<p>I'm thinking of going into mechanical engineering... but I have a few questions. First of all, mechanical engineering is a rather old field... would it ever be possible for the field to become obsolete or less useful in the future? </p>
<p>Secondly, what exactly are the major fields/applications of mechanical engineering? Typical work environment? </p>
<p>Any of you in mechanical engineering right now that aren't enjoying it? If not, how come?</p>
<p>Thanks a lot guys.</p>
<p>i am not a mechanical engineer but have spoken to quite a few and i dont think the field can go obsolete. Its very broad, and u will always find ur services needed. However that being said, specializing in a certain area, automotive engineering for example may give u an edge.</p>
<p>I am a mechanical engineering professor and I can assure you that the field will not die. There ARE dying fields in engineering, one is Industrial Engineering. But Mechanical Engineers are and will continue to be in high demand. M.E. is very broad and deals with almost anything. The major areas of mechanical engineering are: thermal systems, controls/vibrations, design and mechanics. Some schools break it up in other ways. And I might have forgotten something.</p>
<p>I'm a junior in MechE. My internships have been in manufacturing facilities and I was a project engineer. It was my job to handle any possible thing that could happen in the plant. I was involved with general maintenance problems, gathering resources for installing new machinery, troubleshooting a waste management issue, etc. This summer I will interning at a different company but will be doing the same thing except with more design work. The particular plant will be undergoing major renovations.<br>
While I enjoy MechE, I hate school. I enjoy classes like heat transfer but design of machine elements is getting on my nerves. But that is because the machine elements prof gives us tons of notes but very little work outside of class. Without homework or design problems I have very little motivation to study the material. Our entire grade is based on quizzes and one quiz will test one topic out of many that could appear on it. The class does have a lab component in which we do several design reports and presentations but the prof never gives the class any feedback on our reports and presentations. I don't even know why he teaches a design class if he doesn't give feedback to the students.</p>
<p>We have a neighbor whose son is an engineer for Goodyear. Apparently Goodyear likes to hire M.E.s, even if they don't use them strictly as M.E.s because they like the education M.E.s come with.</p>
<p>How's the future for Aero-Mech E looking?</p>