<p>Can an ME survive with minimal time in the shop, or is there a focus in ME that doesn't really require it? I feel like it's not really my thing to be welding and such, though I've been to my university's shop and it looks a lot of things are done by computerized machines, but some still left for students to weld and such.</p>
<p>There are plenty of ways to go about doing ME that aren’t hands-on metalwork. Just shop around.</p>
<p>Most MEs don’t spend any time in a machine shop more than just knowing the basics of how machines work since, as part of the ABET curriculum, they need to learn that. Again, very basic and no one assumes you know it ahead of time. The actual work done by MEs is very, very rarely in a shop. They generally make you learn so that you can communicate with the people who do work in the shop and so you can design your stuff according to what is manufacturable.</p>