The Student Room Group
jokeroid
http://www.newmediamedicine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=22735

Can anyone corroborate and expand on rupe's comment?


He's talking *******s. Engineering involves many experimental and practical exercises, maybe his comments are partly down to his university where he did the course or that he expected to be playing around with aeroplanes every single day of his uni life. Thats what technicians and mechanics are for, you need to learn the theory to be an "engineer".
jokeroid
So he's right?

Maybe my idea of "engineering" is just as flawed as his.

Ideally I would like 50:50 theoretical to practical in a degree course.

However this contradicts what I've read so far about the life of an engineer as being predominantly office work sat at a PC modelling components(like a fusion between artist and programmer).

I don't know???


Well its not as theoretical as he makes it. There are a lot of practical things. I switched from engineering to physics and I definitely see that engineering is way more practical. In engineering, you don't learn as much maths as physics, but you still do need to do a lot and need to learn many theories. A 50:50 split is expecting too much, and even in the most practical of engineering courses you won't get that much practical work, more like 60:40 or 70-30 split. In your final years is gets more practical as you do projects etc.

No, life of an engineer is not just doing pc models, thats a design engineer. There a lot more types of engineers that do practical work. You sound like someone who would enjoy doing something like test engineering, doing system checks and passing on data etc etc..
But engineering is so bloody vast, some professionals see their projects through from first principles (theory) right the way though to prototype manufacture and mass manufacturing themselves (mainly small companies though). In other situations your role as an engineer may be quite rigid and narrow within the entire scope of product/service creation and you may just be, for example, a stress analysis engineer for whom 90% of the work is office based, or on the other hand like LBC suggested, a test engineer for whom 90% of the work is practical problem solving! :smile:

Engineering is supposed to be too theoretical though, certainly during the degree anyway. And that's only scratching the surface, apparantly. :wink: It's just such a shame the education doesn't involve more practical elements to help reinforce the theory.