As the title states, is it worth getting into if I want to learn how to build machines (not industrial ones, but smaller ones). Someone told me its a lot of math and awkward stuff that doesnt really teach how to design or build but more how the physics in it works.
How’s electrical engineering? Im serious about building my own circuit boards and electronics/sensors/devices so insight on that will help too. Thanks!
If you want to just learn stuff on your own for personal pleasure, then self study is probably the way to go (the internet is a very good learning resource today). If you want to get an engineering degree, then you will need to be comfortable with "a lot of math and awkward stuff ".
Sort of expanding on Zoomie’s reply, I think it depends on what you are looking for. There is understanding from a “I’ve seen something similar and managed to replicate on my own” standpoint, and then there is understanding of how stuff actually works beyond playing with legos. The lot of math and awkward stuff can be annoying yes, but it teaches you something beyond the fundementals of how stuff works… it teaches you how to solve problems which is a lot of what engineering is about (a significant remainder being the ability to effectively communicate in and around the problem with others). The learning process can provide structure and discipline that allow someone to focus their creative efforts and be effective rather than always having to resort to WAG-ing things and having to “wire it up” to have confidence that the different aspects of a design will do what you want them to individually as well as at a system level. It certainly is possible to reach a level of proficiency doing it yourself, but how long it takes and what value it will really have down the road is really very heavily dependant upon the individual, as is what you are looking for in the first place.
Here is a quick example. I know a guy 20 years my senior (I’ve been EE for 20+ years myself) who never had any formal training beyond his military radio repair depot days, yet his level of understanding of analog semiconductor physics, what really goes on in a circuit, and his ability to think outside the box and apply that understanding to solve real world problems is astounding. The same guy is a math nut, actually loves solving/playing with calculus problems, but yet I can’t say I have ever seen him actually directly apply any in practice. On the other hand I have met grad students with good grades and academic recommendations looking for a designers job that could not tell you how a telephone actually works beyond the utmost obvious level. Scary. Next applicant please.
By the way, both “EE” and “ME” are really wide open fields. There are schools that offer hybrid BS degrees in things like computer engineering and industrial robotics. Within EE alone I can think of half a dozen major field areas that are different enough that they are almost like separate degrees yet they all fall under BS/MS EE. If you are really contemplating what level of school to explore in finding a career in either of those fields then you really want to do a lot of research into what programs are offered by schools all over the country, or even internationally if that’s something in your scope. You may find you are not looking for a classical EE or ME education but one of these programs that combine aspects of several programs into one degree may be well suited to your interests.
good luck.
:mrgreen:
You should choose your major based on what career you want to have, oh, for the rest of your life. It sounds like your trying decide which college major can best supplement your hobby.
I know people who went into college with this kind of mindset, and they ended up with Criminal Justice or Kinesiology degrees and their careers are things like selling mortgages to people with bad credit.
@EddieB - awesome response, helped a lot.
Yeah I want a career in robotics, I want to do the building portion and the electronics portion. Just not sure whether to pick mechanical or electrical engineering. However, electronics fascinate me a lot and sometimes the form/function of a machine make me fall in love with it so I’m not entirely sure if mechanical engineering teaches how to build things, or if EE will help me build electronics.
It depends, here in Quebec, electrical engineering wil most often teach you the big stuff. Like the huge hydro-electrical voltage and amps. how to bring it to the cities with the less energy wasted etc. You also have in some universities a major in micro electronics wich is what I think you would prefere. It’s about building celle phones, MP3, robot brains… But then again, let’s say in the Asimo or any advanced robot, the is more programing involved. Maybe 10 people in programing involved in a certain project and only 1 or 2 in electrical. They need them just to choose the boards and connect to batteries and sensors. so I don’t think there a lot of work in robotics for EE or Mechanical (the teams I saw where 3 max mech for 10-15 programing).
It’s a difficult choice, me too I’m smak in the middle of it. I also saw some programs that toucvh both EE and Mech
By the way, what do you want to do if you work in robotics… Ther aren’t so many jobs especialy for the non-industiral person.Best of luck 
Yeah I dont want to do electrical…which is the city stuff, I want to do electronics…im gonna see if I can change my major to Mechanical because electrical is not what I want, and I doubt it’ll help? Unless it does, who knows. Gonna check out what the advisors have to say about that this summer before I begin.
Oh and I want to rule the world. Gotta start small…
You could get a Computer Science degree and study electronics on the side.
And just how would I study electronics on the side?
Why a CS degree?
Or computer engineering which is like 50/50 between EE and CS. An example factsheets.umaine.edu/EGR/5-CEN.pdf
Everyone seems to agree that programming is the most challenging aspect of robotics. See Zenta, etc… great design, mechanicals, but no onboard brain. Also, the CS degree will give you many job opportunities when the realities of life at age 23 set in. I’m a professional developer so I would know. There are not as many EE jobs out there.
Eddie, in general I wouldn’t recommend Computer Engineering because there are not many schools that carry it as a separate major.
Start building circuits. I began doing this a few months ago, and I’m getting pretty close to starting to design my own PCBs. It’s not that hard, but you have to DO it. You can’t just read about electronics. Get a multimeter if you don’t have one!
yeah is why I linked the .pdf from umaine. I went to orono many many moons ago and knew they had this program, which oddly enough I probably would have done had I been there a few years later. Heh. But then again I have a friend in Indiana who recently graduated with a degree in industrial robotics from somewhere out there and I would have loved to done that too, had it existed at the time. This is why I suggested doing much research into what is offered by different schools all over the country, mostly because it seems that schools frequently have additional degree programs that are related to the industry in their area. I highly suspect this is due to the availablilty of funding for grants and programs from local sources.
From my own experience, a Computer Engineering degree is probably what you are looking for. The mathematics, physics, and other natural science will support your endeavors in engineering. The CE degree at my school was more 33/33/33 of EE/CE/CS. It also depends on what upper-level classes you later choose during your jr. and sr. year at an undergrad.
CE degree was very flexible at my school. It gave me many options of what level/layer of the work you wanted to get into. It can range anywhere from device design/physics to operating system programming (kernel-level).
I was the type that liked everything, coming into the college with a background in programming but an interest with digital and analog circuit. Some of the things I learned that are engineering related were embedded, micro-controller based system design, analog, and high-speed digital design.
I think any degree, EE, CE, or CS will definitely help you understand the hobby of electronics and robotics better. As for your career, it’s really hard to say what you will end up doing. I came into the college wanting to learn the skills necessary to develop a video game system and programming of it. In fact, my senior project was a video game system (micro-controller based) with my home-brewed Tetris game (user-space middleware) that plays on TV (RF modulator).
I was really into micro-controller based system design, so I ended being a TA for a design course for about 2 1/2 years. My last quarter there, I chose this course in high-speed digital design, which led me to a career in RF Engineering.
Just remember that just because the major you choose only touches a proportion of your hobby, doesn’t mean that you’ll suddenly forget or suddenly stops you from your hobbies. My hobbies involved RC Cars and robotics, and even though I do RF as a career, you can still develop the skills you need after-hours.
For me, I came to the realization that there’s nothing wrong with working in a field that’s far from your hobby, since that paycheck pays for my hobby… I would say check out the course curriculum for each type of major and see if there are any upper-level courses that will satisfy your craving…
