Any interesting career options in Engineering?

[ElectricUniverse]

Hey Everyone,

My name is James, and I am a 2nd year University student. I'm switching my major to Engineering, and I am beginning to study physics (as a pre-requisite), and I love it!

I think I would like to study materials engineering ... my mind may change as I keep studying). however, right now, I like materials engineering, and cellular structure engineering.

I want to ask everyone for some interesting ideas as to career options in engineering -- what do you think are some cool professions in this field?
I would be really interested to know

 

[.Scott]

Hey Everyone,

My name is James, and I am a 2nd year University student. I'm switching my major to Engineering, and I am beginning to study physics (as a pre-requisite), and I love it!

I think I would like to study materials engineering ... my mind may change as I keep studying). however, right now, I like materials engineering, and cellular structure engineering.

I want to ask everyone for some interesting ideas as to career options in engineering -- what do you think are some cool professions in this field?
I would be really interested to know

Of course, to each his own, but I would say that all of the interesting careers are in engineering.
Shoot for the stars or the ocean floor or anything in between. Make your nation the strongest or cleanest or best informed.
Provide the tools for people to entertain, feast, communicate, and move.
Make people safer or healthier.

One on the companies I worked for (Avid) earned both an Oscar and an Emmy - I held both for a photo at a company Christmas party.
I am now working to make cars safer using radar units - Lane Assist, Advanced Cruise Control, that sort of thing.
I have worked on the development of many Naval systems.
I have contributed to the design and development of an airport baggage hold xray scanning system.
I am an honorary member of the Radiological Society of North America - for work I did in capturing medical imagery at hi definition.
... and that's just recently.

Most engineers, if they stick with engineering, will accumulate a similar resume.

 

[berkeman]

right now, I like materials engineering, and cellular structure engineering.

There are some promising areas in nanotechnology and Biomedical Engineering. There are some interesting developments in interfacing electronics with the human body, for example:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9783527673148.ch6/summary

Have you looked into the area of Medical Physics? It combines Physics, Engineering and Medicine in some pretty neat and useful ways. One of the more interesting consulting projects that I worked on was building a medium-frequency impedance measurement device for orthopedic surgeons to use with their drills to tell better when they had reached the marrow part of the large bones (for hip surgery in this case).

 

[ElectricUniverse]

There are some promising areas in nanotechnology and Biomedical Engineering. There are some interesting developments in interfacing electronics with the human body, for example:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9783527673148.ch6/summary

Have you looked into the area of Medical Physics? It combines Physics, Engineering and Medicine in some pretty neat and useful ways. One of the more interesting consulting projects that I worked on was building a medium-frequency impedance measurement device for orthopedic surgeons to use with their drills to tell better when they had reached the marrow part of the large bones (for hip surgery in this case).

Actually, I have but only slightly... if I go that route, I would really like to work with building biodegradable scaffolding for stem cell implementation into the body / skin. The scaffolds are built with proteins that naturally degrade in the body over time, and they are covered with stem cells (from the patient's body), and then implemented into the area of injury. It's just in testing phase right now, as far as I know.

I would be interested to learn more about nano-tech though... they've started using nano-bots to kill cancer cells now I heard... that's kinda cool... I'll do some research on this, thanks so much for your suggestions and feedback.. :)

 

[ElectricUniverse]

I totally agree with you, Engineering rocks, and I'm glad I'm making the switch. Promising numbers of jobs, really cool professions, always helping people, discovering new things... I'm excited.
Also, that's so cool that you have so much experience... what was your most favorite job and why? And that's awesome that you are so multi-skilled, now you can basically go anywhere and they'll accept you because your resume is the bomb! lol

 

[.Scott]

I totally agree with you, Engineering rocks, and I'm glad I'm making the switch. Promising numbers of jobs, really cool professions, always helping people, discovering new things... I'm excited.
Also, that's so cool that you have so much experience... what was your most favorite job and why? And that's awesome that you are so multi-skilled, now you can basically go anywhere and they'll accept you because your resume is the bomb! lol

I worked 10 years in the Washington DC area. During the Reagan administration, I had a job at NMIC, the National Military Intelligence Center as a civilian contractor. I've always been a news junky, and that place was on top of everything military. I really can't remember a job that wasn't interesting.
There's also been a fair amount of travel. The Naval work took me to Virginia and Australia. One of my first jobs (ComputerVision) took me to Japan and Europe. The job I'm at currently has taken me to Germany twice. But I'll tell you, travel is a lot more inviting while you're young.