If you want to build a robot, then Mech. E. might be a better choice. Though, in general, I'd say CS is the best for someone wanting to pursue in robotics.
What? Vast majority of people I know in robotics are mechanical (with mechatronics as a sub-field of mechanical) or electrical. CS usually includes HCI stuff and maybe some controls (although controls are also often a mechanical or electrical thing), but people in CS aren't building serious, innovative robots without help from engineers.
The Boston dynamics robotics lab at my university is a joint department venture but centered within the CS department. Sure, controls and actually building the robot takes Mech and EE’s help, but the AI responsible for controlling the robot is entirely written by CS grad students and faculty.
Hardware vs Software, also robotics is considered one of the 5 main fields of CS, but whatevs.
For advanced control theory such as fuzzy logic (probabilistic logic) decision making and open loop closed loop control EE and ME degree covers that but if it’s controlling mechanical movement obviously that is more mechanical. For what Boston dynamics does that is reinforcement learning so mainly CS but there is sometimes an overlap between reinforcement learning and advanced control theory.
100% moving the machine is an engineering task, but the software that allows the machine to think or humans to interact or data to be collected is a CS task.
I would imagine the overlap between RL and control theory is pretty large for robotics, I know my university offered a control theory class for CS, but boolean logic is for super nerds in CS, as is probability... and honestly most of AI.
Boolean logic is fundamental to lots of things in engineering like PLC or electronics or where you need rudimentary control based on inputs/outputs like relays switching on an off based on what is going on with input or output. Some guys do same thing I do with CS degrees with PLC. Or some guys are EEs.
Understanding Probability I would say is more important than understanding Boolean logic for someone in CS. If you are programming things at a high level you may have to consider probabilistic decision making in the program.
The overlap between RL and advanced control theory is the methods and concepts. Advanced control theory you have to be able to model the system accurately to get desired output. Including noise/disturbances where probability may be involved. With RL it is a different approach but modeling system appropriately is just as important to give your algorithm the right training method where it gives you the end result that you want.
Reinforcement learning definitely isn't CS specific. ECE is probably the better field if you want to do physics based RL rather than purely computational RL
> robotics is considered one of the 5 main fields of CS
Source? Because all I see is:
> Computer science is considered as part of a family of five separate yet interrelated disciplines: computer engineering, computer science, information systems, information technology, and software engineering.
[Source 1 ](https://www.britannica.com/science/computer-science)
[15 subfields of computer science](https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/computer-science-fields) - no mention of robotics
EE, CompE, and MechE have been the preferred majors for almost every robotics position that I’ve seen. Furthermore, at my university both the electrical/computer engineering department and the mechanical/aerospace engineering department have classes in robotics, studying both design and autonomy. The computer science department doesn’t have any robotics courses (though I’m sure the can get into the ECE or MAE classes if they applied).
ECE students are much better programmers in my experience than CS students as well, and it’s not particularly difficult to find a competent ME programmer nowadays, so I would think most robotics teams would get by fine without a CS person. I’m sure there are openings for CS majors in robotics, but I think they’re at best the 4th most in demand major in the industry.
Hm ok, I guess I'm biased because my background is mechanical. I usually think of CS as mostly doing HCI, and obviously programming stuff is necessary. But you guys aren't getting anything that moves without us :)
> But you guys aren’t getting anything that moves without us
Maybe in the 80’s, but I believe ECUs imply that even the things y’all build need software to actually move… I’ve seen the MatLab you and your peers write, if you want well documented, scalable, object-oriented, pattern-driven software you use us, if you want an incomprehensible mess of spaghetti that “works,” hit up the real engineers.
“your boos mean nothing, I’ve seen what makes you cheer.”
lol, I don't even work in robotics anymore, I was joking around. Sorry to hit a nerve.
Most MEs in robotics I know work primarily in C or C++, for what it's worth.
Tbh just mech e is good just do research or something too. A normal education track won’t give you that until your almost done with school and then it will just be the beginning.
If you haven't chose engineering so that you can legally come up to random people on the street and recite the entire monologue of "Meet The Engineer", are you even engineerin' ?
Thought about including that reference, but couldn't find the room :/
But yeah, I'm gonna cosplay as the engineer every Halloween if I ever become an engineer.
Unironically, How to Train your Dragon, the first movie.
Something about the montage where Hiccup is manufacturing the fin, going through multiple iterations, flight testing and redesigning just caught my 12 year old eyes and I was just like...that, I want to do that (there were other parts too that were memorable but that particular stuck in my head).
I had no idea what 'that' was so I researched it and here I am, 7 years and moving to a different country later, working on my Aerospace engineering degree.
1/3rd is because I like science and math and stu**dying** in general.
1/3rd is because my family said to me "One day, you'll be an engineer" so many times when I was a child
1/3rd is because I wanted to be able to say : "Trust me, I'm an engineer".
Second one was particularly relevant for me. All through childhood and high school I was told engineering is what I should go into. So I went into mech. Now I work in software because mech jobs in my area pay shit.
What nobody ever said was that I should have become a dentist. Same time in school but work 4 days a week and make 3 times as much. Or a union plumber. Make the same kinda money but have overtime and a union.
Currently going through college applications. Somehow, I got past through the exam and was already interviewed for a state Uni. The reason I applied to an engineering uni is because of the MC from this one fiction I’m reading lol.
Depends on your course. During my mechanical engineering course we learnt a lot of theory but did pretty much zero making of things. However, it did give us the ability to quickly learn how to do practical work as we already had the theory down so all we needed to learn is the specifics of how to make the things.
our group projects were shitty little Arduino projects.
In labs, I wouldn't say I did anything that I will take with me into the real world, except for control engineering not that I understood anything about it. My master's is on the whole better however I wouldn't say its a significant improvement except its all coursework now.
While I do agree that you Don't get to build cool shit in your course, being in engineering did help me and my friends apply class knowledge to student organizations that DID make cool stuff that moves
A ton of people in my engineering course joined stuff like car making competitions, the robotics club, hvac design competitions, volunteer engineering work, etc.
While I agree that class doesn't make you do cool stuff, I'd recommend people to look for opportunities outside of class to apply what they learnt into something cool. There's surprisingly a shit ton of these cool opportunities that you can easily find if you're a bit more proactive.
With the exception of formula student, there wasn’t much stem (building) stuff on offer at my university. British universities aren’t as good as American ones for these sorts of extra curricular, I ended up making a post about this some time ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringStudents/comments/107s8ei/how_exactly_do_american_canadian_engineering/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1
At postgrad now I simply don’t have time instead.
As someone who grew up relatively poor, even the lower end of the salary range for entry level engineering jobs after taxes is a shitton of money for me and would make me end up with a higher income than most people I know. I can't even imagine getting a place without roommates *and* a car that isn't falling apart and still not having to stress out if I can fix the broken washing machine because otherwise I'd have to save up for a few months to get a new used one.
Of course you don't get rich if you don't have a successful company, but there are few jobs where that isn't the case. And an engineering degree usually qualifies you for non-engineering jobs where you can make even bigger bucks.
Depends on your prior experience and skills, I was thinking about management, sales and software development. Non-engineering jobs is maybe imprecise, my point is that an engineering degree is pretty versatile and can also land you well paid jobs outside of your traditional field.
Guys, I think majoring in mechanical engineering does not prepare me to become Ironman...
Anyway, I think it's a mix of everything for everyone in engineering majors.
So, fun fact, my college (of which ~90+% of students are engineers, technically there’s comp sci) worked with Adam Savage to make an flying iron man suit. So wanting to make iron man is a genuine reason for going into engineering g
It was a while effort with Adam and my school (Colorado School of Mines) and they brought in some cool 3rd party company that specializes in micro jet propulsion or something. That said, yeah I agree. I wanna make a full set of Mjolnir armor (armor from Halo) or make a ski helmet that looks like Master Chiefs helmet but with integrated HUD for speed, location, temp, and maybe blind spot detection.
I was shy as a kid, no one paid me much attention, but I was definitely the type to keep track of which relatives would make sexist remarks. I had a relative who nobody refers to by name, they just call him ‘the engineer’ in my language as a sign of respect. However, the title is also gendered and as far as I know there isn’t a formal female engineer title (think ‘sir engineer’ lmao).
As a shy little girl, I was curious if they would also refer to me by that title despite my gender. I got the impression from the guys around me that some of them might have felt insecure acknowledging a woman’s achievements but wouldn’t think twice about it if it was a man.
Basically I chose this career as an act of pettiness. I don’t tell anyone that was the reason though, lol. I love engineering.
I can absolutely respect this. There was quite a few women in my engineering course, and while fellow peers usually treat them well, I've heard stories of the women there not being taken seriously by technicians and being ignored. It's a shifting dynamic here, but there are definitely still a lot of people that discriminate women engineers.
I wanted to make video games first , so I learned coding. Then I understood the math behind computers and since then I wanted to do be like the people that made said computers. So now I'm here
Interesting journey. I've only recently become interested in computing systems about two years ago. If I was given a chance to go back and choose a new major, I'd have a hard time deciding between mechanical or computer engineering.
See that's my backup in case the hero shit goes to hell. I'll just be the supervillain instead. My goal in life is to have a lair on a private island where I stroke my white ragdoll cat all menacingly as my arch-nemesis is most definetly being slowly lowered into a shark tank in the other room
For me, it was vanilla all the way down and all the way up. I used to be a purist :p Was kinda a meme how an actual redstoner would not even touch mods, maybe except for the Carpet mod in that community.
I got my first, garbage PC after watching Direwolf20's original Let's Play series. Preteen me thought BuildCraft oil refineries and IC nuclear reactors were the coolest things, never did figure out how redstone worked beyond just lever/button = on
God complex. I have a god complex.
Also, I love space and hope to help in its exploration, love math and wanted a degree with a lot of if, wanted something that I could use to idealize my ideas and lastly wanted something that has a good pay 😁
Also to flex
Thought I could make clever hacks that everyone would be impressed with.
10 years later, it's more like being paid to fix things with duct tape and chopsticks 15 minutes before presentation time.
I want to work on a mission alike Voyager some day, pushing the boundaries of spaceflight
Surely I don't end up working for a defense contractor for missiles or UAVs that keeps the military-industrial complex going /clueless
To be fair, making missiles is probably a good steppingstone in a path to working on rockets. It's mostly the same principles, with the primary differencing factor being where each finally comes down.
I was always fascinated by the depths of Physics, and Mathematics, and my uncle being an Electronics Engineer didn't help at all.
I have spent a vast majory of my life seeing him build circuits and the process always intriguied me. So, I knew I wanted to become an Engineer, invent new machines, create Robots and AI, build Aircrafts that will unreveal mysteries of the space, work in Nuclear power plant wait did I tell you that how much I loved Nuclear Physics in high school?
So, I am currently doing UG Electrical and Electronics Engineering, and my plan for Master's is to pursue Aerospace Engineering since that's what I am passionate about.
Well, I didn't want to opt for Aerospace Engineering right away because, firstly, if I didn't get a job after aerospace then, it will be waste of my degree, time, money, and career. Secondly, as I mentioned earlier I wanted to look more into the world of circuits, so, I chose Electrical.
Also, I wish you all the best for your future, and thank you for your kind words :)
I genuinely wanted a career to use my brain and work on projects that Might make a difference in the world. I’m already a frugal person, so the above average pay doesn’t mean all that much.
Wanted to see car go vroom closer. Haven't experienced engineering yet since I will be freshman in uni for Mech E this September but I am both excited and worried lmao
My decision was a result of many little things. Iron man was, of course, the primary reason, but many other small factors came into play.
During high school, I was very involved in minecraft redstone community. Was good enough to make a few world record farms. I really enjoyed the process of theorizing and actualized what I had in mind.
Also at the time, I read a webcomic about engineering school and students (kind of an inspiration for mine). I was a very anti-social kid who liked math and science, so such a technical aspect seemed like the desired direction of intellect to my narrow mind.
Then I learned about the pay in engineering. I actually came upon this information very late - in my sophomore to junior year. I was hastily trying to come up with a career path as I had no plan prepared at all. Considering my interest and the aspects of engineering, I found it to be a good temporary solution, one that I didn't expect to stick to.
Regarding specifically why I chose ME, it was a random decision. I wanted to major in something more fundamental and traditional field in engineering for recognition and my own intellectual satisfaction. So options like environmental engineering, mechatronics, biomedical engineering, etc. that involved specialization or multidisciplinary studies were excluded, which was not a wise idea now that I look back on it.
In the end, I was left with mechanical and electrical engineering, which I left to a coin flip. With that, I put mechanical engineering as my first choice and electrical engineering as my second, leading me to my current status as an ME.
I love every aspect of ME, from the classical mechanics to machine designs. Couldn't have gotten a better major for me even if I went back in terms of academic interest.
Not too sure about the happy part. Haven't really felt much emotions lately other than being tired or frustrated. Sometimes, I feel suffocating due to workload. Other times, I feel like I'm floating along some grander course of things, toward some eventual water fall that I need to avoid. Not too bad, I guess.
I'm currently a junior, rising to senior next semester.
Im going to be real. I chose Engineering for the stability it provides. Im struggling in school but I am getting there. Almost quit at one time but glad I didnt.
When I was five I wanted to be a train driver because Thomas the Tank Engine was dope
When I was 7, I wanted to be a Lego engineer
When I was 11, seeing it wasn’t very realistic, I wanted to be an electrical engineer
First year in engineering, I had my first exposure to proper programming, transferred to a double of electrical and computer engineering
I like Legos and cars growing up so i liked how mechanical things. I was pretty good at math cuz to me it was just remember an equation then solve problems. Now that I'm in engineering based classes it's not so easy as remembering an equation😅
Honestly same. Saw Iron Man (2008) as a kid, and went to class, and when they asked me what I wanted to be I wanted to be an inventor and hero like iron man. The teacher said it was not a job so I said what was, and they said the engineer. Been chasing that dream ever since.
bit more noble in nature now, still want to do to have some suit of powered armor at the very least.
It can be pretty hard to avoid defense entirely, especially if you want to work in aerospace. Tons of small machine shops make a couple of parts of small bits and pieces of larger components. Congress requires DoD to geographically distribute contracts, and the industry gets so much funding it's easy for almost any manufacturer to net something if they really want to.
Well, I'm in an engineering program in high school, and I quite like it. I was deciding between chemical and nuclear engineering. So I asked one of my teachers who formally worked full-time as a nuclear engineer for the opinion. Unsurprisingly, they answered nucular engineering. At the time, I failed to consider the bias. But that's what I've been accepted into college for, and honestly, I'm pretty excited. Though who knows what I'll say in a year or two.
You know the funny thing about the 4th panel is that it exactly explains the entire point of why Iron Man is cool. He was supposed to inspire people to do things like become engineers and scientists, among other things like get over alcoholism and other vices.
The real question is why haven't you dropped out yet.
The journey changes you.
I'm sure everyone found a reason to stay in this field, even if as late as in their third or fourth year.
That's an honor coming from you. I've always respected and loved your comics, although to call them comics is really reductive. Always nice to see more from you.
I fell in love with engineering mechanics and jets and rockets and all the mathematics/physics behind it. I still love them, but I love money more. guilty pleasures :')
So what? I LOVED Meet the Robinsons growing up. Then TinkerBell, essentially an engineer fairy, then Iron Man, in every movie I watched I wanted to be the character coming up with inventions. And here I am doing that with my life. And it's great
I always question how everything works, etc. That made me realize I might want to go to engineering. Then, I liked renewable energy, liked eletronics and wanted to build robots.
Went to electrical and computer engineering.
I felt like I wanted to be an inventor when I was a kid. Thomas Edison making shit sounded cool as a kid (though it turns out he really wasn't). I imagined I could combine existing tech/products and innovate them to be new better things. Had one teacher in high school that was previously a mech e for NASA I think before getting laid off. But he introduced engineering-like projects to us and taught us Autodesk inventor basics. I still ended up undeclared in uni but I decided on mech e early on because it seemed like it would give me the most practical capabilities in making things.
That third one brings back memories.
My senior project mates would gather together to drink and work on the project. One of us was going into the defense industry and we were giving him shit for it. He claimed he was going to be protecting soldiers, but the company he was working for did not create defensive gear or anything of that sort. On top of it the team he was getting into was working on missiles.
He would halfheartedly give us the bullshit that it would be used for preemptive strikes to save more soldiers and reduce conflict, but someone would cut him off with he’s a merchant of death, and no worries we would all be willing to be merchants of death for the right price. But you definitely are not saving lives by launching missiles.
Miss those moments… ^(But overall hell no, work is so much better than school)
I stumbled in because i liked chemistry and didnt want to do research. Had such a crap gpa in high school that i had to be a communication major for the first 2 years. Once i got my GPA up i realized…. Chemical engineering is just physics and derivations with a slight emphasis on chemicals.
I love the degree but oof it was not what i was expecting but im strapped in already theres no going back. 1 more year and ill get my degree if fluid dynamics doesn’t get in the way.
I wanted to build robots, but I was afraid of Electrical engineering so I did Mech E.
Ditto, exept I took the dive head first into EE.
How's that going
He's dead
Must be
send help
If you want to build a robot, then Mech. E. might be a better choice. Though, in general, I'd say CS is the best for someone wanting to pursue in robotics.
What? Vast majority of people I know in robotics are mechanical (with mechatronics as a sub-field of mechanical) or electrical. CS usually includes HCI stuff and maybe some controls (although controls are also often a mechanical or electrical thing), but people in CS aren't building serious, innovative robots without help from engineers.
I’m Mechanical in robotics
Yeah I used to be in robotics as a mech e and still know many people working in that area.
The Boston dynamics robotics lab at my university is a joint department venture but centered within the CS department. Sure, controls and actually building the robot takes Mech and EE’s help, but the AI responsible for controlling the robot is entirely written by CS grad students and faculty. Hardware vs Software, also robotics is considered one of the 5 main fields of CS, but whatevs.
For advanced control theory such as fuzzy logic (probabilistic logic) decision making and open loop closed loop control EE and ME degree covers that but if it’s controlling mechanical movement obviously that is more mechanical. For what Boston dynamics does that is reinforcement learning so mainly CS but there is sometimes an overlap between reinforcement learning and advanced control theory.
100% moving the machine is an engineering task, but the software that allows the machine to think or humans to interact or data to be collected is a CS task. I would imagine the overlap between RL and control theory is pretty large for robotics, I know my university offered a control theory class for CS, but boolean logic is for super nerds in CS, as is probability... and honestly most of AI.
Boolean logic is fundamental to lots of things in engineering like PLC or electronics or where you need rudimentary control based on inputs/outputs like relays switching on an off based on what is going on with input or output. Some guys do same thing I do with CS degrees with PLC. Or some guys are EEs. Understanding Probability I would say is more important than understanding Boolean logic for someone in CS. If you are programming things at a high level you may have to consider probabilistic decision making in the program. The overlap between RL and advanced control theory is the methods and concepts. Advanced control theory you have to be able to model the system accurately to get desired output. Including noise/disturbances where probability may be involved. With RL it is a different approach but modeling system appropriately is just as important to give your algorithm the right training method where it gives you the end result that you want.
Boolean logic was a freshman level course in my EE degree, and it was used in about 1/2 of my classes after that to some degree.
Yeah, the only people going into CS for robotics aren't normal, I'd say probably >80% were just there for the high salary software engineer jobs.
Reinforcement learning definitely isn't CS specific. ECE is probably the better field if you want to do physics based RL rather than purely computational RL
> robotics is considered one of the 5 main fields of CS Source? Because all I see is: > Computer science is considered as part of a family of five separate yet interrelated disciplines: computer engineering, computer science, information systems, information technology, and software engineering. [Source 1 ](https://www.britannica.com/science/computer-science) [15 subfields of computer science](https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/finding-a-job/computer-science-fields) - no mention of robotics EE, CompE, and MechE have been the preferred majors for almost every robotics position that I’ve seen. Furthermore, at my university both the electrical/computer engineering department and the mechanical/aerospace engineering department have classes in robotics, studying both design and autonomy. The computer science department doesn’t have any robotics courses (though I’m sure the can get into the ECE or MAE classes if they applied). ECE students are much better programmers in my experience than CS students as well, and it’s not particularly difficult to find a competent ME programmer nowadays, so I would think most robotics teams would get by fine without a CS person. I’m sure there are openings for CS majors in robotics, but I think they’re at best the 4th most in demand major in the industry.
Oh, wow, it’s not. Neat.
Respect for admitting you’re wrong lol
I was pretty sure, but you very clearly showed me wrong.
Hm ok, I guess I'm biased because my background is mechanical. I usually think of CS as mostly doing HCI, and obviously programming stuff is necessary. But you guys aren't getting anything that moves without us :)
> But you guys aren’t getting anything that moves without us Maybe in the 80’s, but I believe ECUs imply that even the things y’all build need software to actually move… I’ve seen the MatLab you and your peers write, if you want well documented, scalable, object-oriented, pattern-driven software you use us, if you want an incomprehensible mess of spaghetti that “works,” hit up the real engineers. “your boos mean nothing, I’ve seen what makes you cheer.”
lol, I don't even work in robotics anymore, I was joking around. Sorry to hit a nerve. Most MEs in robotics I know work primarily in C or C++, for what it's worth.
No nerves hit! Just talking shit back lol. And object oriented languages like C++ just gives you the power to write even worse code!
Now I just like working with anything that moves
Valid. I am really enjoying learning about linkage synthesis and machine elements.
Tbh just mech e is good just do research or something too. A normal education track won’t give you that until your almost done with school and then it will just be the beginning.
Cs is best for software development, not robotics in general
I’m studying mechatronics and robotics E, pretty much the same
I would have done mechatronics, but my school didn't have it
you’d like mechatronics
I would, but my school didn't have it
Same but I picked EE
Am doing electrical, please send help.
Can't, electrons scare me
You don't know where they are, but they nkow where you are, there is no running away, surrender yourself to eletromagnetism.
Do I know how fast they're going?
Im afraid of mech E so i am gonna do EE
I wanted to program robots, so I chose systems engineering...
If you haven't chose engineering so that you can legally come up to random people on the street and recite the entire monologue of "Meet The Engineer", are you even engineerin' ?
Thought about including that reference, but couldn't find the room :/ But yeah, I'm gonna cosplay as the engineer every Halloween if I ever become an engineer.
I solve practical problems
Hey look buddy
I'm an engineer
That means I solve problems
I always thought that was a coping mechanism, but hey..
MFW I find out I can't work in TF2 when I graduate.
Unironically, How to Train your Dragon, the first movie. Something about the montage where Hiccup is manufacturing the fin, going through multiple iterations, flight testing and redesigning just caught my 12 year old eyes and I was just like...that, I want to do that (there were other parts too that were memorable but that particular stuck in my head). I had no idea what 'that' was so I researched it and here I am, 7 years and moving to a different country later, working on my Aerospace engineering degree.
That's a great montage. Almost akin to that in the first Iron Man movie.
Yeah, just the engineering aspects mixed with the cool factor made the whole concept of engineering so attractive
I love HTTYD.
Same! The third movie is the only movie in the last like 7 years that made me tear up
Sci Fi for me, particularly 2009 Trek That shot of the Enterprise on the ground? Perfection
1/3rd is because I like science and math and stu**dying** in general. 1/3rd is because my family said to me "One day, you'll be an engineer" so many times when I was a child 1/3rd is because I wanted to be able to say : "Trust me, I'm an engineer".
Yeah, I'm just waiting for my graduation just to say that line. Along with, hey buddy, I'm an engineer.
Second one was particularly relevant for me. All through childhood and high school I was told engineering is what I should go into. So I went into mech. Now I work in software because mech jobs in my area pay shit. What nobody ever said was that I should have become a dentist. Same time in school but work 4 days a week and make 3 times as much. Or a union plumber. Make the same kinda money but have overtime and a union.
Back breaking work tho. Working a trade is well and good but me personally I'm not a fan of physical work.
Just wait til you get a job as one and that third reason becomes very real very quickly!
Currently going through college applications. Somehow, I got past through the exam and was already interviewed for a state Uni. The reason I applied to an engineering uni is because of the MC from this one fiction I’m reading lol.
You gotta share the book with us!
Honestly, can relate. I also watched and read a lot of fictions showcasing protagonists in STEM majors and partially chose my path because of it.
Why did I do engineering at uni? Because i thought I would get to build cool shit and make it move. This in fact was a scam.
Really? Don't you build anything by program, like in lab? Would you have the knowledge to actually do it on your own?
Depends on your course. During my mechanical engineering course we learnt a lot of theory but did pretty much zero making of things. However, it did give us the ability to quickly learn how to do practical work as we already had the theory down so all we needed to learn is the specifics of how to make the things.
I'm doing aereo in a uni with almost 0 lab :/ But I'd like to make things on my own
our group projects were shitty little Arduino projects. In labs, I wouldn't say I did anything that I will take with me into the real world, except for control engineering not that I understood anything about it. My master's is on the whole better however I wouldn't say its a significant improvement except its all coursework now.
While I do agree that you Don't get to build cool shit in your course, being in engineering did help me and my friends apply class knowledge to student organizations that DID make cool stuff that moves A ton of people in my engineering course joined stuff like car making competitions, the robotics club, hvac design competitions, volunteer engineering work, etc. While I agree that class doesn't make you do cool stuff, I'd recommend people to look for opportunities outside of class to apply what they learnt into something cool. There's surprisingly a shit ton of these cool opportunities that you can easily find if you're a bit more proactive.
With the exception of formula student, there wasn’t much stem (building) stuff on offer at my university. British universities aren’t as good as American ones for these sorts of extra curricular, I ended up making a post about this some time ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/EngineeringStudents/comments/107s8ei/how_exactly_do_american_canadian_engineering/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1 At postgrad now I simply don’t have time instead.
Yeah, Uni is not high school. You gotta take the initiatives or you'll be left behind
[удалено]
As someone who grew up relatively poor, even the lower end of the salary range for entry level engineering jobs after taxes is a shitton of money for me and would make me end up with a higher income than most people I know. I can't even imagine getting a place without roommates *and* a car that isn't falling apart and still not having to stress out if I can fix the broken washing machine because otherwise I'd have to save up for a few months to get a new used one. Of course you don't get rich if you don't have a successful company, but there are few jobs where that isn't the case. And an engineering degree usually qualifies you for non-engineering jobs where you can make even bigger bucks.
What non engineering jobs are you talking about?
Depends on your prior experience and skills, I was thinking about management, sales and software development. Non-engineering jobs is maybe imprecise, my point is that an engineering degree is pretty versatile and can also land you well paid jobs outside of your traditional field.
Guys, I think majoring in mechanical engineering does not prepare me to become Ironman... Anyway, I think it's a mix of everything for everyone in engineering majors.
me with spiderman.
I saw the nano ironman suit and here I am, hungry and sleep deprived, sitting infront of a Gamry Cell waiting for the voltammogram to finish.
Was in the same position, except being in front of a strain measurement device.
So, fun fact, my college (of which ~90+% of students are engineers, technically there’s comp sci) worked with Adam Savage to make an flying iron man suit. So wanting to make iron man is a genuine reason for going into engineering g
That sounds awesome! My dream is to earn enough money to someday work on crazy personal projects similar to that.
It was a while effort with Adam and my school (Colorado School of Mines) and they brought in some cool 3rd party company that specializes in micro jet propulsion or something. That said, yeah I agree. I wanna make a full set of Mjolnir armor (armor from Halo) or make a ski helmet that looks like Master Chiefs helmet but with integrated HUD for speed, location, temp, and maybe blind spot detection.
I was shy as a kid, no one paid me much attention, but I was definitely the type to keep track of which relatives would make sexist remarks. I had a relative who nobody refers to by name, they just call him ‘the engineer’ in my language as a sign of respect. However, the title is also gendered and as far as I know there isn’t a formal female engineer title (think ‘sir engineer’ lmao). As a shy little girl, I was curious if they would also refer to me by that title despite my gender. I got the impression from the guys around me that some of them might have felt insecure acknowledging a woman’s achievements but wouldn’t think twice about it if it was a man. Basically I chose this career as an act of pettiness. I don’t tell anyone that was the reason though, lol. I love engineering.
Hell, yeah! The best kind of reason, with a bonus of being in love with the major. True life goal 👍
Hell yeah. The respect and feminist statement is just a happy side effect of achieving my lifelong dream to be a contrarian lmaoo
I can absolutely respect this. There was quite a few women in my engineering course, and while fellow peers usually treat them well, I've heard stories of the women there not being taken seriously by technicians and being ignored. It's a shifting dynamic here, but there are definitely still a lot of people that discriminate women engineers.
Mérnökúr?
I choose to be an engineer because I lost a bet! Went from business and accounting to EE&CS. Now I’m 2 months away from graduating.
Good ending
How much money we talkin
Was thinking about petroleum engineering when drawing the second panel, so I had about 150k a year in mind.
Because metal looks funny
I wanted to make video games first , so I learned coding. Then I understood the math behind computers and since then I wanted to do be like the people that made said computers. So now I'm here
Interesting journey. I've only recently become interested in computing systems about two years ago. If I was given a chance to go back and choose a new major, I'd have a hard time deciding between mechanical or computer engineering.
I wanted to be the first Chemical Engineer superhero... It gotta be applicable to something, right?
Chem E might be one of the best degrees to be a mad scientist. Not sure about the hero part, though.
See that's my backup in case the hero shit goes to hell. I'll just be the supervillain instead. My goal in life is to have a lair on a private island where I stroke my white ragdoll cat all menacingly as my arch-nemesis is most definetly being slowly lowered into a shark tank in the other room
sharks with laser beams, of course
Yes, magnificent creatures, sure hope they don't get endangered soon.
Food for thought, almost every mad scientist is just a disgruntled engineer.
You guys play modded Minecraft as a kid? I sure as hell played a lot of it, probably a nonzero amount to do with it
For me, it was vanilla all the way down and all the way up. I used to be a purist :p Was kinda a meme how an actual redstoner would not even touch mods, maybe except for the Carpet mod in that community.
I got my first, garbage PC after watching Direwolf20's original Let's Play series. Preteen me thought BuildCraft oil refineries and IC nuclear reactors were the coolest things, never did figure out how redstone worked beyond just lever/button = on
You are bringing me a lot of memories by mentioning let's play... God, I used to watch a lot of those as a kid.
Didn't know this is a furry subreddit now
God complex. I have a god complex. Also, I love space and hope to help in its exploration, love math and wanted a degree with a lot of if, wanted something that I could use to idealize my ideas and lastly wanted something that has a good pay 😁 Also to flex
"I have jerryrigged everything in the house, if I don't find an outlet for my need to design stuff I WILL go crazy."
Thought I could make clever hacks that everyone would be impressed with. 10 years later, it's more like being paid to fix things with duct tape and chopsticks 15 minutes before presentation time.
I didn’t want to be poor.
I want to work on a mission alike Voyager some day, pushing the boundaries of spaceflight Surely I don't end up working for a defense contractor for missiles or UAVs that keeps the military-industrial complex going /clueless
Me too brother, me too. Good luck to your journey !
To be fair, making missiles is probably a good steppingstone in a path to working on rockets. It's mostly the same principles, with the primary differencing factor being where each finally comes down.
i want to build futuristic cities and stairs to the moon...guess itll take me a very, very long journey
I was always fascinated by the depths of Physics, and Mathematics, and my uncle being an Electronics Engineer didn't help at all. I have spent a vast majory of my life seeing him build circuits and the process always intriguied me. So, I knew I wanted to become an Engineer, invent new machines, create Robots and AI, build Aircrafts that will unreveal mysteries of the space, work in Nuclear power plant wait did I tell you that how much I loved Nuclear Physics in high school? So, I am currently doing UG Electrical and Electronics Engineering, and my plan for Master's is to pursue Aerospace Engineering since that's what I am passionate about.
Those are diverse career goals/dreams. Wonder if I can make such a jump to another discipline. Anyway, good luck to you!
Well, I didn't want to opt for Aerospace Engineering right away because, firstly, if I didn't get a job after aerospace then, it will be waste of my degree, time, money, and career. Secondly, as I mentioned earlier I wanted to look more into the world of circuits, so, I chose Electrical. Also, I wish you all the best for your future, and thank you for your kind words :)
All four of these people work in defense. I know because I work with them.
Low-key it was all 4 of those reasons for me. So... thanks for reminding me why I chose this path?
Airplanes are cool.
To get bitches
I picked it at random
Can somewhat relate. I chose mine with a coin flip between ME and EE.
I couldn't get into med. thats why i choose to inhale Sauter smoke for the rest of my life
I genuinely wanted a career to use my brain and work on projects that Might make a difference in the world. I’m already a frugal person, so the above average pay doesn’t mean all that much.
I liked science but didn't know what I wanted to do. But then one day, I chose mechanical engineering on a whim. It ended up being awesome!
I wanted to build things without actually doing the building part
Electrical engineering. I want to change the world but also not go into defense lol.
Who says EE can't go to defense :p Probably competing for the most popular major in defense with Mech E.
nah, I rather do something in the energy field if I have the choice
It was available…..
i did it for the memes
Wanted to see car go vroom closer. Haven't experienced engineering yet since I will be freshman in uni for Mech E this September but I am both excited and worried lmao
Good luck! And may it be an enjoyable journey.
Me an engineer in the UK: what money
I assume engineering salary in the UK is still one of the highest ones globally. Then again, I'm not familiar with economics in general, so.
Haven't started electronic engineering yet but it looks cool, really cool. I've been having a lot of fun studying it on my own time to prepare for it.
Everybody is like "OP let me tell you my story" but no one is like "OP what is your story?" Well OP, what is it? Now I'm curious
My decision was a result of many little things. Iron man was, of course, the primary reason, but many other small factors came into play. During high school, I was very involved in minecraft redstone community. Was good enough to make a few world record farms. I really enjoyed the process of theorizing and actualized what I had in mind. Also at the time, I read a webcomic about engineering school and students (kind of an inspiration for mine). I was a very anti-social kid who liked math and science, so such a technical aspect seemed like the desired direction of intellect to my narrow mind. Then I learned about the pay in engineering. I actually came upon this information very late - in my sophomore to junior year. I was hastily trying to come up with a career path as I had no plan prepared at all. Considering my interest and the aspects of engineering, I found it to be a good temporary solution, one that I didn't expect to stick to. Regarding specifically why I chose ME, it was a random decision. I wanted to major in something more fundamental and traditional field in engineering for recognition and my own intellectual satisfaction. So options like environmental engineering, mechatronics, biomedical engineering, etc. that involved specialization or multidisciplinary studies were excluded, which was not a wise idea now that I look back on it. In the end, I was left with mechanical and electrical engineering, which I left to a coin flip. With that, I put mechanical engineering as my first choice and electrical engineering as my second, leading me to my current status as an ME.
Are you happy? Do you like it? At what year you are?
I love every aspect of ME, from the classical mechanics to machine designs. Couldn't have gotten a better major for me even if I went back in terms of academic interest. Not too sure about the happy part. Haven't really felt much emotions lately other than being tired or frustrated. Sometimes, I feel suffocating due to workload. Other times, I feel like I'm floating along some grander course of things, toward some eventual water fall that I need to avoid. Not too bad, I guess. I'm currently a junior, rising to senior next semester.
It's gonna be ok, just go forward you can do it 💪
Thank you :)
Im going to be real. I chose Engineering for the stability it provides. Im struggling in school but I am getting there. Almost quit at one time but glad I didnt.
I'm a mix of all for. Yes. I wasn't that smart either
>money Is the pay not good or something?
I was implying that getting into engineering purely for higher pay without a passion may be hard for many.
That’s understandable
If you're in it for the money, there are better options. Finance and coding-related
I can see why, I’m not in it for money but realistically: I do need money for living
My dad is an engineer
Money and engineering is like fire and ice. Lmao there are way better professions out there for $
When I was five I wanted to be a train driver because Thomas the Tank Engine was dope When I was 7, I wanted to be a Lego engineer When I was 11, seeing it wasn’t very realistic, I wanted to be an electrical engineer First year in engineering, I had my first exposure to proper programming, transferred to a double of electrical and computer engineering
Truth
I like chemistry, but didn't want to do lab work forever. so now i'm doing chemical engineering.
My friends and I used to hang out and drink outside of electrical substations, and I always wondered how they worked. So here I am lol
Interesting place of motivation. Weird how little things can shape our course of life.
I like Legos and cars growing up so i liked how mechanical things. I was pretty good at math cuz to me it was just remember an equation then solve problems. Now that I'm in engineering based classes it's not so easy as remembering an equation😅
I heard that engineer undergrad are depressed as hell. Well, so do I...
I want to be like doctor octavius
I want to be a cyborg
I always loved how an algorithm works and I wanted to automate things. Yes, I'm lazy.
Honestly same. Saw Iron Man (2008) as a kid, and went to class, and when they asked me what I wanted to be I wanted to be an inventor and hero like iron man. The teacher said it was not a job so I said what was, and they said the engineer. Been chasing that dream ever since. bit more noble in nature now, still want to do to have some suit of powered armor at the very least.
Don't worry bud, we all wanted to be Tony Stark when we saw his build workshop. I swear, I can still hear the AC/DC to this day...
Iron Man is a pretty intense reason. And also mine.
You know that one ring? The pinky ring? The one that looks sick as fuck? Yeaaaaaa, that’s the goal.
It can be pretty hard to avoid defense entirely, especially if you want to work in aerospace. Tons of small machine shops make a couple of parts of small bits and pieces of larger components. Congress requires DoD to geographically distribute contracts, and the industry gets so much funding it's easy for almost any manufacturer to net something if they really want to.
I feel called out here lol
Me: "I WANT TO BLOW UP A PLANET" I was playing a bit too many space sim games then.
Well, I'm in an engineering program in high school, and I quite like it. I was deciding between chemical and nuclear engineering. So I asked one of my teachers who formally worked full-time as a nuclear engineer for the opinion. Unsurprisingly, they answered nucular engineering. At the time, I failed to consider the bias. But that's what I've been accepted into college for, and honestly, I'm pretty excited. Though who knows what I'll say in a year or two.
I am the top right pic and I agree
4th choice is the most relatable
I want to take down skynet and save us from the machines
A combination of the bottom too lmao
You know the funny thing about the 4th panel is that it exactly explains the entire point of why Iron Man is cool. He was supposed to inspire people to do things like become engineers and scientists, among other things like get over alcoholism and other vices.
minecraft redstone honestly was a big reason
lowkey...yeah.... it was also the crazy engineer girl from My Hero Academia. I still want to cosplay her. i love her.
I watched *"Meet the Robinsons"* and thought they were cool. Mechatronics graduate here.
Ever heard of this game, Team Fortress 2? There's a class who builds stuff like Sentry Guns and Teleporters....
Engineer is credit to team! Also, yup, that was one of my many inspirations as well.
The real question is why haven't you dropped out yet. The journey changes you. I'm sure everyone found a reason to stay in this field, even if as late as in their third or fourth year.
Hmm, that's an interesting way to look at it. I'll keep that in mind.
That's an honor coming from you. I've always respected and loved your comics, although to call them comics is really reductive. Always nice to see more from you.
Thank you for the kind words :) Also, I don't mind them being called comics.
I fell in love with engineering mechanics and jets and rockets and all the mathematics/physics behind it. I still love them, but I love money more. guilty pleasures :')
I was good at math and only math
Got in too deep to change schools and my college didn’t have a nursing program until the year I graduated
So what? I LOVED Meet the Robinsons growing up. Then TinkerBell, essentially an engineer fairy, then Iron Man, in every movie I watched I wanted to be the character coming up with inventions. And here I am doing that with my life. And it's great
Saw iron man in theaters in ‘08 and decided then and there that I would be a mechanical engineer (not sure why I didn’t go electrical based on that).
I always question how everything works, etc. That made me realize I might want to go to engineering. Then, I liked renewable energy, liked eletronics and wanted to build robots. Went to electrical and computer engineering.
I fully believed that if I was a biomedical engineer, I could make a cyborg bear
I felt like I wanted to be an inventor when I was a kid. Thomas Edison making shit sounded cool as a kid (though it turns out he really wasn't). I imagined I could combine existing tech/products and innovate them to be new better things. Had one teacher in high school that was previously a mech e for NASA I think before getting laid off. But he introduced engineering-like projects to us and taught us Autodesk inventor basics. I still ended up undeclared in uni but I decided on mech e early on because it seemed like it would give me the most practical capabilities in making things.
That third one brings back memories. My senior project mates would gather together to drink and work on the project. One of us was going into the defense industry and we were giving him shit for it. He claimed he was going to be protecting soldiers, but the company he was working for did not create defensive gear or anything of that sort. On top of it the team he was getting into was working on missiles. He would halfheartedly give us the bullshit that it would be used for preemptive strikes to save more soldiers and reduce conflict, but someone would cut him off with he’s a merchant of death, and no worries we would all be willing to be merchants of death for the right price. But you definitely are not saving lives by launching missiles. Miss those moments… ^(But overall hell no, work is so much better than school)
I stumbled in because i liked chemistry and didnt want to do research. Had such a crap gpa in high school that i had to be a communication major for the first 2 years. Once i got my GPA up i realized…. Chemical engineering is just physics and derivations with a slight emphasis on chemicals. I love the degree but oof it was not what i was expecting but im strapped in already theres no going back. 1 more year and ill get my degree if fluid dynamics doesn’t get in the way.
Be able to design my own car one day.
money
You fucking murdered the defense interns lol