<p>Hello Everyone
I am currently a senior looking at different colleges. While I was certain that a mechanical engineering major was what I wanted to study, I recently came across this major (engineering physics) and I realized that it might be more to my taste. I've done some web searches, and basically all I found out was that this major offers a mixture between engineering and physics (duh). What projects will a person in this major typically be working on? What makes this different from other engineering fields? I am interested in inventing and working on what some might call "futuristic technology". Will EP be a better major than ME for this purpose?</p>
<p>In addition I was looking for the best schools in this field and found Cornell, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Brown and MIT all have fairly good programs (although I was unable to find the exact major or concentration on MIT's list of majors). I am wondering whether anyone can give their take on these schools, as well as maybe add one or two more. I realize that US News has rankings for this major, but I dont think that they are particularly acurate. If anyone can offer their experience within a particular school's EP major, that would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I would imagine that “typical” projects (if there is such a thing) would involve solving multi-discipline problems from the lab to industry. That could be a lot of things. In the past, that might have been inventing things like the transistor or solving how to create the first integrated circuits. Now that might involve work on fusion reactors, improved batteries, fuel cells, brain/body/tech interfaces, hypersonic flight, or anything else unsolved. The thing about inventing the future is you usually don’t see it coming.</p>
<p>If you’re into invention rather than practical problem solving, it might be a better field for you, but it does seem a bit undefined and unlike most engineering discipline, probably does call for graduate study. Any school with a top engineering program would be a good choice, but I’d be wary about it at some lower level institutions, where they might turn you into the “calculations guy”, the person the engineers go to when they can’t solve something for everyday problems - also known as grunt work.</p>
<p>Case Western has a program as well…It seems it has to do with applying physics to engineering problems…So if you were interested in Physics but didn’t want to study theoretical physics but wanted more practical applications, this would be the thing to do. I think you still select an Engineering area to focus on.</p>
<p>Physics is an essential foundation of engineering. In many instances, the boundary between physics and engineering is not sharp. For example condensed matter physics includes the physics of semiconductors, materials that the electronics industry relies on for making useful devices, such as transistors, integrated circuits, light-emitting diodes, etc. At some universities research in semiconductors goes on in both the physics department and the electrical engineering department. Another example would be the physics of fluids, which might take place in either a physics department or a mechanical engineering department.</p>
<p>I like to think of a continuum of topics ranging from physics to engineering. Some very abstract topics might be firmly lodged in physics departments, while some very practical topics might be ensconced in engineering departments. Other topics, like semiconductors or fluids reside near the fuzzy boundary between physics and engineering.</p>
<p>Engineering physics is applied physics that is near that fuzzy boundary.</p>
<p>Different universities are organized differently. Most have physics departments and several engineering departments. Some also have departments dedicated to topics near the fuzzy physics/engineering boundary.</p>
<p>Universities like MIT that do not offer an engineering physics major still can offer lots of courses and research opportunities in applied physics topics. Look at the websites to see what sorts of things they do.</p>
<p>Some universities have an Applied Physics program which is very much the same as Engineering Physics but cannot be ABET accredited. The physics you learn in an EP (or AP) program is just as theoretical as that a pure physics major would learn. The difference is that instead of elective courses in physics, the EP major will have engineering courses and specifically a capstone design course which is an ABET requirement. </p>
<p>Basically, you get most of the important fundamental physics courses which form the foundation of all engineering disciplines from mechanical, to electrical, to chemical engineering, plus a significant amount of more focused engineering courses.</p>