GRAD SCHOOL RESOURCE CENTER: A GUIDE TO ENGINEERING

Encompassing specialties that shape the world, engineering offers several opportunities to specialize. If you’re considering a career in this field, you need to understand the underlying scientific and engineering principles used in each field to know which would best suit you.

We’ve also included some resources that offer activities that help children of all ages get exposure to fundamental engineering methods.

Aerospace Engineers

Aerospace engineers design and build systems that travel through the air and through space. A Doctor of Aerospace Engineering program produces experts who build aircraft that overcome gravity. drag to fly through the atmosphere and beyond.

Useful Read:

• Aerospace Engineering: There are several types of aerospace engineers, including aeronautical engineers and astronautical engineers.
• Make a Paper Glider: Creating paper airplanes is an exciting way to explore aerospace concepts.
• Careers in Aerospace Technology: NASA is a major player in the field of aerospace engineering, and on this page, the agency offers information for students thinking about this type of career.

Biomedical Engineers

With a Doctor of Biomedical Engineer, specialists design mechanical systems that integrate with the human body to improve body function. They are the experts behind pacemakers used for regulating heart function, insulin pumps for controlling blood sugar levels, and prosthetics for replacing the functionality of amputated limbs. 

Seamlessly integrating mechanical systems with the human body, effective biomedical engineers help to alleviate physical ailments, thereby prolonging life and reducing the effects of physical disabilities.

Useful Read:

• What Is Biomedical Engineering? Biomedical engineers design systems to help doctors treat patients more effectively.
• Prosthetics Project: Build and Test Prosthetic Legs: Prosthetics are an important area in biomedical engineering, and students can explore prosthetics with the project on this page.
• Crash Course: Biomedical and Industrial Engineering: Watch a video to learn more about these branches of engineering.

Civil Engineers

Civil engineers construct buildings and support structures for a variety of industries, such as agriculture, commerce, and the energy sector.

Renewable energy projects such as geothermal systems, the best scientific research facilities such as particle colliders, and transportation systems such as highways rely on the work of civil engineers.

Useful Read:

• About Civil Engineering: Find out more about this field from the experts at the American Society of Civil Engineers.
• Everything You Need to Know About Civil Engineering: The principles of civil engineering are used in many fields, from geology to energy.
• Civil Engineering Project: Build the Best Bridge: Building strong, resilient, and safe bridges is an important application of civil engineering.

Environmental Engineers

Often working with environmental scientists and environmental engineers mitigate environmental hazards from natural and man-made disasters such as oil spills, nuclear power plant leaks, and radiation contamination.

Invent methods for preventing the spread of contaminants in the air, soil, and water to prevent extensive damage to ecosystems.

Useful Read:

• Why Environmental Engineering Is Vital for Our Future: This page discusses the essential contributions of environmental engineers to modern society.
• Ten Major Advances in Environmental Engineering: Environmental engineers have been crucial to protecting the environment and building a sustainable society.
• Nine Easy Environmental Activities: Environmental engineering is closely linked to ecology and conservation, which are explored in these activities.

Chemical and Biological Engineers

Chemical and biological engineers design, manage, and improve complex systems for producing chemical products. 

Chemical engineering and Chemistry principles are used to construct systems for purifying water using distillation or reverse osmosis. They also design systems for purifying natural gases and hydrocarbons, such as gasoline and diesel fuel, as well as systems for storing energy, such as batteries.

Biological engineers modify biological systems using the principles and techniques of Biology.

Useful Read:

• Chemical Engineering: Find out about what chemical engineering is and how you can work in this area from the American Chemical Society.
• What Is Biological Engineering? Biological engineering applies biological principles to a variety of fields, such as pharmaceuticals and energy.

Mechanical Engineers

Mechanical engineers build mechanical systems that are pervasive in modern society. They design cars, trains, motorcycles, and bicycles. They also design turbines for wind farms and hydroelectric plants, power drills for mining natural gas reservoirs, and levers for exporting coal from mines.

Working alongside robotics engineers, mechanical engineers also design robotics systems for manufacturing, home care, and underwater research.

Useful Read:

• How to Build a Catapult: Catapults were a transformational invention and an important development in the history of mechanical engineering.
• Important Job Skills for Mechanical Engineers: Find out the types of skills you need to succeed in this field.

Agricultural Engineers

Agricultural engineers design systems and procedures for improving the productivity of farmers. They Use biology techniques such as grafting to produce a plant that may be taller, stronger, more resistant to disease, or more productive than the component plants of the graft. They also use mechanical knowledge to improve machinery used on farms.

Useful Read:

• Agriculture and Engineering: Engineers help farmers improve their ability to produce food efficiently and safely.
• What You Need to Know About Agricultural Engineers: Find out more about the nuts and bolts of this field.
• About the Profession: The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers provides an overview of what these professionals do.

Electrical Engineers

Electrical engineers design and build electronics systems that are all around us every day, from computer chips to LED light bulbs. They design hardware systems that enable the computer and automation revolution of the 21st century. 

They are responsible for systems that send circuit boards that send electrical signals to control the steering of cars, the control surfaces of aircraft, the rudders of ships, and the orientation of robotic arms. They also design power systems for railways as well as transformers and power lines that supply electricity to homes and cities.

Useful Read:

• What Does an Electrical Engineer Do? Electrical engineers work with electricity and electromagnetism.
• Magnet Experiments for Kids: Magnetism is an important area of electrical engineering that is explored in these projects.

Software Engineers

To design systems that control computers, software engineers primarily write computer codes that run the guidance systems of missiles, the operation of autonomous cars, and the routines implemented by magnetic resonance imaging systems.

Similar to computer programmers, they build websites on the Internet, which display information that can be accessed by computers and mobile devices around the world.

Useful Read:

• History of Coding and Software Engineering: Software engineering has transformed society since the middle of the 20th century.
• Printable Algorithm Coding Game: Algorithms are sequences of tasks used to create technological solutions to problems, and you can get a taste of how they’re built with this project.

Engineering Activities and Projects for All Ages

• Pulleys: Simple Machines for Kids: Pulleys are an important mechanical engineering tool used in construction.
• Lever Experiments for Middle School: Levers use mechanical advantage to make lifting objects easier.
• Transportation in Plants: Capillary Action: Maintaining a clean environment for plants is essential because plants take in water from the environment, which is demonstrated in this experiment.
• Build a Desert Biome: Plants can grow in a variety of environments, including deserts.
• Plant Science: Regrowing Vegetables: One way to boost the efficiency of food production is to turn food scraps into new plants.
• Blockly Maze Game: Kids can learn the basics of coding by creating a sequence of steps for their game avatar to take.
• Scratch: Scratch is a free tool that lets kids create animations using the concepts of computer programming.
• Water Molecule Experiment: Chemical engineers need to consider thermal dynamics when designing chemical systems, as explored in this project.
• Fortune-Teller Fish: Polymers are used extensively by chemical engineers and biological engineers, and they’re also used to make curiosities like this simple toy.
• Lava Lamp Experiment: The chemical principle of solubility is behind how lava lamps work.