The Student Room Group

Engineering Myths

Scroll to see replies

Original post by Student403
Don't worry the US has it's disadvantages

(Like perhaps the next president :colonhash: )

Also a huge thing for many people is that you only graduate with a Bachelor's in 4 years, whereas you do that in 3 years in the UK (or 4 for a MEng). That means you pay more in the States.

This is because in the US, you take a few classes outside your major to broaden your study at university.

Personally this works for me because I like the idea of varied study, and I want to pursue German alongside engineering. But I can see why others would prefer the UK system.


If thats the case, then i would probable prefer the US system as i would love to pursue some sort of business management or finance course alongside engineering.
If only UK had such a system
Original post by BlackSweetness
If thats the case, then i would probable prefer the US system as i would love to pursue some sort of business management or finance course alongside engineering.
If only UK had such a system

Ooh there are a lot of those programmes in the US.

For example University of Pennsylvania offers a prestigious Management and Technology course.
Reply 82
Original post by Student403
Yesss aerospace most likely in the US :woo:

Have acceptances from the US and offers from the UK, but I like the opportunities and the programme is really highly ranked in the one I'm looking at in the States


How does collegeconfidential compare with TSR?!

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by jneill
How does collegeconfidential compare with TSR?!

Posted from TSR Mobile


Much worse interface, not as close a knit community, less banter..

And their maths forum couldn't begin to compare
Original post by Smack
Eh, unless you're doing electrical/electronics engineering then programming really isn't that important - certainly not something I would advise an engineering applicant to brush up on as a vital part of the degree (again, unless you're an electrical/electronics applicant). I don't think programming is something that's commonly taught outside of electrical/electronics engineering, certainly not a significant part of the degree where failure at it would entail failure of the degree.

But I would certainly agree with brushing up on maths.


We use programming a lot, or it might just be my uni. We're constantly being given programming tasks. First semester we took a Python module which was worth 30%. Second semester we have an applied computing module and we do stuff like writing code that can generate shape of aerofoil and optimize it to give best lift coefficients etc. In other modules like mechanics/electronics you usually have matrices to solve, easier if you can use matlab/numpy form python to do those. Programming is a pretty important skill if you want to get far
Original post by bigboateng_
We use programming a lot, or it might just be my uni. We're constantly being given programming tasks. First semester we took a Python module which was worth 30%. Second semester we have an applied computing module and we do stuff like writing code that can generate shape of aerofoil and optimize it to give best lift coefficients etc. In other modules like mechanics/electronics you usually have matrices to solve, easier if you can use matlab/numpy form python to do those. Programming is a pretty important skill if you want to get far


Don't you do some sort of aero degree that includes both mechanical and systems components? For pure mechanical people, I don't think that programming is a major part of the degree nor is it something I see mentioned much as a requirement on job adverts. I'm not saying it's useless, but it's simply, in my experience and from what I have seen, not one of the key skills I think a prospective engineering applicant (unless they're electrical/electronics) ought to have to prevent failure of the degree.
Original post by trapking
GD&T ? what's that...


Geometric dimensioning and tolerancing.
Original post by Smack
Don't you do some sort of aero degree that includes both mechanical and systems components? For pure mechanical people, I don't think that programming is a major part of the degree nor is it something I see mentioned much as a requirement on job adverts. I'm not saying it's useless, but it's simply, in my experience and from what I have seen, not one of the key skills I think a prospective engineering applicant (unless they're electrical/electronics) ought to have to prevent failure of the degree.


I think he's right because in my Mech Eng course we were taught programming in the first year (Matlab...which is written in C) and in my systems control engineering module and power cycles analysis module we also used Matlab.

I can see why they teach it because in industry Matlab is very widely used (for example you might have heard autonomous vehicles being a big thing now in the automotive industry and almost every company that is doing research in this area i.e. Jaguar/Delphi/Aston etc all make use of Matlab)
Original post by trapking
I think he's right because in my Mech Eng course we were taught programming in the first year (Matlab...which is written in C) and in my systems control engineering module and power cycles analysis module we also used Matlab.

I can see why they teach it because in industry Matlab is very widely used (for example you might have heard autonomous vehicles being a big thing now in the automotive industry and almost every company that is doing research in this area i.e. Jaguar/Delphi/Aston etc all make use of Matlab)


I did a bit of Matlab too, but I would hardly call it "programming". Never came across any jobs that specify the use of Matlab or know anyone on my course who has used it outside of university, but then again I haven't looked at the automotive industry.
Original post by Smack
I did a bit of Matlab too, but I would hardly call it "programming". Never came across any jobs that specify the use of Matlab or know anyone on my course who has used it outside of university, but then again I haven't looked at the automotive industry.


Matlab is very much programming....

I have programmed in other languages and all the programming principles are exactly the same in Matlab. And it's not just the automotive industry that makes use of Matlab! Aerospace/Energy/Materials etc etc all make use of it.
Original post by trapking
Matlab is very much programming....

I have programmed in other languages and all the programming principles are exactly the same in Matlab. And it's not just the automotive industry that makes use of Matlab! Aerospace/Energy/Materials etc etc all make use of it.


Again, I'm not saying that no-one uses it, or that it's not a useful skill. Just from my observations, it's not something that's all that popular outside of specialist roles. I used to work in energy and didn't hear anyone mention it or any jobs specifying it, and worked with people who used to work in aerospace and I don't think they used it either. There are jobs that use it, and they are usually modelling/simulation engineer type jobs. If that's what someone's interested in, great, I would recommend they learn programming and systems engineering type stuff, but I wouldn't raise it to the pedestal of being something that all engineers simply must learn. I think it's very much a career specific skill.
Original post by Smack
Don't you do some sort of aero degree that includes both mechanical and systems components? For pure mechanical people, I don't think that programming is a major part of the degree nor is it something I see mentioned much as a requirement on job adverts. I'm not saying it's useless, but it's simply, in my experience and from what I have seen, not one of the key skills I think a prospective engineering applicant (unless they're electrical/electronics) ought to have to prevent failure of the degree.


I do aero yeah, but I think apart from maybe chemical and civil, know programming in the rest (aero/mech/electric) is a must. most universities are now including it in their first year modules so you're gonna learn it one way or another. It also helps you throughout the degree, almost 90% of the projects you'll do will have some electrical parts using arduino/raspberry pi etc and all of those require programming knowledge so better if you learn early and get the grasp so you can do some advanced stuff in the projects instead of some crappy 'turn left, turn right' robot. Most people get to that point in second/third year and they end up struggling with projects because they can't code. Also majority of engineering based societies like Formula Student etc are mostly societies where you make stuff and most of them requires programming the electronics, so you could be the person doing that. Lastly most things we learn in engineering is automated in real world, there's CAD programs etc to do CFD, no need to work out stresses on materials because theres already software, most things we learn we will never have to use but knowing how to program can get you some pretty interesting roles I think. Programming is also useful and used everywhere in any engineering company
Original post by bigboateng_
I do aero yeah, but I think apart from maybe chemical and civil, know programming in the rest (aero/mech/electric) is a must. most universities are now including it in their first year modules so you're gonna learn it one way or another. It also helps you throughout the degree, almost 90% of the projects you'll do will have some electrical parts using arduino/raspberry pi etc and all of those require programming knowledge so better if you learn early and get the grasp so you can do some advanced stuff in the projects instead of some crappy 'turn left, turn right' robot. Most people get to that point in second/third year and they end up struggling with projects because they can't code. Also majority of engineering based societies like Formula Student etc are mostly societies where you make stuff and most of them requires programming the electronics, so you could be the person doing that. Lastly most things we learn in engineering is automated in real world, there's CAD programs etc to do CFD, no need to work out stresses on materials because theres already software, most things we learn we will never have to use but knowing how to program can get you some pretty interesting roles I think. Programming is also useful and used everywhere in any engineering company


I think you have things backwards. Working out the stresses in materials is probably one of the most common tasks a mechanical is going to perform in a huge number of different types of roles. Certainly that's what my previous job was almost entirely based on (in a roundabout way, granted, as structural design codes usually require you to workout a maximum force allowed on an element, but this is based on the stress), as are a lot of my coursemate's jobs. Hence why it's a pillar of mechanical engineering courses.

You can do basic FEA and CFD by importing CAD models into the software, restraining it, loading it, then hitting solve, but they are specialisms in their own right, and hence advanced simulations are often done by specialist analysis engineers - both my previous employers had specialist analysis departments, almost solely based on using FEA for providing advanced stress, fatigue and thermal analysis, and these are often staffed by engineers with PhDs.

Whereas, based on my experience of actually being in engineering, I simply did not see programming as something that was actually used by engineers, and do not see it mentioned on job adverts that are not systems/controls based, and that's why I don't think it's something that's paramount of a prospective engineer (unless they're electrical/electronics) to brush up on, certainly not any more important than a range of other things, like CAD, reading drawings, as examples.
Original post by Smack
I think you have things backwards. Working out the stresses in materials is probably one of the most common tasks a mechanical is going to perform in a huge number of different types of roles. Certainly that's what my previous job was almost entirely based on (in a roundabout way, granted, as structural design codes usually require you to workout a maximum force allowed on an element, but this is based on the stress), as are a lot of my coursemate's jobs. Hence why it's a pillar of mechanical engineering courses.

You can do basic FEA and CFD by importing CAD models into the software, restraining it, loading it, then hitting solve, but they are specialisms in their own right, and hence advanced simulations are often done by specialist analysis engineers - both my previous employers had specialist analysis departments, almost solely based on using FEA for providing advanced stress, fatigue and thermal analysis, and these are often staffed by engineers with PhDs.

Whereas, based on my experience of actually being in engineering, I simply did not see programming as something that was actually used by engineers, and do not see it mentioned on job adverts that are not systems/controls based, and that's why I don't think it's something that's paramount of a prospective engineer (unless they're electrical/electronics) to brush up on, certainly not any more important than a range of other things, like CAD, reading drawings, as examples.


Yes ofcourse on the job, if what you're doing isn't related to programming then you might not be required to know any, like you're a CAD modeller or something I dunno. You can't say when you finish university you want to be be a Solidworks modeller in a company therfore you dont need to take maths modules because why would you. Same thing applies to programming you will need to use whilst at uni, whether your job requires it or not it doesnt matter. I can't think of any project work you can do during university that isn't gonna require programming of some sort. In my maths module, our text book 'Modern Engineering Mathematics' by glen james has matlab code written all over it, in materials (statics, etc), we mostly solve matrix equations, again if you know matlab or something, it makes life easier ( and even lecturers recommend it). In electronics, same thing, solving matrices and programming microcontrollers, etc. Even in my design module which I thought was only gonna be solidworks, we have spent the past month using Python to try to generate points for optimal aerofoil which we can then import the x,y points to Solidworks to draw it (because apparently thats possible). The only module we dont really do anything related to computers is thermodynamis/fluid dynamics. Even that I know theres is CFD in the future so it will have some computer aspects. So yeaj whilst at uni programming will help you a bunch but career wise it will depend on what you do. But I think some of the interesting roles lies in control/systems sector which knowing programming is a bonus
Original post by bigboateng_
Yes ofcourse on the job, if what you're doing isn't related to programming then you might not be required to know any, like you're a CAD modeller or something I dunno. You can't say when you finish university you want to be be a Solidworks modeller in a company therfore you dont need to take maths modules because why would you. Same thing applies to programming you will need to use whilst at uni, whether your job requires it or not it doesnt matter. I can't think of any project work you can do during university that isn't gonna require programming of some sort. In my maths module, our text book 'Modern Engineering Mathematics' by glen james has matlab code written all over it, in materials (statics, etc), we mostly solve matrix equations, again if you know matlab or something, it makes life easier ( and even lecturers recommend it). In electronics, same thing, solving matrices and programming microcontrollers, etc. Even in my design module which I thought was only gonna be solidworks, we have spent the past month using Python to try to generate points for optimal aerofoil which we can then import the x,y points to Solidworks to draw it (because apparently thats possible). The only module we dont really do anything related to computers is thermodynamis/fluid dynamics. Even that I know theres is CFD in the future so it will have some computer aspects. So yeaj whilst at uni programming will help you a bunch but career wise it will depend on what you do. But I think some of the interesting roles lies in control/systems sector which knowing programming is a bonus



I agree with all this!

Programming knowledge for a mechanical engineer is just as important as being able to do other basic stuff like reading drawings. It's not ESSENTIAL but if you want to be a good well rounded engineer...knowledge of programming is one of those skills needed!

Edit: Just to show you how amazing it is to have a decent understanding of programming as a mechanical engineer....a postgraduate physicist at my university was stuck with functions for a device that measured a light beam or something along those lines (very complex formula on a different program called Mathmatica) and I was able to help him solve his problems just because i had a good understanding from programming in Matlab!!!!!!!!
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by Student403
Much worse interface, not as close a knit community, less banter..

And their maths forum couldn't begin to compare


Can confirm. The chance me threads are even more toxic than the am I good enough threads on here.


Great thread btw Smack, solid work :smile:

Posted from TSR Mobile
I'm going to disagree on the comments about matlab being industry specific. If you're ever developing new mathematical programs, matlab should be the first point of call as a prototyping language due to its simplicity (extremely high lev language). After testing, it can be ported to a language of choice either based on requirement or speed increase for lower level languages. But best way to save your own time is to first prototype in matlab!

Quick Reply