What you can do with a materials engineering degree

As we know, materials engineers are responsible for the research, design and development of materials to further advance products and technology of many kinds. We know what materials engineering is, but what kind of jobs can you get with this degree? Here is a list of five jobs you could get with a materials engineering degree.

1. Metallurgic Engineer: A metallurgic engineer studies metals to design and improve or to change products. A bachelor in materials science is required for this job.

2. Quality Engineer: A quality engineer provides information for quality improvement by identifying testing methods and samples. It"s a way to prevent defects in manufactured products.

3. Manufacturing Engineer: A manufacturing engineer is involved with the whole manufacturing process. These engineers develop methods to better improve the manufacturing process.

4. Sourcing Engineer: A sourcing engineer will explore and develop ways to improve quality and save more money in the manufacturing of a product.

5. Patent Attorneys: A patent attorney may have a background in materials engineering or another engineering to help their understanding of the advancement in technology. They also use this background knowledge to help secure patents for and materials, theories, or ideas.

-Alex Brown

Sources:
"Materials Engineering Jobs." Materials Engineering Jobs. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2015. <http://www.engineerjobs.com/jobs/materials-engineering/>.
"Guide To Majors - Engineering." Worldwidelearn.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2015. <http://www.worldwidelearn.com/online-education-guide/engineering/materials-science-engineering-major.htm>.
"Sourcing Engineer Job Description -." Sourcing Engineer Job. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2015. <http://www.nonin.com/JobPost.aspx?ID=144>.
"Quality Engineer Sample Job Description | Monster.com." Monster Hiring Resource Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Oct. 2015. <http://hiring.monster.com/hr/hr-best-practices/recruiting-hiring-advice/job-descriptions/quality-engineer-job-description.aspx>.

Where Do We Rank?

Back in the summer, I think most of us current freshman can agree that the most frequently asked question was where we were going to attend college. For all of us bloggers, we proudly said MSU and then proceeded to talk about other things but what does going to MSU really mean? All of us are Spartans and we proud to be Spartans because of the reputation this school has for not only its sports but its academic excellence. As future engineers here, it is a big task because engineering is a hard enough major but doing it at one of the largest universities in the nation is even harder. As far as how MSU ranks for engineering, the program is highly ranked. Obviously it is not as impressive as some of the universities around our country but it is still a great program that has nothing but success coming out of it.

From looking at the screenshot above, it is clear to see that MSU competes with the best. We are ranked as the 39th best engineering college in the United States and although this is only one website, other websites have the same results. Yale which is an extremely difficult ivy league college to get into is only one above MSU which shows that when it comes to engineering, Michigan State has worked hard to get to where they are at. This number will continue to rise because of how fast the university is growing. Every year a record high number of student apply and this only means that the school will excel at higher levels and continue to impress our society.

-Dominic W.

Sources

• http://www.graduateshotline.com/ranks/#.Vi_pvp1Viko
• http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings/engineering
• http://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-engineering-schools-2014-4
• http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-engineering-schools/eng-rankings

Civil Engineering

    I think civil engineering is one of the most important engineering. It also the oldest engineering in the world.Civil engineering is arguably one of the oldest engineering discipline. It deals with the built environment, can be traced back to the first time someone put a roof over his or her head or laid a tree across the river, make it easier to understand.

    Building environment contains the definition of the modern civilization. The structure of buildings and Bridges are often the first to think that, because they are the most remarkable works of structural engineering, civil engineering, one of the major disciplines. Highway, railway, subway system, airport traffic design engineers, another category of civil engineering. Then there were the civil engineers of the creation of the less obvious. Every time you turn on the tap, you expect the water to come out, without thinking, to be a civil engineer. New York, one of the world's most impressive water supply system, from the catskill receives billions of gallons of high quality water for more than one hundred miles away. Also, it seems that not many people worry about what happened after water its purpose. Old sanitary engineering, civil engineering discipline has developed into the importance of modern environmental engineering, most of the academic department of civil and environmental engineering have changed their name.

    These examples illustrate, civil engineers to do more than design buildings and Bridges. They can be found in the aerospace industry, design the plane and the space station, in the automotive industry, improve the bearing capacity of the chassis, improve the crashworthiness of the bumper and the door; They can be found in the shipbuilding industry, power industry, many other industries in any building facilities. They plan and supervise the construction of these facilities construction manager.

Civil engineering is an exciting career, because at the end of the day you can see the results of your work, whether it is a complete Bridges, high-rise buildings, subway station or hydroelectric dam.

-Xue,Hongyuan

Artificial Intelligence

What is Artificial Intelligence?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages”. Essentially, it is a sub-field of Computer Science where computers do things that you normally would see in humans. For many decades, Artificial Intelligence (commonly abbreviated as AI) was merely an idea in science fiction. Not only does it exist today, but it is an ever-increasing part of our society. Ten years ago if you wanted to know the weather, you either had to turn on the weather channel or read what the forecast said in the daily newspaper. Today, you can literally ask your phone about the weather and it will respond in a humanoid voice. AI is becoming more and more mainstream, and with that comes more speculation about its impact on us and our future.

HAL 9000; A depiction of an AI from 2001: A Space Odyssey

A popular subject of movies is the depiction of a robot uprising, or an AI so smart that it works to undermine humans. This can be seen in many popular movies like WALL-E, Terminator, and 2001: A Space Odyssey to name a few. Over the weekend a couple of my friends and I watched a recently released movie called Ex Machina. In the movie, a programmer for a large software company wins a raffle to visit the CEO’s house to test out an android with artificial intelligence that the CEO had secretly created. The programmer becomes increasingly romantically attached to the android, and after learning that the CEO abuses her and other robots he had created, the programmer and android conspire to escape. The movie ends with the android killing the CEO and betraying the programmer by locking him in a chamber, after it was revealed that the CEO was the good guy all along and the android is actually evil. Because the AI in the android was so advanced, it knew how to manipulate the emotions of the humans it interacted with for its personal gain.

Understandably, there are some people who worry about malevolent robots being a reality in the near future. In his 1950 science fiction book I, Robot, Isaac Asimov outlined the Three Rules of Robotics, which were programmed into the robots in the story. The rules were as follows:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.

Asimov believed that if every robot followed these three laws, the fears of a dystopian AI-controlled future could be alleviated. Many additional laws have been added on by others throughout the years, and some have even completely written their own versions of the laws. So far, no robot in existence is programmed to follow any laws like the ones written by Asimov, mainly due to the fact that the field of AI is not advanced enough yet to create a robot that can fully understand these laws. Additionally, some argue that because the US military is a big source of funding for AI, it is unlikely the laws will be built into the robots created by them.

Despite some public uneasiness about the future of AI, it is a field that is continuing to advance more quickly than anticipated. Most of the research in AI takes place out of the public eye, but occasionally it will make an appearance in media. In 2011, the supercomputer Watson developed by IBM was featured on Jeopardy. It played against Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, two of the most successful contestants on the show. The game ended with Watson winning $77,147, Jennings winning $24,000, and Rutter winning $21,600. IBM has many current and planned future uses for Watson, including healthcare, business, and even as a chat bot in toys for children. This is just one example of the developments in AI, and IBM is nowhere near being done developing Watson. 

IBM's Watson

Artificial Intelligence is a promising field of Computer Science with an exciting future, which has captivated the minds of many people, authors and technologists alike.  The past and future developments of AI have the potential to change our civilization forever. Ten years ago, applications like Siri and Cortana were an article of science fiction. Today, they are so commonplace that even children use them. 

What new developments in AI will emerge in the next ten years?

-Erik B.

Works Cited

"Artificial Intelligence." Oxford Dictionary. Web.

Asimov, Isaac. I, Robot. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1950. Print.

Cykocurt. Hal 9000. Digital image. Flickr. Flicker, 23 Feb. 2007. Web. 25 Oct. 2015. 

Ex Machina. Perf. Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac and Sonoya Mizuno. Universal Studios, 2015.

Taco, Atomic. Watson and Two Other Jeopardy Podiums. Digital image. Flickr. Flickr, 19 Sept. 2013. Web. 25 Oct. 2015. 

Talk Topic : Learning the language.

Saying so much in so little time: Engineering jargon.

Do you think stress and strain can be used interchangeably and are the same? Yes, me too. Even the thesaurus agrees by putting strain as a synonym for stress.It was only after one physics class that l realised otherwise.  Stress is the internal force per unit area that one section of a body exerts on another. Strain, on the other hand, is a measure of a body’s deformation—stretching, shrinking, and changes in shape are all examples of strain. In the engineering field, the two are not the same- let's call them cousins.

When you do not understand field-specific jargon. It happens to everyone.

Just like “I got a hit” is no cause for celebration in the medical field, rather it means, “l admitted a patient”, engineering has its own specific jargon. Ballpark means to estimate. Jargon allows professionals to communicate precisely and accurately. If they used simple English, then they would probably spend half their lives explaining simple concepts. According to Spolsky, “Specialized jargon serves not just to label new and needed concepts, but to establish bonds between members of the in-group and enforce boundaries for outsiders. If you cannot understand my jargon, you don't belong to my group.”  I can never agree more. 

To aspiring engineers, have fun learning the new language you will be using eight hours a day for the rest of your life.It is worth it! To people outside the engineering field, please pardon engineers for using certain words, they  will be trying to say so much in so little time. Till next time.

Panashe, M-

Works Cited
Spolsky, Bernard. "Specialized Varieties of Registers and Domains" Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford      UP, 1998. 33. Google Books. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.

Packaging

Packaging engineering, also known as packaging technology and packaging science, is a broad topic that deals with design conceptualization to product placement. It involves all steps along the manufacturing process and is taken into account for every product. Whether or not this is considered an engineering major, it is one the main fields here at Michigan State. It seems like packaging is a pointless major and that there is not a high demand for it, but with every company also comes its packaging. It is very under looked because although an inch more of cardboard does not mean much for one product, when hundreds of thousands of products are being packaged, the inch per package adds up. It can save companies a lot of money just based on how they package things and because of this, every company is adapting to them. It does not seem like a hard job to package something but finding out the most limited material needed to package a product can become difficult and it is a crucial part of a business. Packaging is a major with high demand because not many people know of the profession. The only reason I heard of it myself was because our campus has an entire building dedicated for packaging majors and when I realized how successful packaging majors are out of college it began to interest me. It still has the same concept of engineering because it involves putting things together but it requires less math credit and it is what our school is known for. I used to be completely undecided in which path of engineering I want to pursue but after researching this field, I may be leaning toward it as of now.

-Dominic W.

Sources

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packaging_engineering
• http://www1.salary.com/Packaging-Engineer-I-Salary.html
• http://www.packaging.msu.edu/

Prompt #1

What is engineering?

What do engineers do?

How many types of engineering are there?

What is the difference between science and engineering?

What academic training is needed to become an engineer?

Where can you get more information about engineers?

Picture source: Engineer

After reading through Thinking Like An Engineer, an introductory textbook for engineering at Michigan State University I have found out new things and answers to some of the preceding questions. The question "What is engineering?", is answered on page three, and it says "engineering is the application of science and mathematics by which the properties of matter and the sources in nature are made useful to people." "What do engineers do?" is answered on page two by saying, "engineers take abstract ideas and build tangible products from them." The next two questions aren't necessarily answered directly in the book, but for "How many types of engineering are there?" the book doesn't say exactly how many, but it gives a big list of basic types of engineering, on page eight, such as aerospace, biomedical, biosystems, civil chemical, materials, electrical, computer, environmental, industrial, and mechanical. "What is the difference between science and engineering?" isn't directly answered, though the book does say, "engineering is the application of science", it doesn't say the difference, though it says science is definitely used in engineering. The book doesn't say anything about what training is needed to become an engineer, or how many years of school is needed. The book does say that you can find more information about engineering, on page twenty three there is a list of websites in which you can do different research on engineering. Overall the textbook was a very good resource and answered five out of six questions asked.

Picture source: Engineering

-Alex Brown

Sources:

Stephan, Elizabeth A., David R. Bowman, William J. Park, Benjamin L. Sill, and Matthew W. Ohland. Thinking Like An Engineer An Active Learning Approach. Custom Edition For Michigan State University ed. New York: Pearson Education, 2011. Print. Pearson.

Prompt #6

Evaluating Sources: Find a critical source (scholarly article or book, documentary, etc) that makes an argument about your field. Using what you have learned about your field so far, evaluate the critic’s argument and respond to it.
        
         After reading a blog about why engineering is better than other majors, I think I have a lot of things to talk about. Engineering has better careers, without a doubt. Most engineers are paid more. However, engineering is much more difficult. If you don't have an extremely strong aptitude for applied mathematics and science (particularly physics), you probably shouldn't consider engineering. Engineers have a very heavy, very intense workload and are expected to work independently. 
        For example, business is an easy major. If you're more of average person, business is the route for you. Business guys typically have a light workload, and are expected to have good communications skills and work in groups. Careers in business are usually not as rewarding as those in engineering though a successful manager or administrator, for instance, will be paid just as well. 
        Realistically, engineering pays more because it's a lot of work and not just anybody can do it. If you're not extremely skilled with math, science, and problem-solving, or not willing to spend most of college working at your desk, then engineering is not for you. But if you are, then by all means, study engineering! 
        On the other hand, if social sciences and languages are more your thing, and you like working with other people, then stick with business. It's less work and not as intense as engineering, so you'll have more time to enjoy college (or study, if you prefer). Many people drop out of engineering in the first year because they do not realize how difficult it is. If you're not sure if you can do the math, then study business instead.

- Xue, Hongyuan

Recipe to be a successful engineering student.

Ingredients

Good communication skills

Teamwork

Technical competence

Creativity

Leadership skills

Method

Sift equal amounts of good communication skills, teamwork, technical competence and creativity into a mixing bowl. Add a dash of leadership skills and serve while hot.

www.asme.org

Engineering, like any other career field requires certain traits for one to be successful. Engineering students should possess certain characters for them to be competent in the field. I mentioned in an earlier post that engineers design and create anything that does not exist naturally. It is important therefore for practicing engineers to be creative so that they come up with means and ways that make life easier and put safety of people first. Good engineers have the ability to work in a team environment. They consider each other’ s ideas and understand that “ united they stand and divided they fall”. Effective engineers are able to communicate their ideas to team members and clients. They should also be able to listen to other engineers’ and clients’ ideas so as to come up with  better solutions. Engineers strive to make things faster, better, smaller and lighter and hence engineers should be technically savvy so as to be able to figure out how all these changes can come about. To be an effective engineer one should have leadership skills. This means one should be able to rise to the occasion and take action when there is need to. An engineer should also be able to inspire and influence his/her fellow colleagues.Engineers cannot master all these skills but they are knowledgable about these skills and try their best to apply them in different situations and projects.

Panashe, M-

Works cited

"What Skills Do I Need to Develop to Become an Effective Engineer?" TryEngineering Today. N.p., 18 Sept. 2013. Web. 18 Oct. 2015. <http://tryengineering.org/ask-expert/what-skills-do-i-need-develop-become-effective-engineer>.

Common Computer Science Occupations

Software Developer

Software developers are the people who create the programs we use every day. Their duties involve writing code, designing software, updating old code, fixing bugs in code, and collaborating with other software developers. They can be employed in many different industries, like computer systems design, finance, and electronic project manufacturing. In the 21^st century, it is hard to go an entire day without being impacted by the work of a Software Developer.

Computer Network Architect

Computer network architects (sometimes called network engineers) build and plan out data and information networks, like local area networks (LAN), wide area networks (WAN), intranets, and extranets to name a few. It is also their job to take security measures for their networks, such as network security audits, automated security probes, or firewalls. Even after the network has been built, network architects are still required as they are responsible for maintaining the network and potentially working to upgrade it to keep up with meet new volume or capacity demands.

Information Security Analysts

Information security analysts are responsible for planning and carrying out security measures to protect the computer networks and systems of an organization. They must focus on three main areas: risk assessment, vulnerability assessment, and defense planning. As the number of cyberattacks continue to increase, the demand for this career is continuing to increase. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the employment of information security analysts to grow 37% in the next decade, which is much faster than most other professions, even in the field of computer science.

Database Administrators

Database administrators (DBAs) set up databases for companies and make sure they operate efficiently. They must make sure their data is secure from unauthorized access, make modifications to the database structure, backup data, and merge old databases into new ones. Many DBAs are on call due to continuing maintenance of databases, and many work more than 40 hours a week. They can be employed in many settings, and some even work as consultants for companies.

Computer Systems Analysts

Computer systems analysts use their knowledge of information technology and their knowledge of business to create computer processes and systems for their clients. They study current computer systems and create solutions to help the organization function more efficiently. They also must research emerging technologies to determine if installing them will help their organization. If a company’s management approves of an upgrade, computer systems analysts must oversee the installation of any new systems. There are generally more extroverts working in this field than other computer science jobs, since they are constantly collaborating with others and working in teams.

-Erik B.

Sources:

Bratcher, Emily H. "Computer Systems Analyst." US News Money. US News, n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2015. 

Bratcher, Emily H. "Software Developer." US News Money. US News, n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.

"Computer and Information Technology Occupations." U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.   

Hellman, Nathan. "Database Administrator." US News Money. US News, n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.  

"Occupation Profile." - America's Career InfoNet. CareerOneStop, n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.  

Steinberg, Stephanie. "Information Security Analyst." US News Money. US News, n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2015.