About engineering

[mictiong85]

Can anyone tell me the details about mechanical engineering and electrical and electronic engineering?
I am wondering which choice should i take.
If i want to learn something about controlling energy and saving energy,which course should i take?
Is the mechanical course teaching about creating new machines or industrial equipments?

[digimushu]

Power?
hrmm..you can concentrate in power systems engineering (part of EE)

Industrial equipment? ME is ok to make sure your machine does not fail but you need to study Controls(could be EE, could be ME) to go with it.

PM me if you wanna know more

[jiinjoo]

MechE is a very wide discipline and not just about the machines you see in a factory. IEEE has a breif FAQ about EE.
http://www.ieee.org/organizations/eab/faqs1.htm
I also found this webpage to describe studying ME.
http://www.science-engineering.net/mechanical2_engineering.htm

An easy way to think of ME is a subject specifically concerned with design, development, installation, operation and maintenance of just about anything that has moveable parts. So in other words you can branch off in to any direction you want, including power. Traditionally, the Electrical Engineers are the one dealing with power (like PSE mentioned by digimushu), but it doesn't have to be the case especially in modern schools. Controls is an excellent field to explore.

Which course to take? Which school are you at?

[digimushu]

humm....
i'm feeling generous today..so i shall elaborate on my last post.

Things you will learn at a power system engineering class:
-Modeling of power system grids
-Wye-Delta configurations (basically means if u screw up in tests..its either by a factor of sqrt(3) or 60 degrees phase shift)
-alternative energy sources(solar, wind)
-Modeling of motors(squirrel cage, brushless, DC, AC,etc...)
-power electronics(DC-DC converters, regulators, battery modleing)

Things you will learn in a control systems class:
- modeling of systems(electrical and mechanical)
- using laplace transforms to develop transfer function relations for systems
-design using root locus techniques
-design using frequency response techniques

Things u learn in ME that are relevant:
-modeling of motors and mechanical systems

This is from my experience as both an ME and EE student. Power systems engineering is still primarily an EE field. The mechanical part is not too much as of yet. the only mechanical part you have to worry about is motor and generators.

Classes u will need to be an OK power systems engineer fresh from undergrad:

-Two senior level power systems class
-Two controls classes(classical controls and digital controls)
-Motor modeling/design classes

For industrial applications, it is mostly ME. however, knowledge of controls and programming in embedded systems/assembly is a MUST.

You will need classes in
-Kinematics(body guidance, etc, etc)
-mechanical failure and design(static failure and dynamic failure)
-and the two controls classes as mentioned above
-motor modeling/design
-fluids dynamics class(for hydraulic controls)
-Vibrations

in addition to the classical stuff above..look into classes with shape memory alloys and optimal control(if you can find them).

If not..those classes above should be enough

if ur interested in more.. feel free to PM me. and if all the stuff above is scary...run..run far far away.....JK

Good luck!
:D

[YBLalat]

If i want to learn something about controlling energy and saving energy, which course should i take?

All engineering students must study this, regardless of his or her choice of field of study; it's called the First Law of Thermodynamics, and you usually take it during the first year.

[kucingbiru]

If i want to learn something about controlling energy and saving energy,which course should i take?


hmm, perhaps food tech is good too. u'll be surprised how much energy u can store in an energy bar. :P

[mictiong85]

Do you mean i can switch to major in control engineering as i take ME at first?(as digimushu mentioned)

[digimushu]

u can be an ME and still take EE controls classes. Somehow i feel that EE controls is more advanced than ME controls. However, whatever you want tot control, your model must be right. If not, you can throw everything out the window.
:)

[chenchow]

All engineering students must study this, regardless of his or her choice of field of study; it's called the First Law of Thermodynamics, and you usually take it during the first year.

Not true... I am engineering student, and I don't study any thermodynamics.

I believe it is more university program-specific in this case.

[launa]

i am interested in working with chemical, such as making medicine. is it any engineering field connecting with medical field? i am more interesting in chemistry.

i choose to further study in chemical engineering. does it have anything to do with making medicine or producing any medical equipment?

i am still confuse about my future.

[chenchow]

launa, there are a lot of thriving fields within engineering that are related to medical... like biomedical engineering, biological engineering, biochemical engineering etc.

Try to explore more into such stuff and see.

[chloe]

Is anyone studying Operations Research Engineering??
Can anyone who knows about this branch of engineering explain what is it about and what's the prospect?