I was a biomedical engineering major for 2 years. I am now a science education major with a concentration in chemistry.
teaching rules.
teaching rules.
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TB Engineers / Engineering students UNITE!
- Thread starter blendermassacre
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3rd year Mechanical Engineering student at TU Delft. I build a car in my spare time. This year we're going electric. Invalid Link Removed
I got my bachelor's in mechanical, and I just started my last semester of grad school, working on a Master's in Structural engineering. The hard part is about to begin: finding a job...
My bandmates jokes that me pedalboard, rig, and various bass projects, with electronics and cables all over the place, all looked like science projects I snuck out of the lab, ha! I think a technical background and basic knowledge of electronics, vibrations, and so on helps with a different prospective on making music, I like knowing how things work.
My bandmates jokes that me pedalboard, rig, and various bass projects, with electronics and cables all over the place, all looked like science projects I snuck out of the lab, ha! I think a technical background and basic knowledge of electronics, vibrations, and so on helps with a different prospective on making music, I like knowing how things work.
+1
I'm definitely the gear head out of my musical friends... its just fun to tear stuff up, tweak it, put it back together, and have it work
Im currently just at the end of my first year of Engineering. Not bad so far, most of what we have done is pretty simple, being first year. Hardest thing I have encountered so far is Statics, but thats mainly due to getting used to the different notation etc.
Bah, statics is easy: everything adds up to zero. If not, then it's not static which means you probably did something wrong. Just try not to over think things and you'll be fine.
Its easy enough, but the vector notation stuff is really doing my head in as I have never done it before, and we kind of got thrown in the deep end.
The main problem is that I go to a small university, we have about 40 engineering students, so they don't actually have most of the subjects we need to do. That means we have to do them Via distance education from a different uni, which has a completely different structure.
So when you watch the lectures online and they say "This part is easy, you should have gone over it last week in subject 0000" its all well and good, but we haven't done that course yet.
But hey, its the first year they have offered engineering, so I was lucky enough to not have to do the whole thing via distance-ed.
Your specialization?
Civil, its the only option at the moment
There are other things id probably rather do, but as far as versatility and job opportunities, civil is the go.
Ah, I see. Any course can be difficult without the proper pre-reqs. Hang in there. ector math can be tedious but it's not too tough. I'm sure you'll have it all sorted out by the end of the semester.
Third year at the Rochester Institute of Technology for Mechanical Engineering Degree here. I recently got accepted to the combined BS/MS degree program they offered here. So I will get my masters at the same time as my bachelors. Classes start on Monday. I'm excited.
Heh, heh. I taught emag for a semester.
To Blender, don't worry too much if they don't teach transistor amp design any more. What you will learn about general principles will enable you to pick up the additional topics of your interest on your own.
I'm currently attending UIC, this is my first semester here. I need help choosing my major. Right now I am majoring in Mechanical Engineering. When I had applied to UIC, I had been seriously considering going to a trade school such as Lincoln Tech to become an auto/diesel mechanic. I especially liked the fact that at a trade school I could be done in 2 years, and that it would get me out of my house quicker. In order to get a taste of the business, I got a job cleaning up and helping out at an Aamco through one of my mom's friends. I enjoyed the job and being able to learn a thing or two about cars. The money wasn't bad either, for a teenager's part time job. However, my boss had told me that he hoped that working there would convince me that it's not the business I want to get into. He taught me a few things about how the mechanics get paid, and I've gotta say, the numbers were pathetic. Obviously the boss (service writer) makes a good living, but the mechanics' salaries were pathetic for what these guys do all day long. Even the top mechanic in there, who specializes in rebuilding automatic transmissions (HIGHLY specialized work) brought home 30-35k a year. After seeing how much these poor guys make, I decided maybe I'd enjoy mechanical engineering.
Now I was under the impression that as long as I stay within Engineering College, I don't need to decide my major until the end of my Sophomore year. According to the people I've talked to, they tell me to decide ASAP so that I don't take any classes that wouldn't satisfy any requirements for the major I decide. Lately I'm not so sure that I want to go through with Mechanical Engineering, for a few reasons. A degree in ME requires a ton of Physics, Thermodynamics, some Chem, basically LOTS of science classes. A CS degree would still require me to take quite a bit of math, which I can handle. I wouldn't have to take nearly as much Science, which is what I'm really dreading. It seems a little silly that the coursework is what's scaring me away from ME, but I am not nearly as interested in ME as I was working on cars. Maybe I'll be better off doing something else and doing some wrenching in my own time.
I've taken 2 years of CS in high school. CS1 was a huge waste of time, but CS2 was extremely interesting. It was a Logic and Hardware course, where we "built" a computer starting with NAND gates. From NAND gates we were able to build all of the chips we needed in HDL code. We spent the last few months writing an assembler in Java. I know that this class is more like Computer Engineering than, but I don't have any interest in pursuing CE - CS2 was REALLY hard.
According to some salary searches, a CS degree will make you more than an ME degree, but not by very much. I think a career in CS would stay interesting for much longer, because there is something new coming out all the time. It would keep me on my toes, because there is always something new I'd have to learn. I've heard that you don't want to limit yourself to one platform, but I'm especially interested in working with Linux and open source software. What is the job market for salaried jobs working with Linux, or maybe even being on a development team?
I'm a little worried about my job security and the possibility of outsourcing CS jobs. I'd hate to go to college for 4 years and find out that there are no jobs because they've shipped them overseas. Any thoughts on this? Which degree do you think will give me a more stable job, and which degree will make me the most money?
I'd appreciate any information or advice you have for me.
Thanks!
Now I was under the impression that as long as I stay within Engineering College, I don't need to decide my major until the end of my Sophomore year. According to the people I've talked to, they tell me to decide ASAP so that I don't take any classes that wouldn't satisfy any requirements for the major I decide. Lately I'm not so sure that I want to go through with Mechanical Engineering, for a few reasons. A degree in ME requires a ton of Physics, Thermodynamics, some Chem, basically LOTS of science classes. A CS degree would still require me to take quite a bit of math, which I can handle. I wouldn't have to take nearly as much Science, which is what I'm really dreading. It seems a little silly that the coursework is what's scaring me away from ME, but I am not nearly as interested in ME as I was working on cars. Maybe I'll be better off doing something else and doing some wrenching in my own time.
I've taken 2 years of CS in high school. CS1 was a huge waste of time, but CS2 was extremely interesting. It was a Logic and Hardware course, where we "built" a computer starting with NAND gates. From NAND gates we were able to build all of the chips we needed in HDL code. We spent the last few months writing an assembler in Java. I know that this class is more like Computer Engineering than, but I don't have any interest in pursuing CE - CS2 was REALLY hard.
According to some salary searches, a CS degree will make you more than an ME degree, but not by very much. I think a career in CS would stay interesting for much longer, because there is something new coming out all the time. It would keep me on my toes, because there is always something new I'd have to learn. I've heard that you don't want to limit yourself to one platform, but I'm especially interested in working with Linux and open source software. What is the job market for salaried jobs working with Linux, or maybe even being on a development team?
I'm a little worried about my job security and the possibility of outsourcing CS jobs. I'd hate to go to college for 4 years and find out that there are no jobs because they've shipped them overseas. Any thoughts on this? Which degree do you think will give me a more stable job, and which degree will make me the most money?
I'd appreciate any information or advice you have for me.
Thanks!
First things first, don't ask your friends what courses you need to take. That should be in the course catalog. I know at UW, each engineering department has it clearly spelled out which courses students are expected to take in what year. If there is any ambiguity, ask your advisor. You could end up in college for an extra year if you don't take the right courses when you need them.
If you are at a good university, all of the "hard" majors will make you take your share of hard courses. But if you have more of a math bent than a science bent, then maybe CS is a good way to go. If you are on the fence between hardware & software interests, "embedded systems" is pretty cool. I would suggest not worrying too much about what your favorite platform is right now, and let the CS department teach you the universal knowledge that you can apply to any platform once you end up choosing. A lot of programmers who get hired, end up programming stuff that is effectively platform independent, or even working inside custom or embedded environments. Software titles that we buy or download and install on our personal computers are only a small fraction of the total software industry.
Mechanical can be fun too. The field does change as new manufacturing technologies are developed. For instance, at my day job, we are launching new projects using cast metal parts that would not have been possible to make economically a decade ago. We are also improving quality and taking out costs by re-thinking how the mechanical parts of complex products fit together.
As for salaries and outsourcing, I think nobody knows what the future holds. It may depend more on the overall economy than your particular choice of field. Learn to live cheap, and stay healthy.
One suggestion that I have heard from a lot of engineers: Make it a priority to get Summer Internships. These are hugely beneficial in giving you a jump start on your career.
A lot of engineers have a dim view of the auto industry, because of factors such as planned obsolescence.
If you are at a good university, all of the "hard" majors will make you take your share of hard courses. But if you have more of a math bent than a science bent, then maybe CS is a good way to go. If you are on the fence between hardware & software interests, "embedded systems" is pretty cool. I would suggest not worrying too much about what your favorite platform is right now, and let the CS department teach you the universal knowledge that you can apply to any platform once you end up choosing. A lot of programmers who get hired, end up programming stuff that is effectively platform independent, or even working inside custom or embedded environments. Software titles that we buy or download and install on our personal computers are only a small fraction of the total software industry.
Mechanical can be fun too. The field does change as new manufacturing technologies are developed. For instance, at my day job, we are launching new projects using cast metal parts that would not have been possible to make economically a decade ago. We are also improving quality and taking out costs by re-thinking how the mechanical parts of complex products fit together.
As for salaries and outsourcing, I think nobody knows what the future holds. It may depend more on the overall economy than your particular choice of field. Learn to live cheap, and stay healthy.
One suggestion that I have heard from a lot of engineers: Make it a priority to get Summer Internships. These are hugely beneficial in giving you a jump start on your career.
A lot of engineers have a dim view of the auto industry, because of factors such as planned obsolescence.
I'm enrolled in a class called engineering 100, which is required for everyone the first semester they have been enrolled in the engineering college. The people who I referenced were TA's of that class, all of which are engineering grad students.
I would say that I'm more math oriented than science oriented. I find a lot of science interesting, but for some reason I don't do so well in science classes.
I'm interested in pursuing Linux because I've been using it for about 3 or 4 years. I especially like it because it's free, you can't help but feel like you are sticking it to the man when you are running open source software. I still have quite a bit to learn, but I feel that experience with Linux will only be an advantage if I'm going into engineering, especially CS. I'm going to attempt to install Arch again once I get some time (my last attempt was relatively sucessful, but I gave up and installed Ubuntu).
One concern I have with CS is that I am dooming myself to a cubicle for the rest of my career. I do enjoy the abstract thinking and logic that goes with programming however. Writing a program is kind of like solving a puzzle.
Originally I chose ME because I wanted to be involved with the auto industry. For a few reasons, I'm not interested in that anymore. Mostly because I don't like the direction that cars are taking. IMO, they are becoming unnecessarily complex. Brake by wire, computers in the dashboard, key fobs that cost 400 bucks, etc. I don't see the auto industry having a KISS revolution, and I don't want to be a part of making cars more complicated then they have to be.
The most trend confusing thing to me is electronically controlled brakes and gas pedals. I beleive my mom's Pontiac G8 has some sort of brake by wire, where the pedal is attached to an electronic sensor. The sensor tells the computer how hard to brake, and to me, that seems like an unnecessary extra step in the process. It removes the feel for braking since the pedal's resistance doesn't change as you brake harder. My Buick's (RIP) brake lines burst a few times before we junked it, and the only reason I knew was because the brake pedal lost resistance. Mechanically controlled pedals seem more logical to me, but lately the auto companies are trying to throw a computer into every part of the car that they can. [/RANT]
I wouldn't mind working for a company like Caterpillar, International, or anything involving huge diesel engines. Sounds like fun to me...
From the mechanics point of view, I have heard about how cars change so quickly. It requires them to learn new skills all of the time, and by the time they've got those new skills under there belt, that technology has become obsolete. I have never heard about planned obsolescence though.
We just went over internships in Engineering 100. They recommend atleast one, but preferable two. I've heard several cases where the company hires the intern as soon as they graduate. I'll be aiming for two, minimum, as they pay pretty well. I'm not going to get paid 15 bucks an hour working a cash register or whatever other summer job I could find.
Get it in writing anyway.
A lot depends on what you do and where you work. You might experience a more varied work life at a company that makes "things" rather than a pure software shop. I work for a scientific instrument company, and our programmers spend a lot of their time out of their cubicles, working with the instruments that are controlled by our software.
It's something every engineering student should know about, along with the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence
I have two colleagues at my day job who started out as engineering interns, and both are now managers. But even if that doesn't happen, the experience is beneficial, as is the ability to credibly say that you know what it's like to work in the "real world."
To an engineer - planned obsolence means a new product is required, job security!
true innovation, i'd argue, is better for both the engineer and the consumer than planned obsolescense thinly veiled under the false pretense of periodic innovation...the problem with the 'planned' part is that this cycle can be contrary to the true cycle of obsolescence, which by nature works with true innovation
