<p>I'm sorry for the multiple posts, but I wanted to keep the discussions separate. I am wondering how different engineering fields relate, especially among civil, electrical, mechanical, computer, and mining engineering. Are there any advantages to having background in two or more as far as salary or other benefits? Where can I find more information on such a thing?</p>
<p>At a broad level, all engineering disciplines look like they're different. Then, you start getting to a more specific level within a discipline, and you'd think that you'd be so far down into that specific discipline of engineering that there's no way it could <em>possibly</em> relate to any other engineering field, but then towards the highly-specific phalange of whichever field you're in, you find that the fields start to merge and that there's a ton of overlap. Essentially, you're studying atoms on a microscopic level, figuring out how they interact when we use them in engineering, and using the new computing technology to help you figure out complex problems, and on that level, everything kind of becomes a big engineering-y intercollaborative glob.</p>
<p>If you're looking for a multidiscipline advantage over other, single-engineering-discipline specialists, what would probably be most advantageous would be to figure out a small discipline subset that interests you that applies to many fields, and become proficient in that. </p>
<p>I know that crack propogation is a hot subset, for example... It applies to metallurgy, material sciences, civil, mechanical, aerospace, and tons of other stuff, you have to have a significant understanding of programming and computers to write your proprietary fatigue-analysis and crack-propogation-analysis software, and all sorts of aero/marine/defense governmental agencies and civilian corporations are clamoring to throw money at any PhD engineer who specializes in cracking and fracture.</p>
<p>Your question's kinda general, so if you could give us some feedback on what exactly your master evil plan is such that you're contemplating this sort of interdisciplinary study, that'd help us give you better-suited advice... Still considering the structural health monitoring thing, or what?</p>
<p>Yes, I'm still planning on the structural health monitoring. However, I needed to compromise with my civil engineer dad who owns his own construction company, and also include other technologies that would be relevant to them. For example, GPS in surveying, and other environmental engineering technologies. The small subset that would interest me is technology in civil engineering works across the subdisciplines.</p>
<p>I suspect that engineers who seek proficiency in another discipline are probably more likely to study business (MBA) or law, rather than a second branch of engineering. The engineering/business or engineering/law combinations are probably more beneficial, in terms of salary potential, than most engineering/engineering combinations.</p>
<p>Some people are interdisciplinary in science/engineering. For example, there are people who are qualified as both geologists and as geotechnical engineers.</p>
<p>Yeah the higher you go you'll start clicking on classes like Chem 473 that says for course information: see BioE 473 or ECE 473. It's almost amusing. A lot of the subjects start to merge in the upper levels.</p>