Well, how many of you are there lurking out here on the world?
If you are one, what field, what do you actually do, and how do you like what you do?

This is prompted by a conversation that I had earlier today questioning the future of technical fields in this country.
What do you people think about the fact that science (arguably one of the most important aspects of modern life) is being shunned and, in many ways, is beginning to fall apart?

Industrial Engineering degree here.

Electrical construction company corporate safety director position pays the bills.

Mechanical engineer. Professional Engineering license in Kansas. Currently employed as a software engineer.

Your poll is going to be completely skewed.

Reason is, Engineers and Scientists are likely to click on a topic like this. Non technical types are not likely be interested enough to click the topic - hence, they will not have the chance to vote 'no'.

So your poll will be skewed and show that percentage wise, there are lots more engineers and scientists than there really are.

Demick
Mechanical Engineer (as if you didn't already guess)

As a hardcore scientist, I have to say your Poll is biased to be opened preferentialy by those dorks like me seeking social acceptance in numbers. An unbiased poll would be "What is your trained occupation?"

Best regards,

Christopher Pincetich, Ph.D.
Environmental Toxicology, UC Davis, 2003
Currently supervisor of EBMUD Biology Lab, testing water for 1.3 million peeps

My BS is in Forensic Chemistry. I do drug identification for the Dept of Public Safety Crime Lab, and yes I love my job. My wife is a Geologist.


I don't think hard science is on the decline, most Universities pump out Engineer/Science majors in large numbers.

Well, let it be more of a poll for those "dorks" then
We don't really care what those other people think anyways

(Also, a large part of it is seeing what flavor of engineering/science and whether or not they are actually doing what they initially set out to do)

Great post...
Now I know who my enemies are :-)
Keep'm coming!

I'm not a scientist or an engineer but I recently started reading some engineering books and I came across something that I suspected for a while.

Thanks for setting the World straight Jake.

Mechanical by degree. Mechanical/Electrical/Software by experience.

Where did you get that quote.... I want the source so I can post it in my office... because it's true!

Jack of all trades by experience, BS Telecommunications (now called Broadcast Engineering), emphasis in Audio.

BS ('00), MS ('03) Electrical Engineering. For the past year and a half I've been designing MMICs (Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits). Before that I was doing a lot of testing and mundane stuff. I really enjoy what I'm doing right now because I'm learning. Being able to do research and design with new technologies and capabilities is really fun. We've been developing a lot of cool stuff lately and its really exciting to be working on it.

I'm not sure why science and engineering are becoming less popular in school. Some of it at least has to do with the economic demand for engieners and scientists. WWII funded the development of radar and microwave engineering. The Cold War injected an immense amount of money into basic science and engineering in many fields. Both academic and otherwise. Then the mid-90's through 2000 tech boom injected money yet again. During both of those periods, science and engineering flourished of course. Its harder to see where we are right now, and even harder to see how things are going to go in the future.

-Tony

Electrical Engineer by training, IT Manager by trade

Degree:Electrical
Career Specialty:Electromagnetic Impedance Analysis
Self Taught: Mechanical Designer
Patents:Fluidized Powder Filling Apparati for Material Synthesis

Technical careers will remain strong up to the big crash.
During the rebuild technologists will rule!
After that who knows?

In the meantime enjoy your 914 habit!

Engineers are my enemy at work, I am a designer
Just about every time i have a ool idea, one of them says, " No, you can't do that." Sometimes I feel like ingenuity is dead.
Mark

Sorry, ingenuity is impossible.

-Tony

My "EHO" (every body has one....B.A.) is in Geography...so I voted NO.....

But, I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night!

BS Civil Engineering. Telecommunications engineer by trade

Check out George Carlin's take on why. (Not for the easily offended)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GFe6dcIPWQ...ted&search=
I totally agree. The big wheels of this country don't want to have slaves that think for themselves in a logical fashion, which is all engineers and scientists do. Personally, I'm rather young, but I'm working on machining 7 certifications so that I can build the race cars and motors that I design in my spare time. In the meantime, I'm building production based race cars as well as slowly race prepping the 914 (money permitting). Needless to say, I don't get along with 99.99% of the people my age, which is to say I have NO friends. The only people who have a clue of what's going on in my head are the guys I build cars with and my family because they're all the same way....... I need to move to Germany. My two cents.
Mark D.

If you can think of it..... it's ether already been done or it's not practical!
If it's not practical, you may end up expending your resources trying to accomplish it.

But that doesn't mean you can't do it!

In my experience a good engineer must be willing to take on some risk to produce novel work.

BS chemistry. Interesting in school, but from what I've seen, kinda sucks as a career. I bailed and now develop and support lab software. Life in cubicle-ville ain't too bad. From to

Does an associates degree in EE Technology count? Had one actual job as a tech fixing check printing machines (sucked). Worked mostly in technical sales.

Currently employed as a sales rep for an aerospace component manufacturer.

Anybody need any aircraft antennas, especially in really BIG volumes????

BTW, my territory is western US, TX to CA.

Was a TLC chemist (thin layer chromatograpgy) for Sterling Drug (AKA Kodak) back in the 70's. Spent my days laboring over Benzene & Chloroform! Then, the FDA scared the crap out of me. Went back to school & became a bean counter, then got my MBA.

Then learned how to terminate(shut down) pensions plans as a pension admiistrator. Don't burn me at the stake - everyone got paid out & are better for it, because they can handle their own investments. Yeah, even terminated my own. Made lots of additional money because I control my investments. So, don't make a demon out of me. No one has ever bitched!

Anyway, the tech thing was too dangerous for me.
Pat

In the 1850's some notable bonehead who's name I can't recall said that science was dead because everything that there was to invent had already been invented, and everything there was to figure out had already been discovered.

Natural gas pipeline technician. Not an engineer ! Only the guy that knows which end of the pipewrench to hold!!!

One day I saw 3 engineers trying to measure the height of a pole. Everytime they tried to extend the tape measure above 11 feet, the tape would bend and fall back down to the ground.
After 10 minutes watching them unsuccesfully, I stepped in and told them I could measure it for them. They stated that if 3 engineers couldn't do it, a technician would not prevail. So they all took a seat and urged me to prove them wrong. So I took the pole, undid the hook up at the base and lied it down on the ground and proceeded to measure it.
One of the engineers sttod up and said: look at this smart ass technician, here we are trying to get the height of the pole and he will give us the lenght instead !!!

God bless engineers !!!

Friendly,

Steph

BS Civil (Environmental) Engineering, 1982
MS Engineering Management, 1992
PE in Environmental Engineering, 1990
I'm a project manager for superfund sites.




BTW Jake- A degree is just one path to being an ENGINEer. I'm pretty sure you would qualify for an honorary doctorate at least.

Uh Oh, I 've been spotted.....

Mechanical Engineer taught by the rocket scientists that put man on the moon. Compulsive tinker and constant builder of small devices. Able to fab parts.

11 years in computers and computer peripherals designing and testing printers and displays,

3 years in gee whiz military/aerospace- designed and developed satellite communications systems, early star wars, lasers, saatellite antennas, mass data storage systems and had a "clearance"

14 years in medical devices. Got in on the ground floor of endoscopic surgery designing and developing medica devices. Prolific inventor- 22 issued patents and about that many chugging through the patent office...

Now I'm a registered Patent Agent writing and prosecuting patents with the Patent office. I now work for a law firm and went from cubicle boy (engineering) to rosewood office man.

And for Jake, I tink. Gimme a hammer, a sandbag, and a scrap of metal and I make flares. Give me a bunch of tubing, some UV cure glue, sheet metal and a model shop full of tools, and I can deliver a working medical device prototype that bends and articulates and places fasteners in tissue. And, it all fits in a shaft as big around as your little finger and fits down a half inch diameter tube.

As per today, the sales whores have taken over this country. No longer do we worry about having smart engineers making things, we just make sales.... The sales guys (no engineering degree) have taken over and run the companies that used to make things and they believe that the future of engineering is a pack of Indian or Chineese engineers working for $4.95 a day making products to earn them a big sales commission. I used to work for a huge well known and formerly respected company. One day they informed me I was no longer needed as a technical innovator creating ingenious working products, but innovation was now redefined as "an innovative business or sales process" and I just didn't fit.

Any questions why their stock hasn't gone up in 6 years, why their quality and reliablity went down, why they are losing sales, and why their malpractice lawsuits are increasing?

Ken

Ken

Hmm, not sure.

16 years of electronics experience (since 14yo), actual ROP classes in high school for 2 years, coast guard trained avionics technician and 6 years woking on HH-65 helicopters. Does this count for anything?

Then...BA in psychology, and currently working on an MD (medical science, no?)

have another year or 2 for my BS in Civil Engineering....
will take my E.I.T. exam in the next year i think....

currently doing a ton of traffic engineering for a local city.

Thomas, it's from a book called Multi-Body Systems Approach to Vehicle Dynamics .

When I was a kid I viewed anyone with a PhD in math or physics as being god-like in intelligence but after dealing with a few of them I don't feel that way anymore. The last course I took, for example, I asked the professor to check if my proofs to a couple of problems were correct and when she said they weren't I emailed the textbook author and he confirmed that both proofs were in fact correct. They're just people.

I spent 12 1/2 years in the aerospace industry, last job title was a Senior Electro/Mechanical Design Engineer (Senior Designer), left the industry in 1989. Worked mostly as a "job shopper", Northrop, Hughes Space and Com, Radar, Ground Systems Group, EDSG, Jet Propulsion Lab, etc.

I made great money during the 80's... we young ones thought "this cold war will never end, the Soviets will always be a threat...we'll always have a job"... damn.

Interesting thread. It got me to quit lurking for once, as is my tendancy, and actually post.

Aerospace Engineer by education and employment. I like it quite a lot. I couldn't imagine doing to many different things. Always have enjoyed figuring out how things work and ways to improve on them. It's just natural to engineers. Or should be if they are any good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySpOuaYwLQU

PhD - if that's the only thing we know about someone, it's a fair bet that they are useless when it comes to anything practical. I know at least one exception, but that's the rule.

Ummm. I kinda feel silly for being in this thread. My brother is as close to an engineer as I get. I am an artist by degree, and a business/ sales man by trade. Nice to see we have all of these engineer type here though.

I have 2 years done on my BS Mechanical Engineering Degree. I'm planning on a Masters and a minor or specialty in aerodynamics, so I can work on F1 or le mans cars or something really fast and sticky (downforce-wise).

No pocket protector, goofy glasses or dual slide rules but yes an engineer.

I have a double whammy for abuse: electrical engineer AND program manager.

I am a program manager at Raytheon, Integrated Defense Systems.

My program is AN/BSG-1. This is a "portable" weapons launch system that can be brought aboard a SSN (688 and Virginia class subs). We launch (via the horizontal tubes) a TLAM-N (UGM 109A) = nuclear TOMAHAWK missile.

We have completed the SW and HW development phase and recently completed the production of 12 systems. I hope this system sits on the shelf and is never used.

If it is ever needed, it will work flawlessly.

going into my last year for my BS in Mechanical engineering, not sure what im doing after

Just Graduated a year ago with a BS in Mechanical Engineering, now I am working with conveyor systems design.

It's funny when you get into the field and find out that most of the people you work with get paid more b/c they get overtime and travel bonuses.

And what do people think about the current state of science in this country?
Because, from my point of view, we have some very hard times coming
A lot of the jobsecurity that the sciences once had is disappearing
There is really little incentive to going into the sciences, and other countries are going to eat our lunch in any technical field

BS-ME
ID MGR / ME for Sonar and GPS consumer products.

"Creative ideas reside in peoples minds but are trapped there in fear of rejection. Create a judgment-free environment and you will release a torrent of creativity" -Alex Osborn

B.S., Computer Science. I've been in software engineering for 20 years now, and playing with computers and cars for longer than that... in fact, since before computers and cars got hitched.

Why is science not getting the respect it should in this country? My opinions, which are worth what you paid for them...

1. Science is not "cool." When a LeBron James can get an NBA contract to play basketball out of high school, what does this say to kids? Why should they study in school when the really "cool" jobs involve playing sports? This attitude is aided and abetted by state and local governments who spend tax dollars on sports arenas and stadiums while their schools wither on the vine. You want to see some really nice stadiums, come to Baltimore. You want to see horrible schools that the city has been fighting a state takeover, come to Baltimore.

2. Media appeals to the lowest common denominator. There's a reason that right-wing talk shows are dominated by guys like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity rather than by George Will and Robert Novak. The first two guys tell people more or less what they want to hear, and the latter two more or less make reasoned arguments to make their case. It could be a radio versus print thing, as radio requires almost no intellectual involvement (that's why it's popular to listen to while driving a car) while reading an op-ed column requires a vocabulary and some reading comprehension skills. (NB: I don't listen to talk radio of any variety, unless you consider local news radio to be "talk radio.")

3. Although I have not delved deeply into the book, I have read the introduction to Al Gore's "The Assault on Reason" and I agree with some of his points, one of which is that somehow, pseudo-science has been accorded a respectability that it has not earned, considering that said pseudo-science is not subjected to the same rigorous tests that real science is; yet pseudo-science is pushed by people who dress it up as fact and use it to push their partisan agendas. Creationism is a prime example of this... how people can advocate it being taught in science classes, I really can't comprehend.

(Please don't jump all over my case and call me a biased lefty... first, it's not true, and second, if you don't know me personally, you probably won't guess my political leanings. I'm just calling it the way I see it.)

Before I couldn't even spell ingenear now I are one!! I got my bsme in '73 (yeah old fart). I actually had a one unit class in high performance suspensions and a another in internal combustion engine design.

Over the years I've worked for a bunch of different companies in various fields, but always doing mechanical design: Missile Launching and Handling for Trident missiles, food processing equipment, disk drives, mail opening equipment and my favorite. I designed equipment to put wine in plastic bags and put the bags in boxes.

I played with SCCA road racing for a while and then got away from cars. Now after about 20 years I'm back and am into AX. What I think is interesting is that the suspension talk here is the same as it was 35 years ago: stiffer springs, stiffer anti-roll bars, stiffer shocks, lower car. I know shock technology has changed, but I was expecting some really neat advances in my absence. Anyway, I'm having fun playing with the teener!

Ken
I actually agree with a lot of that
The public view is that scientists and engineers are nerdy looking people with lab coats on and there is no glamour to the prefession
I would also add to that that there seems to be a prevailing attitude of fear towards science
It is something that many people do not understand and therefore falls into the "black magic" category
I am going into a scientific field (as of yet unknown, but likely physics and something else)
and I currently work in a scientific area
And things are not looking good for the future of our country's scientific community

I am in my second year of a mechanical Engineering degree, but I don't know when I will ever finish (I got started 10 years too late). I have been in sales of telecommunications connectivity for 8 years now after initially getting a CNE (Certified Novell Engineer) certification at a tech school.

I have read that one of the largest threats to Engineering job security in this country is the number of Engineering grads in China and India. It is just another job that will be outsourced. Just like IT jobs are starting to be outsourced more and more. I have also heard that a high percentage of corporate CEOs have engineering degrees.

I just hired an entry level engineer for my staff. Durring the interview process, there was only one American applicant; the others were all recent foreigh transplants and all requiring H1B work visa's. The least qualified, from an educational perspective, was the American (poor interview too). Best interview and final selection was a young woman from India; BSEE, and MS Bio-Med from UC Irvine. Turns out she is exceeding my expectations.

BTW, I work for a medical device research foundation, so I'm surrounded by scientists which make my perspective a bit skewed in how I view the sciences. I agree that popular influences tend to turn people to make non-scientific career choices. Sports, entertainment, media, etc.....with the money in those fields, it's little wonder. Many in my local area are employed in the entertainment industry; they own the big houses and drive the big cars.

Andys

Andys, it's all too common a problem
And it's sad because the media people aren't actually contributing anything (other than entertainment, which is of questionable value)
And other countries are beating us out for our own jobs
Part of that is money based as well
Their countries care about education
Ours doesn't
The only way to succeed is to be competitive with everybody and that takes a hell of a lot of hard work (what I am getting ready to really begin this coming year)

This thread brought me out of lurking. I am an aerospace engineer, working in the defense aerospace industry. I primarily am involved with testing of maintenance planning software for aircraft. I am so glad that I didn't go into software engineering (almost did).

I am between porsches right now. I had a 85.5 944 for a short while at the end of college. Then had kids. Traded the 944 for a minivan. I never forgot the experience of the 944, but in the ensuing years I discovered that the 914 is much more what I am looking for in a driving experience, so I can't wait to start that journey!

MrZir