Preparing for an Entrepreneurial Career in Mobile Engineering

As a high school student aspiring to become an engineer-cum-entrepreneur, it's commendable that you've found your passion early in life. Your interest in starting your own mobile company is a strong foundation for a promising career. To embark on this journey successfully, there are a few key areas you need to explore and understand. Let's break it down step by step.

Understanding the Business Model

If your goal is to start a mobile phone company, you need to understand the business aspects of the industry. Courses like Economics, Marketing, and Administration will provide you with the necessary tools to navigate the business world. These disciplines will help you understand market dynamics, customer needs, and the competitive landscape. However, these areas are not directly related to engineering, so you should explore them in conjunction with your engineering studies.

Embarking on a Path in Engineering

For a successful venture in the mobile phone industry, a strong foundation in engineering is crucial. The mobile phone sector is highly dependent on innovation and adaptation. Every year, companies must launch new hardware and software innovations to stay competitive. Failure to adapt or innovate can lead to significant setbacks, as we've seen with companies like Nokia.

If your aim is to design or engineer your own mobile phone, starting with an interest in Electrical Engineering (EE) would be a good choice. This field encompasses both computer science and electronics engineering. Bachelor's programs in EE typically offer specialization in one or more areas over four years. However, your interests can transcend the standard offerings, and that should not be a limiting factor.

Variety of Specializations in EE

Electrical Engineering can include several specializations like:

Electronics Engineering - Focusing on the design, development, and application of electronic systems and circuits. Communications Engineering - Specializing in the transmission and reception of information over a communication channel. Computer Engineering - Combining electrical engineering and computer science to develop hardware and software systems. Control Systems Engineering - Dealing with the behavior of systems over time and the design of control systems to achieve specific goals. Power Engineering - Focusing on the generation and distribution of electrical power.

Choosing a specialization in Electronics and Communications Engineering would be an excellent starting point for a mobile phone company. Modern mobile phones are not just communication devices but also powerful computers. They incorporate microprocessors, battery charging systems, circuit boards, input/output interfaces, operating systems, and application software. An AI-based energy-saving mechanism, for instance, might fuse control systems with programming skills to optimize hardware usage based on individual device usage patterns.

Interdisciplinary Knowledge and Innovation

Success in the mobile phone industry often depends on the integration of knowledge from various disciplines. Just as a software engineer might not understand hardware and a hardware designer might not understand AI, but their combined understanding is what drives innovation. For example, a programmer might know how to write code, but without understanding the hardware, they cannot optimize the performance efficiently. Conversely, a hardware designer might be proficient in creating and testing circuit boards but lacks the programming skills to make the system efficient and user-friendly.

To become an accomplished engineer in the mobile phone industry, it's essential to excel at multiple areas and build a deep understanding of how different components work together. This requires looking beyond the traditional boundaries of your curriculum and pursuing a diverse set of courses.

Higher Education Options

Ivy League universities like MIT, Stanford, GeorgiaTech, ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), NTU (Nanyang Technological University), and Old-IIT (Indian Institutes of Technology) offer flexibility to their students to choose courses based on their interests. If possible, consider enrolling in these prestigious institutions. However, even if you don't, there are numerous free online resources available to you. Platforms like EdX, Coursera, and NPTEL provide access to high-quality courses taught by world-renowned professors.

To achieve your goal, you'll need to study at least 40 courses, each demanding 3 to 12 hours of rigorously focused study per week. The key is to stay committed to learning and continuously expanding your knowledge base. While studying, you may not fully grasp which areas will be relevant to your future projects, but the effort is essential for your journey.

Best of luck on your entrepreneurial journey!