How hard is Engineering?

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Reply 20

MORPHEUS24-7

Original post by + polarity -

That sounds amazing. I chose the wrong uni lol

Its good fun! But at lot of work/expectation. Where are you studying?

Reply 21

MORPHEUS24-7

Original post by bestofyou

Sick...I'd love to get into bionics when/if I ever graduate, I've got a chance to do AI along side. Bound to have a lot of that in Robotics?

When you say that the different degrees have different levels of theory/practicals would this also go for the same degrees at different universities you think?

Yeah I've done four AI based modules. Genetic algorithms to Neural networks to Artificial Immune Systems.

That's a tough question, I think it can sometimes be the Uni. I've been to Cambridge and Oxford (through where I used to work) and they seem very theory based

Reply 22

+ polarity -

Original post by MORPHEUS24-7

Its good fun! But at lot of work/expectation. Where are you studying?

The other uni :ninja:

Reply 23

MORPHEUS24-7

Original post by + polarity -

The other uni :ninja:

oh...you're one of THEM!...lol

Reply 24

+ polarity -

Original post by MORPHEUS24-7

oh...you're one of THEM!...lol

Do you use LabView?

Reply 25

MORPHEUS24-7

Original post by + polarity -

Do you use LabView?

Are you stalking me? I used to work for National Instruments! SO yeah I know LabVIEW

Reply 26

bahjat93

Original post by bestofyou

Would anyone be able to do it if they put in enough effort?

Or would you need a natural non-manifested mind in order to do well? I mean, is maths the sort of subject that you either have it or you don't? (I'm not saying here that there are people who are great at maths and rarely study, I am asking if there are minds that would never be able to do an engineering (or any maths based course) regardless of the work they put in.

If you do maths and Physics A-levels, the first year is a doss. Literally, they just recap the whole of the A-level syllabus!
They might introduce some new concepts in the first year but nothing that will BLOW your mind :biggrin:

.
Edit:They teach you how to use MATLAB and Multisim (You will know how to use Multisim if you did Electronics GCSE)
Second year is when it gets really hard dude
First year Electronics Engineering student :smile:

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 27

a10

Original post by MORPHEUS24-7

Are you stalking me? I used to work for National Instruments! SO yeah I know LabVIEW

internship?

Reply 28

a10

i don't quite agree with this, you can have plenty of time to socialize its not like you'll be working 24/7 every single day. If you work smart throughout the day and get **** done you will absolutely have more than enough time to go out do sport, go to parties etc.

Being an engineer takes hard work and dedication its not easy after all the likely hood is when you work for some company in future you will have huge responsibilities so you will have to be skilled in what you do otherwise there wouldn't be a point in being an engineer if you couldn't do your job. If you put your mind at it and persist there is no reason why one would fail. Time management is key.

a10,

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 29

bestofyou

thanks for the post..always good to get two sides to an argument.

What was it specifically that you found hard? I mean I know people who studied engineering but they still attended football training regularly and would usually be out at least one night per week. This was students in their final year also, granted they began to miss more towards the end of the the winter and summer terms but that went for the entire team really.

How competitive exactly was the University? Say in comparison to Cambridge or Imperial, both I heard are very competitive for maths and engineering.

Reply 30

MORPHEUS24-7

Original post by a10

internship?

Correct

Reply 31

+ polarity -

My time management is absolutely shocking, my mum mentioned it but it's taken me about a year since then to realise this. Why is she always right? :emo:

Reply 32

a10

Original post by + polarity -

My time management is absolutely shocking, my mum mentioned it but it's taken me about a year since then to realise this. Why is she always right? :emo:

Mums know best :wink:

Reply 33

uberteknik

The bibles for engineering maths are: Engineering Mathematics by K.E. Stroud. and Advanced Engineering Mathematics by Erwin Kreyszig.

Your uni' will most likely follow the broad outline's for both the first and second year maths of your course.

First year will cover FP maths in more depth with several additional topics with the obvious application to engineering problems. (Such as Fourier Analysis, D operator, Z-Transforms, Laplace-Transforms, Heaviside step function, multiple integrals etc. There will be heavy emphasis on complex numbers, trigonometry, integration, partial differentiation, parametric calculus, matrices etc.

Because there will be a wide range of maths abilities on your course, the emphasis will be on getting a common standard and understanding for everyone.

If you have A-level maths you are on your way. If you have good grades in FP then you are well on your way (in the first year at least).

I did my degree in Electronics and then Masters in Aerospace Systems Engineering.

To do well (1st or 2:1), you really do need to love the subject and in my experience, engineers fall into broadly three categories:

Geeky, where the students are way more scientist with engineering ability; blokes, where rugby, pub crawls, talking anything engineering and trying to chat up women (with varying degrees of success and abject failure) are intertwined with genuine engineering ability and sheer hard work; people who use engineering as a stepping-stone before moving on to MBA's, airline pilots, RAF pilots, management consultancy, senior management, starting up their own businesses etc.

Quite a wide range then in fact. Of all the people on my courses probably 60-75% are no longer in engineering, having used the skills, responsibility and experience to move onto other things.

That's not to say engineering sucks, simply that employers are aware of the value of an engineer, the hard work, discipline and academic rigor needed to gain a good engineering or higher degree and the wide range of skills which can be adapted to many careers.

Yes, the work load is very high; yes some of the concepts are difficult to get your head around, yes virtually everyone will go through a phase where they want to quit, yes it's fun if you love engineering.

Biggest downside? Nowhere near enough women on the courses. ratio is sadly 90% - 10% and probably closer to 95% / 5%.

Conclusion: If you do well at FP A-level and Physics, can conquer your time management, work diligently and have a desire to not only know how things work but want to make them work better, then you will be fine.