What Skills Are Important to a Engineering student

<p>Hey what skills do you ppl consider imporant to an engineer/engineering student damm i wish we had polls..well what do you think
and do you think it differs by type of engineering discipline
well..</p>

<p>uhhhh... math</p>

<p>Math and physics skills are the most important.</p>

<p>social skills</p>

<p>ethics are important in the workplace--work ethics (hard work) as well as personal/moral ones</p>

<p>math...probably more than even physics...MATH MATH AND MATH</p>

<p>analytical</p>

<p>Most people probably know this, but when we say math in regards to engineering, we don't mean the theory behind why it works. I'm in mechanical engineering and we have never been interested in proving theorems. That is up to the mathematicians. At least in my experience, we are only interested in applying all of the formulas and theorems that we learn.</p>

<p>In my calculus classes students would wonder why we were learning different things. One math prof explained it perfectly. Engineering uses a common language, and that language is math. In order to learn it well you need to study a few pieces at a time. And after so many years of study you will have gained a new language that you can use to solve engineering problems. Math is treated as a second language by engineers. I am fortunate to be good with it. There are some people who can't even grasp basic algebra. They can handle 3+3=6, but put y=x^2+4x-1 in front them and their brain will have a short-circuit.</p>

<p>In addition to math skills you really need to be able to understand your engineering discipline and the theory behind it. I can't tell someone that the stress in that beam is 1000psi would knowing what stress is and how it affects the beam. It depends on where the load is placed, the material the beam is made of, etc.</p>

<p>good fundamentals in math and physics. and i disagree with the above poster, it is not possible to understand engineering without knowing what the math mean.</p>

<p>What I meant to say is that I have never had to prove that the math works. Time and time again my profs have introduced formulas that may or may not have complicated proofs, and all of them were only interested in using the formulas. Example, in my fluid mechanics book there is a lengthy derivation for a control volume description from a system description of fluid flow. I didn't need to know the derivation in order to understand the meaning of the final equation. It would be nice to know how the final equation was created but that stuff is most likely explored in grad school.</p>

<p>What if someone never took Physics or Calculus in HS? Is it possible to work hard in college and catch up? (Ok I took them, both of them, but the question still stands.) Ty. Plus I may take some years off and I want remember the physics I learned anyway, and the classes at my school are pretty weak. I'm still pretty good at this stuff, and I'm an OK student in general. Ty.</p>

<p>Ok I'll be more quantative here.
SAT I Math: 750 (1440)
SAT IC Math: 750 (never took IIC, would've gotten low 700s, high 600s)
SAT II M-Bio: 780</p>

<p>You think I'll make it as an engineer?</p>

<p>I don't know if anyone else is laughing over auscguy's comment.</p>

<p>how important are lab skills? Will I as an "engineering" student spend a lot of time in the labrotary and writing up lab reports?</p>

<p>Yes, you better be good at writing lab reports. Some of the first lab course profs may be easy on the grading but as you move up the profs will demand more out of report as far as formatting and how professional the writing is. My lab courses are only 1 credit but it is where we finally get to apply our knowledge and present our work in a professional manner (i.e. not a problem set).</p>

<p>I co-op at DuPont. I would say communication is a must have. We need to give a presentation explaining our work at the end of each co-op term. And I consulted with a lot of engineers and scientists around the plant site during my stay there. Communication also includes writing. Engineers in industry or academia write lots of stuff. Computer skills I think are probably tied with social skills, just because computers are everywhere. Hit up the math concepts, too. Not actually the calculations, just the concepts. The computer will do the calculations for you.</p>

<p>Being able to be technical and think in math and science. To look at a problem and think about it in math and science terms. I can't explain it otherwise. That is the biggest link to success. I think about writing in terms of style not technicality. I often make physics problems more complicated than they need to be. Am I a natural engineer? No I have to work at it but that's okay. I can handle it. Random test scores don't mean crap. Esp bio. Bio is a completely diff subject than chem and phys. Those are nice scores tho.</p>