real-estate! One acre land is divided into multiple shareholdings and multiple services are generated! (Today we believe more in microservices architecture right!) Where are the economies of scale? Is it not the cause for soil mismanagement? (Erosion, fertilizer mismatch, water sharing disadvantage and field workers management)

75 years back mother-in-law was dominating and controlling 5-6 daughters-in-law. Of course, there were a few hiccups in those days as well. However, under the joint family system mother-in-law was like a corporate program manager and her ultimate goal was to execute the project (house) successfully. In the process, a few ego exchanges (change requests) but they were not out of budget (family). However, today the same project is divided into multiple projects (we believe in agile methodology) leading to multiple project managers (wife/husband) managing micro teams (managing their children) and finally trying to integrate and deploy as a single project (Integration Failure). DevOps is invited (automated services) but costing heavily to each micro project (nuclear family issues). Due to overall project integration errors, finally the overall program head (grandparents) laid off from the company! The Standish Group's 2020 CHAOS report estimates that around 66% of software projects fail due to various project management issues! Similarly, I am sure a large number of parents are suffering in their old age!!

Unfortunately, 75 years back the mother-in-law/daughter-in-law story was within the walls. When the occasion rose, they were together. Keeping this weakness (this age-old issue exists from Satya yuga onwards), a few investors are cashing in by creating movies, serials, web-series etc. While this is fun and entertainment, it affects the individual reticular cortex of the human brain. This seed slowly sinks in the human consciousness and becomes like a plague in the society. This leads to family breakup and disintegration of our culture. I am sure a few other cultures are also suffering from this. 20 years ago I stayed in Singapore for 3 months. Evenings I used to watch a Chinese serial (through English subtitles and expressions). Theme was again the same issue! Now you can imagine how a few invested in the cultural weakness! Any weakness in our family and culture leads to another coronavirus! This is the most important economic principle.

The Indian population is crossing 138 crores or 1380 million. According to a Ministry of External Affairs report, there are 32 million NRIs and OCIs residing outside India. Overseas Indians comprise the world's largest overseas diaspora. Every year 2.5 million (25 lakhs) Indians migrate overseas, which is the highest annual number of migrants in the world. Sometimes, we cannot stop this. Partly it is healthy as well.  We get a lot of FDI. Culture spreads across the world. This is a good sign. However, among this 2%, we have a lot of intellectuals and talented people who could have contributed here. This is called opportunity loss. We all need to work innovatively to bring their mindshare here while they reside out of the country (captive centre model). 75 years of India is carrying this risk. I am sure a lot of these intellectuals are helping in outsourcing of services back to India. However, more conscious effort is needed (revenue sharing or profit-sharing model)!!

How much are you contributing and how much are you withdrawing from our greatest asset- “Family and Culture”?

Ravi Saripalle

 

Do You Love Data? The 60 Years of Data Career Story! Every Computer Literate should know from Early “Database Management” to Contemporary “Data Thinking” in Simple Terms! Read this!!

Dear Students and Friends

Recently many students are aspiring for CSE, CSE(Data Science), CSE (AI-ML), etc. Yesterday I was talking to a parent. He is not computer literate but he is betting big on Data Science for his ward’s software career. He was bullish that if his ward does BTech in Data Science, he gets a huge package!! I asked a simple question-what is Data Science sir? Chuckling! He sincerely said, he doesn’t know anything beyond this word! Moreover, he was not expecting this question from me!

It is not one parent, but many educated parents are getting into this domain specific trap. Last year I made a YouTube video explaining the difference between CSE, CSE (AI-ML), IT and CSE (Data Science)- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puRhpSSzHJ4 . I am happy that I can see more than 15000 views of this video. However, I thought we would write a special article on Data oriented careers. Please read this!

Computer Science is no longer a branch of other disciplines (earlier it was part of EEE and then specialized to ECE and CSE etc. That was an old story). Similarly, Data World is another dedicated discipline within computer science. People who take up Data related careers need different qualities and traits.

For e.g., If I want to take up a core algorithm development job using some programming language, I require a lot of IQ and mathematical & logical aptitude. If I have to do a Testing job, I need a lot of creativity and patience. If I have to do a software project management job, I require a lot of EQ and SQ. If I have to do an IT Infrastructure related job, I require critical thinking, Problem-solving and decision-making skills. If I have to do Data Family related jobs, I require analytical thinking, visualization capability, mathematical modelling, articulation and storytelling capability!

The Data Family is huge! Let me try to explain concepts with a few examples.

Database: Anywhere you need to store, analyze and retrieve data, you use a database. A Phone book is a database. Your transactions in your bank account are a database. When you go to the doctor, your diagnosis and treatment are stored in a database. Your company sales is a database.

Datawarehouse: Databases provide real-time data, whereas warehouses store data to be accessed for big analytical queries including historical data. Data warehouses are primarily designed to facilitate searches and analyses and usually contain large amounts of historical data.

Datamart: A data mart is very similar to a Datawarehouse, However, unlike a Datawarehouse, the scope of visibility is limited. A data mart supplies subject-oriented data necessary to support a specific business unit.

Data Lake: A data lake stores an organization’s raw and processed (unstructured and structured) data at both large and small scales. Unlike a Datawarehouse or Database, a Data Lake captures anything the organization deems valuable for future use including images, videos, PDFs, etc. However, the technology used in a Data Lake is much more complex than in a Datawarehouse.

Big Data: Big Data in the simplest of words is huge amounts of DATA. A Data Lake is a repository for Big Data.

Datamining, Data Analytics/Data Analysis, Data Science, Data Thinking: Data mining is a process of extracting useful information, patterns, and trends from huge databases. It is a subset of Data Analytics/ Data Analysis. Data Analysis is a subset of Data Science. Data Science + Design Thinking is now termed as Data Thinking. Data Thinking is the new philosophy adapted in the data world. It is a human centered way of dealing with data strategy (empathy, synthesis, ideation, prototyping and testing). 

Let me share a simple example to understand these technical terms better:

ABC marriage bureau stored all prospective brides and grooms’ information in a Database. However, if you add their Horoscope, their family history and all relevant information then it is called Datawarehouse. If we want only one sect in a particular caste, brides and grooms’ details, it is called Datamart. If we add entire social media details of all brides and grooms belonging to one particular city, their Facebook and Instagram’s photos, their educational degree proofs in pdf formats, their employment details and certificates in multiple images and so on, it is called a Data Lake. If we store all city profiles of this size into one repository, then it is called Big Data.

If we want to get meaningful information from a particular family/surname specific detail, it is called Data Mining. If we want to bring some visualizations/ analysis using some statistical models in a particular family and their upbringing over a period of time then it is called data analysis/data analytics. If we want to know how this family is going to behave or be financially positioned in the next 10 years, or how they change their lifestyle etc, then we have to use advanced statistical tools and it is called Data Science. If we want to understand why one particular segment of grooms are not getting married or why particular segment of pairs are divorcing, then you have to deal that data with an empathetic view and create an analysis, generate ideas to solve this problem, develop a few solutions etc which is called as Design Thinking way of dealing Data. Now this kind of view is called Data Thinking.

When Data Science meets Design Thinking, it is called Data Thinking. Design Think employs Human-centeredness, associated with art and creativity while Data Science is a rigorous, quantitative discipline.

Hope you understand how to develop a Data oriented career? Do You? Transition from Database Management to Data Thinking! Will you?

Ravi Saripalle