• Question: What is your favourite topic you studied during the whole engineering course?

    Asked by anisa to Matthew, Neil, Paula, Pete, Philippa on 7 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Pete Symons

      Pete Symons answered on 7 Mar 2015:

      My degree was more of a science course, but the answer would have to risk assessment, it started my interest in safety engineering and gave me a career!

    • Photo: Philippa Jefferis

      Philippa Jefferis answered on 8 Mar 2015:

      I really enjoyed the hands on laboratory work such as when we got to test how strong our concrete was. We had a machine that could apply the load of 2 elephants.

      However, I also enjoyed my module on waste water treatment. Not glamorous at all but so important to ensure we all have clean rivers and no more open sewers running through the street! There’s a lot of clever science and engineering involved in treating water, which we all take for granted every time we flush a toilet.

    • Photo: Neil Taylor

      Neil Taylor answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      Hi!

      As part of my mechanical engineering degree, I studied some topics that focused on materials. These were my favourite courses – I loved learning about all the different types of materials that are out there, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and why they are used. It’s really fun to look at an object and think “What material is it made of? Why? Could it be made of something else?”. It’s easy to have a go yourself – look at an object that is around you and ask these same questions. Things you may want to think about are:

      – density
      – strength
      – price
      – melting point
      – whether it is poisonous
      – how easy it is to make into a certain shape

      The courses also showed you can make different types of steel (which is a mixture of iron with a little carbon) by adding different substances to create an alloy (a mixture of metals). The way that the steel is heated-up and cooled-down also changes its properties. I still think the idea that you can change the way a bit of metal reacts by adding certain other metals or by heating/cooling it in a certain way is really cool!

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