Week 2: Civil, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
What Do Civil Engineers do?

Civil Engineers work on the infrastructure of the city, keeping roads, bridges, energy supply, and water systems all functioning properly and efficiently. On top of this, civil engineers must also improve the infrastructre to meet growing demands, such as the population growth, climate change or other natural disasters. Within civil engineers there are multiple subgroups- environmental, structural, municiapl, transport and geotechnical engineering. Combined, all civil engineers literally shape the world we live in.
What do Mechanical Engineers do?

Mechanical engineers have a whole host of jobs, from developing machines such as a fighter jet to an everday commodity such as the toaster. They typically work in teams to develop these products, and in general improve the quality of life. In summary, practically any common or everday machine/system has involved mechanical engineering which ultimately benefited the ultimate outcome.
What do Industrial Engineers do?

Industrial Engineers combine math and science with engineering to create complex systems and operations. Because these systems are so complex, Industrial Engineers need a wide variety of skills such as communication, design/planning and problem solving. They then use these skills to design things such as facilities and manufacturing, information and control systems.
Bridge Building

First Step: Design the bridge using Bridge Simulator 2016

Second Step: Using planks to build the base/road for the ROV (4ft 8in)

Third Step: Building Support Beams + Adding onto the base on top/bottom

Storify
  1. Using the clubs(claws) found on a mantis shrimp, researchers at the University of California, Riverside and Purdue University are working on a super strong composite material: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160531143319.htm
  2. Researchers at MIT have discovered a more efficient way to turn solar energy into heat, through a device called the solar absorber: http://news.mit.edu/2016/solar-absorber-improve-efficiency-solar-thermal-technology-0614
  3. Due to an increase in funding for transportation agencies, the near future sees a dramatic increase in efficiency with transportation across the country: http://www.enr.com/articles/39744-more-funding-certainty-buoys-transportation-project-sector
Scratch Simulation

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/115323333/
Resources

http://mime.oregonstate.edu/what-do-industrial-engineers-do
http://www.me.iastate.edu/jobs/what-does-a-mechanical-engineer-do/
https://www.theguardian.com/careers/what-does-civil-engineer-do

Published on February 25th, 2018

Last updated on October 17th, 2022