Mechanical Engineering vs Structural Engineering 1

[fmaldon]

I hold a BSME and working in the utilities industry. My "job" is very tedious and boring. I hardly consider it a career.

I have been researching the posibility of going into the structural engineering field (surveying, FEA, design)for some time now.

I wonder if anyone has earned a BSME and gone into the Structural field. Is this field only opened to Civil Engineering?

 

[plasgears]

A dual degree in ME and CE would be exquisite. CE was the original engineering emphasis. ME came shortly thereafter. Go for the CE; you're more than half way there.

 

[TheTick]

If you're going to get a dual degree, why not just go for the MSCE?

On justice and on friendship, there is no price, but there are established credit limits.

 

[dig1]

I have an MSCE (geotechnical emphasis) and was tired of doing what I considered boring projects (small municipal landfills, foundation invetigations for small buildings, etc) with the big projects too few and far between.

I sharpened up my stuctural skills and went to work for an industrial equipment OEM. After time I started designing pressure vessels and tankage, getting involved in corrosion issues, some mechanical equipment design, etc. and worked on projects all over the world.

In the mean time I didn't let my geotech skills get too rusty by working with some local consulting engineers on problems.

I took a 1 1-/2 "break" to work as public works manager (handled budgets, personnel, construction and engineering review for a 100+ person department) for my local municipality but went back to my old employeer about 2 1/2 years ago. It was a tough choice but the old job was more "fun".

No regrets looking at multiple disciplines and I feel I'm a better engineer/manager for it.

 

[JAE]

The tick hit the nail on the head.

You would be better served to get a Master's in Structural Engineering - your BSME degree would be a great foundation for it...you may have to take some Civil make-up classes, but most structural engineering is better served by a Master's degree.

I have a friend who had a BS in psychology and applied to get a Master's in Structural - he had to take a number of undergraduate classes, but eventually got in to the graduate program and turned out to be a great engineer.

 

[fmaldon]

My thanks to all who answered my query.

The MSCE sounds like a good idea. However, I've also have been researching the possibility of getting a "Certificate of Completion" in Structural Engineering through an online course offered through the University of Idaho.

Has anyone had any experience in taking a similar course?

How does the "employability" for taking this course compare to "employability" of taking the MSCE.

 

[brad]

One note--be careful not to confuse "FEA" with "Structural Engineering". There are Civil Engineering "structural engineers" who do "FEA" (there's overlap), but a large component of people doing FEA will call what they do "structural analysis" and mean something very different than what the average Civil Engineer thinks of when he uses the same term. The large majority of people doing Finite Element Analysis are not civil engineers.

Brad

 

[JAE]

Brad, that's true. My brother-in-law is a Mechanical Engineer doing FEA on blades of jet engines.

 

[brad]

JAE--
I originally signed into this site as "structural", because that's what I thought was meant by the term--"structural analysis (solid mechanics)". Once I started brushing with you Civil Engineers, I realized that I had mislabeled myself.

Brad

 

[DaveVikingPE]

As an ME you most likely have an excellent background for structural engineering. Ahh, to have been a "stress engineer" then again, building design is a lot of fun, too.

 

[Ron]

fmaldon...I agree with the others that you have a good foundation for structural, perhaps even better than a general civil background. Certainly more analytical.

In an area of my practice I often overlap with Mechanical Engineers who deal with mechanical stress analysis rather than HVAC design or other classical "mechanical" ventures. While my approach to a structural issue with a product failure might be slightly different than that of a mechanical engineer, we both are striving for the same thing....a solution to a problem.

Go for it.

 

[trainguy]

I graduated university in Civil Eng (structural option), worked for 8 years designing buildings + bridges only to move to full time design + analysis of railway cars and other mechanical equipment. The cool thing about mechanical engineering, as I see it, is the unbelievable diversity of components & equipment you can eventually work on, and also, in my case, the money is better...

I'm intrigued as to why someone would go the other direction, although there's nothing quite like driving past one of my buildings, and telling whoever's in the car that "that's one of mine..."

The nice thing about civil eng structures is that more time is spent number crunching than the headache-causing design/sequence/fabricability etc. aspects of mechanical design.

My 2 cents, not really contributing to the original post, but succeeding in taking a nice 5 min. break from the daily grind.