ALL ABOUT ME

So I have written this like the advice I would give myself if I could travel back in time or
what I really hope to see in the undergrads I want to hire. I hope you don't get
discouraged/put
off.
First thing: Solidworks/ProE/AutoCAD/Rhino/Blender/CATIA and GD&T are not skills for
degree'd engineers. You don't do a BS/ME for draftsmanship. It's like putting MS Office on
your
resume.
You
can
pick
that
skill
up
on
your
own
time.
Second thing: I am talking about becoming an engineer here. You know, the kind that build
rockets and microengines (Sandia MEMS Home Page). I have nothing against grades, but I
don't care very much for them. So I am not talking about getting the best grades.
Now. Here's what you need to acquire proficiency in through your 4-year BS
0.

Read

wikipedia.

1. Programming - Start with Matlab/Python. Then graduate to C++. An example of a

programming goal would be to use this to create your own computational graphics engines.
Why? Because this teaches you about visualizing vectors, arrays, transforms and leads you to
higher-dimensional algebra. Make sure you can understand and implement Runge Kutta
family of algorithms before you think you are done. A recommendation would be to ditch
Windows and move to some flavor of Linux or Mac. You need to understand concepts behind
batch/shell scripting and importing open source scripts to embed inside your own. If you
don't do anything else in your freshman or sophomore years, that's fine. But make sure you
master
this.
2. Linear algebra and differential equations - Now, most ME syllabi force the courses on you
early on. But very few MEs truly understand these topics. This is the source of all ME theory.
I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH! Most ME professors DO NOT understand linear
algebra or its importance - they will fuck it up for you so you will be confused/avoid
derivative topics forever. Don't take these courses offered inside your department - take them
from CS or EE or Math professors. Or learn it from Gilbert Strang on Youtube. Tie this
together with your programming to create numerical simulations. Do NOT take these courses
until
you
are
done
with
your
programming.
3. Statistics - Take this twice. Audit it as a freshman. Then take the course again as a senior.
This will be the single most important course you ever take as a professional in any field.
4. Engineering mathematics. The rest of your life depends on this. Pay attention to spatial

transforms, Fourier analysis, Complex analysis, Potential theory, PDEs, Interpolation/curve

fitting, optimization theory. Look for ways to implement these concepts using your
programming skills. If you ever wonder about the usefulness of any of this, or you get the
choice to skip a few topics - you are doing it wrong. Good engineers use these concepts
EVERYDAY.
5. Dynamics/Advanced dynamics - Take this in the Physics department. ME profs screw it up
here again, they focus on the mechanics of algebraic manipulation and don't explain concepts
very well. Your objective would be to be able to independently construct FBDs of complex
interacting mechanisms, and generate classical non/autonomous, non/linear differential
equations that describe the time-history of the system. Develop a familiarity with index
notation and tensors and operator spaces. Your indicial programming experience will really
help
you
here.
6. Statics/Solid mechanics - Master Timoshenko Goodier/Theory of elasticity. Even if it takes
you the rest of your life. If you got through point 2, you should be able to point out the
inefficiency of the SFDs and BMDs and Mohr's circle concepts. Try visualizing the simple
cases while cognizant that life is not simple. Use your programming finesse to program
numerical
solutions
to
your
ODEs
and
equations.
7. Vibration theory - If you actually got through point 2, you will find this a breeze. All they
do here is study a second order, non/homogenous, non/autonomous non/dimensionalized
ordinary differential equation and the effects of parametric variations (mkc, forcing
frequency). If you got through 5, you should be able to figure out all the base excitation,
seismic perturbation, isolation, rotating machinery concepts. If you got through 6, then
plates/beam vibration problems. If you got through 2 & 4, you will be able to work through
MDOF systems and all the modal analysis techniques. This is where you segue to coupled
SHO/QHO
concepts.
8. Thermodynamics/Fluidics - I am not the right person to advise on these topics. But they are
pretty straightforward at the undergraduate level and mostly applications of differential
equations
and
continuum
mechanics.
If you followed instructions so far, everything else is a straightforward application of what
you should have learned by now. That's all you really need to be a degree'd mechanical
engineer - math and physics. Everything else is a specialization and extension of domains
from the presented fields into specific tasks. This is also where you start encountering
professional
jargon.
And
don't
let
terms/eponyms
scare
you
off.
Also mechanical engineers dont generally design machines from scratch hobbyists and
mathematicians do. We follow standards for our industry, mix and match components, or use

well defined algorithms to create a new one. There are concepts in kinematic chains,
algebraic linkage synthesis and design that are used here. So sure you can read about gears
and machinery and 4-bar linkages and cams and geneva wheels, but it is highly improbable
that you, as an ME, will create one. It is more likely that a technician or a sheet metal worker
will create something utterly brilliant. So if thats what you want to do, figure on grad school.
You can however use your solid mechanics skills to design the components to withstand
pyrotechnic
impacts.
I skip over manufacturing and 'product engineering' classes because they are shit, when
taught in school. You can't master manufacturing sitting in a class, and you certainly are
never going to learn enough in school about how to design a full product. Those axiomatic
design principles and synectics and product lifecycle management and ideation and Gantt
charts and brainstorming processes are bullshit. Nobody in real life does that. Those who do,
are not engineers. If you really want to understand manufacturing, skim
through Manufacturing Processes for Design Professionals: Rob Thompson: 9780500513750:
Amazon.com: Books, then go talk with people on shop floors, or watch how it's made on
Youtube. If you really want to understand the product design process, follow Kickstarter h/w
startup
stories.
Do not ever waste your time on survey or presentation courses. Avoid attending school
seminars if you are not interested in the topic. You should attend all seminars that promise to
show you math or process or cool videos. You want to keep an ear out for examples and case
studies that show explicit details of how systems get modeled/implemented using math or
experiments. Avoid 'design' seminars (usually a peddler from Wharton or Sloan or Kellog) they
are
pretty,
but
pointless.
Take all lab classes you can. ALL of them. All you can afford. Pottery too, if you have that
option. Just drop in to watch other people work if you got the free time. Pottery as well. Use
the equipment there till you break it - You are paying for it anyway. Make all the mistakes
you can ever imagine there. AND DON'T FUCK AROUND IN THE MACHINE SHOP
BRO!!!
Amongst other advice, find a PhD student about to graduate every year and get them to
mentor you. Dont believe in that I am busy crap they all are usually on Quora or editing
Wikipedia anyway. I speak from experience. Pick people from diverse fields machine
learning, operations optimization, public policy, neurobiology, kernel development You
want to understand what they do, how they do it, what they use to do it and create a possible
job network. You dont want seniors to mentor you because, unless they go to grad school,
they will never be in any position to introduce you to great opportunities on time scales
relevant
to
your
interests.

Now,

let's

talk

about

being

professional

mechanical

engineer

9. Read ISO/ASME/ASTM/ASTC/ASMI (standards organizations) standard practices. That's

the only place where they really tell you how theory meets practice. If you believe your
university doesn't provide you access to those - Sue them! Beg/borrow/steal. Whatever. But if
you really want to know how things are done; Read the standards. Not the website and their
discussion
forums.
Read
the
standards.
10. Take/Audit courses on electromagnetism, digital electronics, electrical theory,
VLSI/Silicon based designs, electrical machinery. You should be able to design your own
motor driver/filter/power regulator/multivibrator circuits and implement them on PCBs. Start
dipping into embedded microcontrollers here. This is where your C++ experience should start
paying
off.
11. Signal processing - Audio/image/Power signals - Master the topic of discrete Fourier
transforms/spectral densities and how they are used and calculated. Figure out how digital
sampling and digital filters work and how filters and masks get designed. Move on to ztransforms and recursive filters. Your statistics background starts to become useful here. At
least
figure
out
how
to
manipulate
images
using
pixel-array math.
12. Control systems - This ties up everything. And THIS was the topic that really got you into
ME. You didn't join ME to make bridges or prepare CAD layouts for GE ovens or tractor
engines or boiler chambers for plants or be a grease monkey. You joined ME to make
structures that move, intelligently. If you have done things right so far, this is where you will
get to have fun. It ties together your dynamics and linear algebra first, then programming,
signal processing and statistics next, finally you implement it all using your
electronics/embedded
skills.
13. Instrumentation People have equipment that costs between a thousand dollars to over
several million. You need to learn how to use them, AND how to construct them. You will
find that making equipment is always cheaper than buying a turnkey system from a
manufacturer. So companies prefer to design/assemble their own systems. This should segue
into design of experiments/statistical validation. Your goal should be to know how to hook up
the hydraulic pressure gauge in an EMD F51PHI locomotive cab suspended 10 ft up in a shed
to
an
office
in
Minnesota.
Along with instrumentation, you will frequently need to develop software to control the
instruments. Some people use lab view, but with your mastery of C/matlab you will do better.
If you want to get into finite elements, you cant do that in undergrad. All you will learn is to
push buttons. Most engineers only think they understand FEA they actually dont. It takes

practice, study and experience. The pretty pictures dont mean much by themselves. So I will
say
go
to
grad
school
or
intern
with
a
practicing
consultant.
That should about cover your basics and get you a good job. But if you want to get a great
job, you will need professional degrees or exhibit skills in some of the following. So, on to
specialization:
1.
Fracture/fatigue/materials
on
the
nanoscale.
2.
MEMS Look up Sandia National Labs/MEMS. Biggest opportunity for MEs since all
companies are moving from RnD to ramping up production right about now. Micromachining
and processing technologies research is active as well. MOEMS was hot, sensors are sizzling,
actuators not so much, lab-on-chip was meandering about, last I checked. Significant effort
underway on determining lifetime/reliability as well. People were excited about energy
harvesting, but that seems to be toned down now. Lots of material science opportunities.
3.
Microfluidics These guys blow bubbles through microchannels! Look up lab-on-achip.
4.
Bioengineering Tissue printing/engineering! Theres also research on mechanical
characterization
of
bio-materials
(bones/ligaments/RBCs)
5.
Medical devices/robotics da Vinci/intuitive. Also swallowable robots and cameras.
Lots
of
health
monitoring
devices
and
OR
assistants.
6.
Robotics/control systems Typically, you need to be core CS/EE for this. They are the
ones doing most of this research. But you can create opportunities for yourself by choosing to
focus on dynamic structure design or kinematics or something on that order. Look up Hod
Lipson/Cornell or Red Whittaker/CMU or Marc Raibert/ex CMU/MIT leg labs or Rob
Wood/Harvard for inspiration. Google and Amazon have raised this fields profile over the
last couple of years. Look up compliant mechanisms/robots, autonomous vehicles, haptics,
telepresence, Raytheon XOS II,... Lots of bullshit in the name of assistive robotics (that no
one can or will want to afford or use, and medicare wont support).
7.
Control systems/avionics I worked on optimizing damage-resilient, real-time coolant
distribution through nuclear subs, my ex-boss worked on guidance systems for the
Pershing/Hera systems. This is a mature engineering field at the moment (not much RnD) but
scope
for
new
applications.
8.
Thermo research They do crazy things with combustion, not my domain.
9.
Nonlinear dynamics Applied theory, predicting weather(?!), galloping (hopf)
systems, .. this field goes on till quantum cryptography and then some.
10. Aerospace vehicles SpaceX. Etc. Vibrations theory, dynamical systems and controls.
Your
vibrations
theory
needs
to
be
strongly
coupled.
11. Infrastructure Given Keystone or fracking, infrastructure is going to undergo another
massive
boom.
12.
Petroleum

13. FEA Meshing and geometry algorithms, data compression, rendering are being
researched

14. Energy fuel cell research, the cryptozoology equivalent in ME Theyve been at it for a
while,
but
it
seems
to
be
a
funding
generation
ploy.
15.
Marine
systems

16. Theoretical systems Lots of work on rule based machine learning based design
synthesis, structural optimization (back in early 2000s it was all about simulated annealing
and genetic algos, now they call it machine learning), dynamic self modeling, multi-agent
systems,
17. MAV/Flight dynamics Concentrated around rotorcraft/flapping wing architectures.
Mostly
experimental,
some
theoretical
research
going
on.
18.
ICE
research

Very
avoid!
19. Tribology - Nonlinear dynamics of rate state dependent friction generate
P/S/Love/Rayleigh wave phenomena used to predict earthquakes. Studying hydrodynamic
lubrication of journal bearings is a trifle boring compared to that. See Ruina's work at Brown.
Universities on the West and East coast typically work on the new frontiers of research, while
the rest work on last-century concepts. So if you go to school in AK, you will find stuff on
corrosion, rotor blades, missiles, defense, aerospace machining But if you are in MA, you
will find machine learning, robotics, vision, SLAM, MEMS, materials, algorithmic synthesis,
complex
systems
etc.
I have written this like the "Survival guide for mechanical engineers on the journey to create
astonishing engineering". This is written with North-American ADHD undergrads in mind.
So I tend to be didactic, and, in the spirit of times, use hyperbole to signify importance (no
selfies, however. Much disappoint.). I also abuse education professionals profusely - But
that's only my personal experience all the additional work I had to put in because courses
were not designed right, or because a newly hired asst professor was in charge of a particular
course that they had no experience in or because the lecturer, originally from Asia, had this
distracting accent and circuitous description that just beat about the bush more than I could
keep track of or maybe because most of the freshman/sophomore/introductory courses,
specially non-core ME courses, are generally fanned out to temp staff/lecturers that generally
don't know jackshit about how things are done or dont care. So you see, personal failing on
my part. That's my excuse for the abuse. And there's catharsis involved as well. So I
apologize
in
advance.
I have a BS/AME USC, and MS/MAE, UC system, PhD/ME (and RI+LTI+ECE) CMU. I
wasn't a great student during my BS; 2.7 GPA, almost dropped out to be a professional
musician. GRE 1600/6.0 happened. I joined the masters program because I was getting a
fellowship+stipend. Programming happened. YouTube happened. OCW video content
happened. I worked on projects with all or some of the following labs LLNL/SNL/LL
MIT/NRLMRY/NECSI/SFI through my PhD. For your reference: MS/PhD GPA 3.6/3.8. No
money, at the time of graduation. Now making some.

Dear Anon, I don't know why you deleted the answer but to me its awesome advice, thank
you very much. I would more than happy to take this off once you decide to post it
yourselves.