Mechanical Engineering

Were your childhood daydreams filled with animated “Toy Story” characters coming to life? Now that you are near the end of your teenage years and are on the verge of adulthood, do you still find yourself imagining you were a character in movies like “Transformers” or “The Terminator” with inanimate objects coming to life and machinery shaped like humans? If so, then you might want to consider an innovative career as a mechanical engineer. Robots and cars are only some of the things that take up the time of little children and grown up mechanical engineers alike. As a discipline, it applies the principles of physics in order to study, design, build and maintain mechanical systems. As a career, it fetches some of the highest salaries in major countries all over the world – and rightly so. Its inventions serve to improve people’s quality of life. They have invented prosthetics for those with incomplete arms and legs. Robots and machines are used industrially for speedy mass production of goods.

Building a prototype robot

In the transport industry, it is responsible for all kinds of air, water, road, rail, pipeline, cable and space travel, encompassing automotive engineering, crafts, software and even fuel technology. It spreads onto the fields of optics, logistics and cryogenics, with the third one being essential in the making of important products such as vaccines and rocket fuels. It is also applied in clock-making, as well as the study of the movements of athletes and animals. Take note that if you are planning to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in this field, you will be doing a lot of physics, calculus and geometry, plus many practical traineeships. A mechanical engineer must also be able to write and communicate well. Depending what country you study in, you will get a degree of Bachelor in Science, Bachelor of Applied Science, Bachelor of Engineering or Bachelor of Technology, with a major in mechanical engineering. Government work, as well as many private companies and institutions, will require you to get a professional license.