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Asked by bulbasaur12345 to Amanda, Ben, Dan, Gary, Samer on 24 Jun 2013.
Question: is engineering like being ann inventer?
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Ben Drumm answered on 24 Jun 2013:
Yeah kind of (although Mechanical Engineering is probably a bit more professional than a bloke in a shed blowing things up).
For example, I was given the task of designing a new ‘beam profile monitor’ which tells scientists the shape of our particle beam. I was given the actual monitor device (which looks a bit like a circuit board) and was told that it had to be able to rotate 90 degrees, sit inside a vacuum chamber and have some electric field plates below it.
The rest of the design was up to me – and it worked – so I kind of ‘invented’ this new piece of kit…!
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Gary Boorman answered on 24 Jun 2013:
Yes, I think it is. Often an engineer has to come up with new ways of how to put systems together so they work, rather like inventors do. But engineers usually have to make something that can be manufactured easily, not cost too much and be what people actually want to use! Sometimes inventors get rather carried away (have you seen Dragons Den on TV?).
Comments
zanzielover commented on :
would being good at art help, and are architects types of engineers?
Ben commented on :
Architecture (I would say) is a type of engineering applied to the design of buildings. An architecture degree I’m sure covers a lot of what I studied at uni (Automotive Engineering).
Being good at art would help, but being very arty and creative is not as big a part of engineering as the analytical side (i.e. doing calculations to validate your designs). Engineering is more about maths than art really…
Art is good for things like product design (i.e. laying out an iphone, or designing the appearance of a laptop) and there was an Innovation and Engineering Design degree I could have done at uni which covers that sort of stuff (and was more suited to the arty people).
In my opinion the bottom line is; maths is essential, art is a bonus…!