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Slumpy posted:Has anyone here been horrible at math and decided to become an engineer? How did that work out? I guess it depends on what you mean by math. Also it depends on your field - an ME, CE, or a nuclear engineer would give you a totally different answer. Lots of EEs would give you a different answer too. But for me: If you're talking about algebra, trigonometry, logic, etc then it's pretty important stuff (for an EE working in hardware design and DSP, at least). If you're talking about solving differential equations, I forgot how to do that poo poo pretty much the moment I got my diploma. I don't use linear algebra very often, and I almost never do calculus. Most if not all of the math I do actually winds up being discrete mathematics - that means solving or designing numerically. With that said, it's really important in my line of work to _understand_ the ideas persented in all of that math pretty well. Although I would pretty much never solve a derivative these days, it's important for me to understand what one represents in a system, and what effect its behaviors have. I couldn't average a signal without an understanding the concept of an integral. However, it's important to note that if you're bad at stuff like trig, calculus, etc. then you engineering might not be right for you. Not because you _need_ that stuff per se, but because if your brain isn't the right type to be good at this stuff then it might have trouble with the logical abstractions we deal with every day. As a side note, The ideas of signal processing mathematics are very important though. Being able to think about a system in terms of its frequency response is a really crucial skill in many types of engineering, not just signal processing. Because when you get down to it, any machine or process in the world is a system with inputs, outputs, and a frequency response. Poopernickel fucked around with this message at 08:13 on Oct 7, 2009 |
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Oct 7, 2009 07:52
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Huskalator posted:Besides the $$$ why would someone want to be an engineer? For example what are some cool things engineers get to do? Job satisfaction. Some kinds of engineering let you express your creativity in ways most people could never experience through their jobs. Ask all the Art Studio majors in the world how many people are interested in paying them for their creativity, and then ask all the electrical engineers (especially those working in FPGA/ASIC design). Anybody who ever dreamed about being an "inventor" when they were a kid, I'm convinced that what they were actually picturing in their head was either an electrical engineer or a physicist. Also, I think a lot of people got into engineering for the "gently caress yeah!" factor of the things they wind up doing. How many people can say they've worked on a satellite that's in orbit? Or that they've designed a new tank/fighter plane/missile/what-have-you. Or that they designed a bridge or a skyscraper. Or that they are responsible for planning out highway development. The money doesn't hurt either. Poopernickel fucked around with this message at 11:03 on Oct 15, 2009 |
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Oct 15, 2009 11:00
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