Books that show interest

Does anyone know any books that show interest in Engineering that I can mention in uni interviews. Please note I am about to begin A2.

Reply 1

Alexion

Original post by runny4

Does anyone know any books that show interest in Engineering that I can mention in uni interviews. Please note I am about to begin A2.

Quite a broad spectrum you've given there.

I'm applying for EE so the books on AI and circuitry I'm reading are pretty relevant for mine... make sure there's a more specific subject area you show a lot of interest in.

Reply 2

bigboateng

Original post by runny4

Does anyone know any books that show interest in Engineering that I can mention in uni interviews. Please note I am about to begin A2.

I've said this to someone before and I'll say it again. Books don't mean s#!t, everyone is gonna mention books on their personal statement. By books I mean general books on engineering. Get some skills such as programming or Cad because in engineering, you don't read books, you make stuff, so if you can show the uni that you are able to learning the hardcore content and have already started doing stuff like programming, it'll be better. I say this because I got offers from all the uni's (Bath,Bristol,Southampton,Manc,Leeds) I applied to with AACC at AS, I know other people who got 4 A's and got rejected, I read their ps and it was bulls#!t like I read this, I read etc. tell me what engineering you wish to go into and I can suggest some useful things to do

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Reply 3

thenextchemist

Original post by bigboateng

lol
Thanks for the heads up
I might be applying to chemical engineering
Do you know what I can do to make my personal statement top notch?

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Reply 4

bigboateng

Original post by Bloom77

lol
Thanks for the heads up
I might be applying to chemical engineering
Do you know what I can do to make my personal statement top notch?
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For content, read/learn about the first,second, and third law of thermodynamics. Try to learn the differential equations involved in it, it will make it sound hard core. If you get bored/find thermodynamics too hard/easy then maybe look at Steady Flow energy equation. You dont have to know everything about them but just having an idea of what they are, Steady Flow Energy equations look very hard but interesting which is good cos it shows your're the student that always go for the extra push. If you dont do further maths the learn how to solve second order differential equations and mention it on your PS that you dont do further maths but you understand that 2nd ODE's is used a lot in engineering so you learnt it yourself (Khan Academy/Exam Solutions FP2 is good for learning). Also find out how thermodynamics is used in real life. So you can start of by saying you saw this machine etc and you were interested so you started doing some research on how it works (could be a car engine) so after researching you found out thermodynamics play an important role. Then talk about the stuff you learnt about thermodynamics. We can go on and on, but the base line is find a real life problem that you find interesting, relate it to a scientific principle and talk about that scientific principle. Dont start talking about Albert Einsteing or another scientist, the PS is about you not a book

Reply 5

thenextchemist

Original post by bigboateng

Wow, omg!
Thank you so much!
I'm considering chemical engineering but I've heard it's extremely hard which is what's putting me off as well as the fact that I don't do either further maths or physics (might take AS physics at A2), so it's going to be challenging but I'm definitely considering it.

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Reply 6

runny4

Original post by bigboateng

Mechanical engineering

Reply 7

bigboateng

Original post by runny4

Mechanical engineering

Find something that interests you, for example don't just say cars or some machine, but specifically, what about that car or machine that interests you. Mine was I found how planes could autonomously navigate to their destination (referring to drones) or space crafts automatically lifts and dock to iss by themselves fascinating. So once you have a topic, do a research into how it happens. For me it was that planes control themselves using control algorithms. I did a bit more research on the algorithms involved in controlling a plane and came across something called controlled theory. Control theory are ways that you can model a system using a maths (in my case a plane) and come up with more maths to control it (by programming onto a computer), I came across different types of control algorithm two famous ones were PID and FUZZY LOGIC. So you see how I didn't talk about planes that much even though that where my interest lies in the first place, I showed the admission officer that I did a lot of research. (thats my first paragraph of my PS in a nutshell)

Now you've done that ^^ find some of the maths used (in my case maths used in control theory) and try to see if you can learn just one topic (not in detail but the basics) . So for mine, something I found was called Laplace Transforms, which isnt that hard tbh. If you cant find anything I suggest you try learning Laplace Transforms too using Khan Academy because even though Laplace Trasform is used in Control theory, its used in other areas of engineering as well as solving normal differential equations. This was a finishing sentence in one of my paragraphs after I mentioned that I have learnt the LT 'I understand that Laplace Transform has far more applications, such as in control systems and signal processing, and I am eager to learn more about it. '
There's also one more thing I did which I don't think you've done which is Nuffield research where I did 6 weeks placement in a uni and I made an android app, so shows that I can do programming, I also did mention that I also know 3 other languages. If you have 30 bucks, you can buy an arduino beginners kit off ebay and start learning some simple electronics and programming the arduino board. I bought one but I couldnt write it in my PS cos simply ran out of space. So then your PS will look like this
1. What you find interested and the research you did about it and what are the maths and science involved you found about
2. If you get an arduino kit like I mentioned you talk about what you've learnt/have done so far (such as learning C programming)
3. If you do Extended project you can talk about what you're doing/did or Work Experience instead
4. From Paragraph 1, you shouldve learnt something such as Laplace Transform and say how you find the use of maths in engineering elegant and you even learnt blah blah blah yourself alongside your alevels
5. Any Volunteering done in/outside school
6. Conclusion 2/3 lines
7. 5 Unconditional Offers (lol)

Now compare that to someone who simple 'read a book'