Would you say M.E is right for me?

[projectearth]

Hello there, I'm curious as to what you may have to say in the path I have chosen.

I am currently attending a community college full time taking chem, physics, math, engineering, welding/mech courses.
My true passions are a general inquiry of ;human/animal psychology,politics,space/nature, sustainability,physics

Recently(1 year ago) I stumbled upon what I conceive will help me become the happiest and give me the most meaning in my life.

Brief description of myself
I was raised in a modern day american house hold, which comprised of videos-games, television, sports and a lack of studies. With these values I set foot into the public educational system only to find out the only thing that came natural to me was athletics. To make a long story, I could probably count all the books I have ever read on the fingers of one of my hands. Hopefully this displays, I did not grow up with any support or guidance in education.
Luckily I did have a father who was a big time skeptic. This skepticism re-lit my desire of knowledge and understanding, which I believe all kids are born with.

Here I am a month away from my 21st birthday, with the desire of understanding and knowledge more concentrated than ever before.

At times I get discouraged in my education because I'm typically surrounded by kids that are a lot more brighter than I am in the subjects of science. Luckily I am still fairly young, and hope I have time to catch up.

I am very interested in sustainable technology and alternative energies. The reason I chose mechanical engineering is because I figured it is a broader scope and I always thought of concentrating to early would limit myself. Also I'm really not sure what type of things Id be more into building as I have never been built anything besides a chair and a bird house in high school. Although I do plan on building a rotating garden before I transfer.

My apologies for the long post, hopefully you guys can guide me in the right direction or assure me I am on the right path.

Responses highly appreciated.

 

[chiro]

Hey projectearth and welcome to the forums.

In terms of animal psychology, there is actually an area of research into animal consciousness. I don't know if I'd recommend doing this as a career, but just so you know you could probably find some stuff to read in your spare time.

In terms of your goals with sustainable technology and alternative energies, one thing I recommend you do is find out some more specific roles to get an idea of the field you wish to go into.

Realize that there are many different specializations and skillsets for for producing sustaintable technology and alternative energy. You've got materials scientists, physicists, engineers, and other people who are involved at different stages and in different roles.

Also there are different types of alternative energies. Windmills is very different from something like biofuels (which are a joke when you think about food-based biofuel: don't get into this), which is different to something like solar. Solar for example has a lot of material science issues that are different in nature and scope to say wind power.

 

[projectearth]

Thank you Chiro for the welcoming.

I was a little confused on what you meant. Were you saying you wouldn't recommend mechanical engineering or animal consciousness?

I have been really interested in Evacuated Tube Transportation, TESLA Motors, and I've been following open source ecology. When it comes to alternative energies I have been looking into geothermal and a little bit into nanotechnology. Although at this point nanotechnology is over my head, but very interesting.

Yes I have good reason to believe sustainable technology will be prominent in our future.

Thanks, yeah bio fuels never caught my attention.

I would like to become knowledgeable in broad scope of technologies and subjects, I thought mechanical was very broad. I also was thinking I could perhaps later specific in transportation or what ever peaked my interest then.

I appreciate your advice.

 

[chiro]

Thank you Chiro for the welcoming.
I was a little confused on what you meant. Were you saying you wouldn't recommend mechanical engineering or animal consciousness?

I just meant to make you aware that there is a field of study that looks into consciousness and psychological aspects of animals which might interest you if you want to study this kind of thing (but I don't know about its career prospects).

Given your goals, I think engineering is a very good endeavor and I wish you all the best. In terms of energy related research you could really choose mechanical or electrical depending on the focus.

Personally I think you'd be going doing mechanical with some electrical thrown in. There is a specific degree called mechatronic engineering which includes this and you might want to look into this. The reason is that electrical engineering will give you some insights into the nature of electromagnetism which can help you when you are looking into the things like tesla's work (which can be found in his patents which are public among other sources).