WORKING ACROSS DISCIPLINES

[Freon]

I my case:

Organic Chemistry - Nothin' to it

Chemical seperations - Easy

Plastics & polymers - Child's Play

Circuit design - simple

Poly-phase AC power - give me something hard!

Electromagnetics - in my sleep

But finite element analysis - I want my mommy!

Freon

 

[EM_PS]

^^ for me it was Analytical Photogrammetry & the 2nd semester of Geodesy (simply, Geodesy 2) that had me sucking my thumb (still have nightmares) :wacko:

 

[benbo]

I think it is dangerous to try to compare. I can't really talk about any other eng. disciplines since the only engineering I took other than EE was "Civil Engineering for EE Students." I had trouble with EE as it was. OTOH, I first went to school as a Physics major - let me just say WTF??!!

I thought upper division Mechanics, E&M, and Quantum Mechanics were unlearnable. Plus I guess I didn't understand it well enough to see any practical application for it. I got within one semester of my degree when I quit to go to work full time. When I finally went back I decided EE was more applicable to my job, and the only program that had night classes.

We were required to take either a class in CE or Thermodynamics for EE. My memories of physics were the reason I didn't want anywhere near that thermo class.

 

[Sschell]

people always complain about theremo and heat transfer... those were no problem for me.

Usually I find the easier classes harder and vice versa, for example: Statics, Dynamics and Vibration three classes in the same series (mechanics?) Statics, not a very difficult class, I got a B-. Dynamics, I failed, then got a B- on the second time around. Vibration, the hardest class in the series, A+ no problem. the nerds that gave me alot of crap for failing dynamics when they got a A were blown away when I aced vibration and they got C's.

 

[MA_PE]

My first job out of college was doing stormwater design, I'd do the work, and the PE signed it; wasn't that tough (but then again, I am a Mech E, so why would it be).

Maybe stormwater design is easier in San Diego than the rest of the country...

Well it must certainly be easier than in Florida

 

[benbo]

Well it must certainly be easier than in Florida

ROFLMAO You are on a roll MA

 

[TouchDown]

To say one is harder than another is silly. I think all engineering disciplines are hard in their own right, you just pick the subject matter that you find enjoyable/easy.

One thing I noticed in college (granted it's been a few years), but women engineers / students seemed to enroll in higher numbers into electrical and chemical engineering disciplines. There were female engineers in all disciplines, but the frequency of a female engineer was much higher in those disciplines.

I have also heard that the average male, yadda yadda, spacial representations, yadda yadda...

Do you think that with chemical and electrical requiring more abstract / less visual thought processes to drive the male:female ratio in those disciplines.

PS - I think all engineering disciplines deserve respect, I just happened to think Mechanical was easy because it was easy to "see" what might be going on in a problem.

 

[benbo]

One thing I noticed in college (granted it's been a few years), but women engineers / students seemed to enroll in higher numbers into electrical and chemical engineering disciplines. There were female engineers in all disciplines, but the frequency of a female engineer was much higher in those disciplines.
I have also heard that the average male, yadda yadda, spacial representations, yadda yadda...

Do you think that with chemical and electrical requiring more abstract / less visual thought processes to drive the male:female ratio in those disciplines.

PS - I think all engineering disciplines deserve respect, I just happened to think Mechanical was easy because it was easy to "see" what might be going on in a problem.

I was in EE and there was one woman in my program. I could have missed something, but I don't think there is a single EE female posting here (or at least not very often). I think the computers side had a couple. Maybe I went to the wrong school.

 

[snickerd3]

One thing I noticed in college (granted it's been a few years), but women engineers / students seemed to enroll in higher numbers into electrical and chemical engineering disciplines. There were female engineers in all disciplines, but the frequency of a female engineer was much higher in those disciplines.
I have also heard that the average male, yadda yadda, spacial representations, yadda yadda...

Do you think that with chemical and electrical requiring more abstract / less visual thought processes to drive the male:female ratio in those disciplines.

PS - I think all engineering disciplines deserve respect, I just happened to think Mechanical was easy because it was easy to "see" what might be going on in a problem.

I'd say my class was about 1/3 female. I don't know about the agrument about abstract vs visual...I am a very visual minded person, but like usual I could be the exception.

 

[Sschell]

you cant spell geek with out EE.

 

[TXengrChickPE]

I'm in the civil/structural department and work in the oil and gas industry here. Everyone hates the pipers (piping and process)...

Me too! My pipers always try to put the biggest pipe (sometimes 36 or 48 inch) right in the MIDDLE of the pipe rack... they refuse to understand how that screws with my beam sizes.

And... WHY can't pipe iso's be drawn to scale?

As for electrical engineers, they don't bother us. They are usually willing to accommodate us, besides, how hard is it to re-arrange your cable trays anyways?

My problem w/ EE's is that they (at least in my company) usually don't take into account the radius of their cable trays when changing direction... they usually show them as right angles <_<

Is there no document control department to to make sure that there is one and only one current version of the document?

As a civil/structural, I usually have the earliest deadline... because my stuff has to be installed/built first... but, my design is based on the information that I get from piping/electrical/mechanical. Often, their deadline is after mine (or at the same time), so I end up having to use "preliminary" data to do my "final" design. Then, piping shows up with a bunch of changes at the last minute... and it's my fault that my structure can't handle their changes because I was using preliminary data.

 

[ALBin517]

Well it must certainly be easier than in Florida

The guy in Florida who taught me storm calcs started by saying, "Learning storm water in Florida is like learning French in Paris."

But regarding the original topic of the thread, the snootiest folks I’ve worked with are the surveyors. I’ve worked at many consulting firms and the surveyors all act like they are misunderstood and underappreciated. When everybody else is mixed together at parties, staff meetings and such, the surveyors always congregate, isolate themselves and grumble about the office personnel. Maybe they are jealous that we have not lost any digits to frostbite – I don’t know. Regardless, they don’t know any office personnel and they don’t want to know any office personnel.

 

[mudpuppy]

I was in EE and there was one woman in my program. I could have missed something, but I don't think there is a single EE female posting here (or at least not very often). I think the computers side had a couple. Maybe I went to the wrong school.

Benbo, you are not alone; I don't recall very many women in my EE program either. Here are the stats compiled from the enrollment figures for my alma mater for the Spring 2008 semester, listed as total students / % female:

Civil: 525 / 18%

Chemical: 314 / 26%

Computer: 211 / 5%

Electrical: 482 / 9%

Mechanical: 1099 / 9%

Enviromental: 152 / 39%

 

[mudpuppy]

you cant spell geek with out EE.

And there is an EE in the middle of every beer.

My problem w/ EE's is that they (at least in my company) usually don't take into account the radius of their cable trays when changing direction... they usually show them as right angles <_<

This is the second reference I've seen here to EEs doing cable/panel layout work. Is it common for degreed and/or licensed engineers to do this type of work? At my company this is done primarily by designers/technicians.

 

[EM_PS]

But regarding the original topic of the thread, the snootiest folks I’ve worked with are the surveyors. I’ve worked at many consulting firms and the surveyors all act like they are misunderstood and underappreciated. When everybody else is mixed together at parties, staff meetings and such, the surveyors always congregate, isolate themselves and grumble about the office personnel. Maybe they are jealous that we have not lost any digits to frostbite – I don’t know. Regardless, they don’t know any office personnel and they don’t want to know any office personnel.

I gotta say. . . spot on critique, though snooty may be the wrong adjective (a bit like calling teenagers snooty cuz they hate adults) - there is the field vs. office dynamic, that's present not only between the surveyors & engineers / enviro, but between say inspectors & engineers, or field techs & enviro, etc. Then too, the calling of surveying brings with it a licensed profession that clings to & refuses to let go of its blue-collar / tradesman roots, and many who make up the profession for whatever reasons tend to be introverted - a fair # i would say are even socially dysfunctional. It would be nice to think the old, grumbling relics will eventually phase out of the profession, but because of the vast differences in State licensing requirements across the US, i think there will always be socially off, grumbling throwbacks going thru the ranks.

 

[Flyer_PE]

This is the second reference I've seen here to EEs doing cable/panel layout work. Is it common for degreed and/or licensed engineers to do this type of work? At my company this is done primarily by designers/technicians.

Same here. We are primarily an electrical design company and we have a couple of very good physical designers to take care of conduit/cable tray routing and panel layouts. Our design guys are either non-degreed or have two-year technical degrees.