Engineering Specialties Geared Toward Research

<p>I was just wonder which engineering specialties tend to lead to a more research driven carrer opposed to working in a design firm ect. it seems materials and bio would possibly lead to this is there other or are these not particularly geard toward that either?</p>

<p>There are research aspects of <em>all</em> engineering fields... even in something as real-world based as civil engineering, once I got to UIUC for grad school, I was struck by how incredibly theoretical most of the research is, and how <em>much</em> research is done in the field. So, it doesn't particularly matter which field you go into, there's always more research to do.</p>

<p>...but yes, I'd say that materials, chemical, and bio/biochem/biomed engineering probably have the most people end up doing research.</p>

<p>ok thanks alot</p>

<p>any other thoughts</p>

<p>Not electrical?</p>

<p>see post #2</p>

<p>I am looking for a second opinion, with perhaps more helpful elaboration.</p>

<p>What sort of elaboration are you looking for? There's a lot of research in electrical engineering... all sorts of stuff, from highly mathematical signal processing algorithms to developing co-processors for the DSPs of tomorrow so that WIFI technology can continue its progression.</p>

<p>Engineering Physics seems to lead to research positions.</p>

<p>Do professors do research on a consulting basis with industry firms, to keep in touch with real (but difficult) problems people need to solve? Or is academic research mostly grants-driven work, perhaps susceptible to the ivory-tower syndrome?</p>

<p>aibarr: how about the other subfields within electrical, e.g. condensed matter, optics and photonics, VLSI, computer networking? I guess my question is: where is "the buzz" these days?</p>

<p>4thfloor- Where did ya think the grants come from? ;)</p>

<p>In my experience, grants do occasionally come from the NSF and the government, but there's TONS of money coming from stakeholders, especially in engineering. I know it's so for material science, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, ag engineering, and while a lot of big industry companies have their own R&D departments, there's definitely academic collaboration going on in computer and electrical engineering, too. The problems are just too big for companies to deal with on their own, and it would behoove them to contract the best and brightest PhDs in the biz to work on the heavy stuff. One guy I know is getting his elec PhD at Rice while working halftime at TI. His research is very interrelated with his work, and TI's supporting him while he does his graduate work.</p>

<p>The only things I know about the other subfields you mention come from my knowledge of optics research in physics, which my best friend from high school is currently in... She's working on something, and I can't explain it well without significant hand-waving and diagram drawing, but step 1 is to take a laser and step 3 is to make the electron microscope obsolete and allow people to magnify living cells rather than having to put them in a vacuum. Cool stuff.</p>

<p>I know there are others around here that are more experienced and knowledgeable about electrical engineering research than I, and I'm sure they're gonna jump in right about now... (hint, hint...)</p>

<p>(Yes, I was thinking of NSF grants...)</p>

<p>Thanks for your helpful posting. The news is quite encouraging.</p>

<p>Hey I'm an Electrical Engineer and I can tell you that I see alot of research in Optical Signal Processing (OSP), some in Wireless Communications, and a good amount a money going into Medical Electronics. I think I will be doing OSP or Wireless Communications. I haven't decided yet, but I think I should since I have to choose a Prof. for when I start grad-school in the fall lol :-D. Thanks for reminding me.</p>