justinmeche

I am a mechanical engineer who works in a power plant. I can spend a lot of time at my cubicle writing reports and reviewing data but I can also spend a lot of time out in the plant. For example, as a performance engineer I had to do the manual testing work out in the plant and that involved interacting with the equipment. The follow-up work involves typing reports and presenting the findings. Right now I am working on a control system upgrade and control room modification. I spend time at my desk reviewing electrical drawings and data concerning the input/output points that need to be verified. Once our unit is shutdown we will be tearing apart the control room and will supervise the installation of new control units and wiring and I will be working with the electricians to test the circuits, as well as coordinating the contractors who will be doing the physical renovations to the control room (new ceiling, new access floor, new lighting components, etc.). A major part of my job as a power plant engineer is serving as a liason between contractors and the plant.

ilyasaber14

Ken285: I thought they worked in laboratories with other types of engineers.

Anyway, my other question is, is it common for a ChemE to end up working at a hospital, helping design a new prosthesis, etc?

ken285

I *think* there are some factories that have labs in them (all on one campus)... perhaps pharmaceuticals? You're probably thinking about factories as just places that produce machines, and not chemicals and such.

Designing a new prosthesis would be more in the field of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering. There might be some chemical engineers though that look at the interaction between different types of materials (maybe? I'm not that familiar with the field).

hook em all day

I am about to start my first year of college at U of Texas on my way to becoming a Petroleum Engineer. I have yet to really figure out exactly what they do though, can anyone help me out on this post?

hook em all day

i should say, I know the general idea, "find the oil", but what are the specifics of the occupation?

ish718

petroleum engineers search the world for oil or natural gases, they work closely with geologist. They design equipment and processes to attain the oil more efficiently.

sakky

These days, finding brand new oil/gas reservoirs is only one task that PetE's do, and probably only a minor aspect at that. Many (probably most) PetE's these days are assigned to manage existing reservoirs. For example, the general characteristics of a reservoir may be known, but not its exact dimensions, and so much of petroleum engineering is devoted to drilling new wells or modifying existing wells into the reservoir so as to learn more information about the reservoir (which then opens the question of whether the expense of performing this work is worth the value of the extra information you would receive about the reservoir). A related aspect is the proper management of the reservoir. A properly engineered reservoir (i.e. with production and injection wells drilled in the right places, with proper sensors in the proper places to monitor the evolution of the reservoir) will produce more oil than a poorly engineered one. One could say that this kind of engineering also 'finds oil' in the sense that the reservoir now can produce more oil than originally thought.