There seems to be an almost never ending list of different types of engineers. I know that UMO has a large engineering department, but I have no clue as to what branches of engineering are offered there. Can the engineers in the group enlighten me on this? I know people can get doctorates in engineering there (I have a friend, Jay LeGore, who did) and also that there is a lot of research being done. What are some of the current projects you are working on? Any projects that you've worked on in the past that were particularly interesting or frustrating? What strengths or weaknesses do you see in your incoming students?
UMaine (UMO has not existed for about 20 years) has Bio, Civil, Chem, Computer, Electrical, Environmental, and Mechanical engineering. Some other places have Aerospace, Marine, Power engineering.
ReplyDeleteMy technical expertise is in the design of motors (www.brushlessmotordesign.com). These motors spin the platters in your hard disk drive and are in hybrid vehicles such as the Prius.
All of my projects are interesting and all are frustrating. Predictions and simulations always give good answers, but the real world is not so tidy. Managing variations due to temperature and tolerances play a huge role what we do.
Student weaknesses are in math and communication. Many students have a difficult time with simple algebra, such as simplifying an expression or solving an expression for one of its variables. Doing these things are very important in engineering. Many students have poor written and oral communication capabilities. I have seen way too many reports where each sentence begins with the word "The".
Civil Engineering at UMaine includes structural (buildings and bridges), transportation (roads and paths), environmental (water and wastewater) and geotechnical (soils). Basically all the non-electrical pieces to build a city. Electrical engineering can include both power (high-voltage generation and transmission) and electronics (controls, typically low-voltage DC). The mechanicals would work on pieces that keep the city running (typically powered by electricity) such as heating and cooling, vehicles and machinery. My specialty is structural engineering. I have mostly designed the structural systems and components for smaller buildings, but have also designed bridges, free-standing walls and some hydropower facilities. The bachelors or masters degree is typically required for working as a consultant - solving other peoples' problems. With the PhD, one gets to create and hopefully solve one's own problems (research). The research world is vast. There, I have worked on new bridge technology, light-weight, blast-resistant structures, modeling of fracture in various materials, electric power pole capacity, new retaining wall materials and host of other ways that we might build our infrastructure differently than we currently do.
ReplyDeleteAs for incoming students, I think from time immemorial, we will all say that math and communication skills are lacking. The combination of these two areas, technical communication, is particularly lacking. I applaud the various efforts it appears many teachers are making to have students explain their reasoning and their results. One of the big challenges in engineering is that technical decisions must be clearly communicated to non-technical people, who may not have been around to see the problem assigned or studied. Having students explain their work to an independent third party could help - they would get feedback on where they assume too much, or provide information that does not pertain to the decision.