My engineering graphics teacher told me I might not be able to make it as a good engineer because I couldn’t think of a good midterm project to design. Really bummed me out. I can’t draw and I’m not very creative. So how creative do you have to be to be a good engineer?
I wouldn’t take your teacher’s remark seriously here. The ability to design a project within the scope that is acceptable for a class project is not a core prerequisite of being a good engineer.
The only “creativity” you need as an engineer is to be able to reason about possible designs based on the principles you learn. That’s the least challenging part about getting the degree.
Don’t need to draw or be creative. What you need to do is be able to work out a solution to something.
So if you haven’t picked a project yet, what is something that annoys you? I could be trivial, but could still be worth solving. As an example, my son designed and built a self folding trumpet stand. He was too lazy to fold up the one he had - so that was the problem he solved.
@NeoDymium Thanks for the help! @DecideSomeHow And thanks! I figured out what to do for the midterm project.
Has your engineering graphics professor ever done any actual engineering? He or she sounds like they are just talking out of their butt. That’s a really awful thing to say to someone based solely on an engineering graphics class with fairly little bearing on actual engineering ability.
@boneh3ad He has his doctorate from UT, so I assume so. I think he’s a good person, but I don’t think he’s a very good professor… This is like a hobby or something for him. He owns his own business and since it’s community college I don’t imagine he makes much for teaching.
Thanks for the help!
When you are at work, at first the creativity is in the solution to the issue, not coming up with the issue.
Drawing is not usually and issue…as long as you can sketch something on a whiteboard or use a computer tool.