<p>I have some questions regarding some engineering majors.</p>
<p>Could someone please tell me more about Industrial Engineering, Electrical Engineering, BioEngineering and Chemical Engineering?</p>
<p>where do people in those areas work in? and how is the industry in those areas?</p>
<p>i would really like to know more about Industrial Engineering & BioChemical Engineering.</p>
<p>i think you'd get more replies posting in the college selecton and search forum. no one looks at these.</p>
<p>"Industrial engineering (IE)" are fields of study intended for individuals who are interested in analyzing and formulating abstract models of complex systems with the intention of improving system performance. Unlike traditional disciplines in engineering and the mathematical sciences, the fields address the role of the human decision-maker as key contributor to the inherent complexity of systems and primary benefactor of the analyses.</p>
<p>In short, as practitioners and researchers in IE consider to be technical problem solvers. Typically motivated by problems arising in virtually any setting where outcomes are influenced by often complicated and uncertain interactions, involving a variety of attributes that affect system performance.</p>
<p>...nobody looks at these?</p>
<p>Heck, these are the only forums here at CC that I look at anymore. Specialization, yo. Still, most of us only answer when the answers aren't readily available via google/wikipedia and when we've got something unique to contribute... Most of us who're in a position to answer questions around here are either swamped engineering students or swamped engineers who work all day. There are a lot of good resources out there... Tons of information that's already there. If you've got specific questions about our experiences, or about unique situations where you can't find the answer anywhere else, we're more than glad to help, but it's not particularly fulfilling to just regurgitate answers to the sorts of incredibly broad, sweepingly general "what's involved in _______ engineering" questions that someone can easily find answers for by just running a google search... Remember, we're here because we like to help and because we love engineering education, not because we're getting paid to be here! ;)</p>
<p>I heard that IEs are employed in manufacturing areas.
But the govt. predects theres going to be a decline in that area.
is there any truth to it?
so is the overall demand for IEs going to be small?</p>
<p>
[quote]
I heard that IEs are employed in manufacturing areas.
But the govt. predects theres going to be a decline in that area.
is there any truth to it?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Some IE's are employed in strict manufacturing. I agree that manufacturing jobs in the US will decline. Note, manufacturing output will continue to increase, but the number of jobs will decline. Outsourcing will be part of the reason why, but the main reason will be technology. US manufacturing facilities will continue to use more automation and computer control, the net effect which will be less need for workers. </p>
<p>However, IE's do far more than just manufacturing work. They do operations work, and that transcends mere manufacturing. For example, a lot of IE's do supply chain and distribution work - essentially the movement of raw materials to the factory or finished goods to the consumer. Companies like UPS, FedEx, Walmart, and Amazon hire many IE's despite the fact that none of them really 'manufactures' anything. Hiring by these companies is booming because of the rise of Internet commerce (which means that ecommerce companies like Amazon have to warehouse and distribute ever-more goods), and with outsourcing, as foreign-manufactured products still have to be somehow transported to the consumer. In fact, one could say that IE's who do this work actually highly benefit from outsourcing. After all, the more products manufactured in China, the more goods that have to then be transported from China to the US, which means that they have to be efficiently warehoused, inventoried, tracked, stocked, and so forth. </p>
<p>Service companies also use IE's, as many service companies can be modeled as factories. For example, take a hospital. One could model a hospital as a factory with numerous stations (i.e. the waiting room, the operating rooms, the Xray room, the hospital beds, etc.), and each doctor/nurse as a factory unit. The question then becomes how do you schedule staff shift schedules for maximum patient care, how do you lay out medical equipment for optimal use, etc. Or you can redesign a t store so that customers are encouraged to buy the most goods possible. For example, if it is discovered that people who come into a grocery store looking for beer also tend to buy potato chips too, you may design your store layout such that anybody who wants to buy beer has no choice but to walk by the potato chip section, hence encouraging more total purchases. </p>
<p>So I think that US IE employment will be stable. IE's who do strict manufacturing work will probably decline. But IE's who do other things will increase.</p>
<p>So an Industrial Engineer is basically the person who organizes and looks after the health of companies/organizations and other instituitions. I presume, from your information.</p>
<p>ok.</p>
<p>and what about Chemical Engineers or BioChemical Engineers who focus in the Biotech and Biopharmacuetical areas.
What exactly is their "work"? or what do they do there?
and many people say the demand will rise in this area, is there any truth to that?</p>
<p>
[quote]
and what about Chemical Engineers or BioChemical Engineers who focus in the Biotech and Biopharmacuetical areas.
What exactly is their "work"? or what do they do there?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Obviously a lot of them work in biopharm manufacturing facilities, actually producing the compounds in question. Many of the large biotech firms run their own manufacturing facilities. Genentech, for example, recently built out a large plant in Vacaville to manufacture their drugs. Similarly, many large pharmaceutical companies are getting into biotechnical compounds, and thus need to figure out how to manufacture compounds efficiently.</p>
<p>However, much, probably most of the employment in biotech is in the R&D stage. Engineers can work in R&D by applying engineering principles to the research process. After all, there is little point in devising a theoretical compound that is pharmacologically useful but that is impossible to manufacture, or, more specifically, is unprofitable because it costs too much to manufacture.</p>
<p>I believe there probably will be many jobs in the biotech area. The problem that I see is that there is also a lot of people trying to get into biotech. Hence, the competition for jobs will be high. So I don't know that biotech is a good industry to make a lot of money (unless you happen to join a startup that makes it big). But biotech does offer a lot of psychological rewards, because you can feel that you really are helping to save people's lives and improve their health, and that feeling is a reward in and of itself. You can feel good about doing your job.</p>
<p>thanks for the info sakky. and what do you do?
are you still in college or are you out and working?</p>
<p>yes, thats the problem in the biotech area, the competition. A lot of people are going into that field. </p>
<p>The majors I'm interested in are IE, Chem E or BME, and E E.
Aerospace Engineering seems interesting too.
I just don't know which one to choose.</p>
<p>As of now, I think the perfect major for me is IE.
Chem E is pretty good too, its pretty broad. I could also work in areas other than biotech. Biomed E focuses only in the health/medical/biotech field, thats what I don't like about it.</p>
<p>As you mentioned a disadvantage in the biotech area-about too many people entering the field- is there also a disadvantage in the IE field?</p>
<p>and is it possible for someone to tell the ''work'' info on Aerospace E and E E?
or what do they do in their jobs?</p>
<p>"So I don't know that biotech is a good industry to make a lot of money"</p>
<p>How about the IE field ?</p>