What can you guys tell me about Aerospace / Mechanical / Mechatronics Eng.?

[Kenbuntu]

What can you guys tell me about Aerospace / Mechanical / Mechatronics Eng.?

I'm going to University next year and need some insight on this, does anyone know the job scope? Is anyone one of these? Jobs in Canada? Anything will be great!

Thanks
Ken

[fenderx55]

You're probably gonna have to do a lot of homework.

[Fontaine]

I'm currently doing Petroleum Eng. and its brutal, I have some friends doing Mechanical Eng. and they are finding it the same. its tough, but it will have a huge payout.

With Mechanical, you will basically be able to work in any field, it was my second choice but it failed in comparison to Petroleum (or so I think), you may be different.

If I where you I'd say Mechanical, but I don't now what your interested in or anything like that. But make sure you look into get one deeply before making a decision.

[fdeck]

Regarding this recent thread:

Entry Level Professional Positions....

Mechanical engineers can be pretty versatile and mobile if they can also work as designers. Make sure that you don't graduate without some hands-on experience in entry level work such as CAD or programming (depending on what field you end up choosing). Summer internships are extremely valuable. There are a lot of places that will say: "We can't justify someone doing high level engineering full time, but we will hire you if you don't mind doing some CAD."

Everybody starts out at the entry level, of course, but in my observation, those who have really mastered the math & theory eventually use those skills once they have paid their dues as designers.

[blizzard]

I'm a 2nd year Mech Eng student. Mechanical is really one of the most versatile areas of engineering, theres jobs in most industries eg Aerospace, mining, railways, automotive.

You really do a bit of everything for example so far in my course I've done subjects in electrical engineering, statics (civil), dynamics, thermodynamics and fluid mechanics (chem eng), mech design, reverse engineering and CAD design, materials engineering. Then theres the "support" subjects as such, Maths (linear algebra, ODEs), Chemistry and Physics.

It is a lot of work though and it isn't that easy. Just my observations but, its fairly interesting after a first year its pretty easy to tell who wants to be an engineer because they like it and whose in it for the money. The people who really like engineer tend to end up in Mech, Chem, Electrical while those in it for the money tend to end up doing Civil and mining (in general, not all cases). In Australia Mining Engineering is the highest paying engineering and also the easiest engineering course .

[iamlowsound]

Since the OP is in Canada, let me give you this little bit of advice. Check out Conestoga College. You will only end up with a diploma, but their engineering programs have a 97% employment rate within the first 3 months of graduation. There are awesome co-op opportunities as well, so you get lots of on the job experience. Plus, the University Of Waterloo will honour your three years there, so you can transfer most of your credits over and get your full degree if you want. All at a fraction of the cost. Just a thought, I am planning on going there in the fall for civil.

lowsound

[i_got_a_mohawk]

A guy doing the same post grad course as me (MSc Nanotechnology & Microsystems) has a degree in Aerospace Engineering, said it was a good course, but the job market was really tough (he's Italian, so I dont know what it is like elsewhere), on saying that, it seems to be pretty standard that its tough these days with so many more people going into higher education, more competition.

At the start of our course we shared 4 weeks of lectures with 4th yr M.Eng students, was the first time Ive really had to study engineering, and I must say it was pretty interesting stuff, and didnt seem too(oooooo) difficult, but that was just a few weeks worth, so not much use as an overall really

[bmc]

If you want to pursue this in aerospace/aviation, check out www.avcanada.ca and surf the forums. It's a site for Canadian's involved in all aspects of aviation.

[StanFan]

Originally Posted by iamlowsound

Since the OP is in Canada, let me give you this little bit of advice. Check out Conestoga College. You will only end up with a diploma, but their engineering programs have a 97% employment rate within the first 3 months of graduation. There are awesome co-op opportunities as well, so you get lots of on the job experience. Plus, the University Of Waterloo will honour your three years there, so you can transfer most of your credits over and get your full degree if you want. All at a fraction of the cost. Just a thought, I am planning on going there in the fall for civil.

lowsound

Does Waterloo honor three years at that college or most colleges in Ontario?

I'm attending Lakehead for Electrical Engineering, and they have a transfer program for 3 year college students where if you have a college diploma, you can be placed in the third year in one of their engineering programs. They offer Electrical, Chemical, Mechanical, Civil, and Software Engineering.

[etoncrow]

All of the aforementioned information is good. ME is basically divided into mechanics and thermodynamics. Both are critical; like your left hand and right hand playing bass. IMHO mechanical engineering is the most versitile and perhaps the most difficult. Generally speaking, only one in three engineering students made it to graduation. There were fewer ME's in my graduating class than in any other discipline.

[iamlowsound]

Originally Posted by StanFan

Does Waterloo honor three years at that college or most colleges in Ontario?

I'm attending Lakehead for Electrical Engineering, and they have a transfer program for 3 year college students where if you have a college diploma, you can be placed in the third year in one of their engineering programs. They offer Electrical, Chemical, Mechanical, Civil, and Software Engineering.

Only Conestoga from what I can gather. Take a look around their website and you will see why, they are a very engineering based school, just like Waterloo. I might have worded it wrong in my first post, but I think Waterloo wont quite honor all three years, but they honor more than just 2 years. I am only interested in the diploma, so I haven't looked into all the details about transferring.

lowsound

[blizzard]

Oh yeah, one more thing, say goodbye to girls Theres like 10 girls maybe out of a few hundred in most of my courses. However Civil and Mineing theres almost an abundance of girls

[StanFan]

Originally Posted by blizzard

Oh yeah, one more thing, say goodbye to girls Theres like 10 girls maybe out of a few hundred in most of my courses. However Civil and Mineing theres almost an abundance of girls

+1
My school is relatively small and of the 40 or so 3rd year Electrical Engineering students, there is only 1 female.

[Kenbuntu]

:O. damn. Oh well, you win some and loose even more.
Well how about Mechatronics engineering? Anyone have information about that?

and BTW thanks for the help

[fdeck]

Originally Posted by Kenneth Faria

:O. damn. Oh well, you win some and loose even more.
Well how about Mechatronics engineering? Anyone have information about that?

and BTW thanks for the help

Here's my thought about that. It seems like one of those "neither fish nor fowl" disciplines -- too specialized and obscure. Relatively few employers will know what you do, or how your skills match the categories that we usually assign to entry level job openings.

It might be preferable to find out what Mechatronics engineering is, and build up the equivalent training within a mainstream field such as mechanical or electrical. For instance, you could get a mechanical engineering degree with some elective courses in electronics or control systems. Another way to build up a hybrid degree is by getting a mainstream training at the undergrad level, and something more imaginative for a masters degree.

Of course, non-mainstream fields have a habit of ending up in the mainstream. At one time, anybody doing Embedded Systems was self-taught. Most programmers were self-taught until around 1980. So it's worth taking the advice of us old-timers with a grain of salt.

[Kenbuntu]

Heh. Well, my original plan is to work in the aerospace/aeronautical field,but I've done some research and it looks like these jobs don't come up too often, in Canada especially. Then I did some more research and found that many mechanical engineers work in the aerospace/nautical field since its similar. This seemed to be a good choice since I'd have more options after i graduate. But then i did even more research, and found that mechatronic engineers have an ever wider area that they can work in.

Another problem is the University. The aerospace program is done a Ryerson which is a great school, but not known for engineering, or so I've heard. but then again they do have i think one of three AE programs in the province.

As for me, i like computers and like figuring out how things work. I like taking things apart putting them back together, you know the usual. Which ( out of those three) would best fit me, and are there anymore options?

THANKS!

[fdeck]

Originally Posted by Kenneth Faria

Heh. Well, my original plan is to work in the aerospace/aeronautical field,but I've done some research and it looks like these jobs don't come up too often, in Canada especially. Then I did some more research and found that many mechanical engineers work in the aerospace/nautical field since its similar. This seemed to be a good choice since I'd have more options after i graduate. But then i did even more research, and found that mechatronic engineers have an ever wider area that they can work in.

I looked up mechatronics on Wikipedia. It certainly seems like an interesting hybrid of disciplines.

Another problem is the University. The aerospace program is done a Ryerson which is a great school, but not known for engineering, or so I've heard. but then again they do have i think one of three AE programs in the province.

As for me, i like computers and like figuring out how things work. I like taking things apart putting them back together, you know the usual. Which ( out of those three) would best fit me, and are there anymore options?

Do you like math?

[Kenbuntu]

I like Phsyics more than math. But math more than chem and english ( my english teacher this year, aint the best....)

[fdeck]

Originally Posted by Kenneth Faria

I like Phsyics more than math. But math more than chem and english ( my english teacher this year, aint the best....)

That's OK. My only advice is to keep abreast of the math, don't get behind. I taught a junior-level electrical engineering course (electrodynamics) for a semester, and the students who could rip through the math had a definite advantage. Also, you can't let a bad teacher set you back. There will be good teachers and bad, and you have to learn in spite of the bad ones.

[Kenbuntu]

that's unfortunate. Haha kidding. Yeah im still way above class avg in english, but i've just lost all interest in that class. Its like eating luncheables for lunch and dinner everyday of the year.