engineering education

Why don't you check out some of these sites?

Hello my friend I am an electrical engineer who understands your questions like most engineers and student who use this board. Here is a self test for you ?? This test will provide a better understanding of your question to provide a piece of advise.

1. Do you like calculating forces and designing things do you like to build bridges and sloving Mega problems?? Do you like Auto cad drawing??
2. Have you had any advance engineering courses?
3. buy a book on strength of materials, static and Dynamic, fluid mechanics ECt and just go through...... at the end you will know your weakness in structural or mechanical is best for you I think it way too soon to know . as you progress your design ideas and likeness will develop over time. I should comment you on your inquisitive young men!!! .... I think you are a role model for young men who do know what the hell they want to do with their lives..... This board should salute and give you all the support atleast we will be proud that we are the change we want to see" Like Mo Ghandi once siad " Be the change you want to see" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I call on all good and citizen of this board to help and give you the jump start you need!!! bravo By the way any circuit theory and MCU programming ... let me know

Guest: Stand up and register.

Your reply indicated that you either didn't read or understand the OP. He hasn't started college yet and hence does NOT have any experience in any of the areas of design etc. that you ask if he is interested in. SS

This is the best advice:

You choose whatever/whichever engineering field you want, and if you survive, the pay is really great !!!

until they build the new plant, after which they lay off the extra engineers.

milo

Assuming that you are in the USA, the good news is that you can enter engineering school and the curriculum for the first couple years is about the same for all engineers. So pick mechanical, and start school, then if during your intro courses you find that you like structural better, then change your major and you will have lost little or nothing.

I am a mechanical engineer, and in high school the mechanics part of physics was my favorite course. That is a good indication of a interest in mechanical engineering.

What do you dream about when you dream about your adult life and work? I always dreamed of traveling internationally, solving important problems with major plant or equipment. I work in the oil business, and I travel all over the world solving machinery problems. I have been at it 24 years, and I still love it.

Orthodontics ! No overtime. Nothing but thanks from everyone. No politics. No budget. Your own hours. 10 x the pay of engineers. No analyzing everything your wife and kids do all your life.

Look what happened to me !

There is an old joke that comes to mind here.

"What is the difference between a structural engineer and a mechanical engineer?

Mechanical Engineers build weapons.

Structural Engineers build targets."

It really doesn't matter what you get into between the two. They are fairly similar and the first two years will be the same anyway. After that it begins to change into the two specific classes of curriculum. I was going to be an Aerospace Engineer which really isn't all that different from a Mechanical Engineer either. In my second year, I found a good mentoring professor who instructed me to look into the Mechanical Engineering program. He had said that it would be pretty broad of a subject and that I would be able to switch over to Aerospace if I still wanted to go that route.

I would suggest going through the Mechanical Engineering program to start with since it would be a broader subject range then you can be more specific later on if you so desire. It still will not be much of a change.

As a totally unbiased Elec eng, I'd recommend doing Mech eng.

Structural eng's (at least the ones I know) spend most of their time just applying the local building codes and regulations, whereas the mech's get to tackle interesting new problems each day. Best of luck. ffeJ

whatever you end up doing, don't don't don't go to Temple Univ. terrible terrible terrible program.

What interests you more, mechanical devices or building works? If your interest is in infrastructure design, then go for structural, but if you prefer machines or moving components, choose mechanical.

My guess is that from the responses already received you now know this IS the right forum. Please do consider registering as a member, we have more 'guests' than can be kept track of here as it is... Did you consider majoring in physics? There's just one heck of a lot of engineering planning that goes into a project like the particle colliders at CERN, Batavia, Brookhaven, Lawrence/Livermore, etc.

There's a lot of overlap between Mechanical and Structural classes. Basically, Mechanical Engineering involves a lot of moving objects while Structural Engineering is primarily static. Both are now done largely with FEA.

One big difference is that many structural engineers work on site, so they move around a lot. I know some that bought a large travel trailer and just tow it from state to state. Mechanical engineers mostly stay in one place. The travel can be great, but if you have a working spouse it can spell trouble.

I suggest you sign up for mechanical at first, then decide by your junior year whether to change or not.

FWIW, I changed from Metallurgy to Mechanical. I've had an interesting career, but found that both of those fields limit you geographically. Not many engineer jobs, for example, in small towns or mostly agricultural states.

LOL, I'm a painter (of high pressure gas storage tanks) and I live in a trailer too. I usd to think I was one step above redneck until I took a wrong turn down a farm road and ended up mud-bogging with a trailer.

Now I'm proud of my RedNeck :P

But to Our Young Seeker, I have only one piece of advice (I would have said one word of advice, but for those of you who know me, you know that's impossible for a windbag like me). Make your decision, make it to the best of your ability and then make it the right decision.

(It's a little ecsoteric out of context, but basically it means that you make a decision, and if it turns out not to be working, do not be afraid to change it to make it work. Results are just the goals, how you get there is LIFE. IE Fear not making the wrong decision, just don't accept the wrong outcome.)

Assuming you can stand the calculus-based physics, your statics class and dynamics class will give you a good idea of where to go. I couldn't even stand the physics and did chemical engineering instead, where I discovered an intense dislike for organic and physical chemistry.

I had 3 room mates that were all mechanical though and I would say that they had the broadest range of job opportunities coming out of school. Everyone needs mechanical engineers.

Structural engineering doesn't necessarily mean buildings, it can also be roads, parking lots, storm drain systems, etc. so there is some flexibility there as well, although probably less than mechanical engineers.

Hi, Guest!

As a Marine engineer (human/aquatic interface applications), I can sympathize with both your love of mechanical and fascination for things structural. Trig is great fun, however, applied to any engineering field. (I think the electrical engineers get the playing edge there, though.) The hero in 'a Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court" is a mechanical engineer. The variety of fields that come under the Mechanical Engineering umbrella continue to remain more varied than the Structural Engineers get to play with, usually...even though the variety of structural applications for engineering keeps expanding exponentially. Overlaps provide hugely interesting areas of exploration for both.

The thing that struck me about your post was the word "loved". This is why I'm suggesting Mechanics for you. If you love what you're doing, you'll do well at it. You'll enjoy life more. We only get to go around once, so it really ought to be as enjoyable a time as we can possibly make it. Thus, any field of endeavour is as valid as any other. Just ask a great chef or a great teacher or a great doctor whether their occupations are satisfyingly worthwhile. Anyone who is practicing the profession of their most loved interest is a person who is living well in a key area of life.

Follow your heart, graduate and get yourself a nice pinky ring, tell your kids about how you studied your ass off in skool, join CR4, make a contribution to the world.

Mark

**With apologies. I'm well aware that various engineering instiutions utilize the spelling "skule". The previous post was not an attempt to foist my 'skool' on them. The variation came about, I believe, when the institutions began to insist that engineers be tutored in the artsy stuff as a prelim to the real thing.

Mark

Righteously said! What I've told people for years is if you enjoy what you are doing, even for less than ideal money, at least you ENJOY it. If you hate what you're doing, how much money would they have to give you to get you to enjoy it? And how likely is anyone to part with that kind of coin for the likes of YOU?!?

Look into automation and robotic.

If you like doing physics and engineering, then go and get either a Mechanical or Structural Engineering Degree, then get a MBA and become a salesman / marketing person, make 3-4 times as much as engineers, no need to remember the codes, engineering calculations, etc. Just get to collect 10% of the profits of what the engineers produce...

Cool Deal...

If he can do the engineering, he is unlikely to be able to stand being a salesman for long enough to forget the codes.

Your sarcasm is appreciated, but the MBA's who used to be engineers aren't the problem. its the MBA's who started Management and never learned either the rigor of engineering math nor the tedium of accounting arithmetic.

An engineer with an MBA is a feared person because he understands both the flow of materials and energy threough a process, but also the flow of cash. Thus, seldom invited to friendly gatherings.

milo

Why bother knowing anything?

Carly Fiorini formerly CEO of Hewlett Packard had no technical background of any kind before taking over this once pround company. She had some kind of physcology degree from somewhere before being bought out for millions.

She pulled off the Compaq merger deal though. Hi, I'm Carly, fly me!

I am a mechanical engineer, I have sharing some lectures with sturctural students.On my current project I work along side electrical, civil, sturctural and mechanical engineers. Yes the decision of what engineering route to go, in is tough, because to be truthfull to you will only know whats route for you, when you are in you second year of college. Dont worry do, because the first two years, are a basic step to inlighten the students on the general aspects of engineering. Specially the two route you mention (sturctural and Mechanical). Basically the different between the two is that you do more dynaimics in mechanical and structural is alot of statics. Subjects to look at are mechanics (static and dyamaic) aslo stress and strain forces. There some good software you could look in to like soildworks and ansys. The best thing to do if you cant make your mine up,is to go to some college open days and go in the labs and ask the lecturers questions.

Well good luck! and I hope you find dream engineering career.

labs as

Thanks for all the answers, they've been helpful! I am not from the US but here the Civil engineering programme, and the mechanical engineering programme also are very similar the first couple of years. I have ordered the statics book for the first semester, unfortunately it won't help me much since it is used in bought civil and mechanical engineering. Buying the books which shows the real difference between civil and mechanical engineering(fluidmechanics, structural mechanics etc.) seems a little pointless to me now, since I probably won't understand much of how it works. And that may give me an unnecessary discomfort to the subject, which I probably wouldn't have had if I had taken the previous mechanics classes.

The reason I ask for the help is that it may not be that easy for me to transfer between the programmes, it's been done before at the university, but I should be prepared to have an application like that declined, since it has happened to previous students.

Another thing you brought up(it's great to get info that I wasn't even prepared for=)) which worries me a little is that I'm really not that much of a hands-on person, and the jobs that you have to be on-sight is the ones that can't be outsourced, right? I have checked out some webpages and I see that firms in India offers structural analysis etc. can all these computer and engineering calculations jobs(the jobs that seems to require most knowledge in science) get outsourced? It's sad to see that it's better to be a salesman/manager and that these jobs give more job-security, I have taken some echonomy classes, and they were actually easy, but very boring.

In the time to come I can read more on solid mechanics, fluid mechanics and heat. To find out which kind of physics I find most fascinating. If it turns out to be fluids and heat the answer is pretty simple right? However, right now it seems most exciting to work with solid objects, and study how they behave. So what I think I need to know is, what is the main difference in the physics when working with machine design etc. or structures? From what I've read fatigue mechanics plays a more important role in mechanical engineering, but that's about all I got. So that is basically my main concern.

Hello guest.

You are not going to love or hate your career based on ;"the main difference in the physics when working with machine design etc. or structures? From what I've read fatigue mechanics plays a more important role in mechanical engineering, but that's about all I got."

Youre going to love or hate your career for other reasons. Do you work on your own car? bike? ever rebuilt a motor? Built a trebuchet? rebuilt or just tried to reasemble a transmission? If yes, You'll love mechanical. HAte having to even open the hood, take the cap off the gas tank, try to find the brake fluid thingy? Never even make a sligshot, bow and arrow, or flint knife? You are not going to be much of a star in mechanics.

Be truthful to yourself and say, what is it that i would be doing if all my needs were already taken care of and I could do anything I wanted? If it is building stuff, welcome to civil/structural. If its creating crazy mechanical things- traps, bikes cars methane digesters, waterwheels, welcome to mechanical. If its taking pictures, go buy a camera and some photoshop software. FOLlOW YOUR PASSION. SUCCESS WILL FOLLOW. IT AINT about "THE DIFFERENCE IN PHYSICS!" ENd of rant (to quote Del)

milo

Thank you David, you replied while I wrote the other message. I wish I could visit the university I am planning to study at, but it's too far away. But thank you for the input!

Even if you go to a college in your area you surely get a better picture of the drifferent aspect of the two engineering fields.

Hehe absolutely, but we don't have any colleges nearby where I live, that offers mechanical or civil engineering. It really isn't anything like the US here.

I am not from the US myself actually from Ireland but now living and working in saudi arabia, where are you from. Some colleges websities give basic outlines in to the subjects they cover. oh by the way fatigue (periodic force that cause failure) and creep (element under a load for a duration of time resulting in failure) is mostly studed in mechanical. if you google these subject there is free tutorials on the net.

I'd say that this is a pretty fair forum for what you need.

The definitions for the disciplines continues to blur as we chat; (@ near lightspeed!, i might add!)

As soon as "static strength" calcs. are satisfied, do the "dynamic stress/strain/fatigue" calcs., Then there's the kinematic study; these movements can be either all mechanical (cams, cranks, linkage, &c!.) OR electronic: PLC, or fully Software controlled on a P.C.

M.E. today is really broad!; & getting more diverse as we decide what we want to do next!

Find something that you really need to do. There will most likely be a place for you there.

What you learn in college from a book is only a part of engineering. Go work in construction, in the type of work you want to be an engineer in. Then you will be familiar with actual methods used in the field and know that you can't drill a depression from and into the inside of a small pipe and won't embarrass yourself by demanding something be built a certain way when it is impossible to do it that way.

I am electronics and neither Mech or Civil. I would say go Mech. It would give you a much broader range of fields to go into.

My father in law got a BS in mechanical, went to work for Boeing Aircraft, and then went back to get a MS in aerospace engineering. You could possibly do something like that.

Bill

First, you must search a good school that will prepare you for that particular field, second what employment opportunities you will have after graduating from college.

If you find the ideal school, call them and ask to speak to a teacher or advisor, they can provide with references to reading material.

Good Luck

There are no true "errors @ Uni", just false starts. I.E.: Aisling's 1st start @ chemical eng., Sounds like the basis for some really good hull treatments regarding 'fouling'.

Doesn't sound @all glamorous (@1st), but I'm betting that the more efficient a modern hull profile is, the worse a film of barnicles will destroy the flow characteristics of same.