Myths about Engineers

Written by Seungyeon Lee

When you imagine what engineers are like, how do you picture them? When I google 'engineers' in Google, the image of a engineers are mostly men wearing the hard hat and holding a big paper with a structural design in it. Also, as I google 'chemical engineers' the image of them are people holding the beaker with unknown chemicals in it.

As I mentioned before, chemical engineers not only do the research wearing gowns and goggles, but also they can design products or sell them without wearing gowns and goggles. I think pictures shown in google images are very stereotypical. So I wanted to talk about some stereotypes of engineers people have.

1. Engineers are Geeks.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a word 'geek' is a person who is very interested in and knows a lot about a particular field or activity, which means 'geek' cannot be only used in technology related people but it can also be related with sports, business, music, or game related.

2. Engineers are good at math and love math
Well, I personally am good at math compared to other subjects. However, it cannot be defined as that I love math and I have seen a lot of engineers who wants to finish their math courses because they do not like math. So this is totally a myth!

3. Engineering school is difficult.
I admit. It requires students to study a lot and to learn lots of things that are hard. However, I think other fields are also hard for students in order to be professional. Also, as long as you are interested in engineering or if you clearly decided to be a engineer in the future, I think even though it is hard to study a lot of stuff during college, it is definitely worth it!

Works Cited: "Common Myths About Engineers." The Creative Engineer. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Feb. 2017.

Prompt #3

By Callaghan TysonMayer

Dr. Jenahvive Morgan is an engineer that has had several different types of jobs in the field; as of right now she is an Academic Teaching Specialist here at MSU. Dr. Morgan teaches the “Intro the Engineering Design” course that all engineers are required to take, so Adam and I decided to interview her for this prompt.

We asked Dr. Morgan to list a few misconceptions about the field and she had a very interesting answer for us. She told us that the information you learn in your classes is not enough to get you through a job; “it barely gets you started. You might not even use the material you learned in class, because on the job is a whole new adventure.”

She also gave us some advice about choosing our type of engineering, “The disciplines overlap depending on who you work for. It’s good to be comfortable in multiple disciplines then see where your interest is.”  This is helpful for me, since I haven’t decided what type I want to be, Dr. Morgan explained that it is more valuable to be comfortable with multiple and then see where my job takes me.

When asked about the different forms of writing that must be done in the field, Dr. Morgan referenced a previous job she had working for Consumers Energy. “You have to write letters to get permits approved and you have to communicate with other departments within a community. It’s different at other companies, sometimes they use email or texting more often than written forms of communication.” This is interesting because engineering is usually not known for having any type of literature involved, but there are a lot of different elements that go into each type of job.

In my opinion, the most interesting part of the interview was after we asked her, “What is the hardest type of communication between engineers?” Dr. Morgan replied with a little bit of laughter, “Engineers are not known for communication, so all is hard. But the most difficult is actually away from the job, bonding and social aspects are extremely challenging.”

Bridge Construction Simulator 3D

By: Adam Tarrant

          Thanks to the field of engineering, technology has advanced in ways we would never had imagined. Smart phone technology is no exception. To be more precise, the applications programmed into the phones that users can download at their own will. 

          Games, music, and social media are all prominent aspects of the smart phone application world. I recently came across an app that intrigued the inner engineer in me. The game is called “Bridge Construction Simulator 3D,” and yes, I know, it sounds fun. Although the game initially seems dull and boring, there a lot of engineering aspects that can make it exciting for an engineer or even anyone who enjoys problem solving. 

          Let alone the computer science that is needed to create the game, the game also entails components of civil engineering.

          After designing and completing the bridges, the app allows the user to test the bridge with motor vehicles. This application will be a breeze for experienced civil engineers but for students like me and even kids that are interested in bridge design might find this game challenging. The advances in phone applications opens new doors to their users allowing them to learn and have fun at the same time.

What Does An Environmental Engineer Do?

By Callaghan TysonMayer

I am still an undecided engineer, but I am leaning towards environmental, so I decided to use this week to explain what exactly an environmental engineer does. A common confusion is that "environmentalist" and "environmental engineer" are the same thing. This is not true; an environmentalist's main concern is controlling human pollution, an environmental engineer is more focused on regulations and requirements for reducing hazards to the environment. Environmental engineers are important because their work focuses on waste disposal, erosion, water and air pollution.

Before researching anything about environmental engineering, I thought that this would be the lowest paying type of engineering. However, this seems to be pretty inaccurate. US.News says the median salary for environmental engineers is $84,560. The top 75% makes %106,610 and the bottom 25% makes $64,610. The unemployment rate for this type of engineering is only .8%.

These statistics do not put environmental engineers at the bottom of the field, opposed to my immediate thoughts. This is a very promising field because environment-conciousness is a growing trend and people are starting to be more supportive of the work it takes to protect our environment.

I would be interested in this field because it is extremely beneficial and I would feel like the work I do has a real purpose. Not only would I be getting paid to do this, but I would see the positive effects and know that I am doing something that is actually helpful.

Source:"Environmental Engineer." US.News. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Feb. 2016.

http://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/environmental-engineer

Chemical engineers’ job duties and requirements

Written by Yiran Li
      Job Duties

Chemical Engineers mainly work in manufacturing, biotechnology or health care. Based on the chemists' discovery, chemical engineers need to use computer model to test the feasibility of the product and to determine its safety to consumer and environment. For instance, chemical engineers work contains optimizing production process, monitoring development and troubleshooting, design the product line with maximum outputs and have equipment based on the environment and economic aspects.

Education Requirements / Professional Requirements

Typically, people need a bachelor's degree in chemistry or chemical engineering to be a chemical engineer. For some jobs, you need to have a Professional Engineering designation through licensure. In the college, chemical engineers' college curriculum will include subjects such as chemical engineering design, linear algebra, biochemical engineering, calculus, chemical reactor design, quantum mechanics and chemical process calculations. Also, you may need strong IT skills, leadership, commercial and business skills and problem-solving ability.

Professional development

The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) provides many training courses for chemical engineers and some related alternative occupations. Many companies provide internal-training to make sure that graduates can work as professional engineers. Some of those are authorized by IChemE which called Accredited Company Training Schemes (ACTS).

Reference

http://learn.org/articles/Chemical_Engineer_Job_Duties_Occupational_Outlook_and_Education_Requirements.html
https://www.bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/chemical-engineers.html
http://www.icheme.org/

Prompt Essay 4 : Considering Delivery and Style

Written by Seungyeon Lee

Trade Journal: Women Engineers: Where are the role models?(2007)

Newspaper article: Meet the Next Generation of Women Engineers(2016)

Scholarly article: Women Engineers: Factors and Obstacles Related to the Pursuit of a Degree in Engineering(2008)

Trade journal

Author: Wilson, Richard

Audience: Women in engineers or who are interested who are reluctant to enter to the engineering fields.

Style/Language: Uses professionally looking terms, such as IET, CEO, ISLI.

Publication: Electronics Weekly

Appearance/Others: The letters are small, well organized with the picture. It looks like article in the newspaper. It is written www.youngwomanengineer.org on the bottom of the article.

Newspaper article

Author: Jolin, Lucy

Audience: UK engineers who are concerning why there is lowest percentage of women engineers in UK or someone who is interested in being an engineer in UK.

Style/Language: Uses a lot of direct quotation

Publication: The Guardian

Appearance/Others: The content is mostly all interview based. Allison Dickinson interviewed some women in engineers and put the picture of themselves. It is organized with a bold titles. The writer and the interviewer are different.

Scholarly article

Author: Wentling, Rose Mary and Camacho, Cristina (Volume 14, Issue 1)

Audience: Women in engineering who thinks there still exists a barrier that hinders them to choose their career field to engineering.

Appearance/Others: It has 36 pages about this topic. Is it a research showing the barrier that hinders women from choosing their career field to engineering. 

I would trust more on the scholarly articles because it is based on the research. It may be one sided since they decided the topic and might have drawn the conclusion in advance. However, the fact that there still is a hindrance towards women to choose their career as engineering is shown by their research. Also, whereas trade newspaper and newspaper article were just showing what they hear from others, scholarly article seemed to be more showing evidence and supporting ideas to claim their thesis, which makes it more reliable.

Civil Engineers vs. Architects

            Very recently, I was asked what a civil engineer is and what they do. To the best of my knowledge I explained that civil engineers plan, design and supervise construction of multiple aspects of the world’s infrastructure, such as high ways, buildings, water resources, bridges, railways and so on. 

              The same person, curiously questioned what the difference was between a civil engineer and an architect. To be honest, I didn’t know how to answer that question. I was set on finding out. With a quick surf of the web, I found many others asking the same question. Much of what I found was relieving, considering they are marginally different, but different none the less. While some of the job descriptions overlap, there are differences between the two. 

               Architects mainly focus on the design and functionality of the development work, including the aesthetics of the structure. While engineers focus on the structural elements of the design, ensuring the building, bridge, or any type of structure can endure extreme and normal conditions. 

                Long story short, civil engineers have a broader field because they work on a multitude of different buildings with architects but they also branch out to bridges, railways and water systems, which architects are not involved. There is no question they are similar, but to summarize, civil engineers handle the structural aspects while the architect’s main objective is to focus on the design and aesthetic of the design and development work.