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huhu posted:Would anyone happen to have any idea why a professor would require only pen for homework? My mechanical properties of materials professor is doing this and it sucks. The only time I've seen this is to prevent cheating after the fact. Say you fail some homework assignment and then erase your wrong answer, replace it, and go up to him to argue your grade. I'm a pretty messy writer so I always do my work in pencil on some side sheet and if I'm required to use pen then I'll write up a new copy in pen after I've completed the assignment. A way around this entire mess is to just hand in printed homework but some professors don't even allow that  Edit: Oh man! Beaten and a new page.
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Sep 21, 2010 21:15
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Sgt. Slaughter posted:
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Sep 22, 2010 02:06
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Scionix posted:
Get your rear end into some professor's lab and start volunteering. I literally just walked into a robotics lab here 3 years ago and now I can claim "Undergraduate Researcher - 2 Years" on my resume (and it got me into the lab's very competitive senior design project for this year). You can bet your degree that recruiters will ask you about that kind of stuff in the fairs and in interviews. Many of the questions in a couple full time job interviews I had just last week I was able to answer based on my experience from volunteering in the labs. Everything from technical stuff to people skills and teamwork. It really helps a lot when I can point at a robot that was on the cover of popular science and tell the guy "I worked on that and can tell you all about what I've learned" rather than just say I took XYZ classes that 300 other dudes in my year also took.
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Sep 22, 2010 06:36
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whats a good way to get an internship (comp eng related) at local companies that don't go to job fairs or list them on their web sites?
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Sep 22, 2010 08:25
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School internships are incredibly important. I got my current job (mechanical engineer) as a result of the following process: 1) Asked Dean about opportunities to learn how to use a machine shop. Got a part time job working in one of the university shops. 2) Spent three years working there. Made a part for one of the research labs, found out that what they did was really cool, talked to the professor about working there. Got a part time job working there. 3) Finished undergrad, started grad school working as a RA in the lab. 4) Finished grad school, presented thesis to sponsors. One sponsor liked what he saw and offered to give me an interview. Interview turned into a job. seo posted:whats a good way to get an internship (comp eng related) at local companies that don't go to job fairs or list them on their web sites? Call them directly.
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Sep 22, 2010 12:07
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Totally Negro posted:A lot of my professors did this and they said it was because they could see the mistakes you make along the way. I personally like the idea behind that, and just generally enjoy using pens more than pencils. Eh, I used to always do my problem sets on scratch haphazardly with a pencil until I figured out the answer, then I'd make a 'nice' copy to hand in. A lot of people do this, so I don't get the relevancy of a 'pen-only' assignment for seeing that.
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Sep 22, 2010 12:45
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I'm looking to come to the US from Australia next year for a semester abroad, studying Aerospace engineering. I hope to get into Penn State, which shouldn't be an issue as my grades are decent enough. I'm worried that the course load will be too much for me to be able to have a really good time though. Here in Australia I cope fine with the load and am able to do pretty much any out of Uni stuff that I want. The subjects I'll be (hopefully) studying are Aerospace Structures, Aerospace Analysis, Astronautics and Aerospace Propulsion. I understand that 4 subjects is less than a full load in the States? Do you think I'll be able to have a good time and also get some decent study done? I'm just unsure of the difference in difficulty. Might not be the best thread for the question but the best I could find. Thanks for any help.
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Sep 22, 2010 13:46
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Pfirti86 posted:Eh, I used to always do my problem sets on scratch haphazardly with a pencil until I figured out the answer, then I'd make a 'nice' copy to hand in. A lot of people do this, so I don't get the relevancy of a 'pen-only' assignment for seeing that. Same here. I think the primary goal is to prevent cheating, plus it forces you to work out the problems. If the students were allowed to submit it in any format they wanted they could use MATLAB or something similar to get the answer without showing their work. mr. pitiful posted:I'm looking to come to the US from Australia next year for a semester abroad, studying Aerospace engineering. I hope to get into Penn State, which shouldn't be an issue as my grades are decent enough. I routinely took 16-18 credit semesters and still managed to have a great time. The absolute minimum for full time status at Maryland was 12 credits. My recollection was that each class is 3-4 credits, so your workload is on the lower end of what a typical (in my experience) engineering student would face. Also don't forget that there are other classes you'll have to take, like electives.
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Sep 22, 2010 14:08
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Thanks for the information. I don't think we have to take electives, just the subjects we choose from here. 12 credit points is the minimum we're allowed to take too, I don't intend to do any more than that.
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Sep 22, 2010 14:11
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You might want to do some credit calculations to see if you'll fulfill your requirements in 4 years or 5 if you're doing that. At JHU you wouldn't graduate in 5 years taking 12 credits a semester unless you took some summer classes and you'd be 30 credits off of graduating in 4 years at 12 credits a semester. Also scheduling can become a problem as maybe in your senior year your last writing class will conflict with an engineering course... Just make sure you're not screwing yourself, basically 
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Sep 22, 2010 15:27
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UMD was the same way. 12 credits a semester was an easy way to ensure you would take five years to graduate. And I'd be really surprised if Penn State didn't have some kind of "diverse education" requirement where you take stuff that's outside of your major. That's how I ended up learning about microeconomics and Italian Renaissance sculpture.
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Sep 22, 2010 16:17
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Beer4TheBeerGod posted:And I'd be really surprised if Penn State didn't have some kind of "diverse education" requirement where you take stuff that's outside of your major. This is true. 3 credits Physical/Nutrition Ed 15 credits GA/GH/GS (I completely forget what these mean now). Also read this: http://www.aero.psu.edu/ugradstud/Ugrad_Curr_Guide.pdf Page 5 lays out the typical 5 year program if you follow it completely. You're expected to take 15-17 (usually 17) credits a semester with 12 (usually) being directly degree related. So you can try to relate that to where you are compared to the PSU schedule.
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Sep 22, 2010 17:34
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:31 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Sep 22, 2010 17:49
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Does taking my senior year off purely to search/do engineering internships sound like a good idea? I'm thinking that a year off would let me get a lot of experience and also put me into the job market 1 year later, but maybe somebody could tell me that this is a terrible, terrible idea. I'm an environmental engineering student, but so far my classes have been more on the mechanical engineering side, so all I've been able to look for are mechanical engineering jobs. I'm a little afraid that my major is too strange to be practical.
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Sep 23, 2010 08:52
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:31 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Sep 23, 2010 13:32
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Thoguh posted:Taking an extra year to actually do an internship lined up is a great idea. This, It's a great idea if you have one lined up, because if you do a good enough job and enjoy the work that you're doing you've got a really good chance of landing that same job after you're done with your senior year, and possibly coming in with a year of seniority for pay...etc. because of your internship. That really can reduce the stress that year because you won't be traveling all over the place for interviews because you'll be all set.
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Sep 23, 2010 15:10
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Sep 23, 2010 16:37
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Thoguh posted:Taking an extra year to actually do an internship lined up is a great idea. If you can't find an internship, find something to do. I'm sure that some lab on campus has use for someone with mechanical experience. There is a lot of research that involves some sort of custom design and some of it is even directly related to environmental studies.
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Sep 23, 2010 17:11
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hobbesmaster posted:If you can't find an internship, find something to do. I'm sure that some lab on campus has use for someone with mechanical experience. There is a lot of research that involves some sort of custom design and some of it is even directly related to environmental studies. Do this while taking classes. As I wrote earlier, I had a part time job in a machine shop my freshman and sophomore year. I learned more about how to be an engineer from that job than I did in any of my classes. The fact that there are engineering students who can graduate without ever stepping in a machine shop is atrocious. Fabrication and technical drawing and tolerancing should be mandatory for all engineers, or at least mechanical and aerospace engineers.
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Sep 23, 2010 19:56
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Anyone have any suggestions for a Chemical Engineer going through the whole job-search? Senior, Auburn University, 3.4 GPA. Definitely interested in the oil industry (interviewed with Exxon a couple of days ago, but I'm afraid my GPA might be too low.) Co-op experience (Paper-mill). Any companies to consider?
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Sep 24, 2010 06:11
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Sgt. Slaughter posted:I'm in my second year of a Mechanical Engineering degree at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rensselaer_Polytechnic_Institute), and I figured I might as well ask some questions I have after skimming the thread a bit. '09 RPI MechE chiming in with food for thought: I also wasn't too enthused with the faculty early on, but professors in my later classes were much better. A lot of the guys doing the huge general engineering lectures are phoning it in for research money, but once you get into the smaller classes in your major and even smaller classes in your concentration I found the quality went way up. That said, there are plenty of reasons to transfer; Troy, NY and 3 guy:1 girl being the big ones. People recognizing RPI on a resume did help when job hunting in this lovely economy. It's how I got my foot in at my current job. Regarding internships: Becoming proficient with a solid modeling package or two is a huge plus when looking at small companies. If you want big corporations, apply for internships through their online job board, it's what they'll have you do after a career fair anyway.
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Sep 24, 2010 13:53
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gFOhPOjeg2sqmb5jHQbW V1rruhQ5VDP7WeWHHdCM o9Ztcrb7Lo0Yz54O2UcH fG6lp0yswjV0yzZbY9Uu u9GrBFPGNIEwMOPaccxv 9wfm9qh6LqS2UBLy7X0V uk6rSpy7TqZ09vSAKVAS cGtJYiG0eRE4y2swrObP 8Fxc8oi7LqFUN9Yk5q9d HbnJXnRS4xbRnJMfDTxI Plasmafountain fucked around with this message at 23:19 on Feb 27, 2023 |
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Sep 27, 2010 16:39
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I was wondering if anyone has some cool ideas for things to model. For my Solidworks class our project is to model something such as every part of a fan. We're looking for something to do that doesn't have too many parts, maybe like 30 or so but we can't really think of anything cool to do. Anyone have any suggestions?
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Sep 30, 2010 22:03
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Does anyone have experience with getting jobs outside of the engineering industry with an engineering degree? I'm about to graduate with an aerospace degree, did like 3 different co-op tours and another summer internship, but I've decided I totally hate engineering. The only thing I really enjoyed was an internship I did programming simulations but I don't see too many jobs for that and I think I'd rather get away from engineering in general at this point rather than getting sucked into some sort of soul-crushing job editing requirements documents for space-rivets. I've talked to the career office at my school but they haven't helped at all outside of my resume.
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Sep 30, 2010 22:11
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it can't be any harder than getting a job inside the engineering industry right now!
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Sep 30, 2010 22:38
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Fortuitous Bumble posted:Does anyone have experience with getting jobs outside of the engineering industry with an engineering degree? I'm about to graduate with an aerospace degree, did like 3 different co-op tours and another summer internship, but I've decided I totally hate engineering. Well, what do you actually want to do?
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Sep 30, 2010 23:15
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Fortuitous Bumble posted:Does anyone have experience with getting jobs outside of the engineering industry with an engineering degree? I'm about to graduate with an aerospace degree, did like 3 different co-op tours and another summer internship, but I've decided I totally hate engineering.
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Sep 30, 2010 23:53
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Fortuitous Bumble posted:Does anyone have experience with getting jobs outside of the engineering industry with an engineering degree? I'm about to graduate with an aerospace degree, did like 3 different co-op tours and another summer internship, but I've decided I totally hate engineering. If you liked simulations you might want to check out going into Systems Engineering instead. I was in a similar situation when I was getting to the end of my AE degree and just wasn't interested in any of the regular specialties like propulsion and CFD. Systems on the other hand can have a lot of simulation and modeling at a 'higher' level where you can see the whole project as it evolves, instead of the 'bolts and rivets' level. You can also take it into a really wide range of fields and industries - one of my professors has done systems engineering consultations for NASA, Gateway and GAP over the past few years, and some of my classmates have been looking to go into finance and banking with the skills they're learning.
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Sep 30, 2010 23:57
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Oct 1, 2010 03:24
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Thoguh posted:If someone doesn't like doing requirements work, Systems Engineering is the last thing in the world they would want to go into. 90% of Systems Engineering has to do with requirements management in one way or another. I wouldn't say all of it is requirements tracking. There's a lot of experimental design and operations research stuff where you focus on setting up and running simulations of complex systems, which is why I thought he might want to give it a look, not to mention it has paths into quality management and other business related topics. Part of the problem is that every field has their own separate idea of what "Systems" construes, and aerospace in particular is very heavy, formalized requirements driven stuff. I'd still say its a good option for an engineer who's looking for a way to broaden their options out of a 'traditional' engineering career towards outside fields and industries.
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Oct 1, 2010 04:29
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huhu posted:I was wondering if anyone has some cool ideas for things to model. For my Solidworks class our project is to model something such as every part of a fan. We're looking for something to do that doesn't have too many parts, maybe like 30 or so but we can't really think of anything cool to do. Anyone have any suggestions? Guns are interesting and don't have a ridiculous number of moving parts. Plus they're purely mechanical systems so you could show a lot of movement if you have to do animation. And the professor will know at least one of you has a gun, so he'll HAVE to pass you! Fortuitous Bumble posted:Does anyone have experience with getting jobs outside of the engineering industry with an engineering degree? I'm about to graduate with an aerospace degree, did like 3 different co-op tours and another summer internship, but I've decided I totally hate engineering. You could work for the Patent office, and crush the hopes and dreams of other inventors. I know a few people in that field and they seem to like it. My best friend has a degree in chemical engineering but he goes all over the world checking in with customers and performing field tests for a filtration company. The impression I get is that he's more of a sales guy than a pure engineer. Systems engineering is also an option. Terrifying Effigies is pretty spot-on about how broad the field is. My experience with systems engineering is that it's all about collaboration and working together than pure engineering. You spend most of your time interacting with people and making sure what's being delivered is actually what's needed.
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Oct 1, 2010 04:48
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Fortuitous Bumble posted:Does anyone have experience with getting jobs outside of the engineering industry with an engineering degree? I'm about to graduate with an aerospace degree, did like 3 different co-op tours and another summer internship, but I've decided I totally hate engineering. You can go into teaching or finance without any additional education. You'd probably have to teach in a private school unless you also happen to have a BEd. You'd probably get a lovely financial job and would have to take additional certifications in the near future. I know people who went on these paths and they're doing fine and are happy. Or, of course, if you are willing to go back to school you can do anything.
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Oct 1, 2010 04:54
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 14:30 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Oct 1, 2010 15:02
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Plinkey posted:Well, what do you actually want to do? I'm most interested in software development, Particularly after doing that at an internship and some related research projects and getting more experience with software architecture and algorithms and stuff. I'm just having trouble finding related work, the company I was working with over the summer can't hire anyone for a while because of business things and I don't know if I really have whatever experience/education non-engineering software companies would be looking for.
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Oct 4, 2010 01:49
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Fortuitous Bumble posted:I'm most interested in software development, Particularly after doing that at an internship and some related research projects and getting more experience with software architecture and algorithms and stuff. I'm just having trouble finding related work, the company I was working with over the summer can't hire anyone for a while because of business things and I don't know if I really have whatever experience/education non-engineering software companies would be looking for. If you've got experience writing software you can play up on that and try to find an entry level software job somewhere. With an Aerospace degree and software experience from internships...etc you should be able to land a job at a defense contractor and get more involved with the software side of things.
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Oct 4, 2010 02:06
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My school offers three senior year mech E class choices, is any employer going to care which I choose? Any reason to choose one over the other? They are: a. Energy Systems Option EML 3101 Thermodynamics of Mechanical Sys 3 hrs EML 4304C Thermo-fluids Measurements 2 hrs EML 4703 Fluid Mechanics II 3 hrs Restricted Mechanical Systems Elective 3 hrs Approved Electives 8 hrs b. Mechanical Systems Option EMA 3012C Experimental Techniques in Mechanics & Materials 3 hrs EML 3262C Kinematics of Mechanisms 3 hrs EML 3804C Digital Control in Mechatronics 3 hrs Restricted Energy Systems Elective 3 hrs Approved Electives 7 hrs c. Materials Option EMA 3012C Experimental Techniques in Mechanics & Materials 3 hrs EMA 3124 Structure & Properties of Alloys 3 hrs EMA 4223 Deformation & Fracture of Materials 3 hrs Restricted Mechanical Systems Elective 3 hrs Approved Electives 7 hrs
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Oct 5, 2010 19:26
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Well I can tell you that digital controls is absolutely useless and inapplicable to anything else unless you are specifically going into digital controls.
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Oct 5, 2010 19:45
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AnomalousBoners posted:My school offers three senior year mech E class choices, is any employer going to care which I choose? Any reason to choose one over the other?
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Oct 5, 2010 20:31
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As far as I can tell, yes you have to take one of them, though you can take the others as electives I believe. Right now I think the materials track looks most interesting. End goal is running a manufacturing or engineering company.
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Oct 5, 2010 21:38
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AnomalousBoners posted:My school offers three senior year mech E class choices, is any employer going to care which I choose? Any reason to choose one over the other? How does an ME program not require you to take Thermo, Fluids, Deforms, etc in the first place? My senior year is pretty much all lab work and application-type courses. Sophomore and Junior year was when I did the nitty gritty stuff like endless amounts of thermo problems. e: I guess if I had to choose it'd be A because a lot of employers looking for MEs want someone who understands pumps/heat/energy because pretty much everything that requires energy will require an ME designing something along those lines. But then you don't have a materials course that helps you decide what material to use or a deforms course to make sure you know how to calculate the material's breaking point.... weird. Frinkahedron fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Oct 6, 2010 |
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Oct 6, 2010 16:14
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