How Much of Engineering Involves Hands-On Work?

[Avatrin]

Hi

I get the impression that most engineering is done with computer; CAD, numerical simulations etc. After all this is done, actually making something starts, and even a lot of that is now done with 3D printers.

How much of engineering is making something with your hands? I reckon this varies a lot both between and within different fields of engineering. So, which fields of engineerig would I recommend to somebody who wants to make something with his or her own two hands?

 

[FactChecker]

There is still a huge amount of hand labor in making prototypes and breadboards -- enough to satisfy anyone. There are companies whose entire business is hand wiring things.

 

[CrysPhys]

Hi

I get the impression that most engineering is done with computer; CAD, numerical simulations etc. After all this is done, actually making something starts, and even a lot of that is now done with 3D printers.

How much of engineering is making something with your hands? I reckon this varies a lot both between and within different fields of engineering. So, which fields of engineerig would I recommend to somebody who wants to make something with his or her own two hands?

Remember, 3D printing is limited to certain materials. Parts from other materials still need to be fabricated by other means. Also parts need to be assembled into a system. Complicated systems will comprise combinations of mechanical, electrical, electronic, optical, chemical, and biological components ... requiring hands-on assembly and operation. And a lot of testing requires hands-on construction and operation of instrumentation.

 

[symbolipoint]

Hi

I get the impression that most engineering is done with computer; CAD, numerical simulations etc. After all this is done, actually making something starts, and even a lot of that is now done with 3D printers.

How much of engineering is making something with your hands? I reckon this varies a lot both between and within different fields of engineering. So, which fields of engineerig would I recommend to somebody who wants to make something with his or her own two hands?

Chemical Formula Blend Development

--but computerization or not may depend on what kind of blend, for what kind of application, and maybe what kind of reliability can be expected for the in-going materials.

 

[analogdesign]

There is still a huge amount of hand labor in making prototypes and breadboards -- enough to satisfy anyone. There are companies whose entire business is hand wiring things.

Most of that is done overseas these days. If you need something for a development prototype you typically either have a tech build it or send it out to a local quick-turn place. I haven't done any hand-wiring of anything beyond a debugging wire or swapping out a passive since graduate school.

I'm a "hardware" engineer and I spent 90% of my time on my butt in front of a computer (or on my butt in a conference room).

 

[FactChecker]

Most of that is done overseas these days. If you need something for a development prototype you typically either have a tech build it or send it out to a local quick-turn place. I haven't done any hand-wiring of anything beyond a debugging wire or swapping out a passive since graduate school.

I worked in labs where the wiring cables were done by others, but we had people who did the integration and testing.

I'm a "hardware" engineer and I spent 90% of my time on my butt in front of a computer (or on my butt in a conference room).

It is true that prototypes can not be built till after they are designed. But there is still a lot of hands-on work being done in labs. That may not be true at every company, but such companies can be found.

 

[Dr.D]

Engineering is specifically related to design, not to production. About 20 years ago, I worked for a small company (500 employees) in the Chicago suburbs that made small electromechanical devices for aerospace. We employed roughly 50 engineers, 50 office/admin types, and the balance were hands-on assembly folks (mostly women who are fast and have small fingers). The engineers were responsible for getting the products assembled, tested, and shipped, but they did not do much hands-on work (even though they were looking over the shoulders of those doing the actual work).

What I described in the previous paragraph is typical of every product oriented company I've worked for. Engineers do not do hands-on, but they design, trouble-shoot, and oversee the production work.

 

[berkeman]

How much of engineering is making something with your hands? I reckon this varies a lot both between and within different fields of engineering. So, which fields of engineerig would I recommend to somebody who wants to make something with his or her own two hands?

In my EE work in R&D and some Mfg Test Engineering, a fair amount of my work involves building and modifying prototypes and test fixtures. For some of that, I just sketch the circuit and component layout on engineering paper by hand, and build and wire it up for initial testing. I like to build a simple version of something first as a proof of concept (and to find issues that I hadn't thought of yet). I may just do the component value calculations in my head at first, and I will refine them later with SPICE simulations with Monte Carlo analysis and optimization usually (for the analog stuff), and that's where the computer parts come in. All the final and formal documentation (schematics, layouts, ASIC design files, etc.) are done with CAD tools, and change tracking is done with tools like Agile or Arena.

We do have technicians to help with construction and rework, and I definitely use them for the finer-pitch SMT work. But on my first prototype boards that I build from my hand-written notes, it's usually faster for me just to figure out how to put it together and wire it up myself.

So to answer your main question, at least for some EEs, you end up building a fair amount of stuff with your hands. You can put together a few hobby electronics kits yourself, for example, to get a feel for some of the hands-on work that you can do as an EE in some jobs.

 

[analogdesign]

I guess the bottom line is it depends on the company. If you're interested in a career in hardware development, and you want to work with your hands at least part of the time, it behooves you to make sure you work at a company where that is a norm.

On the other end of the spectrum from some of the experiences related here, one of my first supervisors was an old-timer from Motorola Semiconductor Products in Phoenix (the land of the 68000). Anyway, he told me the design engineers were not ALLOWED in the lab, let alone touch a board. This seemed excessive and it maybe part of the reason Moto faded away... I never asked if it was a union issue or what but it seems like the amount of hands-on work you can do as an EE hardware developer varies a lot, from none to a good bit.

 

[berkeman]

he told me the design engineers were not ALLOWED in the lab, let alone touch a board.

Wow! I hope they made that clear to candidates in the phone screening interview. What a waste of time to fly there for a whole day of interviews, just to find that out at some point in the day. What a non-starter! (at least it would have been for me).

 

[Dr.D]

In my EE work in R&D and some Mfg Test Engineering, a fair amount of my work involves building and modifying prototypes and test fixtures. For some of that, I just sketch the circuit and component layout on engineering paper by hand, and build and wire it up for initial testing. I like to build a simple version of something first as a proof of concept (and to find issues that I hadn't thought of yet). I may just do the component value calculations in my head at first, and I will refine them later with SPICE simulations with Monte Carlo analysis and optimization usually (for the analog stuff), and that's where the computer parts come in. All the final and formal documentation (schematics, layouts, ASIC design files, etc.) are done with CAD tools, and change tracking is done with tools like Agile or Arena.

We do have technicians to help with construction and rework, and I definitely use them for the finer-pitch SMT work. But on my first prototype boards that I build from my hand-written notes, it's usually faster for me just to figure out how to put it together and wire it up myself.

This is obviously feasible for EE circuit work; it is much less so in most mechanical devices. If I want to add a tooth to a gear (or take one out), it becomes a matter of either cutting a new gear or purchasing one, then adjusting center distances and installing the new gear. That is a lot more involved than adding a capacitor to a circuit.

I suspect EE is the exception rather than the rule in this regard. If a civil wants to re-route drainage, or a Chem E wants to modify a reaction, there is usually a lot more involved than can be done by the single engineer alone. EE has the advantage of often working with small parts easily installed or removed by one person.

 

[FactChecker]

I suspect EE is the exception rather than the rule in this regard. If a civil wants to re-route drainage, or a Chem E wants to modify a reaction, there is usually a lot more involved than can be done by the single engineer alone. EE has the advantage of often working with small parts easily installed or removed by one person.

That's a good point although I suspect that labs are more common than just EE work. Probably a Chem E would experiment with the chemical reaction in a lab. Even EE labs are not one-person things. There are more often a team of people in a lab.

 

[berkeman]

This is obviously feasible for EE circuit work; it is much less so in most mechanical devices.

Agreed. But...

I get the impression that most engineering is done with computer; CAD, numerical simulations etc. After all this is done, actually making something starts, and even a lot of that is now done with 3D printers.

How much of engineering is making something with your hands? I reckon this varies a lot both between and within different fields of engineering. So, which fields of engineerig would I recommend to somebody who wants to make something with his or her own two hands?

You seem to think that the two modalities are mutually exclusive only (granted, sometimes they are, as @analogdesign has pointed out). But in my experience with (our very talented) MEs, there is a very practical mix of hands-on and computer/CAD work. They use paper and pencil to sketch the initial design concepts, then CAD to capture their ideas in the database that is used for the initial 3D computer models, and then use 3D printed prototypes to build the first models of the final product. There are inevitably issues and problems that they find, so they iterate on the CAD and printed prototypes to fix the problems and optimize the design. There is still a lot of hands-on building involved, since the 3D printed parts need to be assembled and checked and critiqued and improved.

I am so impressed with their skills, and the amazing synergy that has emerged in the last few years between our ME and EE departments and CAD systems. There is some proprietary stuff that I can't post about, but I can say that having the EE schematic and layout CAD packages cooperate with the ME 3D design and 3D printing of prototype enclosures has resulted in significant optimizations of our products that helps our competitiveness in the markets.

For those of you familiar with regulatory safety requirements for creepage and clearance requirements for AC Mains connected circuits, think about what you could do if you could work in 3D with the ME enclosure designer and your PCB layout designer at the same time and iterate with UL or VDE or whoever was working on improving your design. If you could shrink your product size by 20%-30% using that kind of synergy, would that help your company?

Anyway, hands-on work is not necessarily in opposition to CAD work, IMO and in my experience.