So, I recently took a 2 year break from school because I just could not find a major to declare/my classes were boring me. Since then I’ve gained so many life experiences on a professional level. I work in a science museum as a supervisor. Since I was promoted to supervisor I have restructured a lot of what our emoloyees do day to day so their jobs are done with greater accuracy. I have come up with different ideas and my managers have really embraced them. I love seeing my thoughts come to life and being used in a positive way. They are small projects but I have a lot of freedom to toy with diffrent materials and build things for our employees.
Pretty much, I love seeing a problem-coming up with a solution to fix it either with changing procedures or building something that eases the way our employees do their jobs.
Engineering may not be the field to study but maybe someone can lead me in the right direction? I’m going back to school in the Fall and want some thought before speaking to my academic advisor.
There are lots of possibilities, but for a start, look at Human Factors Engineering and Engineering Psychology. The first is usually in the school of engineering, the second in the department of psychology, but they are very similar in their scope. It is basically the study of how we relate to things. For example, if driverless cars are going to be used by visually impaired people, how would you make a car different to better accommodate their needs. It isn’t just that they are driverless, but entry and exit will likely need to be rethought along with navigation input etc.
Along the same line is ergonomics. Most of us think of properly sitting at a computer, but all systems have ergonomic flows that can be analyzed and possibly improved, from human interactions to information flow, you name it.
The question that you need to answer is what field gets you interested in engineering or science (outside of Biology). What do you see yourself doing after your degree?