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Aardlof posted:I am a first year electrical engineering student at a third-rate university. I have a 3.5 GPA. What do you guys think about going into semiconductors? What should I do to get a good co-op at a semi-conductor company? Do you work at a US semiconductor company and are you willing you get me a co-op based entirely on the fact that I am a Something Awful poster? Actually, I hooked up a goon with a job a month or two back, but that was a special case. Pretty sure other goons have done the same here. It's good that you're thinking about a co-op in year one, though. What qualifies as a "third-rate" university though? Where are you at? Semiconductors can be a bit tougher to get into internship-wise (I think there was a guy here who was co-oping at a DRAM design firm), and I think more internships I've seen there were looking for MS/PhD candidates. I know Microchip has had a few undergrads interning at their fab. It's important to know where you go, because maybe the geographic location could help you out.
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Sep 17, 2012 02:45
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huhu posted:...in German? There is also an english only feed on itunes. Edit: Since internship season is opening, does anyone have any tips interviewing? I am starting my 2nd year of aerospace and my concern is that I haven't really done any engineering type stuff. My advisor says to fill your resume with stuff you're going to study and do over the next academic year. Anyone here recruit interns/co-ops? Anything I should know beyond regular interviewing skills? rockamiclikeavandal fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Sep 17, 2012 |
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Sep 17, 2012 02:49
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rockamiclikeavandal posted:It's like a 50/50 split between german and english episodes. Try this: http://omegataupodcast.net/category/podcast-en/ Have some interesting personal projects to talk about, and hopefully some clubs/extracurriculars you've done on campus. I'm sure they'd love it if you were part of your SAE Aero team or something like that. If you have specific companies in mind, check out alumni resources / networking /etc. And if you don't have a suit by now, check out W&W for details or just get a cheaper suit and have it tailored to fit you. Take advantage of mock interviews/etc offered by school if you need them. Oh, and no-one's really done any engineering-type stuff in the classroom going into their sophomore year. I got plenty of co-op experience starting in year one, but classroom engineering didn't really start until midway through second year/start of third, which is pretty common.
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Sep 17, 2012 03:28
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rockamiclikeavandal posted:It's like a 50/50 split between german and english episodes. Try this: http://omegataupodcast.net/category/podcast-en/ Awesome thanks. Also in regards to your question, if you have free time teach yourself engineering stuff you're interested in. For example, I'm currently teaching myself Python and got an Arduino kit to learn about simple circuits. The internet offers tons of resources to learn whatever you want and there is probably a thread somewhere on SA discussing what you want to learn about. If not, you could start one.
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Sep 17, 2012 04:21
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movax posted:Actually, I hooked up a goon with a job a month or two back, but that was a special case. Pretty sure other goons have done the same here. I am a student at the University of Toledo, in northwest Ohio. Actually a lot of nice companies recruit here in other industries, but I don't know anything about semiconductors in the region. I genuinely want to get a job as far from Toledo as possible, anyway.
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Sep 17, 2012 12:26
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T-1000 posted:It's not the category of robot, it's the category of application. Unfortunately, robotics engineering usually involves some sort of specialisation. I've never seen a job advertising for a general-purpose roboticist; they are usually looking for a control person, or a machine learning person, or a planning or SLAM or sensor or computer vision person. That said, the ads I've seen are for either academic positions or research jobs with groups like NASA or small robotics startups and I don't know exactly what you'd want to work in. Is there one area where the job market is particularly strong? I'm tired of busting my rear end developing my skills only to have employers demand everything but what I was working on.
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Sep 17, 2012 13:13
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Cockmaster posted:Is there one area where the job market is particularly strong? I'm tired of busting my rear end developing my skills only to have employers demand everything but what I was working on.
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Sep 17, 2012 15:15
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Hah. Totally forgot about this thread. Just wanted to chime in with what I do and my background (saw some people asking about mechatronics). I'm in Australia and did a double degree majoring in Physics, Mechatronics as well as Manufacturing/Management Systems (all that six sigma / lean poo poo companies go gaga over). It took just over 5 years (I did gently caress up a physics course for a couple reasons). Currently I'm a bit over 4 years in the building automation and control industry and have worked on some pretty cool / big automation projects with varying levels of responsibility. It has mostly been 'commercial' jobs but there has been a little industrial stuff in there too (it can be anything from office towers to GMP pharmaceutical factories, datacentres, rail systems or higher capacity cooling systems >15 MW demand cooling capacity plant). To give an idea of the areas I have covered: fire detection systems, high security (including access control, cctv and intrusion detection) as well as HVAC. Typically all these general systems are integrated together into one SCADA system (scale varies widely from a small building to a system that monitors 100,000+ devices across a city). So far for me every job is different, every job has been high pressure, every job has had a fast turnaround (no one wants to wait for things to get done let alone pay for it to be done fast). As for specific skills: it is a mixed bag of IT, PID control, electronics/electrical, mechanical and programming where you use a combination of direct digital controllers (DDC) and programmable logic controllers (PLC) depending on the robustness of the system you're after (DDC and PLC programming is pretty much all block based visual programming as the guys who look after it are not going to necessarily be clever programmers and the last thing you want is a phone call at 3am when a system has shut down and the guy is wondering what the gently caress). There is also sometimes a software engineering component to it if you need to craft up something someone is asking for that doesn't exist yet. There is also a big push to virtualised platforms so knowing your way around vmware product stuff is good too. Depending on scale you also need to know how to configure cisco/juniper/hp switches for networks of varying size and complexity (some may or may not need to be comprised of IPSec tunnels, multiple vlans etc etc). To be honest, the technical side of things is not too hard provided communication with the consultant, client, subcontractors etc is all very clear and where there is uncertainty you just make sure that you have written signoff/agreement. Where things do diverge from initial agreement you just have to approach it rationally and flag the problem as early as possible. Consultants are especially good at missing details, but if you work with them and bring up issues well before it all goes in they'll love you and you'll love them back and everyone will be happy. Usually. I have had specifications that literally said nothing, and effectively had to design stuff on my own but the job was sold as a spec and build rather than a design and construct (welp no engineering time allocated to the job). All the jobs have been relatively quick turnaround so I have seen a lot of volume and a lot of different systems (no two have been the same); the only downside to this is that the pressures of the job have gotten overwhelming at times particularly when you take a lead engineering role and feel a responsibility for the success of a project (ask me about getting superfat, depressed and losing a long term relationship due to overwork and zero work life balance; something I'm still kinda recovering from). The project lifecycle is from design, install, commissioning, system acceptance testing and handover to service/the client. Anyway, so far my favourite stuff is easily the large scale, complex or critical HVAC/system stuff as you get a higher chance of using PLCs for control and high end sensors. Plus when things get complicated there is always, always something that happens where you have to think on your feet to resolve (this is why you have test procedures, upgrade plans, schedules, mitigation strategies and a host of paper work so when that kinda thing does happen it doesn't fall to poo poo as fast as it could). This is what I do as an engineer, and whilst doing mechatronics had made me a jack of all trades; it fits perfectly for what I do. Plus all the nitty gritty stuff like better programming skills, or better understanding of electrical / mechanical stuff you pick up on the job either through needing it or just having an interest (it also helps to know in detail how things that you are controlling work, how to size control valves correctly, know appropriate instrumentation, error sources and quantities etc etc). I'm not going to lie, there are weeks where its a hard slog of paper work and reports and other really boring stuff; but there are also days where you get to fire up stuff you have spent time and effort pulling together and watch all the data stream in and go: "  that's rad" as it all rumbles along nicely. Anyway, at some point I'm considering going to the US as I have citizenship but I don't know what the labor market looks like so I will have to do my research before considering the move and also if the current career I'm in is the kind of place I would like to go to (also the impending financial apocalypse but I'm assuming I will lose my job anyway if the world melts down  ). *shrug*
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Sep 18, 2012 02:30
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Bit of an unethical question here - does anyone know how stringent companies are about checking transcripts? My friend is planning on editing his 'unofficial transcript' the school allows us to retrieve in order to jump from a 2.9 to about a 3.5 for use in an application to a large oil company. This .pdf file is all that they ask for proof of grades. Do companies often verify this information? He claims to have heard of people for who this has worked but I told him to be wary of either the company finding out (probably not a huge deal other than not getting a callback) or the school finding out (potential disciplinary actions?).
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Sep 18, 2012 21:35
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Wilhelm posted:Bit of an unethical question here - does anyone know how stringent companies are about checking transcripts? My friend is planning on editing his 'unofficial transcript' the school allows us to retrieve in order to jump from a 2.9 to about a 3.5 for use in an application to a large oil company. This .pdf file is all that they ask for proof of grades. Yeah that just screams fraud to me which companies don't really care for.
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Sep 18, 2012 21:39
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Sep 18, 2012 22:28
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I was wondering if anyone has any good suggestions for websites/programs for collaboration? I'm starting senior design and we're currently using Sakai which the school uses to manage courses. I think it's pretty lovely and would prefer not to use it. Is there anything I could use that is better for making announcements, having a discussion area, and a file uploader/manager?
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Sep 18, 2012 23:23
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Wilhelm posted:Bit of an unethical question here - does anyone know how stringent companies are about checking transcripts? My friend is planning on editing his 'unofficial transcript' the school allows us to retrieve in order to jump from a 2.9 to about a 3.5 for use in an application to a large oil company. This .pdf file is all that they ask for proof of grades. He might get through but it's really a dumb thing to do (not to mention dodgy as gently caress). I ended up having to submit an official transcript later when I had fully graduated. I know my company would instantly dismiss an employee for having knowingly lied about that kind of thing. It unnecessarily exposes the business and calls into question the integrity of all their/his work (unless you're a yahoo exec, then do whatever  ).
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Sep 18, 2012 23:29
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Wilhelm posted:Bit of an unethical question here - does anyone know how stringent companies are about checking transcripts? My friend is planning on editing his 'unofficial transcript' the school allows us to retrieve in order to jump from a 2.9 to about a 3.5 for use in an application to a large oil company. This .pdf file is all that they ask for proof of grades. I'm going to echo others here and toss in that I think ethics are extremely important for any professional. Engineers need to be able to rely on being trusted, especially since some stuff can easily be borderline incomprehensible to laypeople or even professionals outside of that field. Lying on an application calls that into question, since you can no longer reasonably rely on an objective opinion, but an opinion that can be easily colored by personal gain.
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Sep 18, 2012 23:44
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Sep 19, 2012 01:38
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You could use google moderator for the discussions. Not sure what kind of security/privacy you can set up, but it would be worth checking out.
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Sep 19, 2012 04:59
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Wilhelm posted:Bit of an unethical question here - does anyone know how stringent companies are about checking transcripts? My friend is planning on editing his 'unofficial transcript' the school allows us to retrieve in order to jump from a 2.9 to about a 3.5 for use in an application to a large oil company. This .pdf file is all that they ask for proof of grades. Echoing above comments regarding the simple request for an official/sealed transcript would blow his lie way open. Think of it this way too; if that does work, he could have that cloud of lie(s) hanging over his head for the rest of his life. Maybe 10 years down the line he pisses someone off and they go digging a bit. Or maybe it's election season and I've been reading too much Ludlum
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Sep 20, 2012 15:36
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Wilhelm posted:Bit of an unethical question here - does anyone know how stringent companies are about checking transcripts? My friend is planning on editing his 'unofficial transcript' the school allows us to retrieve in order to jump from a 2.9 to about a 3.5 for use in an application to a large oil company. This .pdf file is all that they ask for proof of grades. Do not do this. If they find out during the interview process, he will not get hired. If he gets the job and they find out after the interview process, he will get fired (and potentially more, depending on how pissed of they are). It doesn't have to be during the hiring process. At my first job out of college they asked me for an official transcript a few months after I started. It could be something a simple as mentioning it to a coworker during drinks five years down the line. Or maybe for some reason he needs to get government security clearance.
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Sep 20, 2012 16:39
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Wilhelm posted:Bit of an unethical question here - does anyone know how stringent companies are about checking transcripts? My friend is planning on editing his 'unofficial transcript' the school allows us to retrieve in order to jump from a 2.9 to about a 3.5 for use in an application to a large oil company. This .pdf file is all that they ask for proof of grades. Here's a tip, don't ever lie or be unethical in the oil business. It is a shockingly small business on the engineering side. There are only about 30,000 petroleum engineers in the US. If you do something like this you will never go anywhere in your career where there isn't someone who knows someone who knows you. Doing something like this is a great way to find yourself de facto blackballed real fast
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Sep 20, 2012 16:57
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Ethics are very important and lying about qualifications could lead to more than just getting fired. There can be legal consequences either civil or criminal if something ever happens. In New Zealand there was a major earthquake that led to the collapse of several buildings. The Royal Commission of Inquiry recently completed hearing evidence in relation to what contributed to the collapse. There were design problems with the floor connections and just recently the a person working for the construction company lied about having a structural engineering degree. In response the families are calling for perjury charges as all the evidence is given under oath. Now that this is publicly known there will be a lot of companies checking to see if his lies have contributed to other issues. There may be others that come after him for damages or prosecution. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7686433/Families-call-for-perjury-charges-against-Shirtcliff
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Sep 24, 2012 00:30
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So, boxorocks, is what you do called System integration in your neck of the woods? Do you do the HMI / graphics portion of the controls too?
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Sep 24, 2012 01:50
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I'm an EE taking a power systems class for my masters and I'm really rusty on a lot of this and the textbook is very dense. Anybody know of a good book or online resource with plenty of examples and easy to follow text for three-phase power systems?
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Sep 24, 2012 03:30
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Vaporware posted:So, boxorocks, is what you do called System integration in your neck of the woods? It most certainly is called that at times. Although the integration can be pretty limited on smaller to medium size jobs (customers just don't see the value at that lower end so they don't go for it). On the big jobs though, there is generally an emphasis on an integrated services network and everything going to the one main scada setup. As for graphics; yes I have done a fair bit of graphics. Usually doing it is pretty boring and it is using a tool to add in the alphanumeric boxes, animations, pictures etc etc. The most valuable graphics are the ones that give an overview of a system or plant (e.g. a chilled water system graphic complete with all chillers, system pressures, pump speeds, bypass valve positions etc). A good graphic can make or break the understanding of a system, unfortunately I have seen a lot of really shithouse graphics (as in; the system could be horribly broken but you wouldn't know it but maybe that's the point). One of the things I tend to avoid is allowing easy access to PID tuning parameters on operator displays. Your average operator is just that: average. Giving them the ability to re-tune loops is going to only end in you returning to fix it.
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Sep 24, 2012 05:36
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Cool, I just started working with DeltaV. I have been working in flash for ever, so the change integrated graphics tools is pretty jarring. You wouldn't happen to know any technical publications pointing to a push toward a CSS or other modern vector graphics solution in the industry? I figured reliability takes precedent over usability, but I feel like the core tools are straight out of MS word.
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Sep 24, 2012 17:19
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Anyone employed as a Systems Engineer, specifically in R&D? I'd like to know pretty much anything, what skills you utilize, how much interaction there is, any tips or other info. After my brief foray into business, I'm back at my old company doing QA, but I'm making it pretty clear(and they've half-suggested) that I would like to move to Systems Engineering 6+ months down the road. I come from a Physics background so the overall design of a project is something that has been grabbing my attention. Ultimately, I see this as a step on the path towards project management, which I think will be a harder sell at this point in my career.
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Sep 24, 2012 23:32
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Vaporware posted:Cool, I just started working with DeltaV. I have been working in flash for ever, so the change integrated graphics tools is pretty jarring. There really isn't much of a push with regards to graphics to go anywhere much industry wise. It is purely a case of the end users being happy enough with what they get provided it doesn't look like dogs balls and it shows the information they need. Industrial graphics are even more spartan in terms of looks with a lot of customers having their own colour guides / styles that are based on old high contrast graphics (remember those high contrast windows themes with back blackgrounds and green text ... like that). To be honest, a few as maybe half a dozen people will typically look at an HMI with any level of frequency in a year, a few dozen in its lifetime so looking super swish / updating tools isn't a business driver which is why no one will throw development money at improving existing tools that only you will end up using to create graphics. There are dashboards and things that are public displays for energy ratings and consumption statistics etc which look good though.
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Sep 25, 2012 00:25
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Sep 25, 2012 12:49
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I'm currently in medical device R&D, but i'd be interested to hear from any type of R&D as I'm sure I have a better chance of hearing back from someone in defense than in medical devices.
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Sep 25, 2012 16:51
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boxorocks posted:There really isn't much of a push with regards to graphics to go anywhere much industry wise. It is purely a case of the end users being happy enough with what they get provided it doesn't look like dogs balls and it shows the information they need. Industrial graphics are even more spartan in terms of looks with a lot of customers having their own colour guides / styles that are based on old high contrast graphics (remember those high contrast windows themes with back blackgrounds and green text ... like that). To be honest, a few as maybe half a dozen people will typically look at an HMI with any level of frequency in a year, a few dozen in its lifetime so looking super swish / updating tools isn't a business driver which is why no one will throw development money at improving existing tools that only you will end up using to create graphics. Yeah, sounds about the same as what the guys at my company told me too. I was hoping a second opinion would point towards something easier to develop in. Maybe one day the manufacturers will invest in the tools to speed up the engineering side. I know I could bang out a pretty complex overview diagram in illustrator really quick using things like proper align tools, shape union, and snaps. It's a whole different ballgame with the HMI tools in the graphics front-end.
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Sep 26, 2012 02:23
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Just wanted to say AutocadWS for android is awesome. Useless for editing, but it's soooo incredibly nice to be able to carry an entire library of drawings in my pocket.
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Sep 26, 2012 05:14
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grover posted:Just wanted to say AutocadWS for android is awesome. Useless for editing, but it's soooo incredibly nice to be able to carry an entire library of drawings in my pocket. I never get issued cad files; they are always bombass big pdf files.... 
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Sep 26, 2012 05:20
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SeaBass posted:Has anybody here worked or currently work for General Dynamics? I have a phone interview tomorrow afternoon (mid-level engineering position), just trying to get a feel for the place. Oh yeah, I let this fall by the wayside. I meant General Atomics, which did split off of General Dynamics many years ago. I did get the job and it is pretty cool stuff. I went from three-phase power system analysis to high voltage capacitor design, applications and sales. I'm so glad I got a BSEE versus a special snowflake engineering degree - so many ore doors have opened.
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Sep 26, 2012 05:49
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SeaBass posted:Oh yeah, I let this fall by the wayside. I meant General Atomics, which did split off of General Dynamics many years ago.
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Sep 26, 2012 18:06
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grover posted:You're gonna post video and details of the railgun you build with all the prototypes and rejects, right? This is about the best I can do: http://atg.ga.com/EM/defense/railgun/railgun-video.php Older video, but still pretty cool. The caps are the bright blue things around the midway point of the video.
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Sep 27, 2012 01:17
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Does anyone know of a good way to look up upcoming technical conferences (ideally by location)? I had heard that they were going on pretty regularly at a couple cities near me, and it sounds like my best hope for networking (and possibly learning something).
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Sep 28, 2012 15:42
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Thoguh fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Sep 28, 2012 15:58
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Wondering what everyone thinks about this... I'm a senior in mechanical engineering potentially wanting to go into renewable energy. I've currently finished an eight month internship with Siemens Metals Technologies in Shanghai and a smaller summer internship in my city where I did a ton of design work with SolidWorks. Senior year I'm getting involved with Engineers Without Borders and have been working on a water supply project. I'e also started my senior design project in renewable energy. I got accepted into Peace Corps to teach math to secondary school students. It's a 27 month commitment with me learning another language and I already have a solid base in Spanish and a decent base in Chinese. I could also try and start secondary projects relating to alternative energy. With my current experience, would Peace Corps help or put me behind other engineers in the field?
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Sep 29, 2012 07:06
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huhu posted:Wondering what everyone thinks about this... It depends entirely on your career goals. You are going to meet people and be places that are going to help you better understand the needs of 2nd/3rd world citizens and maybe give you a better understanding of supplying to these places. As far as designing renewables, teaching math isn't going to progress your knowledge or engineering skills so you will be behind from that standpoint. It's going to take self motivated learning, and getting lucky with the right connection for PC to put you ahead if your goal is to be a design engineer in industry after your leave PC. If you want to work in sales or supply, your experience and being bi/trilingual will be likely be an advantage.
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Oct 1, 2012 14:42
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Keep in mind also; peace corp will likely demonstrate that you've got empathy, teamwork and a bunch of other non-engineering soft skills that will put you ahead of someone with the same technical experience. I've chosen a projects/install teams for stuff I've been leading now and have gained a bias toward a team of technicians and younger engineers with empathy/teamwork over pure technical skill (but there are always exceptions). The projects we do are pretty much always a team effort with low costs and very short lead times with financial penalty for missing practical completion dates; so having a cohesive team that gets things done quickly without burnout is a plus. Having a mix of people with different skills but the ability to empathise usually ends up with team members looking for, and encouraging, eachother. It also makes work load sharing / balancing easier to manage which owns (one guy with less work will usually help pickup the slack for an overloaded team member without too much asking). Subsequently It avoids losing people due to stress which is a massive hit on productivity (not to mention increasing the stress of everyone else). Besides, engineering outputs from the less experienced guys typically get checked for quality anyway to hoover up mistakes before they go in. So provided you're a good dude and not super spergin I'd put you in a team. Im not a boss or supervisor and the construction industry im in is a bit of a poo poo environment at the best of times so ymmv; I've just somehow managed to get a pseudo promotion to lead engineer in a few projects and also had a fair bit of contact with the HR department when they ask for advice on the technical ability of graduates / apprentice candidates so I've got a vague idea of what they look for. E: tl;dr I don't see it as a drag unless your yard stick is pure technical experience. boxorocks fucked around with this message at 23:13 on Oct 1, 2012 |
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Oct 1, 2012 23:11
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Thoguh posted:I do Systems and my job is pretty varied depending on what part of the program we're on. At the start of the program I spend my time doing things like Sequence Diagrams, Use Cases, and stuff like that to tease out from the customer all the actual requirements for the system. That requires a lot of customer interaction as well as internally working with our own engineers to make sure we're building requirements that we can meet. This often involves various trade studies to make sure we're building stuff as cheaply and robust as possible. Awesome info. So what do you think are some skills I can work on? I have a Physics, and been out of school for a year as a QA Test Engineer. Like I said, my eyes are set on Project Management but I might need higher level engineering experience to get there. I think I'm good at critical thinking but admittedly lacking in electrical engineering and programming. Although I'm actively getting better at the latter. Any suggestions/other stuff you can think of? Should I be a master at Visio or SQL databases or anything?
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Oct 2, 2012 01:52
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