I really want to become an engineer

[sunshinesunny]

Hi this is Taimur from pakistan. I was born on june the 5th 1980. I've always been fascinated with technology especially electronics from an early age but face difficulties with higher mathematics and due to this fear of mathematics I steered away from a possible career in engineering earlier in my life but now after having done a BBA and an MBA (HRM) I really feel that my life's calling in engineering. I am interested in
1-Electronics
2-Integrated engineering
3-Nano-engineering
How can i Improve upon my maths proficency and finance my engineering education.
thanks in advance for suggestions.

 

[whistler]

Well, depending on how much math you have studied, school math is generally very intuitive, but if you have studied some higher level topics i.e. Calculus in school, it is a little scary because you do not truly understand what's going on. Generally, people tend to just practice a lot of questions until they are familiar with it.

But if you repeat the same course at university in more detail, you learn where these theorems actually came from, you get the hang of it. But then you'll learn newer things, and just understanding where they come from is not enough, to get through an engineering degree at uni you would have to work hard and spend numerous hours solving math problems. You must have studied some calculus in business school, just review whatever you have learnt.

For electronics, you'll have to enroll in a electrical engineering program which is perhaps the most math intensive branch of engineering. But if you go for computer engineering, you'll learn about digital electronics but would also have to do programming. Integrated engineering programs are not offered only by some universities, don't know much about them. Nano engineering is something that is mainly taught at post graduate level. Although sometimes you can take relevant final year electives in electrical and mechanical engineering.

Pakistan has some excellent universities, where tuition cost is low. But its hard to find funding for a bachelors degree. You might want to take a look at German universities, I've heard you can get a scholarship there.

 

[whistler]

If by probe you mean unmanned vehicles, its a multidisciplinary field. A mechatronics degree would be a good preparation for this. But few universities have a bachelors degree in mechatronics. And in any case you would need a masters if you want to do anything serious. While you might be able to enter a masters program in mechatronics with a comp science bachelors, you are likely to find the program difficult. As computer science is mainly math and software. I would suggest you enroll in a computer engineering program, in which you also learn about electronics. Other good majors for unmanned vehicles would be electrical and mechanical engineering. I've seen 2-3 universities that offer a bachelors in integrated engineering and honestly, I don't think those programs are worth it. I don't think their are any integrated engineering masters.

More importantly, you would want to find a professor who researches in this area and work under him for your masters, at this point it does not matter much which department he belongs to.

I am a mechanical engineering major (minor in computer engineering) working on an unmanned aircraft for my final year project. I am leading the controls part of the team, which has another mechanical engineer and two electrical engineers. While four of my buddies from mechanical engineering are actually designing and fabricating the aircraft, i.e. the fuselage, wings, tail, landing gear, etc. So you can see its not just one type of engineer that's required.

For controls, you need to know about embedded systems(taught in computer engineering), controls systems(mainly electrical engineering but mechanical engineers also study a good part of it) and dynamic systems(mechanics). There's also a lot of electrical engineering i.e. radio communication & onboard camera, but in our project we have that ready made. The ground station is also very important, basically software on a laptop using which you monitor the aircraft and command it, having a comp sci or comp eng. major would be ideal for this.

Its a good idea to study at a virtual university of you bachelors as it would cost less, but you need a lot of lab experience aswell. Once you are done with your bachelors you would figure out exactly what do you want to concentrate on in your masters.

 

[whistler]

Well the IT degree won't help much, why don't you just do Comp. Science to save time. If your university is accredited in Pakistan, there shouldn't be a problem applying abroad for Grad School. But i have seen at least one grad school that doesn't accept distance learning degrees.

In most cases you would be allowed to change your major for Grad School, but you would have to take the prerequisite undergrad courses at your new school, that can add up 1-2 years to the normally 1.5-2 years long program. But if you are doing something interdisciplinary like mechatronics or computational science then you don't have to.

Well the thing about engineering is you work in teams, one engineer can never do everything in a project. Thats why you should have a broad knowledge about everything but specialize in one(or two). So while you might be able to use nanotechnology(such as mems gyro) in your projects as another kind of engineer, to actually make the nano devices you'll need at least a masters specializing in that particular discipline.

 

[cupaa]

Hi, sunshinesunny. But i think maths after all means a lot to engineering.
You should pay more efforts to grasp it. ;)

 

[ovechkinsgoal]

Coming from someone who has explored almost every career such as myself, I would advise you to think about what it is you want to actually accomplish. I can only speak from my own experience, but I think there's a big difference between what you're interested in and what you actually want to do with it. Do you want to study eningeering for the sake of leraning it or do you want to create things? The former you can do on your own time, the latter will likely require a lot more education. I would also think going back and doing undergrad in engineering may be more useful (if you want to get into engineering) combined with your MBA. There's different ways you can do this, but keep in mind more school is time and money...use it wisely...and try to find a way to leverage your MBA if you can. Good luck in your decision.

 

[sunshinesunny]

Thanks folks for your inputs. Could anyone please tell what's the difference between mechatroics, integrated engineering and interdisciplinary engineering. Also, how can I use my BBA and MBA to get a job in a related area while i study for engineering degree.Thanks for your inputs