<p>"I think when you actually start working and people begin to finally realize that most engineering jobs are not THAT exciting or interesting, people will become a bit more open. During college, people still have optimistic views of being someone who will design the spacecraft to send a man to Mars or something along those lines. While some will do interesting things, a vast majority will not."</p>
<p>is this true?</p>
<p>would you guys say that you have a much smaller chance of doing groundbreaking and innovational stuff working in something like mechanical/aerospace/civil engineering than working in some rapidly growing field like bioengineering? BLS projected growth for biomedical engineering through 2018 is 72% or something ridiculous, as opposed to 6% for mechanical -- lots of baby boomers getting old and demanding medicine. source: [url=<a href="http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm#projections_data%5DEngineers%5B/url">http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm#projections_data]Engineers[/url</a>]</p>
<p>there are companies like Blue Origin or SpaceX or Virgin Galactic doing cool new space exploration stuff, but far fewer in number than the companies doing biomed engineering, creating GMOs and stuff like that.</p>
<p>i really would love to work on sending people to Mars, but i sort of prioritize doing important and significant stuff in general over that. i would prefer doing something like bioengineering (which i also like but a little less so than aerospace) and working on cool and innovative new stuff over doing aerospace and working a relatively boring desk job.</p>
<p>I’d imagine that the 21st century will be largely defined by biological and environmental issues, much moreso than construction or space exploration.</p>
<p>that’s what i think as well… so you’d think mechanical or aerospace is a bit of a dead end for innovation, at least in the foreseeable future?</p>
<p>You probably won’t be doing anything groundbreaking in those fields, no. But then again, your chances of doing something groundbreaking in any field are small; it probably shouldn’t affect your choice of career.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say that you won’t do anything “groundbreaking” in mech or aerospace engineering. But the 20th century was essentially a century of physical law discoveries. The 21st seems to be shaping up as biological, environmental, and computer-based century. </p>
<p>Don’t forget that mech. and chemical engineering can/are both involved in alternative energy.</p>
<p>I’d like to point out that right now, the demand for Biomedical Engineers is approximately 0 (give or take almost nothing). The fact that it’s going to increase 72% doesn’t say much. I imagine that that 6% increase for MechEs yields more jobs than that 72% for BME.</p>
<p>Change in Civil Engineering - 67,600
Change in BioE - 11,600</p>
<p>Apparently UCLA produces only twice as many Civil Engineers - not sure if that’s true for other schools. (EE is by far the largest)</p>
<p>According to Doctor Who, we’ll be on Mars in 2059, so you never know!</p>
<p>haha.</p>
<p>"The 21st seems to be shaping up as biological, environmental, and computer-based century. " yeah, these are my thoughts as well.</p>
<p>and yes October I wish that were true – i’d love to do spaceflight, but now just doesn’t seem like its time :(</p>
<p>didn’t obama just tell NASA to plan to go to mars by 2030?</p>