jmilton90

Just wondering what you guys think is the most significant and respected engineering disciplines for the modern world. I personally think ChemE is climbing up as high impact (due to energy crisis), but not necessarily the most respected of the engineering disciplines. What do you all you engineers (or apprentice engineers) think?

steevee

I think the question itself is fundamentally flawed. There is no engineering discipline that stands above the rest as more important. I need chemical engineers to process the crude oil. I need the mechanical engineers to design the machinery that manufactures everything. I need the electrical engineers to distribute power to my home. I need the civil engineers to build the highway system to get me to work.

However, I do believe that certain engineers are "less important". Do we really need another electrical engineer to design yet another MP3 player? Probably not. Thus, it is not the discipline itself that one should focus on, but the nature of the job that the engineer is involved in.

im_blue

The most high impact (and thus most selective) engineering discipline is Electrical Engineering at most schools which admit by major, such as Berkeley, UIUC, Michigan, UCLA, etc. From talking to foreign grad students, it seems that their home countries also require the highest entrance exam scores to be placed into the EE major in college.

Chemical and Mechanical are also pretty well respected.

Certain engineering majors such as Civil, Environmental, Materials, and Industrial get less respect due to the perceived easier nature of their courses.

sang54

I'd say computer science.

jmilton90

I thought computer science isn't really engineering.

ken285

It has more to do with the industry than the type of engineering. We most certainly need EE's to design and run power plants.

You can make a case for all of the engineering majors to be the most important. Civil engineering, because without it, we'd all be living in caves... literally. Mechanical engineering, because... well, isn't 99% of the world built with machines? Chemical engineering... for oil, for energy, etc. EE for power.

CS... I can't really make a strong case for. It most certainly is beneficial to society, but is it critical for our survival? We've gotten through thousands of years without it. Feel free to debate with me about this.

csprof2000

"I thought computer science isn't really engineering."

Theoretically, it's not. Software Engineering would be the engineering part of Computer Science.

Practically speaking, the field hasn't existed long enough for that distinction to mean anything. It's getting there, but as it stands, computer scientists and software engineers both learn the same core: a mix of math, science, and engineering principles.

But yes, CS does have more of an impact that any of those other majors, if you ask me. But that's just my opinion. CS is having an impact on the world because it is new, and because it is facilitating globalization which would otherwise be impossible. It's the information age, thanks to CS. Economically, it is unparalleled.

aibarr

Do we have to do this again?

Really, we've been through the whole engineering-can-be-easy-or-really-difficult-no-matter-what-the-field thing a million times... No matter what perception is, the reality of engineering is that it's all difficult, and that at the upper tiers it's basically all the same jazz anyhow.

Here's a devil's advocate position: civil, and in particular, structural engineering is the most underrespected of all engineering degrees.

It's high impact, because all of our nation's infrastructure is currently in a state of extreme shambles, and it will be up to a comparatively small pool of structural and civil engineers to design repairs or replacements. It's high impact because it's typically up to structural engineers to prevent fatalities due to earthquakes, due to hurricanes, due to terrorism, due to floods, and due to tornados. It's high impact because every road you drive on, every pipe that water flows into and that sewage flows out of, every underground conduit, every flood control system, every stoplight, every transit system, every traffic sign, every home, every building, every hospital, every airport and runway that airplanes travel, every tunnel, every tower, everywhere... has been designed by a civil or structural engineer.

We have to know the most diverse base of knowledge, to the point that the ASCE recently convinced ABET to start accrediting dual-degree programs. Our works are so critical that the government strictly regulates our licensure. There are more steps to becoming a structural engineer than there are for any other type of engineering, and for the very top engineers, our "residency" requirements rival those of doctors, and thoroughly smash those of typical lawyers.

I solve as many things by whacking a hammer against them as I do by creating a complex finite element model, so I have to know about practical tools and tricks, as well as finite element theory. I have to know about dirt. I have to know about steel, concrete, geometry, tensor calculus, linear algebra, fluid dynamics, building codes, structural dynamics, seismology, geology, welding, machinery, medical equipment, metallurgy, software design and programming, law, art, architecture, and communications equipment, and I have to occasionally dangle from buildings on swing stages, or on bosun's chairs. So beyond all other fields, aside from perhaps petroleum engineering, my field may just have the highest pee-your-pants factor of any other field, too.

Can't say my curriculum was easy... My curriculum rivaled those of graduate physics majors, and we took some of the same classes. Can't say I don't have long hours... My comp sci, elec, and chem eng buddies are all a little freaked about the hours my job requires. Can't say I'm particularly well-compensated... I'm salaried, so all told, I get paid about 20 an hour (for a lot of hours), which is 4 bucks below what I made as a tutor in college.

So, them's the facts of the devil's advocate position. I don't necessarily believe that I should be paid more, or that I should get to work less (well, maybe I'd rather work a little less), or that we should get more respect than we currently do as an engineering discipline.

I'm just saying that maybe this question can be looked at in a lot of different ways, and maybe it's so subjective as to just be flamebait. So... do we have to do this again?

ken285

It's tough to say there's one that's significantly more important than another because everyone is dependent on each other. Assuming CS is the answer, where would it be without the machines to create the computers? Where would those machines be housed if there was no building? How would the building be built without energy to fuel the machines? Take any one of those steps out and the world as we know it won't exist.

EDIT: Do you think people would say CS because all the other fields are taken for granted? Many people today were around before CS became big, so the importance of it may seem to be more than it actually is.

jmilton90

Well, I think the original question suggests that say for example if we were in the 1940s era, nuclear engineering would probably be rated as the high impact discipline (to develop the nuclear bombs required to bring the WWII to a halt). In that sense, (minus the politics of A-bomb dropping) nuclear technology might be the most highly regarded engineering discipline at the time (ie. Manhattan Project, new nuclear energy generation schemes).

So this is not a discussion about which disciplines are easier in school (that's pretty clear, EECS/ChemE ---> Civils, ranked in terms of academically challenging). This is a discussion about modern societal IMPACT (as in world changing) and which engineering disciplines are held in higher regard in terms of contribution.

In this era, I think sustainable resources/materials and energy development are key to the success of future. So I would think Civils/ChemEs/Materials Engineers are probably the most capable of bringing new technology/materials to the modern human race.

aibarr

*facepalm*.

mydegisunacred

another crappy, ego-feeding major ranking thread


I say EE is the easiest and least important, especially when coupled with an MBA from a top 10 school

notre dame AL

What about aero? Or is that too close to Mech?

steevee

I tried to kill off this ego-feeding thread with my first post, but I guess I failed.

silverbullet

ya kno, i always had the impression that a mechanical engineers can pretty much do whatever it is civil engineers do.