I’m a first-year mechanical engineering student who struggles a lot with building projects. Whether it’s a bridge or a car, although I find the idea of the finished product fascinating, I struggle to build it. I never really had a lot of experiences in my childhood that helped me develop this skill but with that said I want to learn, although I do not know where to start. I’m considering if there’s a way to improve this skill or switch my major. I just feel like the people that are good at building stuff are like wizards to me. Right now, I find myself frustrated but I don’t want to give up, not before trying to get better at least.
To get better at building you need to build stuff. People who are good at it just have more experience. Don’t overthink it. Just start building. You will make a lot of mistakes but that’s how you learn
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Are you better inclined to design since you like the final projects so much?
But as stated. Start building in a group and learn from others.
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You’re a first year - do well academically and you’ll be fine.
Not all engineers truly know how to build stuff and approximately 3/4 of engineering majors don’t even work as engineers.
Switch your major? hmmm - no.
Do you have a formula SAE club or other club to work on things?
You’re going to college to learn - so keep working hard.
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Got it I see so it all comes down experience huh? I appreciate everyone’s response. I thought about picking up carpentry since we have multiple makerspaces on campus. Do you have any suggestion of other hobby/activity that could help me get better at building stuff???
Talk to the professors. Look at clubs. Find something that interests you.
Carpentry is great - not necessarily for engineering but when you own a house and need to hire people to fix things (like I do) - you can do it on your own!!
[A] ceramics teacher announced on opening day that he was dividing the class into two groups. All those on the left side of the studio, he said, would be graded solely on the quantity of work they produced, all those on the right solely on its quality. His procedure was simple: on the final day of class he would bring in his bathroom scales and weigh the work of the “quantity” group: fifty pound of pots rated an “A”, forty pounds a “B”, and so on. Those being graded on “quality”, however, needed to produce only one pot — albeit a perfect one — to get an “A”. Well, came grading time and a curious fact emerged: the works of highest quality were all produced by the group being graded for quantity. It seems that while the “quantity” group was busily churning out piles of work – and learning from their mistakes — the “quality” group had sat theorizing about perfection, and in the end had little more to show for their efforts than grandiose theories and a pile of dead clay.
— from David Bayles and Ted Orland’s book, Art & Fear (via Austin Kleon)
Making more leads to making better.
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My husband is a career engineer (electrical, but worked with many mechanical engineers in his work). They were design engineers…never actually built anything themselves.
Why do you think you need to get better at building things to be a good engineer?
Go to your professor and engineering advisor with questions.
Who says you need to build stuff anyway? You as an engineer need to solve problems even in mechanical. You are part of a team. You have to design efficient systems. Depending on what part of mechanical most aren’t physically building anything if this makes sense.
In your classes and labs you will come across different ways to build things. Some might be better with hand tools and you might be better with a CAD system. As a first semester engineering student your basically taking basic courses. Enjoy those. Engineering hasn’t really even started yet.
Again your professors and advisors can help you understand all of this.
Do you feel difficult to come up with a plan to built it? or to implement the plan?
I used to teach robotics in middle and high school. Some of my students were good at coming up with ideas, and some were good at putting things together. Not many were good at both but that’s all right.
If you don’t know where to start, may I introduce the FIRST program (https://www.firstinspires.org/)?
If you would consider mentoring kids, there’s a good chance that there are FLL and FTC robotics teams near you. You can look up registered teams here Team and Event Search | FIRST
Team mentors are not coaches. They can provide support in many ways. If mentoring feels too much, maybe you would consider volunteering at competition events? If you follow a team or two for a season, you can see how they go through the design-build-test-modify cycle. Many of these team members, especially the FTC and FRC team members, want to study engineering in college. You can give them much insight.
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