Ashwin Mahalingam is a professor in the department of civil engineering at IIT Madras. He is also the faculty-in-charge of the institute’s entrepreneurship cell. This means he is often seen on campus evangelising the benefits of pursuing entrepreneurship. But as a start-up co-founder himself, he walks the talk. He runs a policy advisory start-up Okapi along with his full-time job as an educator.

That’s surprisingly not a rare credential to possess for faculty at IIT Madras. Close to 60 professors, 10 per cent of the total faculty pool, are formally co-founders of start-ups.

In this interview held at Madras Management Association, Mahalingam shares how considerable experience in education, both in terms of teaching, as well as years of research, lead the faculty of IIT Madras to land great start-up ideas. He also talks about renewing interest in core engineering disciplines, tech intervention in civil engineering, and the institute’s focus on sustainability. Mahalingam holds a bachelor’s in civil engineering from IIT Madras and a master’s in construction engineering and management from Stanford University, where he later pursued his PhD in infrastructure project management.

Q

Many of the IIT Madras faculty are start-up founders themselves which is quite unknown.

Close to 60 faculty members are formally co-founders of start-ups. This is 10 per cent of the total faculty pool. One reason behind this is the emphasis on research. Not all research is commercialisable, but there will always be some that is potentially commercialisable, which gives you the raw material to work on. If you look at the cart and the horse and what comes first, the research comes first and then you evangelise entrepreneurship among faculty.

Q

What are the factors at play behind this trend?

It comes down to personal willingness. Being able to find a good student-entrepreneur is also important. Some faculty have been really good at motivating students working on research to take up entrepreneurship. The faculty’s commitment to seeing this through, availability of students and the idea itself also matters.

When it comes to the idea, for instance, in mechanical engineering, you make a lot of small things that tend to be commercialisable. But in civil engineering, that is not the case because of the scale. So, it depends on the idea.

Q

Software is absorbing engineering talent from all disciplines. Is it a matter of concern?

At IIT, software is not an issue now since most of the computer science students go into data analytics, investment banking, management consulting and so on.

I think there are different forces at play. Some 10-15 years ago, the big software companies were recruiting in large numbers, especially from tier 2 colleges and offering much better packages. A part of India’s growth story is also because of these organisations, but consequently, manufacturing and infrastructure suffered.

So, it is a multi-pronged problem. One is how do we create more interdisciplinary students? Second, can companies recognise and value these interdisciplinary students? The two words I used — recognise and value — are both challenges.

For instance, we run a programme on infrastructure engineering where we train students in technical civil engineering and economics and finance. So, they could actually go and develop projects and not just be an engineer on a project. We thought this would be great. But companies would come in and say that it is an HR rule to hire ‘structural engineers’ and infrastructure does not map with structure, so they will not hire any of these students. So, you have to first recognise what we offer to value it.

Today, most core engineering companies pay a fifth or a tenth of what you get outside. As a student entering the workforce, I would like to earn money, live a good life and support my family. If you value me at x, and another company values me at 10x, I would happily go there, right?

This is an issue industry has to address other than constantly complaining that software is absorbing all talent. Match IT salaries and price your economics differently, otherwise, the smart talent will go where the money is.

Q

Is there a tech intervention in civil engineering?

Definitely. This semester, I am teaching a subject called construction software lab which is about IT and digital technologies in construction, a sought-after skill. At IIT, we take the view that I am not training you for today, I am training you for tomorrow.

There is a lot of AI and ML work happening in civil engineering in a number of areas such as drones, hard robotics and so on.

Traditional civil engineering curriculum teaches people how to design — say design beams, decide how thick they should be, what kind of concrete should one use, but today, a computer does most of that.

So, we need people to better manage stakeholders, for example. The nature of civil engineering has changed.

The future civil engineer should really be partly tech, partly engineering and partly far more aware of finance and economics and contracts and regulation. More and more, sustainability is a huge issue.

Q

Is there a special focus on sustainability?

Definitely. The civil engineering industry is the one that contributes the greatest to greenhouse gas emissions.

We are starting a School of Sustainability, hopefully in early 2023. We plan to offer a whole range of courses and degree programmes that any student — mechanical engineer, material scientist or an electrical engineer — can take to understand more about sustainability. It brings all our existing sustainability efforts together. That is one of the next big thrusts at IIT Madras today.