What where your experiences in engineering school?

[josh132]

What where your experiences in engineering school?

[bob91343]

Regarding what?

[Berni]

Mostly being thought overly theoretical things by professors that are not all that good at teaching and are outdated in there field by about 20 to 40 years. Among them there are some rare exceptions that are actually good at what they do.

[Zero999]

What where your experiences in engineering school?

Good fun, drinking in the pub, in-between classes, doing pranks on each other and blowing capacitors up in the lab.

[Ground_Loop]

My college education came entirely out of my own pocket.  So, being obsessed with technology and wanting to get my money's worth I took the hardest classes I could, never took a semester off, never dropped a class, and never even sold a book back.  During that period I was taught numerous overly complicated things by professors that largely had industry experience.  This experience left me with a truly gut-level understanding of how things work and the ability to immediately visualize potential solutions to problems upon inspection.  And a personal observation:  Truly gifted engineers are usually highly fluent in physics.

Don't look for the Arduino/LED class.

[Sal Ammoniac]

And a personal observation:  Truly gifted engineers are usually highly fluent in physics.

Agreed, with one change: Truly gifted engineers are usually highly fluent in math and physics.

[mindcrime]

EEVBlog *is* my engineering school. 

All I've really learnt so far is how to buy test equipment. 

[Berni]

EEVBlog *is* my engineering school. 

All I've really learnt so far is how to buy test equipment. 

Except that having no money makes you buy cheep 2nd hand test equipment off the used market in a "sold as is" state finding it is indeed broken and having to figure out how to fix it. Tho half the time its an excuse to buy even more equipment in order to calibrate that piece of equipment you are fixing. And some of that arrives in a broken state... yeah... it doesn't really end sorry.

[bob91343]

It may never end but the learning experience is priceless.

[themadhippy]

Good fun, drinking in the pub, in-between classes, doing pranks on each other and blowing capacitors up in the lab.

Sounds like we went to the same place,add in getting the tutors  sidetracked onto there favorite subjects  like TT racing its remarkable we actually learned anything.

[bdunham7]

Mostly being thought overly theoretical things by professors that are not all that good at teaching and are outdated in there field by about 20 to 40 years. Among them there are some rare exceptions that are actually good at what they do.

At what point in your education do you get to the point where your understanding exceeds the state-of-the-science of 20 years ago?  Or even 40 years ago for that matter? 

[xrunner]

After taking a statics course I learned I didn't want to be a mechanical engineer. 

[ucanel]

EEVBlog *is* my engineering school. 

All I've really learnt so far is how to buy test equipment. 

Except that having no money makes you buy cheep 2nd hand test equipment off the used market in a "sold as is" state finding it is indeed broken and having to figure out how to fix it. Tho half the time its an excuse to buy even more equipment in order to calibrate that piece of equipment you are fixing. And some of that arrives in a broken state... yeah... it doesn't really end sorry.

Or even could not afford second handish gear
having just 56k like internet
and writing Fat supported Sd Card library in assembler
even without a logic analyzer.
Do not get me wrong it did not happened at good old 60s
it happened 2010s

[mc172]

It mostly varied between getting burnt out after spending an hour trying to keep up with copying scribbles from the board before it got erased or drawn over, and my world opening up to something new that was being explained passionately by a blatantly industry experienced teacher/prof.

[ferdieCX]

All my professors were also working in the industry and taught us at the evening in the technical university.
It was a wonderful time, back in the 70s

[IanB]

At what point in your education do you get to the point where your understanding exceeds the state-of-the-science of 20 years ago?  Or even 40 years ago for that matter?

You aren't ever going to reach that level of understanding as a student. There is no way in a 4 year college degree that you will reach the level of understanding that people of yesteryear spent a lifetime learning and researching.

Be really clear, that when you graduate college you will be "green", with some basic and primitive understanding (maybe), with a lifetime of learning ahead of you.

The level of learning present in an expert requires rewiring your brain from constant application to problems, exposure to questions, and figuring out solutions. It is not something that can be imparted by teaching.

What you get from college is enough of a foothold that you can begin climbing the ladder.

[Stray Electron]

What where your experiences in engineering school?

Good fun, drinking in the pub, in-between classes, doing pranks on each other and blowing capacitors up in the lab.

  Not me! I was working my A&& off to finish before my time-limited financing ran out. I finished in 3 years and one semester and with a double major (electronics and CS). I went back to college ten years after graduating from HS and I was determined to complete it. I went to school on days, nights, summers, holidays, spring breaks,  weekends and anytime that it was open. There was no online learning in those days, you had to be there in person and if you missed a class then you often didn't understand what they were talking about in the next class. Literally, my first party in college was the day that I finished school. OTOH I partied like a MF during the ten years between HS and college!

[Stray Electron]

EEVBlog *is* my engineering school. 

All I've really learnt so far is how to buy test equipment. 

Except that having no money makes you buy cheep 2nd hand test equipment off the used market in a "sold as is" state finding it is indeed broken and having to figure out how to fix it. Tho half the time its an excuse to buy even more equipment in order to calibrate that piece of equipment you are fixing. And some of that arrives in a broken state... yeah... it doesn't really end sorry.

  Yeap, been there; done that. Working hard but not making any real money (i.e. being constantly poor) was what convinced me to go back to school and get a degree. I was tired of working around people with degrees that didn't know their a&& from a hole in the ground but that started at twice the salary that I was making even after years on the job. With a degree, I could at least afford to buy TE didn't say "Radio Shack" on it.

[Stray Electron]

Mostly being thought overly theoretical things by professors that are not all that good at teaching and are outdated in there field by about 20 to 40 years. Among them there are some rare exceptions that are actually good at what they do.

At what point in your education do you get to the point where your understanding exceeds the state-of-the-science of 20 years ago?  Or even 40 years ago for that matter?

   Seriously???  Never! Or maybe always, depending on your point of view. I started working professionally in electronics 2 years before I finished HS and I worked ten more in the .MIL and in industry after HS so when I went into college my state-of-the-art knowledge was already considerably newer than the profs. Most of them had never really worked at all in electronics and only knew what they were taught in school 20 to 30 years earlier.  I got into some royal arguments with some of the profs about how to do things in electronics. I dammed near dropped out of school after arguing with one A-H teacher but instead I went and talked to the Dean of Engineering and explained what had happened. He actually hired me as an assistant for a project that he was working on and gave me full credit for the class where I had argued with the instructor. The next semester, that instructor no longer taught there! 

[RJSV]

Physics and math basics, YES!  I believe are one key aspect, getting more 'Engineering' (classes) after those first and second college years.

   Calculus Professor had come from a past involved with professional RACE CAR operation. He had a bad or 'missing' leg: I think maybe he switched careers, after some horrific firey accident, on the track(?)
  Physics Prof: Well he made jokes, regarding my great test scores: "...gonna have to take off points for spelling, here... ( on my test papers).
That gave me some confidence boost.
   
   Also, noticed many truly exceptional physics profs were Eastern Europe born. Interesting!

[sigma_xi]

I agree, the best engineers I have met so far have a deep understanding of physics and math.

Apart from that, I think that engineering school/university has a lot to offer, but more often than not the professors just can't teach very well. Between a lecture and a book, I will always choose the book.

I also don't like that they often try to convey personal experience (e.g. shortcuts for certain problems) instead of proper methods. I prefer a structured, logical approach, even if it involves more math.

[joseph nicholas]

Engineering is essentially a pretty trivial thing.  Learning physics and math are what you should know.