Petroleum Engineering Degrees

Petroleum engineering deals with the production of hydrocarbons—the products of crude oil and natural gas. This above-ground field focuses on recovering fossil fuels from below ground in the most economical and environmentally friendly ways.

Trained to understand the physical behavior of oil, water, and gas deep in porous rock and under high pressure, these skilled engineers make reliable estimations of the volume of a resource's reservoir.

They form teams with geologists to determine the best methods for depleting reservoirs. Related disciplines include drilling, reservoir simulation, well engineering, petroleum geology, and geophysics.

Since the beginning of petroleum engineering, in the early 20th century, many easily accessed deposits have been depleted. Fuel harvesting has become more dependent on fresh technologies incorporating horizontal drilling and computer modeling.

Drilling in deserts and in deep waters requires today's engineers to have expertise in intelligent systems, geomechanics, and hydraulics, naming only a few things on their growing list of knowledge bases.

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Automotive Engineering Career

Automotive Engineering Career

Engineering students should choose a college or university that is recognized by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET). In evaluating an automotive engineer job applicant, some employers consider the reputation of the engineering school that the undergraduate attended more than any other factor. However, most employers focus more on the undergraduate's grades and amount of his or her hands-on experience. Consequently, any college or university that promotes national design and racing competitions in which the student gains hands-on experience would be a good choice. Students should also look for internships or other opportunities that will force them to apply coursework to real-life situations. Over time, the school will not be as important as the experience and skills the engineering the undergraduate offers.

Because not many schools offer a bachelor’s degree program in automotive engineering, most aspiring automotive students enter a mechanical engineering program. This is because automotive engineering is an offshoot of mechanical engineering and therefore, many of the classes are the same. However, some schools offer mechanical engineering programs that include automotive engineering courses such as:

• Automobile dynamics
• Automotive electronics
• Engine parts
• Diesel engine theory
• Alternative energy sources
• Fuel cell systems
• Powertrain dynamics

It usually takes four years to complete a bachelor's degree in engineering. During the last year, the student must finish a design project, either alone or with other students. After graduation, the new engineer must work under the supervision of a licensed professional engineer for a certain number of years, depending on the state, and pass and Engineer-In-Training exam and Professional Engineers exam to become a licensed professional engineer.

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Environmental Engineering Degrees

Engineers are the world's lifeline to everything that defines our civilization, not unlike the Romans with their aqueducts, toilets, and sewer systems. Environmental engineering is a critical career field that helps keep our planet inhabitable and sustainable.

If you are considering embarking on a career dedicated to environmental engineering, there are many facets of your education that will come into play, and the more you know now, the better engineer you will be.

Your role as an environmental engineer will involve providing safe and plentiful water supplies, developing systems for reducing pollutants in air, water and hazardous wastes; anticipating the effects of contaminants' transport, and correcting improper disposal situations where hazardous materials are concerned.

As an environmental engineer, you will seek solutions to public health threats, improvements in and adherence to the law surrounding sanitation and construction, waste disposal, recycling, industrial hygiene, and environmental sustainability.

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Transport Engineering Degree

Transportation engineering focuses on the design and development of public transportation infrastructure and systems. As a discipline of civil engineering, practitioners endeavor to create roads, bridges, mass transit systems and other modes of transport to enhance society. In this capacity, these practitioners may design, operate and repair any of these assets with the aim of producing fast, efficient, safe, cost-effective, and sustainable forms of transport. Airport, highway, railroad and port engineering are all subsets of the discipline.

Learn more about becoming a transport engineer by contacting the schools below to request information about their programs!

On a daily basis, transport engineers juggle a medley of tasks from interfacing with clients and suppliers in-person and over e-mail to meeting with their teams to receive project status updates and to address any complications in a project lifecycle. More business-oriented professionals may attend strategy sessions with their executive teams and/or meet with current and potential investors to discuss prospective opportunities in the market place. In the evenings, many professionals engage in continuing education initiatives, whereby they may take a course on new technological advances and/or attend a presentation by an academic or industry practitioner to receive insight on best practices or solutions to existing problems.
National and local governments as well as private firms seeks to employ these professionals for global projects, where they are given the responsibility to ensure safety and efficiency, whereby they are entrusted to ensure public safety by meeting building codes and standards through computer hardware and software applications.

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Molecular Engineering Degree

Molecular engineering entails the creation of molecules and the development of new products from them. Often these molecules do not exist naturally and may not be stable enough to employ beyond a narrow of parameter of uses. It is quite difficult to create these particles, as it requires the manual use of sensitive equipment such as a scanning tunneling microscope. The technology has the capacity to take entire libraries of books and condense their contents into a digital storage device the size of a single cube of sugar. This is an interesting field of engineering, with limitless potential. If you want to learn more about working towards a career in this area, search for schools in your area by using our list below. The work of molecular engineers is present in every industry, including robotics, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, materials, fashion and entertainment. In addition, the agricultural industry and medical devices field is expected to be transformed by innovations in molecular engineering, thereby forging new markets and employment opportunities for trained professionals.

The field is particularly important for scientific materials research and pharmaceuticals, as it is employed as a sophisticated form of chemical engineering. A potential application of molecular engineering would include a minute device that navigates seamlessly through a human body eradicating cancerous cells thereby precluding them from spreading. Duties of professional in the field may well include using statistics and computer models to predict molecular manipulation outcomes; employ business acumen in marketing applications; demonstrate leadership capabilities in managing a team of engineers and researchers; as well as manage the entire life cycle of product development.

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Master of Science Degree and Doctorate in Aerospace Engineering

Master of Science Degree and Doctorate in Aerospace Engineering

Graduate students seeking a master's or doctorate degrees to augment their undergraduate or graduate education can take advanced courses in:

• Aerodynamics and fluid mechanics
  • The study of air flow over a body, such as the wings on an aircraft or spacecraft.

• Aeroelasticity and structural dynamics
  • The study of how inertial, elastic and aerodynamic forces interact.

• Flight mechanics and control
  • The study of how forces affect a flight vehicle, how it responds to those forces and how to modify the vehicle to achieve the desired goals.

• Propulsion and combustion
  • The study of creating mechanical power using internal combustion engines, jet engines, turbomachinery, propellers, wings, fins, and wheel and axles to generate force causing motion.

• Structural mechanics and materials behavior
  • The study of the stress and strain on the components of a flight vehicle.

• System design and optimization
• The study of the application of algorithms to improve the performance, weight, reliability and/or cost of aircraft and spacecraft systems.

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Applied Engineer Salary information

Applied Engineer Salary information

The Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering has developed congresses and resources to enhance the visibility of the field and equip practitioners with the latest knowledge and best practices in the industry. Like this organization, the Technology Student Association (TSA) and the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) offer resources and materials to candidates in the field, including a library of publications, news and technological innovations. These associations work to provide rich mentoring and networking opportunities for members and aspiring candidates to enter and/or advance in the field. At the university level, students capitalize on alumni networks and on-campus recruiting efforts made by leading firms to fulfill their talent needs. Companies such as IBM, Ingersoll Rand, General Mills and CoreComm are a sampling of the firms who have acquired new personnel through these avenues. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects a gradual decline in the employment prospects for these types of professionals, as manufacturing activities fall within the United States. O*Net reports that these professionals earn a yearly salary of $60,560.

As a project engineer for Applied Engineering, Mike Jamieson daily exhibits the range of skills a practitioner in the field must master to excel. He interfaces with internal and external team members and associates in-person and over e-mail every morning. He then focusses on business activities such as speaking with various suppliers on product inventory, consulting with clients on budget requirements and researching options on the internet. In the afternoon, he often leaves the office to visit clients and ongoing projects. He enjoys the opportunity to get out of the office and into the field to interact live with people. For example, on one project he consulted with one of the managers on an HVAC system for a residential structure, specifically the ductwork and air flow systems. Later in the afternoon, he returns to the office to revisit projects he initially tacked in the morning. He may attend more meetings to deliver presentations on status or negotiate with suppliers to acquire the best pricing for a client project. Demonstrating his commitment to continuous education, Jamieson in the evenings attends functions featuring industry thought leaders who make presentations on recent development in technology and best practices. In the past he attended a dinner featuring a presentation by a professor at Purdue University who presented a talk on refrigeration concepts and developing compressor innovations. Ultimately, each day presents him with a range of challenges and learning experiences that enrich him.

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A Day in the Life of Software Engineers

Software engineering is a practical, intuitive, creative and analytical field. Engineers come up with ways of improving computer systems to generate quality use of the technology. This work includes tests, prototypes and evaluations of software and computer systems. Professionals deal with developing of web applications, managing systems information as well as finding solutions to user-specific problems.

This career involves the use of a systematic code structure that is needed to map out the software. An understanding of programming languages is one of the most basic requirements in this line of work. It is highly stylized for computer programming and engineering. The code is very specific. Any error will result in unwanted changes in the system. Software engineers use this code to write system programs. It includes line by line instructions to tell the software what to do.

Software engineers have to analyze user needs in software systems in order to determine the areas that require development. They make use of technical testing tools in figuring out the best quality upgrades for the software they work on and come up with package systems and customized applications. Maintenance is also an important part of the job.

Professionals are expected to be able to work with fellow engineers. They will form part of a software team to manage work efficiently. Working as a team will allow these professionals to pull together resources and ideas to come up with more options and solutions in the development and modification process. These engineers usually work in offices or laboratories.

Software engineers may have different areas of focus. Some tend to work on software development while there are other people who prefer to concentrate on system design. Some will focus on medical software. Game design is also growing in popularity. All of these professionals work using the same software engineering principles.

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Electrical Engineer Careers and Nature of Work

Electrical Engineer Nature of Work

Electrical engineers specialize in power supply and generation. They design, develop, test and supervise electrical equipment manufacturing. They have also been trained to handle responsibilities like wiring and lighting installations in buildings, automobiles and aircraft.

What is great about being an electrical engineer is that the training is so extensive that graduates may land a job in many different industries such as construction, manufacturing and design.

Moreover, electrical engineers may take part in development and research as assistants to scientists and other engineers. Many kinds of electronic equipment from portable music players to GPS devices pass through an electronic engineer’s hands.

They come up with means to use electrical power to operate a certain product or improve its functions. Among the most challenging and in-demand tasks for electronic engineers today include developing construction plans for electrical lighting systems for skyscrapers, designing remote-controlled race cars and building technology for factories like robots that can perform welding.

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