Introduce your field of interest in engineering!

[digimushu]

Hi,

I'm a Mech. Eng postgrad Student who did his undergrad in Electrical Engineering. I have always been an inquisitive lil kid when i was young and always wondered how stuff works. Thus, i have chosen to be with engineering because it is very interesting to me. Share with us here how you got involved in engineering and what is your interest~~!

[gonjeng]

yo!

im doing my masters in aerospace engineering. did my undergrad in aircraft engineering technology. currently, working as a flight test engineer (they pay for my tuition!!!). back in high school, i wasnt that interested in aerospace i particular. but i do know i love engineering stuff, the physics and math. i was thinking of doing mechanical, automotive, mechatronics, etc but ntah camne ntah, i ended up in aerospace field. right now? hell im all for aerospace! hahaha... esp when all the ppl around here talks so much about planes, either commercial or military. within the aerospace field, i am more interested in the aerodynamics, stability and the performance stuff... and uh uh, not to forget, flight testing as well :) hehehe...

[digimushu]

Welcome, Gonjeng, glad you could join us.

For the benefit of all those who are in this SIG, i'd like to say that he has had great research experience with aircraft technologies. We met briefly at the PM's reception and I think that this SIG will profit greatly from his involvement.

On a side note, i should probably give a lil sneak preview of my research. My area is vehicle dynamics. I deal mostly in the area of Vehicle-Terrain interaction and vehicle control systems. Whats the use? We just make cars go faster, 'smarter' and safer. Yep, i'm all about cars, hehehe

To know more about the lab I work in, you can go to:
www.avdl.me.vt.edu

[weich]

wow....the 2 of you really seem very knowledgeable in your respective fields!

I am only an undergrad in Aeronautical Engineering...lots to learn from you gonjeng!!! =) will be entering my 3rd year very soon.

[digimushu]

knowledgeable? moi?

Sadly, nopes. We are all here to learn and exchange knowledge. Feel free to invite all your friends to join this SIG, we need more people. Welcome to the SIG!

[saser_sp]

waaa ....
i'm juz a kid who don't even know what the heck engineering is all about :oops:
anyway i'm very interested in computer-related technology ...
gadgets ...flash memory ...chips etc
currently doin my France preparation programme at MFI,Bangi ...
I'm thinking to take EE in the future .....(hopefully can get trough to the famous Grand Ecoles) :wink:

[digimushu]

Welcome saser_sp, glad you could join us. I'm hope this place will be the place where you can look to for resources to be an EE major. Please feel free to invite more people and ask any questions, technical or otherwise

[tmnt007]

Hi all, I'm Aaron, an electrical and electronic graduate from the University of Leicester, United Kingdom. Currently, i'm writing up for my PhD thesis on the vibration and acoustic noise of electrical machines. Trying to learn and also performing vibration measurements as well as finite element predictions using FEMLAB. A lot of posprocessing work on MATLAB as well.
I've always love maths and physics, and I think that's the key to engineering. Engineers make use of the natural science we learn about from physics, chemistry and biology. Ultimately, I would like to become a medical physic engineer or clinical scientist as i'm interested in applying my knowledge into the medical field.

regards,
tmnt007

[digimushu]

Welcome Aaron to the Engineering SIG. I hope that you will be able to achieve your goals. Looks like we are getting a lot of heavy hitters on this SIG. We should get more undergrads to participate.

[yekban81]

Hi, I am Liew from UTM, Skudai. Now doing master in mechanical engineering. My research is all about flip chip reliability. I specialize in mechanical modeling and design test for a faster prediction method on the lifetime of flip chip.

I dont know why I could get into this field from the beginning since my interest is in physics, maths, and chemical. Good job, digimushu for bringing out this SIG. I think I will like it very much...Happy learning and sharing:)

[digimushu]

Glad you could join us, Liew. i really hope that we can make this SIG take off. Somehow i think that we have enough engineers (or aspiring engineers) in RECOM to actually make this SIG successful. From time to time, I will post topics that are engineering oriented but could have significant impact on research atmosphere at home in the near future and I would like to invite everyone to give their input so that we can actually contribute in our own little ways. Once again, welcome to the Engineering SIG~~!

[retroque]

helloo....guess this is where you introduce yourself officially eh?

ok2..im currently doing my last year in diploma of Control and System Engineering ,or sometimes known as Control and Information Engineering.because the name is written in kanji (japanese)there are no exact translation for it.

Heck,sometimes they even call it mechatronic.

i used to dislike this course,sometimes regretting of taking it because i had to learn(or more specifically MEMORIZE) really2 boring subjects such as Instrumental Eng (urgh..) and CAD theory.

but this year is different. the basics of most of my favourite subjects (micro computer,control eng,electronic circuit...though i really suck at electrical circuit..hehe) are being applied in my robot project.though its really a very2 simple robot but i did learn a lot about electronic circuit and a bit of programming.(had to solder the circuit myself...did make a mess out of it though)

what else?owh..next year i'll be furthering in Electric,Electronic and Information eng.hahaha..it's EE eng ,donno why they add Information.

p/s :great job digimushu!!

[digimushu]

Thanks retroque, feel free to leave a message in the SIG if you have technical question and i'm sure we have enough engineers here to solicit an answer. Welcome to the Engineering SIG and happy sharing!

[Europa]

Hie there.
Well, I'm just a kid doing A-Lvls in Taylors that's interested in avaiation and space technologies. :)

[digimushu]

Welcome Europa, to the Engineering SIG! I hope that the discussions we have in this SIG will be fruitful to expanding your interests in the areas that you have mentioned. Feel free to ask any one of us any questions if you want to know stuff

[gonjeng]

heh, weich... we are have a lot more to learn :) and retroque, standard laa tuh. the first few years is filled with boring stuff, with things that you dont see how and when you can apply. the last 1-2 years is when things you learnt have to come back and be applied. personally, the moment when i can start appling what i know/learnt to projects, or other related stuff is where the joy of studying engineering. well that, and the fact that sometimes you have cry and shout at night figuring some things out, hehehe... :)[/quote]

[digimushu]

Ah... the sleepless night of wondering 'WHY??'.....seems like a familiar grad student scenario
;)

[wawa]

Hi I'm Lin Lee, doing 1st year electrical engineering in National University of Singapore. Glad to meet all of you~!

To the grad students, how do you find engineering at post-grad level? Cause i was thinking of doing researh in engine in the future and would appreciate your opinions and thoughts.

[launa]

hello everybody!

i am king ung and is a totally newbie doing A-level German in Uitm. i am interested in doing some chemical work and process, so i choose chemical engineering path.

i now think about my future is engineering field.................... any advice?

[digimushu]

Hi king Ung and Lin Lee!

So you are interested in chemical engineering ? Great! I we hope to get more than just mechanical or electrical engineers in this SIG. I hope you will find this SIG as a good resource. My general advice to you is make sure you know the 'whys?' and not just the 'hows?' for what you are studying now. You will find that it will be easier to remember things. Maybe some one from chemical engineering can give him a more specific advice? Engine research? Hrm..which aspect are you interested in? Mind to share?

[digimushu]

may be some of you who are involved in serious research could submit an article to ReMag to share with others on how you get involved in research and various endeavors. That may ignite some interest among the members to feel more in sync with engineering, research, innovation etc.


Kinda tied up right now. Maybe will write something during the winter break. For now, sweet and short answers will have to do.
;)

[trex]

Hi,

I am new to Recom. I have some low "official" qualifications on Engineering field.

When I started to fall in love with Electrical stuff, I caused my house ELCB tripped by connecting a DC bulb to the AC source. That time I was about 7 years old.

When I started to fall in love with mechanical stuff, I damaged my mom's watch (gear type) by dismantling it but simply put it back without proper assembling, make sure the cover can be fixed back without any spring jumping out. That time I was about 8 years old.

When I started to fall in love with computer stuff, I caused my sister's 486 DX2 hard disk crashed numerous times and my office 286 infected by virus. That time I was 19 years old.

I started my computer studies in *diploma* level when I was 20 years old, and I started my EE studies when I was 24 years old, again, diploma level.

I like psychology knowledge, I like mechanical knowledge, I like computer knowledge, I like software knowledge. For computer OS, I have knowledge in Microsoft (from MSDOS 6.22 ~ XP) & UNIX (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, Aegis, Linux) only. For programming languages, I have knowledge in MASM, C++, Motorola ASM, Zilog ASM and HTML only but I wish to learn VB, Java, Pascal (yeah, Pascal, old but I wish to learn).

I have knowledge in writing technical white paper. I have a couple of projects in my working area, I get involved in Y2000 preparation and work out a lot of white papers, all technical stuff.

I do not know what I am major in and which one I like the most. If I am given a chance to choose, I will be very greedy to choose whatever I have mentioned above.

So, my question is... do you think I can be part of this SIG? By the way, I don't know how to differenciate 'post graduate', 'under graduate'...

Thanks.
Tyrannosaurus Rex

[janewai]

Hello,

I am doing Chemical Engineering for the second year in DongYang Technical College, Seoul, Korea. I am going to get a Diploma certificate by Febuary 2005 then I will continue my study as a third year student at Korea University at March 2005. Can't deny that if you want to be good in this field, you should be very good in memorising, calculation and computing too. Either C programming language or fortran, and matlab is a must in this field. Anyway, I havent take the programming language and matlab yet... started feel a bit stress and worry for the 3rd anf 4th year... 8O

[littlebigone]

I'm a senior double majoring in Computer Science and Operations Research & Industrial Engineering.

[digimushu]

Welcome Trex, Jane and Littlebigone,

Actually, Trex , we invite everyone to join, be it engineering post-grad(masters/phd) students or engineering undergrad(degree) students or even just people who are interested in engineering. Jane, dont worry about matlab, if you have any questions, post it in this forum and we will try to help you out. Its not that hard. This SIG is started so we can share knwoledge and learn from one another. So do you mind telling us a little bit more about IEOR, littlebigone? I'm sure everyone here would like to know more about non-traditional engineering like IE as compared to traditional ones like EE, ME and CE.

[luke]

I'm a senior double majoring in Computer Science and Operations Research & Industrial Engineering.
boo :twisted:

woi kevin! ape ko buat dengan server media1:8088 ha? abih keje aku 2 minggu hilang sekelip mata ..

[wccstudent]

Hello all,

Is there anyone here whose interest lies in the areas of MEMs, and mixed-signal, analog, or RF IC design? Is anyone currently involved in these research areas?

I am interested in learning more about these specific areas. Thanks!

[jiinjoo]

I just realized that I haven't "introduced" myself (I think this is the 4th time I'm doing it, but it's fun!)

I was a C S major!

Well, I guess that wasn't much of an impact anymore since the dotcom bubble burst. But my interest remains with the startups and potential with the Internet. In school I did some work with end-system multicast (esm), which is a p2p network overlay that allows real time video streaming that conserves bandwidth and drastically reduce load on the server, by allowing clients to be waypoints to relay the stream.

If you talked to me today you would think I'm a perl-hacker (although my main job is writing and maintaining C++ software running amazon.com) My current interest (which is seriously hampered by day-to-day work) remains in the potential of webservices and how we can scale this baby through the roof. Other times I wished I've gone beyond this realm and wonder into other technologies, RFID sounds cool, Megatronics sounds hard, Finite Element Predictions using FEMLAB? You totally lost me there.

So, my question is... do you think I can be part of this SIG? By the way, I don't know how to differenciate 'post graduate', 'under graduate'...
If you have an Internet connection to reach this page - you're eligible :wink: Welcome to ReCom trex, we really appreciate your humility, wish that everyone can learn from you :)

Post-graduate: after grad, i.e.people who're still studying after getting a phd.
Under-graduate: before grad, i.e. people who're still doing their bachelors degree.
Graduate student: everyone in the middle :) phd (or masters) candidate if you like to call them that way


I think I should start my own business making websites for people ... ... ...

[digimushu]

Welcome wccstudent and Jinjoo,

as far as MEMS application is concerned, you might want to check out some papers in SPIE - www.spie.org and ASME - www.asme.org. I have seen some interesting usage of MEMS devices as 'controlled' photonics resonators as well as for biomedical area during my visit to the ASME Congress in DC last year. you might want to look into stuff like quantum computers and photonics devices. Solid state technology is very close to its limit and i expect more breakthoroughs in nanotech will lead to solid state technologies becoming obsolete, in which case, the quote i will have under my posts will be obsolete as well. MEMS is a field with very wide applications, you might want to look into it a little bit more before you 'dive' into it. Anyways, i'm getting ahead of myself right now. Once again, welcome to the SIG and happy learning~~!

[wccstudent]

Thank Digimushu for the websites. I am
currently pursuing my AA in electrical & electronics
technology I hope to someday do research in the area of MEMs

[digimushu]

No problem, i hope that everyone continues posting and ikeep on inviting people to this SIG. I know there are a lot more engineers in ReCom. Hopefully they will see our SIG and come and join us, this way, there will be more questions and discussions. ;)

[wyeoh]

Looks like you guys have a cozy bunch here already. :) Well, here's to joining the bandwagon.

I am currently a graduate student at USC working on robotics. My current research interest is in rehabilitation robotics. My undergraduate and masters was actually in Mechanical Engineering from Penn. So, for all those FEA lovers using FEMLAB and MATLAB, I hear you. :) I was very much interested in robotics during my undergrad years. Was into computer vision and sensor modelling for quite a bit before I left Penn.

Look forward to exchanging intellectual thoughts with all of you.

[digimushu]

Welcome to the engineering SIG wyeoh!

Yeap, we do have a cozy bunch of engineers and future engineers here. Robotics, eh? Robotics seem to be a 'hot' field now. Anyways, welcome to the SIG again and we hope that all of us can exchange ideas and share knowledge in here.

[sabishii]

Hi there, was browsing aimlessly in this forum and stubled across your SIG. great job digimushu for creating this thread! ; )

I'm a junior going to senior year Electrical Engineering major, and my current main interest is solar energy or renewable energy in general. glad to know there are so many engineers-to-be here in recom! :D

hey, maybe this is not the right place to ask this, was just curious for those of you who are doing grad school in engineering, do you really like what you're doing at the moment? I heard from some of my grad school friends that they don't have a choice for the research they're doing since it's all controlled by commercial interest whom invested on the lab. And have you guys ever considered going for MBA rather than grad school in engineering? what's your motivation on doing so? Are you going to be doing research and teaching for a long long time after you graduate? just wondering. :?

[profmich]

Hello. Was browsing through Recom and came upon this thread, a great place for engineers to share their thoughts and experience. Good job, digimushu for bringing this topic up.

I'm first year E&E engineering student in uni of Melbourne. Currently approaching the end of my first semester here. So far, the first year subjects that I am enrolled in are math, physics, Intro to Programming (C) and Digital Systems 1: Fundamentals. Next semester, I would be on to Electrical Circuits and Algorithmic Problem Solving (Haskell) in addition to more physics and math :-D

So far, I had found all my subjects highly stimulating and yes, they have gotten us to spend all night figuring out a solution to a problem...sometimes it's just so frustrating, but the feeling after figuring it out is priceless.

I have not made up my mind on what field to specialise in yet...perhaps more E&E engineers can share their field of interest here and give me some pointers? Also, how were your experience during the later years of your udergrad engineering degree? Thanks
:wink:

[digimushu]

Welcome profmich and sabishii to the engineering SIG!

On the subject of whether some of us really like what we are doing at the moment, i would say i do. My area is is Vehicle Dynamics and currently i'm at the Advanced Vehicle Dynamics Laboratory in Virginia Tech. My thesis deals with the simulation and control of off-road vehicles, which is an area i like as it combines my multibody dynamics knowledge and control systems knowledge.

Sabishii, an MBA is good, and will certainly make you a lot of money if you are hired. But i think managerial skills can be learnt throughout the whole course of your program. When you work with other people, or manage a team to complete a project, you are actually learning the skills for a managing engineer. it all depends on what you want to do with your life later on. Hence, an MBA is just the justification that shows that at one time in your life, you have been a business student. I am currently doing my Ph.D because i believe theoretical technical knowledge can only be found in school. IMHO, the skill of managing/ handling/ working with people are skills you acquire as you go out and work, whether you are in academia or industry. Plus, I realize that in order to have good idea of what is state of the art in various areas, the university environment is the best. If you work in industry for too long, you will be focused on something too long and in due time, will lose your basics.

Profmich, i can safely tell you that in Electrical engineering, there are many niches you can go into. More often than not, you will realize that you will find new things that interest you every semester. However, there will be that one subject that catches you in the eye, and you will study for it not just for the class, but also for your own knowledge. You will find the class you like as you go along your plan of study, so do not worry. The niches i know of are:

Electronics:
- Power electronics
- Applied electronics
- Electronic design(VLSI, PCB)
- Electronic materials

Power Systems

Control systems:
- Mechatronics
- Relay ladder logic control(Industrial control)

Communications:
- Digital signal processing
- wireless tech

Biomedical:
- instrumentation
- nano sensors and body chips

Hope that helps!

[picard]

hi, I did my undergrad in ee and msc in operations research. currently working in system development for industrial optimization applications. Glad to find out this SIG :D

[lovelybao123]

hi there~
i'm browsing through SIG- Engineers Unite and found that i haven introduce myself.
i'm doing mechanical engineering in UTM, Malaysia. will be 4th year senior when new semester commence.
i know i love math and prefer physics more than biology.
how i get into mechanical engineering? in fact when i first completed spm, i knew nth bout mechanical engineering. but since everybody said in mechanical engineering, i'd probably do calculation most of the time. so....
i've no regret in mechanical engineering. though it's very rare for gals to love it. but i'm~~ :-)

[digimushu]

Welcome picard and lovelybao123!

We are really glad you could come and join us in the SIG, feel free to contribute to the discussions, as we are all still learning.... ;)

[pathfinder]

Hello! I'm an electrical and computer engineering junior (this fall) at Carnegie Mellon University. So glad to know that this SIG exist for engineers. I am interested in computer vision and signal processing. :)

[digimushu]

Welcome pathfinder!

please feel free to contribute to the discussions in the SIG.

[sputnik]

Hi, i'm undergraduate student in aerospace engineering.. Actually, in my school there 2 major; aeronautical eng. and astroanutical eng. . For this, i more like the astronautical eng. where we study a lot of satellite design, its subsystem and component too. :D
and my hope is to learn anything from all of you. tq

[gonjeng]

hi sputnik, welcome to the SIG... may i know which U you are going into?

[artline]

akum n hi..
well, nice to see there is SIG 4 engineer.. :p
i'm taking EE, interest in electronic, computer maybe.. :p

[digimushu]

Welcome artline!

Glad to know we have another aspring electrical engineer on board. Feel free to contribute to the discussions~~!

[yuckfou]

Hello all,

I've graduated with my maters in EE with the area of emphasize in RFIC design. I did my thesis on RF design with the title of "Automous frequency and gain tuning methodology for a seventh order polyphase analog filter". Complex, yet simple to understand. Recipe book procedure.

I'm currently a slave with a white collar job as a RF Test Engineer in a corporate company.

Hello all,

Is there anyone here whose interest lies in the areas of MEMs, and mixed-signal, analog, or RF IC design? Is anyone currently involved in these research areas?

I am interested in learning more about these specific areas. Thanks!


For this person, RFIC needs strong understanding of analog circuit design. In addition one needs to fully understand transreceiver architecture before even going into the design. From there, one can manipulate the architecture and design of RFIC and come out with your own idea of another transreceiver architecture.

My work is focused on front-end RF testing (wafer and chips) for various devices such as cordless phones, cellphones, GPS, satelite radio and etc. We also test for commercial and military products.

RF testing is cool, but one have to fully understand the test platforms. I do hope to get into a RF design job in the future...

[digimushu]

Welcome to the SIG, yuckfou!

Hopefully you can find those who are in the same area with you here and start more in-depth discussion on RF technologies.

[Tasslehoff]

hahaha! I shall once again revive a dusty topic :D

Me? I'm just a form 5 student, aspiring to be an Electical and Electronics Engineer or Chemical engineer.. though do feel that I'm more inclined towards E&E engineering :P

You guys are more like 'sifu' to me as you guys have already proceded with such depth in your respective field of engineerings :P

Yeaps, I intend to pursue my studies in the US.. (if you asked me in form 1, I would be all for local.. not anymore though ;) )

Currently eyeing Northwestern University and University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign... heh.. no idea how am I gonna raise enough money for those schools >_< but I believe in hard work and determination.. I love physics and maths.. not sure now the requirement to get a scholarship with topping the school + good ex-curricular activities + sch athlete is enough.. sigh.. worried here.. :P

nvm ;) cheers all!

[littlepiglet]

i only a lower six student, i want to be a biomedical engineer in the future. i would like to know do a bio medical engineer has a chance to develop in this field, because my teacher tell me that now Malaysia do not has this kind research center.

i take physic in form six. i nearly don't understand what teacher are saying. can i know what is the requirement for going into university. i afraid that i am wasting two years in form six and can't go in any university after this.

[bp_ffei]

I'm currently studying Aerospace Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. It has been OK so far... I haven't really gotten into the nitty-gritty aerospace stuff yet as I'm still in first year, so mainly common engineering stuff. I am assured by my professors that the job prospects are good... the Economic Development Board (EDB) of Singapore says they need about 120(?)(somewhere around there) Aerospace Engineers a year for the next few years...

There's quite some pressure upon my batch to perform well as we are the first batch of Aerospace Engineering students from NTU. There are only about 70+ of students taking this course, but most of them seem to be quite good in their studies, so the competition is gonna be quite tough. :) I'm ready to put on a fight! Haha~

[luke]

i only a lower six student, i want to be a biomedical engineer in the future. i would like to know do a bio medical engineer has a chance to develop in this field, because my teacher tell me that now Malaysia do not has this kind research center.

i take physic in form six. i nearly don't understand what teacher are saying. can i know what is the requirement for going into university. i afraid that i am wasting two years in form six and can't go in any university after this.
I think for bio medical engineer you need more chemistry than you need physics. BTW, my friend here in the same univ is a chemical engineering major and one thing he likes to say again and again about why he likes his field sounds something like this:

In some other fields, you might enroll in a class where some of the students have previous knowledge and expertise on the subject, but in chemical engineering everyone starts out as a dummy, knowing nothing about the subject and from day one onwards we compete on fair ground.

I hope this original quote will somehow elleviate your worries :)

[digimushu]

I would like to say a big welcome to all the new people that had just joined our SIG. I sincerely hope that all of you will find this SIG as a useful guide for your aspiring engineering careers.

I apologize for not being active in recom lately, been kept busy this semester by my TA responsibilities.

[wengyi]

Hi, Everybody!!! I've just signed up for Recom aft finding hw fun was.
(Don't know whether I been to d wrong place) I'm just a SPM-leaver waiting to cont my studies. But I love to do engineering, particularly robots!!!! B4 dis, I want to be a scientist but dunno wat field. Then It started when I was in Form4 (quite late :lol: ), when I stumbled upon an article on Lego Robot League. I read abt a robot cooking egg. Somehow, I was all burnt up and knew at once, YEAH YOU'RE THE ONE!!! I'm goin to be a robot scientist.

So, I was wondering if there's any expert out there to giv me some advice on wat to choose. Originally, I was targetting mechatronics, but wonder if it's enough. I'm going for JPA interview dis Friday...

[alvinangbs]

Hi there engineering dudes!!

I'm Alvin from English College Johor Bahru and i'll be taking my stpm real soon now. I'm hoping to get into Stanford University, US next year to take up management science and engineering. I do have to apply as soon as possible than, i wanna take my SAT once again as i did pretty badly last year. I took my SAT in the US when i was an exchange student there and got only 1560/2400. Is there any advice on the application process to increase my chances of gaining an entry and is there any scholarships available for application?

[ben3003]

hi, i am in a dilemma of choosing either materials or chemical engineering course? Can anyone guide me? How is the job prospects of materials engineer in malaysia or singapore? Normally how much they get paid? Thanks.

[YunShyuan]

I'm not sure how are the job prospects now for chemical engineers in Malaysia, but I heard Singapore is looking for chemical engineers. So it's a relatively good time to be in chemical engineering right now.

If you're planning to expand your career abroad, the US, Canada, and the UK are places to go too. In Canada, there is a labour shortage for professional positions such as engineers and doctors. Right now, companies are desperate for new graduate engineers.

[YunShyuan]

Hello,

I am currently in my last year in Chemical Engineering at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Soon, I will be joining NOVA Chemicals company as an engineer. If anyone is looking to study chemical engineering in Canada, University of ALberta is the best chemical engineering school in Canada (other than U of Toronto, of course). Alberta is relatively cheaper than U of Toronto. We have a good syllabus that no other university in Canada has. Our research department is the most progressive in the country and receives more than $3 million of funds every year. Recently, the national nanotech institue was opened at the university.

I guess, that's about it. If anyone wants to know more about the chemical engineering program at the U of A, I'll be glad to help out.

[white2020]

Hi, i m waiting my SPM result...i would like to ask several question

1. what is SIG??
2. what can i do now so that i m prepare when i go into somethings like engineering foundation??
3. about the JPA, do anyone can tell me more??how to secure it??

thanks for everyone...i m new here..actually

[white2020]

sory..sorry..what is TA responsibilities??

[c_k_w]

hello all....,

I am Kay. I'm currently doing my final semester in the Diploma in Civil Engineering.... :D

[vseehua]

Lasers... currently doing Optoelectronics Engineering in Germany...

[mdns]

hello,

I am a Civil and Structural Engineering graduate . currently doing my PG in Energy, Water and Waste ..

pretty nice site this .

regards,
mdns.

[theunknown]

hi...............
i'm a spm 2006 leaver, going form 6.
i'm interested in bio medical/bio engineering .
is anyone here a bio medical/bioengineer??
can anyone tell me more about the prospects??
thank u :) :) :)

[white2020]

hi...............
i'm a spm 2006 leaver, going form 6.
i'm interested in e/e or mechanical engineering .
is anyone here e/e or mechanical engineer??
can anyone tell me more about the prospects??
thank u :) :) :)


Thanks

[deer_eyes]

Greetings, 8)


Chemical Engineer

Just graduated, currently training at NOVA Chemicals.

[white2020]

hi...............
i'm a spm 2006 leaver, going form 6.
i'm interested in e/e or mechanical engineering .
is anyone here e/e or mechanical engineer??
can anyone tell me more about the prospects??
thank u :) :) :)


Thanks

anyone?please, thanks

[AppryL89]

Petroleum Engineering?

Anyone who is currently studying in overseas or graduated?

[sAmurAi-X]

Environmental Engineering..


Somehow, I think its career prospects in Malaysia are bleak... :(
Looking forward to work overseas...

[Fourthshifter]

Anything related to PLM Solutions,
esp. Pro/ENGINEER
8)

[existencialism]

hye,im form UniMAP(Univ Malaysia Perlis).now doing degree in materials engineering.so far, i can say that there are few information about materials engineering..and in m'sia..only two univ offers this course along with metallurgical eng which are USM & UniMAP..

[chiachean]

I am a future engineering student..Nice to meet you all..

[digimushu]

Welkam welkam!

Hi All,

I am digimushu, the originator of this SIG. To introduce myself, I am an engineer working with an automotive supplier, having finished my BSEE and Ph.D ME in the US. To all aspiring engineers, I wish all of you good luck !

[lindley]

is there such a thing as kinematical engineering? ive never heard of it though.
cos i love motions and all LOL

[digimushu]

Welcome Lindley! Yes there is, and there are kinematics experts all around. However, kinematics is usually treated as a subset of dynamics.

[eekndot]

hi everyone..
i am Sam,future engineering student.. i have been offered a place in Uni of Sydney for Bachelor of Aeronautical Engineering and still waiting a place for aerospace engineering in Uni of New South Wales n NTU.. currently,i am confused of which course to choose,aeronautical or aerospace..therefore,i really need some advice.. which course has a more promising career opportunities?

[lindley]

digimushu,
what do you mean by subset of dynamics?
meaning i'd have to major in some other kind of field of engineering? as kinematics doesnt like, stand on its on or sth?

[Chrisntine]

hye,im form UniMAP(Univ Malaysia Perlis).now doing degree in materials engineering.so far, i can say that there are few information about materials engineering..and in m'sia..only two univ offers this course along with metallurgical eng which are USM & UniMAP..

hihi. i am offer to stdy in UniMap-diploma kejuruteraan elektrik. im in dilemma whether i wan to accept or nt. cz im offer to matrix as well. which 1 should i choose. senior, do u know the fees for diploma and degree? does this UniMap gud?

[Caprio]

hihi. i am offer to stdy in UniMap-diploma kejuruteraan elektrik. im in dilemma whether i wan to accept or nt. cz im offer to matrix as well. which 1 should i choose. senior, do u know the fees for diploma and degree? does this UniMap gud?

Without a second thought, I would advise you to opt for matrix.

UniMap is a relatively new university. Most of the facilities is still under construction.

On the other hand, if you go to Matrix, study hard and get good result, you can apply for a more established university like USM, UTM, UM and so on. After all, Matrix students are guarentee a place in the public university, provided you have achieve a decent result.

Hope that helps.

[passer-by]

Intel International Science and Engineering Fair http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=news-from-the-intel-science-fair

[Caprio]

Hey everybody here!

I am going to study Industrial Engineering in a few months time!

[digimushu]

digimushu,
what do you mean by subset of dynamics?
meaning i'd have to major in some other kind of field of engineering? as kinematics doesnt like, stand on its on or sth?

Kinematics does not stand on its own when you are studying it at the undergraduate level. However, if you move higher up in the field of dynamics, especially multibody dynamics, kinematics becomes more and more important.

[skyrainbow]

Aerospace engineering looks interesting-- how that heavy planes fly in sky. Genetic engineering-- how life forms itself. And biomedical engineering-- to help people with machines.

But i'm not an engineer-to-be.

[BattleBoyz]

Bump! I am sure there are many recomers that want to be engineers this year. I'll start first. My favorite one will be chemical engineering and I would like to branch into environmental engineering in future. Any more engineers-to-be? :D

[Jennifer_92]

What is the difference between aeronautical engineering and aerospace engineering?

[smy]

what do biomedical engineers do and are there many job opportunities in msia?

[slappyfin3]

Bump! I am sure there are many recomers that want to be engineers this year. I'll start first. My favorite one will be chemical engineering and I would like to branch into environmental engineering in future. Any more engineers-to-be? :D

High Five!

Hello all, I'm doing A Levels now and I'm set on doing Chemical Engineering (Major) with Environmental Engineering (Minor)

Right now I'm really interested in efficiency technologies and green technology. I hope to go all the way to Doctorate level and work as a practicing engineer for a few years before moving into consultancy.

I'd really appreciate resources (journals, articles) on Chemical Engineering so that I can have a more complete picture of it in my mind. Right now, I think a Chemical Engineer is responsible for designing, optimizing and managing chemical processes such that it is economically viable and not damaging to the environment but I have a hunch that I'm being a little idealistic/naive here.

Thank you

[acgerlok7]

High Five!

Hello all, I'm doing A Levels now and I'm set on doing Chemical Engineering (Major) with Environmental Engineering (Minor)

Right now I'm really interested in efficiency technologies and green technology. I hope to go all the way to Doctorate level and work as a practicing engineer for a few years before moving into consultancy.

I'd really appreciate resources (journals, articles) on Chemical Engineering so that I can have a more complete picture of it in my mind. Right now, I think a Chemical Engineer is responsible for designing, optimizing and managing chemical processes such that it is economically viable and not damaging to the environment but I have a hunch that I'm being a little idealistic/naive here.

Thank you

Hey...nice to meet you...i'm also interested in chemical engineering...jjust would like to enquire...do u take further mathematics in your A-Levels?

[Nicholasng925]

Hey...nice to meet you...i'm also interested in chemical engineering...jjust would like to enquire...do u take further mathematics in your A-Levels?

Yep, I think slappyfin3 is taking FM in his A-Levels if I'm not mistaken. :)

[slappyfin3]

Yep, I do.

[imranariffin]

Hello, the name is Imran. Im still a dummy SPM-2010-leaver but im interested in Engineering, specifically Mechatronics. I'd love to combine the three engineering disciplines - mechanical, electrical and software - into one application. I am also passionate in mathematics and physics.

And, I have 2 questions regarding my career of interest. Is it true that not many universities provide Mechatronics course. I want to study in US if get JPA scholarship, if can't in local Uni je la. And, what is the degree abbreviation for Mechatronics degree ? (Bs.Eng EE for Electrical and Electronic Engineering)

Thanks and regards.

[kaze]

I know that California State University-Chico offers Mechatronic engineering. I haven't met anyone in that program, so I have no idea about the quality of the program.

A lot of people who works in industry don't necessarily graduated with a mechatronic degree, but are mechanical or electrical engineers. A lot of schools offer mechatronic course, and usually this is a requirement for a mechanical engineering degree. So, do not limit yourself to only schools that offer mechatronic engineering.

[Chelsea]

what are the career prospects like for engineers? and what field would you recomend to join?

[kaze]

I'm still an undergraduate myself, so I'm not very clear of the career prospect myself. :P

what field would you recomend to join?
That really depends on what your interests are, right? Or perhaps, what you're aiming for in life?
If you ask me why I'm majoring in mechanical engineering, then I'd say that I have some interest in aviation, so I went ahead with mechanical. Glad that it works out fine so far.

[Cactus]

Sorry if this sound stupid:

What do engineers do? How is work as an (average) engineer different from what you expect while you were in school/university?

I've always imagined engineers to be "hands-on" kind of people. But I also realize that engineering students learn a lot of mathematics and apply it in a (sophisticated?) way which is not easily understood by most people without sufficient scientific/engineering background. So how does an engineer(ing student) reconcile the more "theoretical" side of his/her studies with the real-life hands-on experience?

Ok, what I'm actually trying to ask is:
If I'm good at physics and maths on the books, but have never touched a screw-driver in my life, should I steer clear of engineering? (My major interest is Chemical engineering, although I'm also thinking about taking a degree with a general first year.)

A lot of my friends in their first-year of engineering degrees say they don't know what they're actually studying/doing....
So as a STPM-leaver I want to make an informed decision about studying engineering instead of venturing into the field just because "I'm good at maths and physics..."

I hope somebody can offer me some advice. Thank you.

[frankchong]

What is classified as an engineer varies from job to job and location to location. If you are in research and development in developed countries, product development and design in high technology companies, field and support engineers in developing countries, the nature of engineers' work in these groups are quite different.
However, the common goal of engineers are to create something useful to society/people willing to buy or provide solutions to problem facing humanity by the application of scientiffic principles. Hence a strong background in science and mathematics is a prequisite.
Let's use some examples, significant amount of electricity is used in lighting and most of the energy used in light builds are converted into heat instead of light. If we have a light source that converts electrical energy into light without heat, it would be very efficient and save a lot of energy. You job is to invent this light source, what do you need? First you need to know how light is generated, then, whether a device can be designed to do just that and whether you can engineer the material and process to build the device. After building it, it may not work, you then have to fix it and try again, until it works. (solutions already exist -- fluorescent lights, sodium vapor lamps, LED lights are examples). You need to know a lot of physics, chemistry, material science and some electrical engineering.
If you work on communication and computer security, you challenge is to be able to transfer and receive data through a medium that causes data bit getting lost in the process or someone intercepting your data. You job would be to device a coding scheme so that you can detect and recover the data even when you have corrupted bits. (This happen all the time during digital TV tranmission in a rainny or cloudy day). As it turns out, a lot of these work is based on abstract algebra and number theory.
If you have a desktop PC, open up the case and look at how cooling of the CPU is accomplished, there are engineers ho spent countless hours to design, fabricate and test out the system before you ever see it. (The CPU itself has a few hundred million transistors). The same can be said of the bridges you walk on, the airplane you fly in.
Traditionally, chemical engineers spend a lot more time in chemical processes, in fluid mechanics, heat transfer, thermodynamics than the other engineering professions. However, over the past decade, we are seeing more graduate level chemical engineering and physics graduates taking on bio related research.
Is hands on important? Depends on what do you mean by hands on? You need to know what you are doing, and as an engineer, whatever you do, it has to end up performing something. Nowadays, a lot of design is done in computers, models are buid in the computer so that calculations can be done with the aid of a computer, it is tested in the computer before it is built and finally validated. Is building the model in a computer consider hands on? It is all done in software! Some engineer has to make sure the model in the computer correspond to something physically real, so in modelling and model validation it helps to have hands on skills.
If you are in product support, you do not need to have as strong a theoretical background. Some one has already done the R&D, product design and verify that it works. What you need to do is to get it manufactured or fix problems that crops up later.

So, if you do not feel the sense of excitement in building something useful, engineering is probably not the field for you. However, if you do, try to find out what excites you and acquire all the skills needed to be successful in the field. If you want to be a top notch engineer, try very hard to be good in science and mathematics (the tools of the trade), nature does not divide problems into electrical, mechanical, chemical or civil engineering problems.
In a lot of countries, you need accredition to practice as an engineer. However, in R&D it is less rigid, but the skill level requirement is much higher.

regards,
Frank

[KenT13]

what does R&D means?

[leeashroe]

what does R&D means?

Research and development :)

Anyways, is anyone doing bioenginnering?

[KenT13]

i'm interested in aerospace engineering. i want to build rocket engines. . . i like physics very much and maths as well.!!! any idea where and how to study that course. i'm a spm leaver .

[Cactus]

What is classified as an engineer varies from job to job and location to location. If you are in research and development in developed countries, product development and design in high technology companies, field and support engineers in developing countries, the nature of engineers' work in these groups are quite different.
However, the common goal of engineers are to create something useful to society/people willing to buy or provide solutions to problem facing humanity by the application of scientiffic principles. Hence a strong background in science and mathematics is a prequisite.
Let's use some examples, significant amount of electricity is used in lighting and most of the energy used in light builds are converted into heat instead of light. If we have a light source that converts electrical energy into light without heat, it would be very efficient and save a lot of energy. You job is to invent this light source, what do you need? First you need to know how light is generated, then, whether a device can be designed to do just that and whether you can engineer the material and process to build the device. After building it, it may not work, you then have to fix it and try again, until it works. (solutions already exist -- fluorescent lights, sodium vapor lamps, LED lights are examples). You need to know a lot of physics, chemistry, material science and some electrical engineering.
If you work on communication and computer security, you challenge is to be able to transfer and receive data through a medium that causes data bit getting lost in the process or someone intercepting your data. You job would be to device a coding scheme so that you can detect and recover the data even when you have corrupted bits. (This happen all the time during digital TV tranmission in a rainny or cloudy day). As it turns out, a lot of these work is based on abstract algebra and number theory.
If you have a desktop PC, open up the case and look at how cooling of the CPU is accomplished, there are engineers ho spent countless hours to design, fabricate and test out the system before you ever see it. (The CPU itself has a few hundred million transistors). The same can be said of the bridges you walk on, the airplane you fly in.
Traditionally, chemical engineers spend a lot more time in chemical processes, in fluid mechanics, heat transfer, thermodynamics than the other engineering professions. However, over the past decade, we are seeing more graduate level chemical engineering and physics graduates taking on bio related research.
Is hands on important? Depends on what do you mean by hands on? You need to know what you are doing, and as an engineer, whatever you do, it has to end up performing something. Nowadays, a lot of design is done in computers, models are buid in the computer so that calculations can be done with the aid of a computer, it is tested in the computer before it is built and finally validated. Is building the model in a computer consider hands on? It is all done in software! Some engineer has to make sure the model in the computer correspond to something physically real, so in modelling and model validation it helps to have hands on skills.
If you are in product support, you do not need to have as strong a theoretical background. Some one has already done the R&D, product design and verify that it works. What you need to do is to get it manufactured or fix problems that crops up later.

So, if you do not feel the sense of excitement in building something useful, engineering is probably not the field for you. However, if you do, try to find out what excites you and acquire all the skills needed to be successful in the field. If you want to be a top notch engineer, try very hard to be good in science and mathematics (the tools of the trade), nature does not divide problems into electrical, mechanical, chemical or civil engineering problems.
In a lot of countries, you need accredition to practice as an engineer. However, in R&D it is less rigid, but the skill level requirement is much higher.

regards,
Frank

Thank you very much for your reply.

[frankchong]

If you want to study aerospace engineering and rocketry, Caltech would be the best place to go. Caltech also manages the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL), with US$1 billion funding from NASA a year. I believe they have over 1000 engineers and scientists working on their programs at JPL. The MARS explorer and other interplanetary missions are planned and executed from JPL. Just google Caltech and JPL for further details. As student at Caltech, you will have plenty of opportunities to intern at JPL.
Modern rocketry have their roots in Germany, from there it went to Russia, USA, from USA it went to China. Look up Von Karman, Qian Xuesen in google.

You have to be very interested and good in math and science to get into Caltech. Admission is very competitive, but it is the best play ground for engineers and scientists. They only take in a little more than 200 students per year for under graduates.

[KenT13]

Wah! i'm very interested to work in the CERN project too :D ...i'm good in maths. but i'm not sure how good is the very good. lets see, i cannot use spm's maths as comparison cause it's unreliable-.- ... i don't have much problem with add maths.avg 80-90 marks : (

[frankchong]

I know of physics major from Caltech intern at CERN. Researchers at JPL, CERN are very good at what they are doing, many of the best in their field. You still have stpm or equivalent to go before you apply. Try to study ahead, be very good in math and science, it has to be more than just preparing for exams. Try to take part in science and math competitions.
To get into universities like MIT and Caltech, from Malaysia, some years they admitted a few and other years none. You have to try to be at the very top. It is possible, and it takes a lot of hard work.

[KenT13]

Erm, since i wanted to study aerospace engineering, what should i do now? go for form 6?? i have ns to serve and have yet to know my batch ..i searched in the net, it appears that oni gov U have this course

[melindaL]

Biomedical :)

[KenT13]

Bio-Chemical Physicists

[leeashroe]

Mine would be bioengineering. I believe in Malaysia, bioengineering and bio-medical engineering is the same thing?

Hmm...I've been reading and found out that some are advising students to not go for bioengineering. Most will suggest students to go for the traditional Mechanical Engineering or Civil Engineering or Chemical Engineering (job prospects I believe is the reason) but I am very interested in Biology but lack of determination to go for the usual Medic/Pharmacy/Dentistry/Pure Biology route.

And with bioengineering, I get to be an engineer and do Biology at the same time. I agree that bioengineers are jack of all trades and master of none, but my principle is that it's essential to be jack of all trades and master them one by one as we work. This is a vast, still less specialised field of engineering and the reason I use bioengineering instead of biomedical is I am psyching myself to not associate my future jobs to only the medical field ( a senior told me if I take bioengineering/biomedical engineering I'll end up working in hospitals only - I patah semangat for a moment there ) but also in fields such as agriculture, biotech etc.

Is this attitude of mine the right one to have? Or am I being unrealistic?

And oh, I think the research field is my calling - but am still planning to work first before I indulge myself in it.

[frankchong]

I am an engineer myself, have managed and recruited many engineers and scientists over the years, however, over the last few posts, I can not tell what motivates some of you to pursue a career in engineering. Passion is more than just saying I am interest in this and that, a lot of people can say that they are interested in something, but few will translate those into action. If your daily activities do not support what you say, you are not the first choice for a potential candidate in the field.
As in KenT13, it really does not matter whether you go to STPM, form 6 or other options, it matters whether you are really good in the field you chose. Since you are interested in physics, let's take this as a case for discussion. In the recent earthquake affecting their nuclear power stations in Japan:

1. Can you explain what is meltdown?

2. The power stations have already been shutdown on the affected power stations, what does shut down mean?

3. Since the power stations are shut down, why is the temperature still rise in the reactor core?

[leeashroe]

Passion is more than just saying I am interest in this and that, a lot of people can say that they are interested in something, but few will translate those into action. If your daily activities do not support what you say, you are not the first choice for a potential candidate in the field.


Indeed, I agree that mere passion cannot be the sole reason one should pursue a career in something/study for it in university.

But I hope you can explain "If your daily activities do not support what you say" - in what way can I know how supportive my daily activities are into what I want to do? I'd love to know frankchong, so would you elaborate and explain this? Haha, I wouldn't want to jump into something I'd hate, but right now all I get from people is "do what you're interested in" thus I am making a decision based on what I am interested in.

I don't know about others - but my problem is I don't really know how to evaluate myself effectively and yes, I am a naive 18-year-old who thinks she can do whatever if she works hard. Thus, if engineering is super duper hard, if it requires me to change a big part of my lifestyle and needs a major paradigm shift - then I will do it. Because I want to and because I can.

[kaze]

in what way can I know how supportive my daily activities are into what I want to do?

I'm trying to answer this question based on how I view it.

Someone who has some interest in say... aerospace, might have:
1- joined rocket competition at school, or maybe
2- designed a rocket using water, plastic bottles, etc just for fun or to see how it works
3- able to relate SPM level physics to the basics of rocket trajectory
4- read books on aerospace / seen documentary on aerospace
5- doodled numerous spacecrafts on paper whenever he/she is bored

as opposed to someone who claims that he's interested in aerospace engineering but couldn't say much when being asked simple questions like "how do rockets fly?"

Basically, if you spend a good amount of your time outside class to think about things that are related to the field you're interested in, then, it is a good sign that you are into it.

[frankchong]

Yes, passion is not a guarantee for success, but without which, it is hard to be exceptionally good. In every profession you choose, there will be good times and there will be difficult times, if you want to be at the forefront. It is the passion, the deep desire to carry on that carries one through paths that others have not taken to the level you are going to carry out.
Science and math should not be studied in isolation, let's take some examples:
1. Have you seen soap bubbles, the color you see on the soap bubble? The soap solution is colorless, are you curious to find out what gives it color, if so will you be curious enough to calculate how thick is the soap film?
Once you are aware of this phenomena, you may start to notice oil patches on water have colors too and from there you can estimate the thickness of the oil film.
In fact, in semiconductor industry, we usually look at the color on a wafer to tell the thickness of the thin film deposited on them.

2. You have seen light from a light bulb, fluorescent light, may be sodium vapor lamp on street lights, LED lights on indicators, have you ever wander why they look different? If you touch a florescent light it is warm, but a light buld is very hot, what does it tell you?

3. When people do painting (building, cars etc), they paint the objects over multiple times. Why people go through all these trouble? People may say it looks better, more smooth etc, can you think of the physical reason why?

It is not that important you know the answer now, but more importantly you are curious enough to find out, willing to find out the answers yourself. It is the process of discovery. Once you acquire these knowledge of how things work you can use this knowledge to build something interesting or useful.
In the process, you or others may come out with different explanations, how do you sort out which one is right?

regards,
Frank

Kate's answer is on the spot to find out whether KenT13 is really into rocketry or is he just talking.
In fact, talking to the director of admission at Caltech a few years ago, this is one of the ways to tell whether an applicant is really into science. Similar process is going on in other top american colleges, your essay, application profile, teacher recommendations are being cross referenced to arrive at an overalll evaluation of the candidate.
Of course, there are applicants not knowing what they want to do yet, but there is a sizable number showing early commitment/deep interest in an area. It does not mean that you can not change your mind later, but it shows that when you are interested in something you will do what it takes to be good at it.

[leeashroe]

It is not that important you know the answer now, but more importantly you are curious enough to find out, willing to find out the answers yourself. It is the process of discovery. Once you acquire these knowledge of how things work you can use this knowledge to build something interesting or useful.



Thank you Frank - this gave me something insightful to ponder on.

First, I believe I ask a lot of questions (maybe not related to only bubbles). generally I spend a lot of time thinking. However, I rarely make an effort to look for answers - now your previous reply of "few will translate those into action" makes a whole lot sense and I think i am those kind of people. How..disappointing is that? However, that doesn't mean I can't change right?

Second, I have myself to blame all along for this. I never nurtured such attitude of 'looking for answers' and since I know I need to do so now - I will.

The reason I was very into the idea of being an engineer is I want to train an engineer-like way of thinking. A structured, planned, systematic approach into problems to find the solutions. I know my statement is easily arguable since when we talk about ways of thinking and approaches into problems - such skills can be acquired through means other than tertiary education. Then again, without proper education and the environment to force oneself to think in such ways - it wouldn't be easier either. Since I have an interest generally in Biology (most of the things I ask are related to it) I think bioengineering will perfectly fit me.

Third, I strongly believe everyone can do anything - be it engineering, or medic, or economics, or politics and the list goes on and on. We human have the potential to develop not only skills, but also interest and passion into even something we initially hate. Right now, for me (and probably the hundred of thousands of students) the important task is choosing which field are we willing to devote our time and effort into building the skills, passion and profound enthusiasm to innovate.

At the end of the day, what matters the most is we contribute. Not only to others - family, community, nation, but to ourselves - the satisfaction of getting answers for the questions we ask and feeling good for contributing.

:)

[frankchong]

The following post is what I have shared with some of my friends, compare this post to what we get from the news and public reaction, you be the judge and let us know why a lot of policy decisions are made based on fear instead of rational decisions.
Even if you decided not to be an engineer, an understanding of what is happening should allow you to make better decisions.

Frank

------------------------------------------------------------------------


This is a rather long post, and it gives pretty good insight into what is happening. Earthquake, tsunami and road accident kill, but nuclear accidents "scare the shit out of the public", let's take a careful look before we "Throw out the baby with the bath water". There are lessions to be learned. This is a second generation reactor, the third generations uses passive emergency cooling water, feed by gravity (not by back up electrical pumps).
We have to ask ourselves, given that solar and wind are intermittant, coal, gas, disel and hydro have their own problems, what are the best options we have. A lot of life have been lost in coal accidents and fight over oil, deep sea drilling is not trouble free either, can we run away from nuclear?

http://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/why-i-am-not-worried-about-japans-nuclear-reactors/


Best regards,
FC




Why I am not worried about Japan?s nuclear reactors.
Posted on March 13, 2011 by morgsatlarge
**Update**
If you wish to share this information, please link to this article. This is the place where Josef will (if he does) post any updates or direct you to the latest version.
**Update**
I have to stop moderating the comments as my parents in law have come over to stay with us due to the fear of aftershocks, so I am sorry if that causes any inconvenience, or stifles any debate. I honestly didn?t expect this level of interest (its over 32,000 views as of 11:12pm Japan time)
Just a few comments. I do not work for the nuclear industry. I am an English teacher, from Australia, living in Kawasaki, Japan. My friend Dr J. Oehmen is a family member, and by far and away the most intelligent person I know. Feel free to believe/disbelieve whatever we have written. There are no conspiracies, however if you need to, feel free to make some up. They are quite entertaining.
Japanese readers, I hope your family and loved ones are safe, everyone else, no matter what you believe stay safe.
Morgsatlarge.
**original post below**
I know this is a fairly full on statement from someone posting his very first blog. It will also be far and away the most well written, intelligent post I ever make (I hope!) It also means I am not responsible for its content.

This post is by Dr Josef Oehmen, a research scientist at MIT, in Boston.
He is a PhD Scientist, whose father has extensive experience in Germany?s nuclear industry. I asked him to write this information to my family in Australia, who were being made sick with worry by the media reports coming from Japan. I am republishing it with his permission.

It is a few hours old, so if any information is out of date, blame me for the delay in getting it published.
This is his text in full and unedited. It is very long, so get comfy.
I am writing this text (Mar 12) to give you some peace of mind regarding some of the troubles in Japan, that is the safety of Japan?s nuclear reactors. Up front, the situation is serious, but under control. And this text is long! But you will know more about nuclear power plants after reading it than all journalists on this planet put together.
There was and will *not* be any significant release of radioactivity.
By ?significant? I mean a level of radiation of more than what you would receive on ? say ? a long distance flight, or drinking a glass of beer that comes from certain areas with high levels of natural background radiation.
I have been reading every news release on the incident since the earthquake. There has not been one single (!) report that was accurate and free of errors (and part of that problem is also a weakness in the Japanese crisis communication). By ?not free of errors? I do not refer to tendentious anti-nuclear journalism ? that is quite normal these days. By ?not free of errors? I mean blatant errors regarding physics and natural law, as well as gross misinterpretation of facts, due to an obvious lack of fundamental and basic understanding of the way nuclear reactors are build and operated. I have read a 3 page report on CNN where every single paragraph contained an error.
We will have to cover some fundamentals, before we get into what is going on.
Construction of the Fukushima nuclear power plants
The plants at Fukushima are so called Boiling Water Reactors, or BWR for short. Boiling Water Reactors are similar to a pressure cooker. The nuclear fuel heats water, the water boils and creates steam, the steam then drives turbines that create the electricity, and the steam is then cooled and condensed back to water, and the water send back to be heated by the nuclear fuel. The pressure cooker operates at about 250 ?C.
The nuclear fuel is uranium oxide. Uranium oxide is a ceramic with a very high melting point of about 3000 ?C. The fuel is manufactured in pellets (think little cylinders the size of Lego bricks). Those pieces are then put into a long tube made of Zircaloy with a melting point of 2200 ?C, and sealed tight. The assembly is called a fuel rod. These fuel rods are then put together to form larger packages, and a number of these packages are then put into the reactor. All these packages together are referred to as ?the core?.
The Zircaloy casing is the first containment. It separates the radioactive fuel from the rest of the world.
The core is then placed in the ?pressure vessels?. That is the pressure cooker we talked about before. The pressure vessels is the second containment. This is one sturdy piece of a pot, designed to safely contain the core for temperatures several hundred ?C. That covers the scenarios where cooling can be restored at some point.
The entire ?hardware? of the nuclear reactor ? the pressure vessel and all pipes, pumps, coolant (water) reserves, are then encased in the third containment. The third containment is a hermetically (air tight) sealed, very thick bubble of the strongest steel. The third containment is designed, built and tested for one single purpose: To contain, indefinitely, a complete core meltdown. For that purpose, a large and thick concrete basin is cast under the pressure vessel (the second containment), which is filled with graphite, all inside the third containment. This is the so-called ?core catcher?. If the core melts and the pressure vessel bursts (and eventually melts), it will catch the molten fuel and everything else. It is built in such a way that the nuclear fuel will be spread out, so it can cool down.
This third containment is then surrounded by the reactor building. The reactor building is an outer shell that is supposed to keep the weather out, but nothing in. (this is the part that was damaged in the explosion, but more to that later).
Fundamentals of nuclear reactions
The uranium fuel generates heat by nuclear fission. Big uranium atoms are split into smaller atoms. That generates heat plus neutrons (one of the particles that forms an atom). When the neutron hits another uranium atom, that splits, generating more neutrons and so on. That is called the nuclear chain reaction.
Now, just packing a lot of fuel rods next to each other would quickly lead to overheating and after about 45 minutes to a melting of the fuel rods. It is worth mentioning at this point that the nuclear fuel in a reactor can *never* cause a nuclear explosion the type of a nuclear bomb. Building a nuclear bomb is actually quite difficult (ask Iran). In Chernobyl, the explosion was caused by excessive pressure buildup, hydrogen explosion and rupture of all containments, propelling molten core material into the environment (a ?dirty bomb?). Why that did not and will not happen in Japan, further below.
In order to control the nuclear chain reaction, the reactor operators use so-called ?moderator rods?. The moderator rods absorb the neutrons and kill the chain reaction instantaneously. A nuclear reactor is built in such a way, that when operating normally, you take out all the moderator rods. The coolant water then takes away the heat (and converts it into steam and electricity) at the same rate as the core produces it. And you have a lot of leeway around the standard operating point of 250?C.
The challenge is that after inserting the rods and stopping the chain reaction, the core still keeps producing heat. The uranium ?stopped? the chain reaction. But a number of intermediate radioactive elements are created by the uranium during its fission process, most notably Cesium and Iodine isotopes, i.e. radioactive versions of these elements that will eventually split up into smaller atoms and not be radioactive anymore. Those elements keep decaying and producing heat. Because they are not regenerated any longer from the uranium (the uranium stopped decaying after the moderator rods were put in), they get less and less, and so the core cools down over a matter of days, until those intermediate radioactive elements are used up.
This residual heat is causing the headaches right now.
So the first ?type? of radioactive material is the uranium in the fuel rods, plus the intermediate radioactive elements that the uranium splits into, also inside the fuel rod (Cesium and Iodine).
There is a second type of radioactive material created, outside the fuel rods. The big main difference up front: Those radioactive materials have a very short half-life, that means that they decay very fast and split into non-radioactive materials. By fast I mean seconds. So if these radioactive materials are released into the environment, yes, radioactivity was released, but no, it is not dangerous, at all. Why? By the time you spelled ?R-A-D-I-O-N-U-C-L-I-D-E?, they will be harmless, because they will have split up into non radioactive elements. Those radioactive elements are N-16, the radioactive isotope (or version) of nitrogen (air). The others are noble gases such as Xenon. But where do they come from? When the uranium splits, it generates a neutron (see above). Most of these neutrons will hit other uranium atoms and keep the nuclear chain reaction going. But some will leave the fuel rod and hit the water molecules, or the air that is in the water. Then, a non-radioactive element can ?capture? the neutron. It becomes radioactive. As described above, it will quickly (seconds) get rid again of the neutron to return to its former beautiful self.
This second ?type? of radiation is very important when we talk about the radioactivity being released into the environment later on.
What happened at Fukushima
I will try to summarize the main facts. The earthquake that hit Japan was 7 times more powerful than the worst earthquake the nuclear power plant was built for (the Richter scale works logarithmically; the difference between the 8.2 that the plants were built for and the 8.9 that happened is 7 times, not 0.7). So the first hooray for Japanese engineering, everything held up.
When the earthquake hit with 8.9, the nuclear reactors all went into automatic shutdown. Within seconds after the earthquake started, the moderator rods had been inserted into the core and nuclear chain reaction of the uranium stopped. Now, the cooling system has to carry away the residual heat. The residual heat load is about 3% of the heat load under normal operating conditions.
The earthquake destroyed the external power supply of the nuclear reactor. That is one of the most serious accidents for a nuclear power plant, and accordingly, a ?plant black out? receives a lot of attention when designing backup systems. The power is needed to keep the coolant pumps working. Since the power plant had been shut down, it cannot produce any electricity by itself any more.
Things were going well for an hour. One set of multiple sets of emergency Diesel power generators kicked in and provided the electricity that was needed. Then the Tsunami came, much bigger than people had expected when building the power plant (see above, factor 7). The tsunami took out all multiple sets of backup Diesel generators.
When designing a nuclear power plant, engineers follow a philosophy called ?Defense of Depth?. That means that you first build everything to withstand the worst catastrophe you can imagine, and then design the plant in such a way that it can still handle one system failure (that you thought could never happen) after the other. A tsunami taking out all backup power in one swift strike is such a scenario. The last line of defense is putting everything into the third containment (see above), that will keep everything, whatever the mess, moderator rods in our out, core molten or not, inside the reactor.
When the diesel generators were gone, the reactor operators switched to emergency battery power. The batteries were designed as one of the backups to the backups, to provide power for cooling the core for 8 hours. And they did.
Within the 8 hours, another power source had to be found and connected to the power plant. The power grid was down due to the earthquake. The diesel generators were destroyed by the tsunami. So mobile diesel generators were trucked in.
This is where things started to go seriously wrong. The external power generators could not be connected to the power plant (the plugs did not fit). So after the batteries ran out, the residual heat could not be carried away any more.
At this point the plant operators begin to follow emergency procedures that are in place for a ?loss of cooling event?. It is again a step along the ?Depth of Defense? lines. The power to the cooling systems should never have failed completely, but it did, so they ?retreat? to the next line of defense. All of this, however shocking it seems to us, is part of the day-to-day training you go through as an operator, right through to managing a core meltdown.
It was at this stage that people started to talk about core meltdown. Because at the end of the day, if cooling cannot be restored, the core will eventually melt (after hours or days), and the last line of defense, the core catcher and third containment, would come into play.
But the goal at this stage was to manage the core while it was heating up, and ensure that the first containment (the Zircaloy tubes that contains the nuclear fuel), as well as the second containment (our pressure cooker) remain intact and operational for as long as possible, to give the engineers time to fix the cooling systems.
Because cooling the core is such a big deal, the reactor has a number of cooling systems, each in multiple versions (the reactor water cleanup system, the decay heat removal, the reactor core isolating cooling, the standby liquid cooling system, and the emergency core cooling system). Which one failed when or did not fail is not clear at this point in time.
So imagine our pressure cooker on the stove, heat on low, but on. The operators use whatever cooling system capacity they have to get rid of as much heat as possible, but the pressure starts building up. The priority now is to maintain integrity of the first containment (keep temperature of the fuel rods below 2200?C), as well as the second containment, the pressure cooker. In order to maintain integrity of the pressure cooker (the second containment), the pressure has to be released from time to time. Because the ability to do that in an emergency is so important, the reactor has 11 pressure release valves. The operators now started venting steam from time to time to control the pressure. The temperature at this stage was about 550?C.
This is when the reports about ?radiation leakage? starting coming in. I believe I explained above why venting the steam is theoretically the same as releasing radiation into the environment, but why it was and is not dangerous. The radioactive nitrogen as well as the noble gases do not pose a threat to human health.
At some stage during this venting, the explosion occurred. The explosion took place outside of the third containment (our ?last line of defense?), and the reactor building. Remember that the reactor building has no function in keeping the radioactivity contained. It is not entirely clear yet what has happened, but this is the likely scenario: The operators decided to vent the steam from the pressure vessel not directly into the environment, but into the space between the third containment and the reactor building (to give the radioactivity in the steam more time to subside). The problem is that at the high temperatures that the core had reached at this stage, water molecules can ?disassociate? into oxygen and hydrogen ? an explosive mixture. And it did explode, outside the third containment, damaging the reactor building around. It was that sort of explosion, but inside the pressure vessel (because it was badly designed and not managed properly by the operators) that lead to the explosion of Chernobyl. This was never a risk at Fukushima. The problem of hydrogen-oxygen formation is one of the biggies when you design a power plant (if you are not Soviet, that is), so the reactor is build and operated in a way it cannot happen inside the containment. It happened outside, which was not intended but a possible scenario and OK, because it did not pose a risk for the containment.
So the pressure was under control, as steam was vented. Now, if you keep boiling your pot, the problem is that the water level will keep falling and falling. The core is covered by several meters of water in order to allow for some time to pass (hours, days) before it gets exposed. Once the rods start to be exposed at the top, the exposed parts will reach the critical temperature of 2200 ?C after about 45 minutes. This is when the first containment, the Zircaloy tube, would fail.
And this started to happen. The cooling could not be restored before there was some (very limited, but still) damage to the casing of some of the fuel. The nuclear material itself was still intact, but the surrounding Zircaloy shell had started melting. What happened now is that some of the byproducts of the uranium decay ? radioactive Cesium and Iodine ? started to mix with the steam. The big problem, uranium, was still under control, because the uranium oxide rods were good until 3000 ?C. It is confirmed that a very small amount of Cesium and Iodine was measured in the steam that was released into the atmosphere.
It seems this was the ?go signal? for a major plan B. The small amounts of Cesium that were measured told the operators that the first containment on one of the rods somewhere was about to give. The Plan A had been to restore one of the regular cooling systems to the core. Why that failed is unclear. One plausible explanation is that the tsunami also took away / polluted all the clean water needed for the regular cooling systems.
The water used in the cooling system is very clean, demineralized (like distilled) water. The reason to use pure water is the above mentioned activation by the neutrons from the Uranium: Pure water does not get activated much, so stays practically radioactive-free. Dirt or salt in the water will absorb the neutrons quicker, becoming more radioactive. This has no effect whatsoever on the core ? it does not care what it is cooled by. But it makes life more difficult for the operators and mechanics when they have to deal with activated (i.e. slightly radioactive) water.
But Plan A had failed ? cooling systems down or additional clean water unavailable ? so Plan B came into effect. This is what it looks like happened:
In order to prevent a core meltdown, the operators started to use sea water to cool the core. I am not quite sure if they flooded our pressure cooker with it (the second containment), or if they flooded the third containment, immersing the pressure cooker. But that is not relevant for us.
The point is that the nuclear fuel has now been cooled down. Because the chain reaction has been stopped a long time ago, there is only very little residual heat being produced now. The large amount of cooling water that has been used is sufficient to take up that heat. Because it is a lot of water, the core does not produce sufficient heat any more to produce any significant pressure. Also, boric acid has been added to the seawater. Boric acid is ?liquid control rod?. Whatever decay is still going on, the Boron will capture the neutrons and further speed up the cooling down of the core.
The plant came close to a core meltdown. Here is the worst-case scenario that was avoided: If the seawater could not have been used for treatment, the operators would have continued to vent the water steam to avoid pressure buildup. The third containment would then have been completely sealed to allow the core meltdown to happen without releasing radioactive material. After the meltdown, there would have been a waiting period for the intermediate radioactive materials to decay inside the reactor, and all radioactive particles to settle on a surface inside the containment. The cooling system would have been restored eventually, and the molten core cooled to a manageable temperature. The containment would have been cleaned up on the inside. Then a messy job of removing the molten core from the containment would have begun, packing the (now solid again) fuel bit by bit into transportation containers to be shipped to processing plants. Depending on the damage, the block of the plant would then either be repaired or dismantled.
Now, where does that leave us?

The plant is safe now and will stay safe.
Japan is looking at an INES Level 4 Accident: Nuclear accident with local consequences. That is bad for the company that owns the plant, but not for anyone else.
Some radiation was released when the pressure vessel was vented. All radioactive isotopes from the activated steam have gone (decayed). A very small amount of Cesium was released, as well as Iodine. If you were sitting on top of the plants? chimney when they were venting, you should probably give up smoking to return to your former life expectancy. The Cesium and Iodine isotopes were carried out to the sea and will never be seen again.
There was some limited damage to the first containment. That means that some amounts of radioactive Cesium and Iodine will also be released into the cooling water, but no Uranium or other nasty stuff (the Uranium oxide does not ?dissolve? in the water). There are facilities for treating the cooling water inside the third containment. The radioactive Cesium and Iodine will be removed there and eventually stored as radioactive waste in terminal storage.
The seawater used as cooling water will be activated to some degree. Because the control rods are fully inserted, the Uranium chain reaction is not happening. That means the ?main? nuclear reaction is not happening, thus not contributing to the activation. The intermediate radioactive materials (Cesium and Iodine) are also almost gone at this stage, because the Uranium decay was stopped a long time ago. This further reduces the activation. The bottom line is that there will be some low level of activation of the seawater, which will also be removed by the treatment facilities.
The seawater will then be replaced over time with the ?normal? cooling water
The reactor core will then be dismantled and transported to a processing facility, just like during a regular fuel change.
Fuel rods and the entire plant will be checked for potential damage. This will take about 4-5 years.
The safety systems on all Japanese plants will be upgraded to withstand a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami (or worse)
I believe the most significant problem will be a prolonged power shortage. About half of Japan?s nuclear reactors will probably have to be inspected, reducing the nation?s power generating capacity by 15%. This will probably be covered by running gas power plants that are usually only used for peak loads to cover some of the base load as well. That will increase your electricity bill, as well as lead to potential power shortages during peak demand, in Japan.
If you want to stay informed, please forget the usual media outlets and consult the following websites:

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Battle_to_stabilise_earthquake_reactors_1203111.html
http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/12/japan-nuclear-earthquake/
http://ansnuclearcafe.org/2011/03/11/media-updates-on-nuclear-power-stations-in-japan/

[Neutral_pH]

Well, frankchong, your post is very interesting, but it's a bit too long, and somehow some of the fonts didn't appear correctly. So I skipped it...hehe :D:D

In all of Recom I never really talk of my field. So here goes: Currently final year student (Master) in EEE, specialising in Electronic and Embedded Systems at UTBM, France. I am undergoing an internship as part of my final year project (or thesis?). And my job is to create a suitable model for a KERS that is to be used in a racecar in Simulink.

Sounds interesting? It is. But it gives me lots of headaches. And it will do the same to you if you're planning on going into this field. Despite that, you will eventually love it. Besides this video link will tell you why it's a gud idea to be one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mUFXFe765I