Engineering is definitely one of those areas where people are most fascinated about. Those who do possess any form of engineering degree are often perceived as brighter than the rest and most often for good reasons.

Getting into the field of engineering is a big challenge on its own, let alone graduating from it. It is also one of those areas that is always going to be in high demand. 

According to the University of Bath (UK), “Engineering is the designing, testing and building of machines, structures and processes using math and science.” which probably is the most accurate definition of the word.

You may even have a handful of engineers around you as well. This is normally the case in the more developed countries such as Canada and the United States where the number of industries keeping the economic flow of the country rises daily.

Such countries also tend to have more advanced technologies which are mostly  the fruits of the hard work of their engineers. This creates a loop of demand for engineers.

In this article we are going to take a look at what engineering is, who it is for, the major types of engineering, what are the career prospects and more. Let’s get to it then!

What Is Engineering?

When it comes to engineering, the field seems rather complicated and maybe even frightening because it actually is. After all, the whole world is dependent on the works of engineers.

“Oh man, will I be using any of these integrations?”. Every student has probably said something along those lines somewhere in their highschool. Well engineering is the answer to that question. It is basically the field in which you will be using and applying pretty much everything you have learnt, or not learnt, in highschool. Once you step into engineering, everything else will fall into place.

Engineering is the field that makes the world work. Without them, pretty much anything that is around us will collapse, fall apart or stop working. Those that do not, will cost a fortune just to produce and we are not even going to talk about the distribution. It is also one of the most ancient fields of science which man discovered during the prehistoric era.

Engineers are not just executors of tasks. Many times one engineer is a moving company on his own. The one-man army. They carefully observe the world around them, discover a problem, come up with specific solutions, design them, produce them and present them to the outside world to help make the life of their target population easier using their hard earned knowledge and experience. 

Other times, they try to improve, modify or redesign entirely the works of a previous engineer. Those engineers who do not work to create solutions are likely out there designing new concepts.

In the mind of an engineer, the possibilities are practically endless. Their field of work is often full of creativity, new things and innovations everyday.  For those who are passionate about creating, designing and solving problems, engineering is the way!

Engineering Disciplines You Should Know

Engineering has become such a vast major and the number of fields is growing everyday. There are generally two types of engineering: those that are considered a field of their own and those that are a mix of two or more areas of engineering which are known as Interdisciplinary Fields. 

For example, mechanical engineering is a field of its own while say robotics and mechatronics are made up of mechanical and electrical engineering along with computer science and so are considered interdisciplinary. 

Working in such areas most often requires an extra level of knowledge and skill as the engineer present in projects must have sufficient experience in all of the major areas in order to fully grasp the gist of the project. 

Read our full article “What Robotics Engineering actually Is?” and “What Is Robotics for Kids” to learn more about this magnificent field of engineering and how it will alter the direction of your child’s life.

Now let’s have a brief look at some of the major areas of engineering and what studying them will look like.

Mechanical Engineering

Every time the discussion about the field of engineering comes up, people often automatically think of mechanical engineering unconsciously. This is the field that you will come across when you Google the word engineering in Google Images. It is probably the most diverse field among all of engineering. 

It is where math and mechanics marry. Mechanical engineers design and produce anything that has any mechanical properties. That includes the cars we drive, the keyboards we type with, and some good parts of our building. 

They may also be included in a larger team where a bigger more complex product is being designed and produced. For example they will be the ones who take care of the designs of many parts of a space shuttle. 

A mechanical engineer often has a very good sense of forces that are being applied on their project as well the thermodynamic situation.

The areas where mechanical engineers often find entry-level jobs are construction businesses, factories and mass manufacturers. They can then move up the hierarchy and work as general and executive managers, chief designers or become heads of certain teams in many companies.

It is worth noting that there are also countless high-salary jobs in the major companies such as Apple.

What Does The Course Look Like 

The person who attends a mechanical engineering course will be starting by learning and reviewing the basics of physics and math. Their courses will then gradually move up the difficulty level to the more advanced areas where they will be studying the 3 main areas of classical physics separately in different classes. 

These are statics, which is the study of forces that need to be applied to keep an object in a stationary state. This includes the study of beams, walls, bridges, buildings and parts and mechanical structures or parts when they are being stationary. For example, when a general robot is standing stationary, the calculation and design that makes sure it will not break or fall apart is done with the knowledge of statics.

The course will then continue into the world of dynamic mechanics where students learn about the mechanical properties of a moving object. These include its behavior while moving, controlling its velocity, acceleration, direction of movement and more. A lot of what we know as rocket science comes from this area.

Chemical Engineering

Chemical engineering is one of the most crucial areas where the main physical sciences of biology, chemistry and physics are twisted together and glued by mathematics. Similar to other fields of engineering, chemical engineering helps with providing countless solutions and new technologies for the masses.

For example, providing clean water that we use everyday for drinking and showering, is one of the main jobs that is addressed by chemical engineers. Removing the particles that are considered unhealthy for us, is just one part of this huge task.

Another example is providing sanitation. The hand sanitizers that we have been using everyday since the outbreak of the Covid-19 are just one simple product of this field as well. Chemical engineers often deal with sanitation systems and products that are to be used in large facilities such as industrial meat producers. These are often places where any random sanitizers can not be used.

They design efficient processes or help improve the efficiency of those that are already out there.  They are the ones who take the ideas out of their labs and help turn them into reality. Working on GM foods, advancing healthcare, reducing waste and minimizing all sorts of pollution are also part of their job description. 

They basically improve the quality of life in the ecosystem and environment that we live in. They will also explore and foresee environmental damages and try to plan ahead of time to prevent them as far as possible.

With high-level jobs, a chemical engineer can become an industrial strategist or manager.

Chemical engineers can work in a variety of industries such as oil and gas, food, water systems, sanitation and pharmaceuticals. There will also be good career opportunities for them in any business that is after more sustainability.

What Does The Course Look Like

First things first, taking up chemical engineering takes some courage. Putting that aside, the course is going to be full of theory sessions and then applying them in a lab session. There will be quite a lot of math involved as well. 

You are also given the chance to explore the newest technologies in your field (of course that is highly dependent on your university) and are taught how to combine them together in order to identify and solve the issue at hand.

Electronic & Electrical Engineering 

Can you actually imagine a world without electricity? It is something most of us take for granted and use carelessly even though we are fully aware that the bill will be chasing our pockets at the end of the month.

But do we really know how it all works? How electricity is created and distributed across cities and villages? Or how it goes inside our TVs and lights up our lights? How does the remote controller work? That’s what the electronic and electrical engineers know and do! They modify, manage and direct the electrical current to make all electrical things work.

The career prospects for this group are also quite endless as they can work in a large variety of firms and industries. They are practically necessary in any business where they use large amounts of electricity to run their tools and gears.

But What Is The Difference Between Electronic Engineering and Electric Engineering? 

One very common question is about the differences between the two. Some people use the two terms interchangeably. Both majors deal with electrical currents and its applications. The differences however, surface in the size of the current that is being dealt with.

Electrical Engineers normally work with big numbers. They maintain the electricity for households and factories. Some of them even help with the design of electrical systems in modern vehicles and aircrafts. They are the ones who light up our cities, get the cables to our doors.

Electronic engineers on the other hand, mostly work with much smaller numbers. They are the ones who design the circuits and boards that we use in our electronic tools such as remote controls, keyboards, mobile phones, computer modern boards, chargers and technically everything that has one of those green boards on it. They work with resistors, capacitors and diodes.

What Does The Course Look Like

Similar to other fields of engineering this course is not a field trip either. It begins with some basic math and electrical concepts which will then develop into more complex problems and solutions.

The students will be spending quite a huge amount of time in the laboratory experimenting with different tools and gears as well as designing and creating a variety of circuits. Their laboratory work later expanded to assessing the efficiency of different designs and measuring certain electrical variables.

Aerospace Engineering 

Aerospace is probably the most fun and fascinating area amongst all the engineering fields. They are the ones who have made so many of human achievements tangible. Walking on the moon is one good example. But that’s not even it.

One may assume that aerospace is the field dedicated to designing and producing flying objects, which is true to some extent but they are also the ones who help us with the safety and comfort of our flights, they are the beating heart of any industry and services that are provided above the ground.

These include designing weather forecast gear, mobile phones and radios. They are also hired in the automobile industry as the modern cars are moving towards more efficient aerodynamics in terms of design. 

What Does The Course Look Like

This course is no walking in the park at all!Getting an A in math is the first and most basic requirement just for entering this vast area of engineering and it will only give the individual an edge in the admission assessments. That means it will not guarantee an entrance!

Head over to Geniusmathinc.com to learn more about how you can help your child to boost their math performance and boost their chances for entering any of the engineering fields.

Similar to mechanical engineering, the course will begin with revision of basic math and physics concepts and quickly move towards the more advanced topics.

Along with the theory sessions about the statics and dynamics of a moving object, they will also be learning so much about the effects of aerodynamics on the whole equation as well. 

They will also have courses about signals, electrical engineering and control systems.

Civil Engineering 

Civil engineers are those who design and build cities, roads and buildings. They carefully mix their technical knowledge with their creativity in order to design and create our urban environment. They are also the most critical people when it comes to developing any sorts of transportation system such as highways, bridges, underground passages and roads.

Their job is extremely sensitive as the cost for executing their designs is most often through the roof and they are meant to be kept present in our living environment for a very long time. This means they must not only be able to provide designs that are resilient to the present conditions of the area, but also be able to closely predict what is most likely to come in the future.

Let’s take the CN tower of Ontario as an example. Such towers are often built either for some sort of signal transmission, visitor view or both. A civil engineer must make sure that their tower is able to physically handle the load that is going to be applied to it by all the gears and the people. 

They must consider the height and make sure the base is large enough to prevent the tower from falling due to heavy wind. They must also carefully designate all the entrances and exits in order to compensate for busy days or even emergency situations.

Another example is the InterContinental Toronto Centre. There’s simply no way such buildings can be built from scratch every year and so both the architects and the civil engineers must be extra careful about their designs and the decisions they make throughout the process.

Civil engineers can easily apply for jobs in industries such as structural engineering, architectural engineering, transport and infrastructure, and construction.  

What Does The Course Look Like 

Similar to other areas of engineering, civil engineering involves a lot of math. The civil engineers will be learning and solving theoretical problems in statics and physics for a huge amount of their course and will learn how all those are applied in real life through on-site training.

Depending on the academic level and the facilities of their university, civil engineers also spend a huge amount of time in labs studying the mechanical behavior of a variety of materials such as cement and concrete. They will also learn some of the basics of project management. 

Where To Next

Now that we have established a firm basis on the concepts of engineering, it’s time to decide what we are going to do with it. 

Students are often unable to make a proper decision when it comes to choosing the direction they are going to take when finishing their high school. This is most often due to the fact that they do not have sufficient awareness about any of the engineering fields. They do not know what to expect and where it is going to lead them.

To help our children make a correct choice that is guaranteed to not lead to regret in the near or distant future, we need to help them experience what it actually feels to be working in the field. 

That is what we do in Geniuscamp. Head out to our home page to find out more about our courses and how we will help your child to boost their learning and experience the most fun and joyful learning process.