A common toss up for students is whether to major in
mechanical or electrical engineering These are two of the most popular
engineering majors I'm just going to explain the similarities and differences
in the curriculum and careers so you can make a more educated decision for
yourself Now to start off simple, if you've taken physics in high school, think
of what you enjoyed more The circuits part or the mechanics part, like
projectile motion, forces, energy, momentum, etc I know you only got a small
glimpse of everything, and this won't be a deciding factor but could at least
point you in the right direction of electrical or mechanical engineering
respectively Now when it comes to the curriculum, let's just put it simply,
what interests you more? Circuits and electronics, signals, some programming,
and yes this would your first actual program you make and electromagnetic waves
or, are you going enjoy analyzing complicated forces in various systems, fluid
dynamics whether it be water or air and heat transfer and thermodynamics As you
can see the curriculum for both these majors is very different but there are
some similarities that I will explain soon To summarize, electrical engineering
is a little more "magical" As in when you get that antenna sending
wireless signals, or the circuit lighting up an LED, or whatever you have you
can't physically see how it's happening You can't see electrons moving through
wires, or wireless signals moving through air You have to understand the
equipment used to detect everything and the physics behind what is going on
fundamentally This isn't as true with mechanical engineering cause especially
in undergrad You'll analyze fluid moving through a pipe or an engine, or the
forces and motion on a complex system You can often visualize these more, and
see them work So now for those who are curious about "How much math will
use in these two majors?" They are very similar and they both use more
than most other engineering disciplines And do expect to see calculus level
math Mechanical engineers use calculus to analyze the vibrations of a system
using differential equations to analyze complex heat flow, Or something just
like a rotating object often involves calculus to solve for how it will rotate
given some torque Those values you see indicate basically how hard it is to
rotate the object about some point whether it be it's center, or end.
This is
called inertia and it's equation looks like this. Electrical engineers use
calculus to prove how current will move through a circuit with inductors,
capacitors, and resistors (not shown here) They use it when analyzing AM and FM
radio signals They use it when analyzing electromagnetic waves in general and
how they are created from something like current in a wire Again, you may have
seen something like this in high school physics already but probably without
calculus unless you took AP physics C So if you love math then that's good news
cause both of these have a lot and you'll see way more beyond calculus AB and
BC And if you choose electrical and really enjoy high level math then I can say
that RF might be the best concentration for you RF stands for radio frequency,
and is essentially the wireless communications concentration of electrical
engineering Those students learn more about wireless systems, antennas, and so
on and those classes will be very math and calculus intensive If you're not so
much interested in high level math, then I can say that not every class you
take will involve calculus for either of these majors But just be warned that
it will come up and you should enjoy it somewhat before entering either of
these two majors Now, mechanical engineers do take some circuits and
electronics classes whereas electrical engineers don't take any mechanical
engineering classes, so keep that in mind Honestly, a lot of mechanical
engineers don't enjoy their circuits classes cause it's not what their
interested in but as a mechanical engineer you will take about two classes on
circuits and electronics which surprisingly covers around four electrical
engineering classes It's just condensed and simplified for the mechanical
engineers They go through it faster, but in less depth Then this leads to the
fact that mechanical engineers can concentrate in mechatronics This is where
mechanical engineering meets electrical and computer engineering If you choose
this you will learn more about programming and circuiting so you can work on
things like robotics Instead of just being able to make something structurally
You will have the skills to build it, circuit it, and program it to maybe
detect and avoid obstacles or whatever your project would be. Knowing this, if
someone came up to me and said "I like mechanical and electrical
engineering the exact same, tell me what to choose." I would probably say,
go with mechanical engineering, and concentrate in mechatronics You'll be
exposed more to both fields than you would as an electrical engineer You'll
have a great background for the job market and maybe if you pursued a master's
degree, you'd be able to make an easier decision since you have more exposure
to both disciplines Again, there's no right answer, but all things equal and I
had to pick, that's what I would say.
Now let's move on to careers A question I
hear often is, "If I want to work on (blank), should I major in electrical
or mechanical engineering?" and sometimes that's a valid question, but
other times not so much For example, someone says "I want to work on
alternative energy, should I pick mechanical or electrical?" Well guess
what, you'll see both those majors all over companies that work on alternative
energy So let's say you want to work on wind energy, well which part? Do you
want to work on generating and delivering large amounts of electrical power? Do
you want to take classes in how high power systems work electric motors,
generators, and so on? Or do you want to analyze maybe the structure of the
wind turbine Like what shape will cause more rotation from the wind, where you
need to understand fluid mechanics in terms of air. Or maybe you want to help
with the manufacturing of the machinery that is used. Same thing applies for
solar energy Do you want to work on the circuitry for the solar panels, and
distributing the electrical power that's created? Or do you want to work on
designing and manufacturing the panels themselves? Or work on the lenses that
track and focus the sunlight to maximize efficiency and so on Let's say you
want to work on satellites Well do you want to work on the satellite
communication? Or the sensors on board that take measurements? or maybe a
remote sensing system that's on the satellite? That's all electrical. Or do you
want to analyze the temperature changes during orbit or the vibrations that
occur to ensure nothing is damaged Even something down to the Gimbal that turns
the antenna needs mechanical engineers. When an antenna needs to track another,
it uses a Gimbal that often has three axes of rotation You'd mount an antenna
on it, so it could turn to communicate with the receiver If the receiver is in
line, then everything's fine But if during orbit they move out of line with
each other, the gimbal would turn the antenna as needed An electrical engineer
could analyze the signals that tell the gimbal how much to move and the
mechanical engineer implements the gimbal to actually move as accurately and
efficiently as possible Maybe you want to work on the new electric cars that
have autopilot Electrical engineers might implement sensors, and the
programming that instructs the vehicle to move based on the sensors reading's
They could work on any high power circuitry and electronics that the vehicle
uses Whereas mechanical engineers could work on the motors the design and
structure of the car for safety or even aerodynamics and also the manufacturing
of the car parts themselves. Go ahead and look up "electric vehicle
projects" at colleges and you'll see almost exclusively electrical and
mechanical engineering students working on these Maybe you want to work on
prosthetic body parts for people Well do you want to analyze the electric
signals coming from people's muscles And use that, along with some programming,
to tell the prosthetic arm to grab something for example.
Or do you want to
make sure the prosthetic limb can supply the right amount of force to pick up
that object or can withstand a certain amount of force without breaking and is
light enough to not cause stress on the person's body This is what biomedical
engineers might be passionate about working on But you'll see electrical and
mechanical engineers all over these projects as well Even something like
working on printers needs both disciplines Printers receive lots of signals and
use many electronic components to make it work which is where electrical
engineers come in But remember in an inkjet printer there are moving parts that
need to be extremely accurate to place the ink Mechanical engineers are needed
for that This applies to 3D printing as well Where there needs to be extremely precise
placements, especially when we are 3D printing stuff like organs now mechanical
engineers would help design these systems There's rockets, aircrafts, robotics,
and I could go on for a while so many things need electrical and mechanical
engineers It's actually less common to see just one discipline working on a big
project For these two majors it's not so much which major is better to work in
some sector it's a matter of what you'll enjoy more What do you have more
interest in learning and understanding when it comes to the projects I've shown
you Now of course there are things that do involve just one major or the other,
but usually on a more zoomed in scale Like if you wanted to improve the
efficiency of the internal combustion engine, you wouldn't go into electrical
engineering But if we zoom out to just cars in general, then again you could go
into either major at least now with electric cars becoming more popular It's
going to help to know which sector you want to go into whether it be
biomedical, aerospace, automotive, etc but also specifically what part of the
projects you'd be more interested in working on Remember this will be your life
almost everyday, make sure you are going to enjoy going through the actual
process of making these designs come to life Put yourself in the shoes of these
people and think "What will I like doing more?" Now this article was
focused on electrical and mechanical engineering but just note many more
engineering disciplines are needed for all the projects and careers So many things are multidisciplinary now But when it comes to these two
majors which have so many positive aspects, it comes down to what you'll enjoy
doing more...
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