Rough Guide to Engineering
What is Engineering?
Engineers are the ultimate problem-solvers, finding solutions to knotty situations, constantly aiming to improve the design and production of practically anything you can think of, from artificial hips to aeroplanes, staplers to cameras, racing cars to power stations – and well beyond.
There are several steps in an engineer’s work:
- identify the problem, either via the market or by actually looking for it yourself
- think creatively, even laterally, about it – is there a better, more original way of doing it other than the accepted way? You’ll use applied maths to calculate whether your brilliant idea will actually work
- work out a compromise solution – which does not mean bodging the job, it’s all about finding the best of a range of different approaches.
It doesn’t end there, though, as engineers love their work so much that every solution just allows them to move on to the next problem. There’s no stopping them!
So an engineering degree involves a lot of thinking, but it’s also about communicating your ideas – a brilliant solution is no good if it just stays in your head. You need to tell people – in writing and drawings, via computers and the web, and, obviously, by talking to them.
What sort of problems do engineers investigate?
- Aerospace engineers might try and work out how to get a new aeroplane, such as the Airbus A380, to fly more efficiently and reliably
- Computer aided engineering is about using computer applications to solve real problems. Say you were developing a new high-performance sports car – you’d need to know how the air flow around it would affect its speed. It’s easier and cheaper to simulate this on a computer than to wait until the car has been built and then find that the design’s wrong.
- Design engineers solve real engineering problems – not only to make things that look good, but also to make sure they work well
- Mechanical engineers look for ways to improve a vast range of ‘things’ – car stereos, space rockets, x-ray equipment, chairs, tumble-dryers… virtually anything that’s actually made
- Medical engineers do it bionically! Need a new body part? A medical engineer will help to make you one – or a new improved one. Got a really bad injury that just won’t get better? A medical engineer will find a way to help make it heal. Medical engineers will eventually be able to rebuild footballers’ broken knee ligaments – and invent new, better, medical equipment to see if it’s worked
- Sports engineers will help athletes get the most out of their bodies and equipment
Why study Engineering?
What can I do afterwards?
Engineers are highly employable in lots of fields (not just engineering). Apart from those superb problem-solving skills you’ll:
- be able to think both analytically and creatively – it’s essential in solving problems, but useful in lots of careers, from advertising to investment banking
- have management ability – especially if you’ve done the MEng, as all final year students have to run a group project
- be a good team worker – those projects again
- have plenty of experience of presentations – because you’ll be doing them throughout the course!
- be highly numerate (always a good one for employers)
- be able to use a range of IT packages in your sleep – spreadsheets, databases and the internet.
Engineers go into a wide range of jobs – finance, management, teaching, investment, accountancy, and… engineering (unsurprisingly). One recent Queen Mary engineering graduate now designs cars for a racing-car company; another has trained to be a commercial airline pilot. A lot of our graduates have gone into technical jobs at companies such as Rolls Royce, Airbus UK, BAE Systems, Astrium and Ricardos. Some of our best students work for consultancies, others go into sales and marketing; one is now a very highly paid financial analyst in the City.
Will I enjoy Engineering?
YES – if you like:
- a challenge
- finding out why and how things work. Why is a golf ball dimpled? Why does a jumbo-jet stay in the air?
- wondering how to make things work better, because surely there must be a better way of removing crumbs from a toaster
- moving onto the next problem!
Why study Engineering at Queen Mary?
We are doing some excellent research and we have very good lab facilities, and some of the best engineering computers in Europe (including one of the first ‘dual cluster high performance parallel computers’!) We have mixed teaching so that if you are a medical engineer you still work with aerospace and mechanical engineers.
The mixture of subjects within the Department also makes it easier to transfer between subjects once you have started, so you have the possibility to change your mind. We do some small-group teaching (five or so students), which is getting quite rare now. And we’re friendly, with very approachable staff.
Most importantly, our professional courses have full accreditation: they’ve been inspected and approved by the professional bodies.
So, for the MEng graduates, no more exams once you’ve graduated!
And what about the students?
As with most departments at Queen Mary, they’re very varied, from all over the UK (but especially the South East) and the world. They’ve got lots of different interests, and are ethnically mixed too. We have over 20 women studying engineering, which is very high for this subject – if you’re female you won’t be on your own in any of the classes!
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