Career change: Civil/Structural to Robotics?

[Kenpach1]

Hi fellow Engs
I am contemplating a career change from Civil/Structural to Robotics/Mechatronics. I`m a young civil engineer with 6 months construction experience and 2 years experience with a consultant in structural design and analysis. I will also complete a part time M.Eng (Engineering Management, Topic Innovation) by the end of this year.

Why change now? Well I started of studying Mechanical engineering, paying for it myself while searching fo bursaries (the first year is actualy general engineering for everyone but I hoped to continue in mechanical). My money was running out and I started applying for bursaries in the other engineering fields as well. I got offers for full bursaries in both civil and chemical for the second year onwards, but none for mechanical. Due to my financial situation, I had to accept a bursary, and I took the civil bursary due to civil seemingly being the most similar to mechanical, through the structural route.
I am curently woring back my bursary, so I decided to do a Masters in management part time, hoping that it may help me find employment with a robobits/defense firm despite having a civil engineering background. I specifically chose not to do mechnical/mechatronic engineering then as my employer would not support that (and I got 4 weeks "study leave" per year to attend block courses for the management degree )and I require the income plus have the bursary obligation to work back. However I got involved in hobby electronics as a way to at least get some minute exposure to robotics.

I plan to move to the US/Canada for 5 years of international experience (I am in South Africa) and wondered what options will be available to work my way into a robotics or defense technology career while overseas. Should I study for a mechanical engineering degree part-time? One cannot do undergrad unversity level studies on a part time basis in South Africa, that will have to happen while I`m in the US/Canada, if at all

I have the following questions:
1 - Is it necessary to get additional qualifications for such a career change? And can it be done part-time?
2 - What type of part-time work, given my current experience level, would facilitate such change?
3 - Does my reasoning seem correct if I say that a management degree won`t help a whole lot whithout the technical experience required for robotics/defense technology? Although I keep adding to my civil/structural engineering experience.

 

[KENAT]

Not one of your 3 questions but about the idea of working defense in the US - unless you're a US citizen getting a security clearance can be a significant hurdle. I missed multiple job opportunities because of that when I first came to the US from the UK.

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[Kenpach1]

Yes, requiring citizenship to work in the defense industry makes sense. Still, there are a huge amount of transferable skills and technologies between the industries, UAV`s comes to mind. Work in such an area may offer experience which could later be used in the defense industry, if security clearance is granted.

 

[KENAT]

Kenpach1, a lot of the activity in UAV's is to some extent defense related, so my require clearance. Even if not specifically working on a project that requires clearance just working in the same office/building/site with those projects can cause issues. It can be quite a hassle having to accommodate 'unclean' folk.

I'm not going to claim it's a complete deal breaker as if I do someone will come up with an example of a modern day Von Braun etc. but it is a big issue.

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[MikeHalloran]

The bleeding edge of robotics is probably in UUVs, not UAVs, but it's hard to tell because of defense-related security or just plain paranoid security.

There are other things you can do that are robotics- related.

Industrial robots are old hat in the car biz. Opportunities have to exist in finding new ways to apply them, in diagnosis and repair of problems, and in repurposing old robots to new applications and new owners. None of that requires a security clearance.

Domestic robots are ... well, not exactly taking off, but available in every big box store, and starting to attract cost- cutting competitors. There must be opportunities for yet more competitors, for simpler and cheaper internals, for enhanced features, and for lower build costs. The challenges have to do with producing more than a handful at a time, and with ensuring that warranty claims won't bankrupt the enterprise, and probably with offshore manufacturing. Not really a lot of robotics content, unless you use robots to produce your robots. ... but no security issues.

Wait, there's more. Factory automation at all levels is getting smarter, so owners need smarter help to deal with making it all work, and work together. It's not called robotics, but it's not a whole lot different, and there's a convergence here, or coming.

... If you still must work with UAVs, every damn hick Sheriff's department in the US, and there are a lot of them, is licking their chops to get a UAV, or already has one, or more. If they had enough money to spend on military- style security, they'd spend it on UAVs instead, so, no worries.

All of that said, being in the business of designing or manufacturing targets is, and will probably remain, much more stable than being in the business of designing or manufacturing weapons or delivery systems. ... i.e., there are advantages to remaining a Civil Engineer.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[Kenpach1]

Thank for the info. I think I should look for a legitimate distance learning degree program in mechatronics or mechanical engineering while developing my experience in the transferable skills from civil engineering (project management, life-cycle engineering etc.) I will then look into automated systems and control engineering as a good starting point for a career in robotics.