For those of you with kids

[BLR]

Might want to push their education to nuclear engineering.

Right now, there is a lack of 25-35 year old NEs out there. Enough so I'm getting another MS in NE from the Air Force Inst of Tech.

OSU has one of the best programs still around, IMHO..

[orionz06]

Thoughts for a sub-5 year mechanical engineer who has been exploring further education?

[BLR]

I promised myself after finishing my doctorate I'd never sit through another class.

I'm now signed up for a MS in Nuclear Engineering.

Will be getting a Cert in Passing in Nuclear Weapons Counter Prolif, Signatures, and Design.

NE will be more and more important in the future. And there are fewer and fewer Univ's offering programs, thanks to our glorious leader.

[Corlissimo]

Not trying to bust chops or anything, but is there any documentation of this shortage?
I ask because my son just started his Freshman year in a state school and wants to pursue Engineering but isn't sure yet what discipline. His most recent interests have leaned towards Mechanical but he's not just great in Math but he's also excellent in the Sciences. He's smart enough, and inquisitive enough, to be a freakin' theoretical physicist.

I'd really like to be able to point him at some data and possibly widen his horizons about what other opportunities might be out there for him.

Oh yeah... Thanks for posting this blr.

[Sparks2112]

My psychology and philosophy background seems like a bad decision every day I get older. Ah well.

[butler coach]

Thoughts for a sub-5 year mechanical engineer who has been exploring further education?

I think you would be a good basket weaver, or maybe you could make shoes out of duck tape!
Just a though for ya.

[orionz06]

I think you would be a good basket weaver, or maybe you could make shoes out of duck tape!
Just a though for ya.

I feel I do have the technical prowess for baskets.

[pr1042]

My psychology and philosophy background seems like a bad decision every day I get older. Ah well.

Could be worse, could have done criminal justice like myself

[Odin Bravo One]

Kid is not even here yet, but unless he gets all of his smarts from his mother, pretty sure he will be good at lifting heavy things, and drag his knuckles when he walks. If he is anything like me, I'll throw a party for completing any grade beyond kindergarten.

[BLR]

Sources:

http://www.new.ans.org/

As TJ said, there has to the best of my knowledge, never been a surplus of NEs. Not all state schools have a NE program anymore. I could have gone to U Cincy for free, but the program was suspended a few years ago.

Sean, your reputation precedes you. You are highly thought of by a fellow I have come to respect. So, if you don't mind, I'll just ignore your post and go with his opinion.

[Corlissimo]

It's not documentation or data, but I can personally attest the fact that during the past 20 years or so there has not been a time or place that I've worked as a NE that we haven't been actively looking for more. There has been a shortage of NE grads for as long as I've been in the industry.


Sources:

http://www.new.ans.org/

As TJ said, there has to the best of my knowledge, never been a surplus of NEs. Not all state schools have a NE program anymore. I could have gone to U Cincy for free, but the program was suspended a few years ago.


Thanks gentlemen.
I checked that site and it was pretty informative with regards to jobs by wage, industry, and geographic locations. It got me digging around a bit and I found this on the Engineers Guide USA (http://www.engineersguideusa.com/Careers/nuclear_engineer_job_outlook.htm) site which was seems to echo what both of you mentioned:


Employment of nuclear engineers is expected to grow 10 percent from 2010 to 2020, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Employment trends in power generation may be favorable because of the likely need to upgrade safety systems at powerplants. These engineers also will find work in creating designs for powerplants to be built abroad and in the growing field of nuclear medicine.


*snip*


Job prospects are expected to be relatively favorable for this occupation because many in the aging workforce will retire. The small number of nuclear engineering graduates is likely to be in rough balance with the number of job openings. In addition, training in new fields, such as nuclear medicine, should help to improve a person’s chances of finding a job.



Thanks again for broaching the subject. Now I've got some useful info for my son. He's looking to transfer from his present state school to NC State, which has a fairly reputable NE program, by his Junior year.

Salute! :cool:

[NMBigfoot02]

I can't speak to the NE angle, but I would say steer away from the Civil/Structural angle. I was at a GT job fair about a month ago, and there were a lot of CEs with an emphasis in structural. Work in that area just isn't there right now. Our firm is always hiring MEs and CE/Enviro.

[John Ralston]

I would be careful with ME too - as much of the ME stuff is being shipped to China and India. Depends on the industry of course...but there is a reason I make holsters full time :cool:

[MDS]

My dad scraped together a got me lots of computer stuff when I was a kid, bartered for tutoring and etc. I'm doing OK now, largely because of the process that got started way back then. Today it's obvious that computers are a thing, but it wasn't nearly so obvious back in the early 80's. The old man thought ahead.

My boys are young yet but I've been thinking about what "thinking ahead" looks like today. So far, my thinking is to encourage a love for the GRIN technologies: Genetics, Robotics, IT and Nano.

[Default.mp3]

My boys are young yet but I've been thinking about what "thinking ahead" looks like today. So far, my thinking is to encourage a love for the GRIN technologies: Genetics, Robotics, IT and Nano.
Electrical engineering would cover all those topics. It's arguably the most versatile of the big three (chemical and mechanical being the other two).

[NMBigfoot02]

I would be careful with ME too - as much of the ME stuff is being shipped to China and India. Depends on the industry of course...but there is a reason I make holsters full time :cool:

MEs do more than just widgets, which I would say is the majority of jobs going overseas. The nice thing about doing ME is that almost every industry uses it in some form or another. You can specialize in HVAC, process design, energy production/transmission, etc. It's not limited to just gears and the like.

[ford.304]

Yeah, if you can get over the fact that you probably won't be building race car engines or doing the cool part of making airplanes, you can definitely find a job in ME. Infrastructure and utility companies in general have a ton of old engineers who are getting close to retirement age.

The math is nothing compared to a theoretical math or physics degree, but you still have to be comfortable with it.

[orionz06]

Yeah, if you can get over the fact that you probably won't be building race car engines or doing the cool part of making airplanes, you can definitely find a job in ME. Infrastructure and utility companies in general have a ton of old engineers who are getting close to retirement age.

The math is nothing compared to a theoretical math or physics degree, but you still have to be comfortable with it.

Most of my complex math has been done with MathCAD or excel, it makes documentation brain dead simple. So many of the old guys forget how to do many things.

[John Ralston]

MEs do more than just widgets, which I would say is the majority of jobs going overseas. The nice thing about doing ME is that almost every industry uses it in some form or another. You can specialize in HVAC, process design, energy production/transmission, etc. It's not limited to just gears and the like.

True, but if I had to do HVAC and the like I would want to kill myself inside of a week. That type of work just has no appeal to me what so ever. And I wasn't designing widgets either - I was working on million $$ highly customized industrial equipment. Unless there is a huge push to bring back manufacturing, those jobs will continue to head overseas. I had lots of friends who spent over a year looking for a job when they got laid off (with ME degrees) - doesn't matter what you have done if the employers are looking for something else.

[MDS]

Electrical engineering would cover all those topics. It's arguably the most versatile of the big three (chemical and mechanical being the other two).

In my ignorance, that's a surprising thought! Can you elaborate? For example, how would an EE skill set help someone engaged in gene splicing?

[orionz06]

EE seems to be the one field where you really need to want to do that stuff. Mechanical seems to be the most common. Not sure what EE's would do or how they would even fit, every EE I knew had some other weird minor tied in.

[BLR]

EE seems to be the one field where you really need to want to do that stuff. Mechanical seems to be the most common. Not sure what EE's would do or how they would even fit, every EE I knew had some other weird minor tied in.

EEs, more than any other field in my experience, are very theory based. I know a few that do power transmission/generation or arc flash analysis, but most in this area are Radar/Microwave/semicon guys.

I will say this though, I don't know a EE that has had trouble finding a job.

But they are a squirrelly group. Man are they squirrelly.

[orionz06]

But they are a squirrelly group. Man are they squirrelly.

Truer words have never been spoken. Sparkies are squirrelly.

[LOKNLOD]

Truer words have never been spoken. Sparkies are squirrelly.

EE's exist so ME's have someone to hang out with and feel comparatively normal. It's how we know what business majors must feel like when they accidentally stumble into a group of us.

[John Ralston]

EE's exist so ME's have someone to hang out with and feel comparatively normal.

I NEVER hung out with EE's - that's like sitting at the Nerd Table in the High School Lunch Room. No hottie is going to talk to you if she sees you hanging out with an EE!

[John Ralston]

One other thing (actually on topic) - don't pick a field that is going to require relocation, if you really don't want to do that. I spent 15 years trying to get back to where I wanted to be and where I wanted my kids to grow up, looking for a job doing what I wanted to do and paying what I expected to be paid. Never did find it.

[NMBigfoot02]

True, but if I had to do HVAC and the like I would want to kill myself inside of a week. That type of work just has no appeal to me what so ever. And I wasn't designing widgets either - I was working on million $$ highly customized industrial equipment. Unless there is a huge push to bring back manufacturing, those jobs will continue to head overseas. I had lots of friends who spent over a year looking for a job when they got laid off (with ME degrees) - doesn't matter what you have done if the employers are looking for something else.

Honestly, my job is a mix of disciplines. I wanted to get into automotive design out of college, but the jobs just aren't there. Where I work now I can easily drift between utility design, packaging design, energy systems, process work, wastewater, etc. My job is rarely the same year to year.

[Default.mp3]

In my ignorance, that's a surprising thought! Can you elaborate? For example, how would an EE skill set help someone engaged in gene splicing?
Bioinfomatics and computational genomics are starting to pick up. After all, what is DNA but just big sets of data? In that respect, it's quite like the information overflow that the digital age has created, which has been explored using information theory. You can also look at DNA as being a type of information being passed, and thus explore it from a signals and systems POV. IME, the computational genomics/genomics signals tends to be tied into the biomedical imaging branch of ECE departments in most schools.


It's how we know what business majors must feel like when they accidentally stumble into a group of us.
For our senior design project in undergrad, someone got the awesome idea of having business majors having to take the class with us, to cover the marketing aspect. One might take a wild guess as to how that went down, particularly if given the information that the weight of the class on the business majors was far, far less than on the EEs...

To the rest of y'all:
http://i.imgur.com/gveUY.jpg
Although one does have to wonder why in undergrad the civils, who are arguably by far the least demanding of the engineers, seem to have so many girls, while mechanicals still seem to have more chicks than EE and ChemE...

[BLR]

Bioinfomatics and computational genomics are starting to pick up. After all, what is DNA but just big sets of data? In that respect, it's quite like the information overflow that the digital age has created, which has been explored using information theory. You can also look at DNA as being a type of information being passed, and thus explore it from a signals and systems POV. IME, the computational genomics/genomics signals tends to be tied into the biomedical imaging branch of ECE departments in most schools.


For our senior design project in undergrad, someone got the awesome idea of having business majors having to take the class with us, to cover the marketing aspect. One might take a wild guess as to how that went down, particularly if given the information that the weight of the class on the business majors was far, far less than on the EEs...

To the rest of y'all:
http://i.imgur.com/gveUY.jpg
Although one does have to wonder why in undergrad the civils, who are arguably by far the least demanding of the engineers, seem to have so many girls, while mechanicals still seem to have more chicks than EE and ChemE...

Pffft. Whatever dude. We (chem e's) dated the Chemistry chicks. :cool:

"Why sure, I can help you with that P-chem homework. Come on over." :cool::cool::cool:

[Default.mp3]

Pffft. Whatever dude. We (chem e's) dated the Chemistry chicks. :cool:

"Why sure, I can help you with that P-chem homework. Come on over." :cool::cool::cool:
Dang, that actually works? I know us EEs can try that with physics chicks, but it always ends in acrimony. I mean, come on, the way they describe E&M stuff is simply nonsensical.

[MDS]

Dang, that actually works? I know us EEs can try that with physics chicks, but it always ends in acrimony. I mean, come on, the way they describe E&M stuff is simply nonsensical.

Please. You're just peeved that the physics chicks think of your field as a sub-specialty, the way you just totally crushed genomics as a derivative of IT. ;)

[BLR]

Dang, that actually works? I know us EEs can try that with physics chicks, but it always ends in acrimony. I mean, come on, the way they describe E&M stuff is simply nonsensical.

Conversation at Client A (working on electochemical sensor platform for pathogenic e coli for Army Corps of Eng):

Me: You need a higher impedance op amp. 10^15 ohm is bare minimum for low nA signals. 10^18 is what I'd like.

Him (a EE): I don't agree. I modeled the circuit. 10^9 should be fine.

Me: Dry electrons behave differently than wet electrons.

Him: What?

Me: Exactly.

Real conversation. I was right. The guy still wont talk to me. :cool:

[LHS]

I had a rather entertaining summer job at the AFRL at Kirtland AFB when I was in college, working with the Directed Energy folks. Keep in mind, I was a business major, but my roommate was a biomed eng major and his dad was a high muckety-muck at one of the DoD contract firms in ABQ, and they got me the gig at his company. I had never been around engineers before, so it was interesting. They ran the gamut, from easy-going EEs who seemed perfectly normal, to one guy who was like Rain Man. He was widely hailed as a genius in the RF emissions field, but the armpits of his shirts were literally green and crusty with mold and he had the social graces of a rabid Cape buffalo.

But to blr's original point... they were all desperate for new engineers, specifically EEs. The company offered to pay my tuition if I switched majors to EE and worked for them after graduation. Apparently there was a real shortage of EEs that can qualify for a security clearance.