<p>I am very interested in mechanical engineering but being 100 credits into my finance curriculum I’m not sure I want to start back at 0. My question to anyone with an engineering degree here is how much engineering do you think it would be possible for an individual to teach themselves? Keep in mind I consider myself an above average learner and self teacher (I’ve taught myself Piano, Spanish, and to my surprise it turned out getting a finance degree came down to being reintroduced concepts I’ve understood prior to attending classes) I’m not trying to brag or sound smart or anything I’m just wondering.</p>
<p>My dilemma stems from knowing so much about marketing, financing and managing a product or service yet having such limited knowledge in producing the actual product aside from paying people who know how to develop said product. I’m an entrepreneur at heart and I dream of being able to sell a creation of my own, so the question once again is “What can I teach myself to engineer?” Is it unheard of for people to teach themselves to manufacture automobiles? Certain robotics perhaps?</p>
<p>The way I feel finishing up my finance degree is “Hell why didn’t I just buy and read the books by myself?” Is Engineering like this as well or are the labs and professors that important?</p>
<p>Keep in mind I don’t want to be employed as an engineer rather I want the knowledge to be able to develop my own products. Thank you in advance.</p>
<p>That was always the plan but in practice it’s limiting when it comes to the development of new or experimental technologies. I’m not sure I’m comfortable handing over large sums of money to an engineer or firm who is “not sure” they can produce the desired results. Also the technical knowledge would help paint a picture of what really is and isn’t possible as far as an idea goes by allowing me to understand the constraints involved in developing a given product.</p>
<p>I personally feel being able to bridge the gap between the technical and business aspects of bringing a product to light is extremely valuable.</p>
<p>There are lots of self taught engineers out there. Jay Leno might fall into that category. Lots of other people can do various aspects of engineering.</p>
<p>If you want to design your own product, go ahead and do it. If it works, great. It if fails, try again.</p>
<p>^ yeah, but some courses are structured differently. I learned Laplace transforms after Fourier and Z-transforms. They did it before and referred to it constantly. Very confusing.</p>
<p>You also cant ask questions if you have them.</p>
<p>The internet is full of resources. Of course, some things are easier to learn than others (for example, electronics and computer engineering, that would be easiest I think), but you can always find specifics on how to do certain things if you’re not interested in learning all the theory and mathematics that go behind it. Usually entrepreneurs come up with models or plans and then take it to some people who will invest in it. You can’t really build a car by yourself… I mean you could, but engineers never really do that. They have different components that are handled by different types of engineers.</p>
<p>That’s some of what I know about entrepreneurship, though I’d get a second say to back it up as I only have second hand experience with that sort of thing. From what I’ve seen and heard, that’s the gist of it really.</p>
<p>Hey G.P. you seem to have different references to go to that are very interesting. I went to the one from MIT that you mentioned which is very cool. I was curious if you are still in school, if not what type of work do you do? Also for this thread… I found a website that helps with refreshing math and science courses. Its not from a school but I found it very helpful [Khan</a> Academy](<a href=“http://www.khanacademy.org/]Khan”>http://www.khanacademy.org/) I wonder if anybody else has heard of it.</p>
<p>Good luck. Many of us have been trying to figure that one out for a while. At this point, mostly what we have gathered is: He went to Georgia Tech, worked for a company where he did a lot of recruiting, worked as an instructor with a Masters, and then worked or currently works as a professor somewhere with his Ph.D. I am stuck at that point. haha</p>
<p>you cant teach yourself engineering, just as you cant teach yourself brain surgery. Certain engineering fields such as computer engineering or programming can be self taught, but those feilds are not however ‘real’ engineering. Mechanical, electrical, civil etc are Professional fields and you will never enter those fields ‘self taught’ there aint such thing. Watching videos on the internet will not make you an engineer, you need to get your 4 year degree and become licensed as a Professional Engineer which is a real engineer.</p>