Hello, I am currently a freshmen and am an aspiring Mechanical Engineer.
I am in the FIRST Robotics Club and we have these workshops that you can participate in:
Power Tools Workshop
CAD Workshop (SolidWorks)
Electrical Workshop
Programming Workshop
Which of these will most benefit me in the future when I’m a Mechanical Engineer. Please rank in order from most to least.
Also should I join the Coding Club? And are there any other extracurriculars I can do?
First off, I’d say, and this is just my opinion, round out your ECs to include other stuff. Sports, music, drama, etc. are fun and expand you as a person.
As for the workshops, they’re all good. Each could be defended as being important and each could be discarded as either unnecessary or something you’ll learn later. Far more important than what’s applicable to ME, choose the one(s) that interest you. Staying interested and involved is what’s important. Do it for that not with your eyes solely down the road. The secret to life is to enjoy the journey, not just the destination. Sometimes the destination isn’t anything like you thought it would be. You don’t want to look back and feel like it was all drudgery.
Now, let’s separate them. CAD and programming are both great skills. Knowing a bit of coding is helpful to any engineer, but for most ME programs you’ll use Solidworks more. These are both screen based activities. Tools and electrical are also useful. They are both hand based activities. You’ll use some tools as an ME, but not many and likely never as a practicing engineer, but the experience will make you a better engineer. Others here will push back at this idea, but engineering has a bit of a bad reputation of designing things that either are impractical to build or difficult to maintain. For example, you don’t have to be a great welder by any means to be an engineer, but if you’ve never even seen it done, it’s completely understandable why you might design something that is difficult to join. Same goes for electronics. Knowing the electron side of things can inform your mechanical designs.
So, I’d say Solidworks is the tool you’ll actually use the most. If you love sitting in front of a screen, it’s an easy match. If you don’t, pick one of the others. You’ll learn CAD during undergrad.
Good luck.
I would recommend participating on solidworks. I do not think it is neccasry for you to join the coding club because youwill never use coding in mechanical engineering. My brother was apart of first robotics and he got into UC Berkely, this was his only club he was apart pf.
How much experience do you actually have in mechanical engineering? This statement, which is patently false, would imply you don’t have a lot just yet. That’s fine, of course. You just shouldn’t make strong blanket statements about things like this if you aren’t sure.
…what? This is literally 100% wrong. Of course you will have to code, and learn to program, as a mechanical engineer. Every engineering major must learn these things. It’s like saying you will never use math as a mechanical engineer, or something equally absurd. Eventually, when you get a job, you may or may not end up using various aspects of your engineering education, but you will absolutely need to learn it and use it considerably in school.
@FreshmenEngineer
First off, @eyemgh brings up great points, including the first one about rounding out your ECs to include other things. As far as the other stuff goes, you’re only a freshman in high school. It doesn’t matter at this point. Do what you’re interested in. SolidWorks is relatively easy to learn as far as CAD software goes, and I think it’s also great to have experience with power tools, machining, etc. if you are interested in being a mechanical engineer, if only so that you have an understanding of the practical side of what it takes to bring a model or design to life. Knowing how to use tools is also a great life skill. If you like robotics, then both programming and electronics are essential. Many MEs tend to have a relatively poor understanding of electronics (both the theory behind and handling of, skills like soldering, etc.) beyond a basic circuits class, so I think the electronics workshop would be both fun and useful. But, again, it’s all up to you and whatever you feel will be most fun.
@boneh3ad Thanks for calling it. I’m getting weary of posters who treat their teeny tiny bit of information as if it was the sum total of all knowledge on something.
Oddly enough, for a lot of engineering majors these days, the coding is more important than their actual engineering fundamentals. The biggest overhead on software is the engineer salaries, while more traditional engineering work can come with a whole lot of overhead.
Don’t worry about not getting a chance to do things in high school. You will learn a lot more about each of these topics when you get to your major requirements. Contrary to popular belief, you should really be focusing on things you enjoy in high school. That is to say, you should definitely get involved in activities that seem worthwhile and that that’s far better than doing nothing, but no activity is inherently more valuable than any other. Don’t worry how it will look to colleges or how it will prepare you for your degree because that isn’t really going to be a huge issue down the road.
@FreshmenEngineer, I’m going to expand on the point that’s largely being made here by sharing my son’s experience. He’s a second year ME. He learned 3dsMax in highschool. He learned actual pencil drafting (a little bit for historic perspective) and Solidworks in college. He self taught AutoCAD and became competent enough that he did some drafting, including final drawings, for the engineering firm he interned with over the summer. He’s self teaching Python and will certainly learn Matlab soon enough. He’s worked in the machine shop and taken a course in welding theory with a lab. The only thing he hasn’t done is robotics and since he chose mechatronics as his concentration he will.
So, don’t sweat it. You will do it ALL at some time.
When my son was picking his freshman high school schedule, his middle school head said something very clarifying. Students and parents alike were sweating about how many science classes to pack in each year and we weren’t. I just wanted to make sure we weren’t putting him at a disadvantage by not following the herd. His response: “They do know they get to go to college, right?” In short, you have time. You don’t have to do it all now. Enjoy it. That’s what’s important.
Thank you very much everyone!