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Is There an Engineer Inside You? by Celeste Baine

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Career Reference/Engineering Is There An Engineer Inside You? A Comprehensive Guide The Ultimate Guide to the Engineering Profession Updated and Expanded to Include to Career Decisions Engineering Technology! in Engineering Turn yourself into a top-notch engineering student and become a successful engineer with the ideas and information in this one-of-a- kind resource. Get yourself on the path to a challenging, rewarding, and prosperous career as an engineer by getting inside each discipline, learning the differences and making educated choices. Updated and now covering 41 different branches of engineering and engineering technology,Is There an Engineer Inside You? is packed with suggestions and has tremendous advice on thriving in an engineering student environment. You will learn: • Why you already have the ability to be an engineer. • Why an engineering education is so valuable. • What the differences are between each branch of engineering. • How you can succeed in engineering school. • How much money you can make. • How women and minorities are getting ahead in engineering. • How you can change the world as an engineer. • About sports, music, and sustainable engineering. • What non-mainstream engineers can do for a living. Celeste Baine is a biomedical engineer and the award-winning author of over 20 books on engineering education and careers. She’s won the Norm Augustine Award for Engineering Communications and the ASEE’s Engineering Dean Council’s Award for the Promotion of Engineering Education and Careers. She is listed on the National Engineers Week B website as one of 50 engineers you should meet and has been named one aine of the Nifty-Fifty individuals who have made a major impact on the field of engineering by the USA Science and Engineering Festival. This book is your perfect reference on choosing an engineering discipline. Whether Special you are in school or considering going to Edition school, this book will guide you to success. Celeste Baine kent.edu/CAEST Author of The Green Engineer and Teaching Engineering Made Easy Is There an Engineer Inside You? A Comprehensive Guide to Career Decisions in Engineering Celeste Baine Kent State University Edition Is There an Engineer Inside You? A Comprehensive Guide to Career Decisions in Engineering (Kent State University Edition) by Celeste Baine Published by: Engineering Education Service Center (imprint of Bonamy Publishing) 1004 5th Street Springfield, OR 97477 U.S.A. (541) 988-1005 www.engineeringedu.com Copyright © 2016, 2015, 2013, 2012, 2002, 1998 by Celeste Baine This electronic book is the property of the Kent State University. You may download and share this edition by email, thumb drive or by using other electronic media. No reposting on any website is allowed. Electronic downloads of this edition from anywhere in the world other than the Kent State University website are strictly forbidden. this book is dedicated to that spark of genius in everyone Acknowledgments My thanks and gratitude go to the Official National Partners that banded together to put this book in the hands of thousands of students: Boston Society of Civil Engineers engineeryourfuture.org www.bsces.org Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics Colorado School of Mines wisem.mines.edu Kent State University kent.edu/CAEST Missouri University of Science and Technology www.mst.edu Northwestern State University engrtech.nsula.edu Purdue University polytechnic.purdue.edu SeaPerch www.seaperch.org Society of Women Engineers, Tulsa Northeast Oklahoma Section tulsaneo.swe.org University of Tennessee at Knoxville www.engr.utk.edu Virginia Western Community College virginiawestern.edu Weber State University weber.edu/COAST Western Carolina University wcu.edu Cover Design by Amy Siddon Author Photograph by Steven Ciccarelli Contents Preface Part I, What is Engineering? Chapter 1 Surf’s Up in Engineering It’s Not all About Math What Do They Do? Engineers are Creative? What Does an Engineer Look Like? Why Choose Engineering Your Success Depends on You SUMMER CAMPS STUDENT COMPETITIONS/CONTESTS ENGINEERING PROJECTS IN COMMUNITY SERVICE Match Your Personality Assess Yourself Chapter 2 Choosing Engineering or Engineering Technology ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGIST AND TECHNICIAN FUNCTIONS ENGINEERS ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGISTS ENGINEERING TECHNICIANS What is a Professional Engineer? ENGINEERING INTERN Chapter 3 Gearing Up for College COMMUNITY COLLEGE PROGRAMS FOUR YEAR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES ARTICULATION AGREEMENTS ENGINEERING CURRICULA MANAGE YOUR TIME STUDY SMART FIND A MENTOR Choosing the Right School ACCELERATED PROGRAMS CO-OPS AND INTERNSHIPS Chapter 4 Women in Engineering Chapter 5 Minorities in Engineering Chapter 6 “Wow!” Careers in Engineering Peace Corps Engineers Without Borders Imagineering Sports Equipment Design Music Engineering Green Energy Engineering Space Engineering Engineering for Animal Health Engineering in Business Inventing Products Feature Article - Invent it Today! Engineers in Politics Feature Article - George Washington - The First U.S. Engineer The Bachelor of Art in Engineering Part II, The Many Faces of Engineering Salary Information AERONAUTICAL / AEROSPACE ENGINEERING Feature Article - Aerospace grad making his mark on the game of golf -- and on the golf ball AGRICULTURAL AND BIOLOGICAL ENGINEERING Feature Article - Oceans of Opportunity ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY CERAMIC ENGINEERING CHEMICAL ENGINEERING CIVIL ENGINEERING CIVIL OR CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY COMPUTER ENGINEERING COMPUTER ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING The Footsteps of an Electrical Engineer ELECTRONIC / ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY ELECTROMECHANICAL ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING The Footsteps of an Environmental Engineer FIRE PROTECTION ENGINEERING FIRE PROTECTION ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY FOOD ENGINEERING Feature Article - Food for Thought - The Engineer Who Came to Dinner HEATING, VENTILATING, REFRIGERATING, AND AIR-CONDITIONING ENGINEERING Feature Article - Refrigeration, Milton Garland: One “Cool” Engineer INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY MANUfaCTURING ENGINEERING MANUfaCTURING ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY MARINE ENGINEERING MATERIALS ENGINEERING Feature Article - Smart Engineering MECHANICAL ENGINEERING MECHANICAL ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY METALLURGICAL ENGINEERING The Footsteps of a Metallurgical Engineer NAVAL ARCHITECTURE NUCLEAR ENGINEERING OCEAN ENGINEERING OPTICAL ENGINEERING PETROLEUM ENGINEERING PHARMACEUTICAL ENGINEERING PLASTICS ENGINEERING ROBOTIC ENGINEERING SOFTWARE ENGINEERING STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING SYSTEMS ENGINEERING TELECOMMUNICATIONS ENGINEERING TRANSPORTATION ENGINEERING Appendix 50 Reasons to Become an Engineer ABET Accredited Programs in Engineering ABET Accredited Programs in Engineering Technology Preface When you tell your parents you want to study engineering, they naturally beam with pride. Your friends and acquaintances suddenly put you in a different intellectual bracket than before. People you’ve just met start asking you questions about math or ask you to fix their computer. Everyone wishes you good luck as you leave for the first day of class. When I decided to go to engineering school, I packed up everything I owned and headed east to Louisiana. I wanted to study biomedical engineering and at that time, there weren’t too many affordable programs around. I looked up a list of the top ten programs and chose the smallest college. I wanted small class sizes and a very personalized experience. I wanted to make an impact on my professors, university and community. I had big dreams and I hoped my professors would remember me years later. I was a very serious student and worried about making A’s in everything my first year. I thought my future employers needed a straight-A graduate. In my second calculus class, my ideal world began to slip away. All students have at least one class with a professor they don’t like or can’t understand. This was my class. I had finally met a professor I thought I couldn’t learn from. His math instruction seemed to just bounce off of my skull – I didn’t get it. He would lecture and tell jokes, but I couldn’t laugh; his jokes weren’t funny because I couldn’t understand what he was trying to say. I would go home, struggle, and sometimes cry when I tried to do the work he assigned. Every day I forced myself to open my notes and try again. Most days, I felt as if I was pounding my head against the wall. I began to think that maybe I was in the wrong major. Maybe engineering was for the elite. Maybe I didn’t fit the model of what engineering students were supposed to be. This must be why everyone complained about the difficulties associated with obtaining an engineering education. Thankfully, that class ended, and I continued to pursue my education. And it turned out that the experience I gained from learning to deal with that difficult professor came in handy over the next two years. It is impossible to avoid professors you don’t like or who are not good teachers. But you can learn the essential strategy that will get you through school: taking responsibility for your own learning and becoming excellent at taking tests. Try to see your professors from a different angle by visiting them in their office or e-mailing a question to them related to their class. Sometimes an office visit can remind you that they are real people and not someone your imagination dreamed up to torture you. Fortunately, most professors
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