Mechanical or electrical engineer

[Triumph]

As someone who has a BSME and comes from a family of ME's, I would strongly discourage a young person from pursuing this career. It's a dying field, from both a theory and applications standpoint. While there will always been a need for ME's, more and more of the world is solid state.

Because what, ME's are still making vacuum tube operated devices?

ME is a much broader field than EE, you can branch out into anything with a masters degree after an ME BS. The guy who said EE's can pick up ME stuff before ME's can pick up EE stuff is retarded. He's probably thinking about the time an EE stuck his circuit board onto a Lego car with a stepper motor and made the wheels move. I've seen the mechanical things that EE's design, riddled with errors, mistakes, bad choices, and just straight up crap that defies common sense.

ME areas that aren't going anywhere anytime soon:
- Energy research/power generation
- HVAC
- Structural/mechanical analysis
- Fluid dynamics
- Biomechanics
- Transportation systems (cars or the eventual successor)
- Thermodynamics
- Nanotechnology

It really doesn't matter, it comes down to what you like doing. If you like machinery, things that move, cars, trucks, motorcycles, airplanes, boats, are interested in knowing how things work, always take things apart etc. you'll tend towards ME. If you like computers, electronics, programming, etc. you'll gravitate towards EE. I for one have no interest in sitting behind a desk and programming all day, I like working with heavy equipment, so for me ME is the correct choice.

If you like all of those things and would be happier with either, then you can combine them with electro-mechanical controls, or choose one or the other based on other criteria.

 

[Engineer]

<==== EE who used to make fun of ME students.



EE stands for Elite Engineer and ME stands for Mediocre Engineer. You knew that, right? (just kidding MEs out there!)

That's awesome!!!

I vote EE (for somewhat obvious reasons - in other words, I'm an EE)!

 

[Engineer]

It really doesn't matter, it comes down to what you like doing. If you like machinery, things that move, cars, trucks, motorcycles, airplanes, boats, are interested in knowing how things work, always take things apart etc. you'll tend towards ME. If you like computers, electronics, programming, etc. you'll gravitate towards EE. I for one have no interest in sitting behind a desk and programming all day, I like working with heavy equipment, so for me ME is the correct choice.
.

From my point of view, everything you have listed involves both EE and ME in design to production. I'm an EE and my entire job is basically to design and program the electrical systems on industrial machinery (by the way, I've never seen the demand in Controls Engineering (EE) that is going on right now. I think many areas are crossed linked more than people think.

Now if we were talking about Civil Engineers, I would be.....:twisted:

 

[brianmanahan]

software engineer gets jobs in more places than either mech or eng

 

[Bignate603]

As someone who has a BSME and comes from a family of ME's, I would strongly discourage a young person from pursuing this career. It's a dying field, from both a theory and applications standpoint. While there will always been a need for ME's, more and more of the world is solid state.

I really disagree. I'm an ME that works in aerospace. We're bringing in new people like crazy, especially young guys. Aerospace propulsion has a huge amount of challenges to continue improving efficiency and there's plenty of room for new engineers to jump in to the industry.

In the end as long as you're good at what you do there's always a place for you.

 

[mmntech]

Civil engineer. Build big things with big toys.

 

[Matthiasa]

Because what, ME's are still making vacuum tube operated devices?

ME is a much broader field than EE, you can branch out into anything with a masters degree after an ME BS. The guy who said EE's can pick up ME stuff before ME's can pick up EE stuff is retarded. He's probably thinking about the time an EE stuck his circuit board onto a Lego car with a stepper motor and made the wheels move. I've seen the mechanical things that EE's design, riddled with errors, mistakes, bad choices, and just straight up crap that defies common sense.

ME areas that aren't going anywhere anytime soon:
- Energy research/power generation
- HVAC
- Structural/mechanical analysis
- Fluid dynamics
- Biomechanics
- Transportation systems (cars or the eventual successor)
- Thermodynamics
- Nanotechnology

It really doesn't matter, it comes down to what you like doing. If you like machinery, things that move, cars, trucks, motorcycles, airplanes, boats, are interested in knowing how things work, always take things apart etc. you'll tend towards ME. If you like computers, electronics, programming, etc. you'll gravitate towards EE. I for one have no interest in sitting behind a desk and programming all day, I like working with heavy equipment, so for me ME is the correct choice.

If you like all of those things and would be happier with either, then you can combine them with electro-mechanical controls, or choose one or the other based on other criteria.

Nice list although wrong...

The bolded are especially wrong, requiring way more than just ME...
Such as civil, EE, physicists, chemists/ chemical engineers, biologist, industrial engineers, etc.
And the non bolded still require more than just ME.

 

[Bignate603]

Civil engineer. Build big things with big toys.

In my experience at school there were two kinds of civil engineers:
1. The ones that absolutely loved buildings, bridges, and things. They were very competent and extremely excited to be able to design massive structures.
2. The ones that couldn't hack it at other kinds of engineering and moved over to civil.

I'll let you guess which one was more common...

 

[Bignate603]

Nice list although wrong...

The bolded are especially wrong, requiring way more than just ME...
Such as civil, EE, physicists, chemists/ chemical engineers, biologist, industrial engineers, etc.
And the non bolded still require more than just ME.

His point wasn't that those ONLY required people with an ME, just that people with an ME background would be important in developing the technology. Too many people on this forum act like everything is electronic now and nothing is mechanical or physical. Mechanical things still have a huge role and people with that background will be a large part of groups making all the new technology that we'll be seeing created.

 

[Matthiasa]

Maybe but his description after those wasn't an exclusive list either but he definitely tried to make it sound as such.

 

[njdevilsfan87]

In my experience at school there were two kinds of civil engineers:
1. The ones that absolutely loved buildings, bridges, and things. They were very competent and extremely excited to be able to design massive structures.
2. The ones that couldn't hack it at other kinds of engineering and moved over to civil.

I'll let you guess which one was more common...

EEs drop out and go to ME, and MEs drop out and go to Civil. And from there... well they'll leave the engineering field entirely.

To the person who said ME is a dying field - it's not but it does require specialization imo (graduate school). Like triumph said, it's very (almost too) broad. EE probably not.

 

[supastar1568]

I'm an ME and the education is very broad. You get a general background of everything from thermodynamics, mechanics of materials, to physics and dynamics. I wish there was a little more emphasis in schools on actual design techniques and best practices. Sheet metal design, plastic design, and metal die cast designs were all new to me as I started my career.

 

[Gibson486]

Because what, ME's are still making vacuum tube operated devices?

ME is a much broader field than EE, you can branch out into anything with a masters degree after an ME BS. The guy who said EE's can pick up ME stuff before ME's can pick up EE stuff is retarded. He's probably thinking about the time an EE stuck his circuit board onto a Lego car with a stepper motor and made the wheels move. I've seen the mechanical things that EE's design, riddled with errors, mistakes, bad choices, and just straight up crap that defies common sense.

ME areas that aren't going anywhere anytime soon:
- Energy research/power generation
- HVAC
- Structural/mechanical analysis
- Fluid dynamics
- Biomechanics
- Transportation systems (cars or the eventual successor)
- Thermodynamics
- Nanotechnology

It really doesn't matter, it comes down to what you like doing. If you like machinery, things that move, cars, trucks, motorcycles, airplanes, boats, are interested in knowing how things work, always take things apart etc. you'll tend towards ME. If you like computers, electronics, programming, etc. you'll gravitate towards EE. I for one have no interest in sitting behind a desk and programming all day, I like working with heavy equipment, so for me ME is the correct choice.

If you like all of those things and would be happier with either, then you can combine them with electro-mechanical controls, or choose one or the other based on other criteria.

I agree with all of this. The only thing you cannot expect a ME to do is something like a FPGA. Other than that, everything is fair a game. As an EE, I had to learn ME in my last jobs. However, in my current job, I am the only EE there and they did not do a bad job on previous designs without me. There are some obvious errors, but they are pretty much the same errors I made as an EE doing ME stuff.

In the end, it does not really matter. As an engineer, you should never say, "oh, well, that is out of my expertise, I will not do it". The worst engineers are the ones that pigeon hole themselves into one thing and one thing only.

And yeah, ME is VERY broad. Just looks at the FE exam results. EE's always pass at a lower rate than ME's.

 

[Matthiasa]

Really? Every EE I talked to that actually took the FE said it was a joke.

 

[Gibson486]

EEs drop out and go to ME, and MEs drop out and go to Civil. And from there... well they'll leave the engineering field entirely.

To the person who said ME is a dying field - it's not but it does require specialization imo (graduate school). Like triumph said, it's very (almost too) broad. EE probably not.

EE is becoming just as broad. You want a job doing antennas? well, in most schools, you just have an intro class to magnetic fields. You do not even touch antennas unless you take an elective in it or get your masters.

Want to be a power engineer? No college intergates 3 phase power into their curriculum any more. If you want a safe job that will never be outsourced, do that. It's in huge demand only because no one has the background deep enough to do the job. It is pretty much understood that recruiting 3 phase power engineers out of school is a HUGE investment because you have to train them from the ground up.

Want to code VHDL? Lots school do not touch it unless you do your masters.

 

[Gibson486]

Really? Every EE I talked to that actually took the FE said it was a joke.

EE is amongst the lowest passing percentage.

http://www.ncees.org/exams/fe_exam.php

The exam is a joke if you understand that you are there to take an exam and not to show you actually know the material.

 

[Matthiasa]

Maybe my university was weird than.
Since nearly everyone had to take vhdl and nearly everyone took multiple 3phase classes, from grid related stuff to electronics.
(Side note I was definitely not a fan for 3phase power electronics. Distribution systems, and nearly everything that goes into making them.. fine but 3phase power electronics not always so much)
Probably didn't hurt that who taught the class was a "strategic technical advisor" for a transmission company.

 

[wirednuts]

my uncle is a millionaire with his me degree. sure, he made some business venture to gain his millionaire status, but it was simple stuff. the money he made from his degree was what got him the real profits through investments.

 

[Triumph]

Nice list although wrong...

The bolded are especially wrong, requiring way more than just ME...
Such as civil, EE, physicists, chemists/ chemical engineers, biologist, industrial engineers, etc.
And the non bolded still require more than just ME.

Uh, do you know anything about engineering? Do you understand that any product development involves legions of different scientists, engineers, and designers of all different backgrounds? Of course multiple people can do it, but not only can an ME do any of these things with the right career path, most of these are historically ME specific areas. Just look at the course catalog for any major engineering university and see which department runs the thermodynamics, heat transfer, engine development, and biomechanics classes and research. The discussion here is the value of an ME degree. Since an ME can work in any of these fields, the ME degree has plenty of worth.

 

[rcpratt]

It's all about the NukeE.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

LOL EEs think they can ride to mars on their hard drives.

 

[the DRIZZLE]

In my experience at school there were two kinds of civil engineers:
1. The ones that absolutely loved buildings, bridges, and things. They were very competent and extremely excited to be able to design massive structures.
2. The ones that couldn't hack it at other kinds of engineering and moved over to civil.

I'll let you guess which one was more common...

I remember in one of my required civil classes me and my buddies commented to the professor that statics was much easier than dynamics. He responded that we must be in the wrong major and that we should change to civil engineering. We got flustered when we told him that civil was just easier on absolute scale.

 

[dr150]

No reason to really even think about this until he makes it through his first semester of engineering school.

This.

Dreaming won't get you anywhere until you survive the weeding out process. It's intense and it ain't for everyone.

20%-30% or less end up surviving the first 2-3 years.

 

[PsiStar]

LOL EEs think they can ride to mars on their hard drives.

Hard drives are mechanical.

 

[PsiStar]

What has been said about civil engrs. has been accepted for a long time. But, civil engineers end up being as much business operators as engineers and possibly end up making more. Every village, town, city needs sewer, water, & gas, etc. A civil eng. can live any place & work local. They can be outside or in & that is mostly up to the individual.

“Mechanical Engineers build weapons, Civil Engineers build targets”:biggrin: