<p>I'm thinking about changing my major to mechatronic engineering. I like how its a mix of electrical and mechanical. And apparently my school has one of the few accredited mechatronic programs.</p>
<p>But anyway, i was wondering if maybe an electrical and a mechanical engineering student could look over the curriculum and tell me if they know what any of the classes are like or about... the descriptions are pretty limited haha...</p>
<p>thanks for any help</p>
<p>The program looks very EE intensive, with a large number of computer and programming classes. </p>
<p>As a MechE, I am concerned that I don't see a seperate Fluid Dynamics, Therodynamics or Heat transfer class--the bread and butter of MechE. Also, I don't see why Dynamics or Mechanics of Materials class is taken so late within your course work, these are typically foundation classes. Finally there seems to be many extraneous classes --"Science: life forms" or "Lifelong Development"?.</p>
<p>I feel that there should be a few more MechE classes so that just in case you don't find a mechatronics job you can still market yourself as having the skills of a traditional MechE.</p>
<p>If an EE can comment on the other coursework that would be great.</p>
<p>Agreed, it just looks like a EE curriculum with statics, mechanics of materials, and dynamics thrown into it.</p>
<p>EE with an ME minor...</p>
<p>ah, thanks for the responses. And i agree that it does seem to be lacking a lot of the mechanical classes. And the life forms etc classes are just the GE requirements....</p>
<p>I think this may be a good major for me though, i don't want to go full blown EE i don't think...</p>
<p>I'm curious about what employers will think of a degree like this does it have an advantage over EE or ME do you think?</p>
<p>here is the ME one if anyone wanted to know... <a href="http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/__depts/mem/documents/Flowcharts/Flowchart_ME_07-09.pdf%5B/url%5D">http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/__depts/mem/documents/Flowcharts/Flowchart_ME_07-09.pdf</a></p>
<p>That ME degree plan is solid. </p>
<p>I think that Mechatronics is still an emerging degree and like BME was a few years ago, will find it's niche in the future. The reason I'm hesitant about the mechatronics (on ME side) is that while you can pick up pump design or pipes through experience, it is hard to pick up full blown topics like fluids/heat transfer. Also, from my experience mechatronics is used for control systems and how can one control a fluid system without knowing whats going on?</p>
<p>If you could sub out some of those GE requirements for MechE classes that would be great. I'm not 100% about employment but I feel that there might not be a huge market for mechatronical engineers but instead it would be better to market yourself as a mechE or EE with a minor.</p>
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I'm curious about what employers will think of a degree like this does it have an advantage over EE or ME do you think?
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<p>The problem with these sorts of designer degrees is that nobody really knows what they are, and the employers of this sort of thing are a lot more comfortable hiring a plain-vanilla EE or ME major because they know more closely what skill sets those graduates are going to have. There's less industry oversight of degrees like mechatronics, so it's more of a black box for hiring folks to have to parse... It's far easier, in some of their minds, to just throw away your resume because they don't know what your degree means.</p>
<p>You'd probably get a great education, and you'd more than likely be just fine in finding a job, but you're going to lose some potential employers in the process, and you're going to have to do a fair amount of explanation and persuasion with regard to what a mechatronics degree is and what exactly you're qualified for. It's pretty much the same reason why I was discouraged from pursuing an architectural engineering masters program, and that's even a little more established than mechatronics is.</p>
<p>you work in teams. there will be a mech and an ee.</p>