Research and development are important for the sustenance of any modern economy. Hence, in any society it is important to have a strong supply of scientists and engineers. From an Indian context, it is observed, however, that very few engineers choose to pursue research as their primary domain of interest. This chapter tries to identify from an institutional perspective on why engineers repeatedly shun their core branch subjects to pursue something else. The study highlights the mental framework of an engineering student and how the environment can be molded to invoke the interest of the student towards research and development. A gamified approach to solving this problem is proposed. The entire problem is fit into a gamification framework called Octalysis to identify the core motivators for engaging students in research. Finally, the chapter proposes reforms that can be adopted in order to create a holistic environment where students can participate freely and engage positively in cutting-edge projects.
TopIntroduction
Research and development are the bedrock of a profitable and strong economy. The thrust towards research in any society is provided by its institutes of higher learning. Great economies are built on the foundations of such strong institutes of learning. For that matter, big corporations and companies too depend on strong research and development teams to stay current and ahead of the market forces. No organization however small can survive without innovation. Hence creative centers of innovation and research are prioritized in any country or organization.
Research can be in multiple fields of study. Economic research helps to drive the growth of the world’s markets, Research into archaeology and sociology helps take human civilization forward, Science and technology drive the latest innovations that we use in our everyday lives etc. Within science and technology, a lot of work is done in the applications of science or more commonly, engineering. Engineering is the bedrock on which a society is built. It symbolizes man’s creative understanding of scientific forces and his ability to manipulate and mould them in a manner so as to reduce human effort in everyday tasks. The advent of computer technology, the invention of the light bulb or the electric motor, the mobile phone or modern communications, are all milestone events in our journey so far (Mohanty and Dash, 2016).
A foray into scientific research however requires a life of dedication and study. Within the context of the modern Indian education system, very few engineers are now opting for a career in research. The rise of India as an IT services provider and the back office of global multinationals have lead to more and more young engineers, opting to go into this industry. Students who seek out a degree in Civil Engineering or Mechanical Engineering often opt for a job in the service sector. As a result, very few engineers are produced; who possess the skills and technical abilities to work in fundamental engineering domains. Even among undergraduate students, we see a decline in the quality of projects that students propose. Among the proposed projects, more often than not, there lies significant overlap and redundancy. Moreover, very few students actually seek a career in Research and Development despite opting for a graduate degree in engineering. A New Delhi based employment Solutions Company; Aspiring Minds conducted a employability focused survey based on 150,000 engineers who graduated in 2013. Of all the graduating engineers, only 7 percent had the necessary skills to be employed in core engineering profiles. As per data released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Development, India has over 6214 engineering and technology institutions, which produce over 1,50,000 engineers each year (India Today, 2018). However, the lack of focus among these institutions ensures that these engineers remain by and large, unemployable. In such a situation, it becomes difficult to create a holistic environment focused on research and development.
Hence, the primary objective of the work was to analyze the inclination of students towards research and to discover the elements that played a role in determining that affinity. The goal was to identify the percentage of students who found research as an attractive career option and identify methods by which to increase that number. Furthermore, the work focused on identifying the parameters within the students’ environment that could be molded in a way so as to drive students towards higher studies. The approach primarily deals with game elements and systemic changes, needed to drive the research interest of an undergraduate. It was identified that the external environment around an undergraduate student can be changed in a manner so as to pique his or her interest in research. These changes are represented within an eight parameter model popularly known as Octalysis (Yu-kai Chou, 2018) . Octalysis helps us identify how changes in the outside world are directly responsible for generating internal motivation within the student to consider a career in this domain. It lists out the core psychological drives that are directly or indirectly responsible for affecting the actions of a student. The focus of the work was intra-institute and serves as a key example on how data analysis and game model can be used to reform higher education setup at an institute level.