If you’re thinking about taking up an engineering course, realize that many of the specialties within engineering come with its own set of challenges and intricacies, which require different educational requirements.
Let me show you some of the most popular and useful degrees within the engineering world, which should help you pick the right degree to pursue.
Electrical Engineering: When it comes to developing, designing, and testing electrical systems especially on a massive, complex scale, electrical engineers are your go-to guys.
Dealing with just about anything concerning electrical systems (wiring and lighting in buildings; power supplies for massive machines like airplanes and cars, etc.), it’s NOT surprising that this is the largest field within engineering.
If you’re someone who has a knack for de-constructing, analyzing how electronic gadgets and gizmos work, and putting them back in one piece, electrical engineering could be the RIGHT field for you.
Architectural Engineering: If electrical engineers eat complex electrical systems for breakfast, architectural engineers spend most of their waking hours conceptualizing and designing buildings and structures that we encounter day-in and day-out.
The Empire State Building, Petronas Towers, Sydney Opera House – these are just some of the most massive and awe-inspiring structures that were brought to life by brilliant architectural engineering.
From residential homes, communication towers, commercial skyscrapers, to bridges – every structure you see around you was designed from the ground up through architectural engineering. If you’re someone who wants to learn how to design structurally-sound buildings that pass environmental and aesthetic requirements, this is the degree to take.
Agricultural Engineering: While not as common as architectural and electrical engineering, this branch of engineering is rapidly growing in popularity… thanks to the support of young eco-conscious students.
By combining different disciplines like animal and plant biology; mechanical, civil, and electrical engineering; and other expertise, agricultural engineering applies science and technology to improve agricultural production and processing.
Biomedical Engineering (BME): Professionals within this field seeks to close the gap between engineering and medicine. By combining the design principles and problem-solving skills of engineering with medical and biological sciences, BME seeks to develop and modernize healthcare treatment (diagnosis, monitoring, therapy, etc).
To be honest, biomedical engineering is a very young discipline compared to other engineering fields. If you’re an ambitious student who loves to conquer new ground and tread on uncharted but challenging territories, this engineering field offers exactly that!
Computer Engineering: By combining different expertise and skills within electrical engineering and computer science, this discipline aims to develop computer hardware and software solutions for a wide range of users.
From coding, cryptography, and data protection; communication and wireless networks; to computer networks, mobile computing, and distributed systems, computer engineering has a numerous specialty areas within it and they all require rigorous and difficult training for at least 6 years.