What do powertrain engineers do?

[CSGuy]

First of all, this may seem like a really silly question, but I appreciate any info at all.

I've been looking at changing my career to do something in the automotive area and I've seen a couple postings for Automotive Powertrain Engineers and Powertrain EFI Engineers. A far as the job listing is concerned, it talks about calibration of automatic transmissions and EFI systems. The EFI listing wants some C programming experience. If anyone has any experience in either of these areas, can you tell me what kind of day-to-day activities either of these jobs entails?

I'm trying to decide if it's something that I want to do and whether it's something that I'd be qualified to do. As a background, I have a mechanical engineering bachelors degree, but have been working in the software industry as a tester/programmer for the past 7 years (since I graduated). Having never worked as a mechanical engineer, I'm concerned about how much of the theoretical info we got from school is really necessary in industry (since I'm probably a bit rusty in my stress analysis skills).

 

[GregLocock]

Sounds like you'd fit in.

The EEC has a firmware side of which I am completely ignorant. On top of that is a strategy program, written for each vehicle model typically. This is coded in a high level language. This controls the interaction between various parameters, for example, it would allow you to swing the target idle rpm based on engine coolant temperature. It also controls the IO side of things - timing is a big part of the coding requirements, as is error checking.

On top of this are the tables and variables that the calibrators use (the only bit I've used). So for instance on an engine the calibrator will set table values for base idle speed (say 600 rpm), and set the modifiers based on ECT (say +100 rpm/10 deg C of ECT below 85 to give a fictitious and unlikely example), and so on. If the strategy won't let the calibrator get a particular effect then he rings up the strategy guys and they modify the strategy to suit.

There's an almost identical architecture for the trans controller, and of course, the trans and the EFI need to talk to each other.

So, basically the strategy guys sit at computers in offices and compile things, the calibration guys sit in cars and engine labs, fiddling with numbers on laptops, and driving really fast.

Both are interesting jobs in my opinion, sounds like you'd probably find it easier to slip into the programming side and then after you've got experience have a look at calibration.


Cheers

Greg Locock

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