What degree should I take on?

[trikkonceptz]

Well guys, looks like I am going back to school in order to add a couple of more letters to the end of my name and to add some credibility to the practical and applied knowledge I have gained over the last 20 years.

I want to make this hobby a career and would love to keep it in the transportation industry.

Now I know its Engineering, but which field of engineering would be best to tackle the challenges of alternative fuel and / or the transportation industry.

Thanks for the help.

[SVOboy]

Mechanical! I could get you in at the Thayer School up in NH, *winkwink*

[trikkonceptz]

I was leaning that way .. however relocation is not an option. I have to stay in S. fla, so it looks like FAU is the place for me to be ...

Alrighty then Mechanical so far ... anyone else agree or disagree

[ihatejoefitz]

Any engineering degree will work. You've got two years to decide after you start.

[Gone4]

What do you want out of your degree?

A lot of it is how you focus the degree. I just finish my mech e degree and I am not fit to change my own oil yet. With that said, I know enough to be doing design work for NASA. Mechanical engineering is way to big to just do that.

[Duffman]

I think Mechanical Engineering is a whole lot cooler because it is a much broader field of study: Materials Science, Mechanics & Dynamics, Mechanics of Materials, Fluid Dynamics, Control Systems plus maybe more depending on your school. Mech Eng types have a better understanding of the word because they are a jack of all trades. That said, the future of the world is in electronics and 95+% of M.E.s are pretty clueless on that subject.

To me the ultimate would be a 2 year technology in electonics and a M.E. degree on top of that. Since nobody would commit the time to that, do the E.E.

By the way, I have a degree in M.E.

[Red]

Mechanical and see if you could pull a double and get one in Electrical as well.

[Gone4]

Originally Posted by Duffman

That said, the future of the world is in electronics and 95+% of M.E.s are pretty clueless on that subject.

Most modern mech programs require a good deal of electronics. I took two circuits classes, an electric machinery course (transformers, motors, etc), two programming courses (one higher level and one asm on a pic) and these were the bare minimums. The old guys may not know it but the new ones are going through programs stressing inter-disciplinary skills and that requires a strong EE background. Of course, your mileage may vary with those lesser known institutions.

[Duffman]

I graduated in 2001 and I had DC and Fortran programming in 1rst year, AC in Second year, a EE elective in 3rd year of either basic electronics or Power systems and two classes in Controls in 4rth and I took an elective in programming a microcontroller that year as well. The 3rd year electives only teach you very simple analysis, the controls was 100% theoretical and the microcontroller class was way too short. From my year at least, we were left with a minimal understanding, completely short of designing anything and god help you if you had to build something. I liken it to asking a EE to talk about materials/manufacturing or dynamics of mechanical systems or heat transfer, they know what each are but don’t have a deep enough background to competently do anything with them on a mechanical system with any degree of complexity.

I will agree that new M.E. programs are trying to focus more on the inter-disciplinary stuff, but doesn’t that cheapen your abilities WRT what you could know about mech systems?

[roflwaffle]

Go w/ whatever suits ya and add in some courses from other engineering programs such as signals and systems if you're ME, etc... Also, if you can stand it, getting a double w/ some engineering major and pure math would look muy bien. And it's not like it's hard either, there was someone w/ a MS in EE and another guy w/ a PHd in ChE in my undergrad analysis classes.