Mechanical Engineer: VB & Oracle in School - Career Impact?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ank_gl
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    School
AI Thread Summary
Graduating as a mechanical engineer raises questions about the necessity of programming skills, particularly in C. While some argue that C is not commonly used in mechanical engineering, others highlight its importance in various engineering fields, including electrical engineering, where it is utilized for hardware testing. MATLAB emerges as a favored software in mechanical engineering, often preferred over alternatives like Maple or Mathematica for simulations. The discussion emphasizes that programming experience is valuable, regardless of the specific language, and suggests that familiarity with C could be beneficial due to its foundational role in many programming languages. Ultimately, the decision to learn C should consider personal interest and the relevance of programming skills in future career opportunities.
ank_gl
Messages
741
Reaction score
0
I ll graduate next year from college as a mechanical engineer. I had VB & oracle in school, I simply hated C, will it affect my career in anyway?? Should I study C now itself, or i can leave it??
 
Physics news on Phys.org


I wouldn't think you would use much C as an ME. I use it a lot for writing hardware tests and such in my EE work, but I don't think I've ever seen an ME code in C. More likely you'll be using simulation software, and maybe scripting some stuff in Perl or Tcl, or writing your own simulations in Matlab.
 


berkeman said:
or writing your own simulations in Matlab.

thats right!
 


So MATLAB is more popular than maple or other software in ME? I am going to graduate in ME also. I want to learn softwares but I just want to concentrate in a software/programming language that will help me in future. Any suggestion?
 


I use c/c++ (ROOT) for particles physics (cosmic ray) research. My buddy uses C/C++ for EE work. I also am using BASIC (Basic Stamp) for data collection in astrophysics research.

I can't think of too much you would use c for in ME but I have no experience with it. That said though, hating c is not going to get you anywhere. What about it did you not like. It is certainly a good skill to possess; Well, any programing experience is worthwhile really.

I think it comes down to personal opinion for matlab, maple, mathematica, octave, etc.. you tend to use and learn to like what ever program you have to use. I've used maple and mathematica for various different physics and math classes.
 


mgiddy911 said:
That said though, hating c is not going to get you anywhere. What about it did you not like. It is certainly a good skill to possess; Well, any programing experience is worthwhile really.

Yes right, hating it won't get me anywhere. that is exactly why I asked if I should learn it or not?
A part of the hate comes from the fact that I first learned VB, & obviously since it is toooooo easy, I didn't feel like using C. But having said that, I do know the basics very well(I topped my school), so I was wondering should I learn or it leave it??(considering the fact, I still have 1 more year in college)

I used a bit of Mat lab, I can write functions & some stuff, that's pretty much all of it.
 


A lot of languages are based on or are similar to C.
 
Back
Top