机械工程师的生存指南：创造伟大工程之路(转)

良生

http://nutsandbolts.quora.com/Survival-guide-for-mechanical-engineers-on-the-journey-to-create-astonishing-engineering
这是quora上一个工程师写的“机械工程师的生存指南：创造伟大工程之路”，大家仔细看看，我觉得写得很好。老外水平确实不错，完全符合8爷的精神，“基础、基础、还是基础”。看来，高手对技术的理解都是一样的。我捡重要的翻译了一些，英语好的可以自己看看，有错误的请指正。
2 a  ^" M: _: D. S( k6 W' E顺便说下，我为什么觉得写的好，因为其实在你做技术的过程中，设计的过程中，真正复杂的、难以解决的问题，归根结底都是那些基础的数学与力学知识，这些系统的知识、深入的知识必须高强度学习才能掌握。像“六轴机器人的传动结构”、“多少个动作的非标装配机”，这些找机器多看看，多拆拆，都会慢慢有办法解决。
9 |, ]# f% Y( @$ t0 g我唯一想补充的一点，就是还要掌握材料知识，“材料”和“数学”，是机械工程的精华。

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So I have written this like the advice Iwould give myself if I could travel back in time or what I really hope to seein the undergrads I want to hire. I hope you don't get discouraged/put off.
我写的如下这些建议，希望你不要泄气或厌恶。如果让我重过一次，我会把它给我自己看。如果现在招人，我会招这样的学生。
First thing: Solidworks/ProE/AutoCAD/Rhino/Blender/CATIA and GD&T are notskills for degree'd engineers. You don't do a BS/ME for draftsmanship. It'slike putting MS Office on your resume. You can pick that skill up on your owntime.
第一，Solidworks/ProE/AutoCAD/Rhino/Blender/CATIAand GD&T这些不是拿到学位工程师的技能要求，成为工程师不是一个画图员，就像在简历上说你会MSoffice一样，花点时间你能轻松学会它。
3 K0 r% L9 e: O) |! ^Second thing: I am talking about becoming an engineer here. You know, the kindthat build rockets and microengines (SandiaMEMS Home Page). I have nothing against grades, but I don'tcare very much for them. So I am not talking about getting the best grades.
第二，我们在这说的是成为一个工程师，是那种可以实实在在建造火箭和微型发动机的。我不反对分数制，不是很在乎它，因此这里我不讨论如何得最高分。

Now. Here's what you need to acquireproficiency in through your 4-year BS.
; j! J9 n. P4 }/ z现在，下面这些是你在大学四年中需要熟练掌握的。
$ z- g5 [. g+ r# O# Z0. Read Wikipedia.
! O  M5 s: ?+ ^1 _1 _  [阅读维基百科
1. Programming - Start with Matlab/Python. Thengraduate to C++. An example of a programming goal would be to use this tocreate your own computational graphics engines. Why? Because this teaches youabout visualizing vectors, arrays, transforms and leads you tohigher-dimensional algebra. Make sure you can understand and implementRunge-Kutta family of algorithms before you think you are done. Arecommendation would be to ditch Windows and move to some flavour of Linux orMac. You need to understand concepts behind batch/shell scripting and importingopen source scripts to embed inside your own. If you don't do anything else inyour freshman or sophomore years, that's fine. But make sure you master this.
. O/ u- G  y/ m+ b/ a编程：从Matlab/Python开始，接着C++。举个例子，要达到用这些语言可以自己编写一个图像引擎。为什么？因为这能让你把矢量、阵列、变换图形化，并通往高维代数。要确保你能理解和应用Runge-Kutta的算法，这样才算学好。不要只是用windows，也要领略一下Linux或Mac的风采。要能理解batch/shell脚本语言的原理，并能把利用重要的开源脚本搭建自己的脚本。如果你在一年级或二年级什么事也没干，确保一定要精通这些。
% K0 g1 o7 G  z2. Linear algebra anddifferential equations - Now,most ME syllabi force the courses on you early on. But very few MEs trulyunderstand these topics. This is the source of all ME theory. I CANNOT STRESSTHIS ENOUGH! Most ME professors DO NOT understand linear algebra or itsimportance - they will fuck it up for you so you will be confused/avoidderivative topics forever. Don't take these courses offered inside yourdepartment - take them from CS or EE or Math professors. Or learn it fromGilbert Strang on Youtube. Tie this together with your programming to createnumerical simulations. Do NOT take these courses until you are done with yourprogramming.

线性代数和微分方程：现在大部分机械工程的大纲都要求尽早学这门课，但很少有机械工程师能真正理解，它们是机械工程的根本，再怎么强调都不过分。很多机械专业教授都不理解线性代数的重要性，把它教砸，去听计算机、数学专业老师开的课。或去Youtube听GilbertStrang 的课。把它和编程结合，进行数值仿真。不要等编程学完，再学它们。

3. Statistics - Take this twice. Audit it as afreshman. Then take the course again as a senior. This will be the single mostimportant course you ever take as a professional in any field.
: d7 }+ R' }2 w/ }3 A统计学：学两遍，第一年学，高年级再学。这是唯一一个任何专业都非常重要的一门课。
! A& p" f2 F) f2 N5 u4. Engineering mathematics -The rest of your life depends onthis. Pay attention to spatial transforms, Fourier analysis, Complex analysis,Potential theory, PDEs, Interpolation/curve fitting, optimization theory. Lookfor ways to implement these concepts using your programming skills. If you everwonder about the usefulness of any of this, or you get the choice to skip a fewtopics - you are doing it wrong. Good engineers use these concepts EVERYDAY.
; ]5 Z9 m( `/ _0 a工程数学：空间变换、傅里叶分析、复变函数、位势理论、偏微分方程组、插值/曲线拟合、优化理论。结合编程技能，实践它们。如果认为有些没用跳过去，都是错误的。好的工程师每天都用它们。
5. Dynamics/Advanced dynamics - Take this in the Physics department.ME profs screw it up here again, they focus on the mechanics of algebraicmanipulation and don't explain concepts very well. Your objective would be tobe able to independently construct FBDs of complex interacting mechanisms, andgenerate classical non/autonomous, non/linear differential equations thatdescribe the time-history of the system. Develop a familiarity with indexnotation and tensors and operator spaces. Your indicial programming experiencewill really help you here.
动力学/高等动力学：听物理系的力学课，机械的教授总是用代数的方法对待力学，对概念解释不够好。你的目标是能独立建立复杂机械的FBDs(应该指自由体受力图)，能写出经典的随时间变化系统的自治/非自治、线性/非线性微分方程，熟悉指标记法，张量和算子空间，你的编程经验可以帮助你。
  [+ w. T8 g# E5 U1 ?! }6 l  p) `6. Statics/Solid mechanics - Master Timoshenko Goodier/Theory ofelasticity. Even if it takes you the rest of your life. If you got throughpoint 2, you should be able to point out the inefficiency of the SFDs and BMDsand Mohr's circle concepts. Try visualizing the simple cases while cognizantthat life is not simple. Use your programming finesse to program numerical solutionsto your ODEs and equations.
* z% |8 F8 A6 n/ r静力学/固体力学：精通铁木辛柯的弹性理论，即使花去你的余生。如掌握了第2点，你应该能知道SFDs和BMDs的无效和莫尔圆概念。要尝试把简单的例子图形化，其实这并不简单。使用你的编程技能去解ODEs方程（常微分方程）的数值解。
7. Vibration theory - If you actually got through point 2,you will find this a breeze. All they do here is study a second order,non/homogenous, non/autonomous non/dimensionalized ordinary differentialequation and the effects of parametric variations (mkc, forcing frequency). Ifyou got through 5, you should be able to figure out all the base excitation,seismic perturbation, isolation, rotating machinery concepts. If you gotthrough 6, then plates/beam vibration problems. If you got through 2 & 4,you will be able to work through MDOF systems and all the modal analysistechniques. This is where you segue to coupled SHO/QHO concepts.
4 \% o9 k! t; v9 h+ h$ P振动理论：如果你熟练掌握了第2点，这会比较轻松。振动理论主要是研究二阶、齐次/非齐次、自治/非自治、变参/非变参常微分方程。如你掌握了第5点，你会知道怎么计算响应、地震扰动、减震、旋转机械等。掌握第6点，可以解决板、梁的振动问题。同时掌握2和4，应能够解多自由度系统，掌握模态分析方法。在这里还要学习耦合的SHO/QHO概念。
7 s/ v! `0 _  g/ X: r8. Thermodynamics/Fluidics - I am not the right person to adviseon these topics. But they are pretty straightforward at the undergraduate leveland mostly applications of differential equations and continuum mechanics.
1 ?, K" a5 I! A7 O1 V- U热力学/流体力学：我不适合对这部分内容发表意见，但它们在本科阶段并不难，并且主要是应用微分方程和连续介质力学。
7 ?5 F, z4 u: q  f/ u( FIf you followed instructions so far, everything else is a straightforwardapplication of what you should have learned by now. That's all you really needto be a degree'd mechanical engineer - math and physics. Everything else is aspecialization and extension of domains from the presented fields into specifictasks. This is also where you start encountering professional jargon. And don'tlet terms/eponyms scare you off.
如果你按上面执行了，以后就是对你上面所学的简单应用。这是一个机械工程师应该真正掌握的，数学和物理。你以后碰到的一切专业问题，都是特定的任务，只是针对上面领域的应用与扩展，以后你会开始碰到一些的专业术语，不要被专有名词和术语吓到。
: @* W. s9 f1 C4 H* R9 jAlso mechanical engineers don’t generally design machines from scratch –hobbyists and mathematicians do. We follow standards for our industry, mix andmatch components, or use well defined algorithms to create a new one. There areconcepts in kinematic chains, algebraic linkage synthesis and design that areused here. So sure you can read about gears and machinery and 4-bar linkagesand cams and genevawheels, but it is highly improbable that you, as an ME, will create one. It ismore likely that a technician or a sheet metal worker will create somethingutterly brilliant. So if that’s what you want to do, figure on grad school. Youcan however use your solid mechanics skills to design the components towithstand pyrotechnic impacts.
爱好者和数学家也设计机器，但机械工程师不从零开始。我们遵循工业标准，组合并匹配已有组件，用已有的算法来创造新东西，例如运动链、连杆综合和设计。确保读过齿轮、机械学、4连杆机构、凸轮、间歇传动轮。有可能，工程师创造这些机构并不在行，一个技师或工人会做得更好，但你能用固体力学知识去设计好零件，承受极大的冲击力。
I skip over manufacturing and 'product engineering' classes because they areshit, when taught in school. You can't master manufacturing sitting in a class,and you certainly are never going to learn enough in school about how to designa full product. Those axiomatic design principles and synectics and productlifecycle management and ideation and Gantt charts and brainstorming processesare bullshit. Nobody in real life does that. Those who do, are not engineers.If you really want to understand manufacturing, skim through ManufacturingProcesses for Design Professionals by Rob Thompson, then go talk with people onshop floors, or watch how it's made on Youtube. If you really want tounderstand the product design process, follow Kickstarter h/w startup stories.

忽略掉’制造’、‘产品工程’课程，因为在学校教这些，毫无价值。你不可能在教室里精通制造，你也不可能在学校学会设计一个好机器。那些公理设计原理、产品生命周期管理、甘特图、头脑风暴都是胡说八道。没人真的那样做，那样做的人，不是工程师。如果你想了解制造，粗读一下RobThompson的《面向设计的制造方法》，去跟车间的人交谈，去看youtube上的how it’s made。想去了解产品设计过程，去看Kickstarter。
! F+ O! o" A+ ?+ @8 D& |Do not ever waste your time on survey or presentation courses. Avoid attendingschool seminars if you are not interested in the topic. You should attend allseminars that promise to show you math or process or cool videos. You want tokeep an ear out for examples and case studies that show explicit details of howsystems get modeled/implemented using math or experiments. Avoid 'design'seminars (usually a peddler from Wharton or Sloan or Kellog) - they are pretty,but pointless.
不要浪费时间在概述或介绍类课程上，不要参加不感兴趣主题的讨论课。应该参加承诺展示你数学、方法或酷视频的讨论课。要时刻关注这样的案例研究：清楚详细的展示如何利用数学或实验对系统进行建模或实现。避免‘设计’研讨（通常来自Wharton、Sloan 或Kellog商学院），这些看着美好，但毫无用处。
+ k0 L" _4 S# h: KTake all lab classes you can. ALL of them. All you can afford. Pottery too, ifyou have that option. Just drop in to watch other people work if you got thefree time. Pottery as well. Use the equipment there till you break it - You arepaying for it anyway. Make all the mistakes you can ever imagine there. ANDDON'T FUCK AROUND IN THE MACHINE SHOP BRO!!!
参加所有实验课，只要你负担得起。在实习车间，有空余时间去看别人如何工作。使用哪里设备，直到弄坏，你已经为这买了单。尽可能犯错，但不要在车间那里打闹。
Amongst other advice, find a PhD student about to graduate every year and getthem to mentor you. Don’t believe in that ‘I am busy’ crap – they all areusually on Quora or editing Wikipedia anyway. I speak from experience. Pickpeople from diverse fields – machine learning, operations optimization, publicpolicy, neurobiology, kernel development … You want to understand what they do,how they do it, what they use to do it and create a possible job network. Youdon’t want seniors to mentor you because, unless they go to grad school, theywill never be in any position to introduce you to great opportunities on timescales relevant to your interests.

6 N7 b  S( t7 Y9 S0 p2 zNow, let's talk about being a professional mechanical engineer
* N. l4 D7 E4 o+ v' p下面谈谈如何成为专业的机械工程师
3 \! L0 }: f/ p8 \( V9. ReadISO/ASME/ASTM/ASTC/ASMI (standardsorganizations) standard practices. That's the only place where they really tellyou how theory meets practice. If you believe your university doesn't provideyou access to those - Sue them! Beg/borrow/steal. Whatever. But if you reallywant to know how things are done; Read the standards. Not the website and theirdiscussion forums. Read the standards.
读ISO/ASME/ASTM/ASTC/ASMI 这些标准文件，那才能告诉你理论如何满足实践，如果你的大学没有，投诉他们！跪求、借、偷，用任何方法。想要知道事情如果做的，去读标准，不是在网站或论坛。
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后面还有，大家可以自己看吧。
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点滴积累

好，非常好，感谢楼主提供的信息。真是太感谢了，你今晚让我发现了新大陆，在深圳吗，如果没，来了，我请你啊。哈哈。

huhaofei

你也玩quora啊？啥时候开始玩的，我前几天才开始玩

一朵娇粉嫩的花

谁帮我看看，我进去后为什么弹出这个东西
5 ]3 i, \- F- x9 Z% ]0 H/ B2 C
都看不明这东西是干什么用的
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我用W7系统，百度浏览器

独自莫凭栏

我把它贴出来吧，大家可以方便看。
! Z. W# X8 h- v4 t* Q2 i: m7 C( ^This post was originally posted in Maybe more than a bachelor's but the original person deleted the answer. I kept an offline copy of the same. So, I am posting it here.
_____________________________________________________
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So I have written this like the advice I would give myself if I could travel back in time or what I really hope to see in the undergrads I want to hire. I hope you don't get discouraged/put off.
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First thing: Solidworks/ProE/AutoCAD/Rhino/Blender/CATIA and GD&T are not skills for degree'd engineers. You don't do a BS/ME for draftsmanship. It's like putting MS Office on your resume. You can pick that skill up on your own time.

' ~& w4 o+ h7 \- c5 _( iSecond thing: I am talking about becoming an engineer here. You know, the kind that build rockets and microengines (Sandia MEMS Home Page). I have nothing against grades, but I don't care very much for them. So I am not talking about getting the best grades.
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2 }0 D  Y7 R% m3 B8 h) S' [Now. Here's what you need to acquire proficiency in through your 4-year BS.
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0. Read Wikipedia.

1. Programming - Start with Matlab/Python. Then graduate to C++. An example of a programming goal would be to use this to create your own computational graphics engines. Why? Because this teaches you about visualizing vectors, arrays, transforms and leads you to higher-dimensional algebra. Make sure you can understand and implement Runge-Kutta family of algorithms before you think you are done. A recommendation would be to ditch Windows and move to some flavour of Linux or Mac. You need to understand concepts behind batch/shell scripting and importing open source scripts to embed inside your own. If you don't do anything else in your freshman or sophomore years, that's fine. But make sure you master this.
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& X7 I( @- A- d7 \5 f  L+ Y2. Linear algebra and differential equations - Now, most ME syllabi force the courses on you early on. But very few MEs truly understand these topics. This is the source of all ME theory. I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH! Most ME professors DO NOT understand linear algebra or its importance - they will fuck it up for you so you will be confused/avoid derivative topics forever. Don't take these courses offered inside your department - take them from CS or EE or Math professors. Or learn it from Gilbert Strang on Youtube. Tie this together with your programming to create numerical simulations. Do NOT take these courses until you are done with your programming.

3. Statistics - Take this twice. Audit it as a freshman. Then take the course again as a senior. This will be the single most important course you ever take as a professional in any field.

# N& w& e; b) Q  J7 y4. Engineering mathematics -The rest of your life depends on this. Pay attention to spatial transforms, Fourier analysis, Complex analysis, Potential theory, PDEs, Interpolation/curve fitting, optimization theory. Look for ways to implement these concepts using your programming skills. If you ever wonder about the usefulness of any of this, or you get the choice to skip a few topics - you are doing it wrong. Good engineers use these concepts EVERYDAY.

# f8 w: `& k& V8 b9 X/ U5. Dynamics/Advanced dynamics - Take this in the Physics department. ME profs screw it up here again, they focus on the mechanics of algebraic manipulation and don't explain concepts very well. Your objective would be to be able to independently construct FBDs of complex interacting mechanisms, and generate classical non/autonomous, non/linear differential equations that describe the time-history of the system. Develop a familiarity with index notation and tensors and operator spaces. Your indicial programming experience will really help you here.
5 f7 F7 w: B3 C$ s
6. Statics/Solid mechanics - Master Timoshenko Goodier/Theory of elasticity. Even if it takes you the rest of your life. If you got through point 2, you should be able to point out the inefficiency of the SFDs and BMDs and Mohr's circle concepts. Try visualizing the simple cases while cognizant that life is not simple. Use your programming finesse to program numerical solutions to your ODEs and equations.
/ r7 r# J* y1 P0 |
' W9 P" G* d$ F  O/ W: D+ G( N' `+ C( N7. Vibration theory - If you actually got through point 2, you will find this a breeze. All they do here is study a second order, non/homogenous, non/autonomous non/dimensionalized ordinary differential equation and the effects of parametric variations (mkc, forcing frequency). If you got through 5, you should be able to figure out all the base excitation, seismic perturbation, isolation, rotating machinery concepts. If you got through 6, then plates/beam vibration problems. If you got through 2 & 4, you will be able to work through MDOF systems and all the modal analysis techniques. This is where you segue to coupled SHO/QHO concepts.
" G( u2 m& V. `0 @6 t
. R! N/ N" u  W  {8. Thermodynamics/Fluidics - I am not the right person to advise on these topics. But they are pretty straightforward at the undergraduate level and mostly applications of differential equations and continuum mechanics.

: k7 ?' T) Q% Z% t* i( fIf you followed instructions so far, everything else is a straightforward application of what you should have learned by now. That's all you really need to be a degree'd mechanical engineer - math and physics. Everything else is a specialization and extension of domains from the presented fields into specific tasks. This is also where you start encountering professional jargon. And don't let terms/eponyms scare you off.
6 W: S. ?- `3 T5 U2 f. C: y
Also mechanical engineers don’t generally design machines from scratch – hobbyists and mathematicians do. We follow standards for our industry, mix and match components, or use well defined algorithms to create a new one. There are concepts in kinematic chains, algebraic linkage synthesis and design that are used here. So sure you can read about gears and machinery and 4-bar linkages and cams and geneva wheels, but it is highly improbable that you, as an ME, will create one. It is more likely that a technician or a sheet metal worker will create something utterly brilliant. So if that’s what you want to do, figure on grad school. You can however use your solid mechanics skills to design the components to withstand pyrotechnic impacts.
3 M$ U1 W# ^+ m
I skip over manufacturing and 'product engineering' classes because they are shit, when taught in school. You can't master manufacturing sitting in a class, and you certainly are never going to learn enough in school about how to design a full product. Those axiomatic design principles and synectics and product lifecycle management and ideation and Gantt charts and brainstorming processes are bullshit. Nobody in real life does that. Those who do, are not engineers. If you really want to understand manufacturing, skim through Manufacturing Processes for Design Professionals by Rob Thompson, then go talk with people on shop floors, or watch how it's made on Youtube. If you really want to understand the product design process, follow Kickstarter h/w startup stories.
' ^% F# U" U4 h
Do not ever waste your time on survey or presentation courses. Avoid attending school seminars if you are not interested in the topic. You should attend all seminars that promise to show you math or process or cool videos. You want to keep an ear out for examples and case studies that show explicit details of how systems get modeled/implemented using math or experiments. Avoid 'design' seminars (usually a peddler from Wharton or Sloan or Kellog) - they are pretty, but pointless.

3 Y  \* `) w) w, _6 eTake all lab classes you can. ALL of them. All you can afford. Pottery too, if you have that option. Just drop in to watch other people work if you got the free time. Pottery as well. Use the equipment there till you break it - You are paying for it anyway. Make all the mistakes you can ever imagine there. AND DON'T FUCK AROUND IN THE MACHINE SHOP BRO!!!
# s5 V# m+ \3 o2 Z( R
Amongst other advice, find a PhD student about to graduate every year and get them to mentor you. Don’t believe in that ‘I am busy’ crap – they all are usually on Quora or editing Wikipedia anyway. I speak from experience. Pick people from diverse fields – machine learning, operations optimization, public policy, neurobiology, kernel development … You want to understand what they do, how they do it, what they use to do it and create a possible job network. You don’t want seniors to mentor you because, unless they go to grad school, they will never be in any position to introduce you to great opportunities on time scales relevant to your interests.

" z/ @7 Q4 G& j/ x& BNow, let's talk about being a professional mechanical engineer
3 c  x( X; K4 T# C5 X- ^" B0 A4 ^" K
9. Read ISO/ASME/ASTM/ASTC/ASMI (standards organizations) standard practices. That's the only place where they really tell you how theory meets practice. If you believe your university doesn't provide you access to those - Sue them! Beg/borrow/steal. Whatever. But if you really want to know how things are done; Read the standards. Not the website and their discussion forums. Read the standards.

  U, V9 f5 U9 @* m" v2 ]10. Take/Audit courses on electromagnetism, digital electronics, electrical theory, VLSI/Silicon based designs, electrical machinery. You should be able to design your own motor driver/filter/power regulator/multivibrator circuits and implement them on PCBs. Start dipping into embedded microcontrollers here. This is where you C++ experience should start paying off.

" u9 X! ~& N( L" ]5 O5 ?* l11. Signal processing - Audio/image/Power signals - Master the topic of discrete Fourier transforms/spectral densities and how they are used and calculated. Figure out how digital sampling and digital filters work and how filters and masks get designed. Move on to z-transforms and recursive filters. Your statistics background starts to become useful here. At least figure out how to manipulate images using pixel-array math.
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1 G% O; v2 l% \3 j' _( y2 O  [$ n: T12. Control systems - THIS ties up everything. And THIS was the topic that really got you into ME. You didn't join ME to make bridges or prepare CAD layouts for GE ovens or tractor engines or boiler chambers for plants or be a grease monkey. You joined ME to make structures that move, intelligently. If you have done things right so far, this is where you will get to have fun. It ties together your dynamics and linear algebra first, then programming, signal processing and statistics next, finally you implement it all using your electronics/embedded skills.
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13. Instrumentation – People have equipment that costs between a thousand dollars to over several million. You need to learn how to use them, AND how to construct them. You will find that making equipment is always cheaper than buying a turnkey system from a manufacturer. So companies prefer to design/assemble their own systems. This should segue into design of experiments/statistical validation. Your goal should be to know how to hook up the hydraulic pressure gauge in an EMD F51PHI locomotive cab suspended 10 ft up in a shed to an office in Minnesota.
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Along with instrumentation, you will frequently need to develop software to control the instruments. Some people use labview, but with your mastery of C/matlab you will do better.
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" s' f9 W$ J, j# ]7 bIf you want to get into finite elements, you can’t do that in undergrad. All you will learn is to push buttons. Most engineers only think they understand FEA – they actually don’t. It takes practice, study and experience. The pretty pictures don’t mean much by themselves. So I will say go to grad school or intern with a practicing consultant.

+ U6 M5 N4 u& O) g" d- yThat should about cover your basics and get you a good job. But if you want to get a great job, you will need professional degrees or exhibit skills in some of the following. So, on to specialization:
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1. Fracture/fatigue/materials on the nanoscale.

. a& F5 z5 C) g+ q! Y5 H2. MEMS – Look up Sandia National Labs/MEMS. Biggest opportunity for MEs since all companies are moving from RnD to ramping up production right about now. Micromachining and processing technologies research is active as well. MOEMS was hot, sensors are sizzling, actuators not so much, lab-on-chip was meandering about, last I checked. Significant effort underway on determining lifetime/reliability as well. People were excited about energy harvesting, but that seems to be toned down now. Lot’s of material science opportunities.

3. Microfluidics – These guys blow bubbles through microchannels! Look up lab-on-a-chip.

4. Bioengineering – Tissue printing/engineering! There’s also research on mechanical characterization of bio-materials (bones/ligaments/RBCs)
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5. Medical devices/robotics – da Vinci/intuitive. Also swallowable robots and cameras. Lots of health monitoring devices and OR assistants.
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6. Robotics/control systems – Typically, you need to be core CS/EE for this. They are the ones doing most of this research. But you can create opportunities for yourself by choosing to focus on dynamic structure design or kinematics or something on that order. Look up Hod Lipson/Cornell or Red Whittaker/CMU or Marc Raibert/ex CMU/MIT leg labs or Rob Wood/Harvard for inspiration. Google and Amazon have raised this field’s profile over the last couple of years. Look up compliant mechanisms/robots, autonomous vehicles, haptics, telepresence, Raytheon XOS II,... Lot’s of bullshit in the name of ‘assistive robotics’ (that no one can or will want to afford or use, and medicare won’t support).

7. Control systems/avionics – I worked on optimizing damage-resilient, real-time coolant distribution through nuclear subs, my ex-boss worked on guidance systems for the Pershing/Hera systems. This is a mature engineering field at the moment (not much RnD) but scope for new applications.

' h4 Q3 U6 L+ H* X8. Thermo research – They do crazy things with combustion, not my domain.
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9. Nonlinear dynamics – Applied theory, predicting weather(?!), galloping (hopf) systems, .. this field goes on till quantum cryptography and then some.
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0 o5 K! d# J. h% Y5 u) Q) ?/ H10. Aerospace vehicles – SpaceX. Etc. Vibrations theory, dynamical systems and controls. Your vibrations theory needs to be strongly coupled.
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11. Infrastructure – Given Keystone or fracking, infrastructure is going to undergo another massive boom.
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" ?0 y& c' ~7 W12. Petroleum - …
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7 M' I+ k( @6 a% @8 M13. FEA – Meshing and geometry algorithms, data compression, rendering are being researched

14. Energy – fuel cell research, the cryptozoology equivalent in ME They’ve been at it for a while, but it seems to be a funding generation ploy.
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# }4 A. \2 I+ @. H15. Marine systems - …

16. Theoretical systems – Lots of work on rule based machine learning based design synthesis, structural optimization (back in early 2000’s it was all about simulated annealing and genetic algos, now they call it machine learning), dynamic self modeling, multi-agent systems,

5 X0 R4 S' a. j/ R" t% K' K17. MAV/Flight dynamics – Concentrated around rotorcraft/flapping wing architectures. Mostly experimental, some theoretical research going on.
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& }3 [- D1 H+ s, z18. ICE research – Very avoid!

( [8 S1 s0 U+ |3 |/ o- T, d+ c8 ?19. Tribology - Nonlinear dynamics of rate state dependent friction generate P/S/Love/Rayleigh wave phenomena used to predict earthquakes. Studying hydrodynamic lubrication of journal bearings is a trifle boring compared to that. See Ruina's work at Brown.

* G4 U/ C- L$ D: R+ q, zUniversities on the West and East coast typically work on the new frontiers of research, while the rest work on last-century concepts. So if you go to school in AK, you will find stuff on corrosion, rotor blades, missiles, defense, aerospace machining … But if you are in MA, you will find machine learning, robotics, vision, SLAM, MEMS, materials, algorithmic synthesis, complex systems etc.
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( g( \) ~# S" ?5 w( l! P5 s+ dI have written this like the "Survival guide for mechanical engineers on the journey to create astonishing engineering". This is written with North-American ADHD undergrads in mind. So I tend to be didactic, and, in the spirit of times, use hyperbole to signify importance (no selfies, however. Much disappoint.). I also abuse education professionals profusely - But that's only my personal experience – all the additional work I had to put in because courses were not designed right, or because a newly hired asst professor was in  charge of a particular course that they had no experience in or because the lecturer, originally from Asia, had this distracting accent and circuitous description that just  beat about the bush more than I could keep track of or maybe because most of the freshman/sophomore/introductory courses, specially non-core ME courses, are generally fanned out to temp staff/lecturers that generally don't know jackshit about how things are done or don’t care. So you see, personal failing on my part. That's my excuse for the abuse. And there's catharsis involved as well. So I apologize in advance.
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( t( V) |  {: Y4 b. ~I have a BS/AME USC, and MS/MAE, UC system, PhD/ME (and RI+LTI+ECE) CMU. I wasn't a great student during my BS; 2.7 GPA, almost dropped out to be a professional musician. GRE 1600/6.0 happened. I joined the master’s program because I was getting a fellowship & stipend. Programming happened. YouTube happened. OCW video content happened. I worked on projects with all or some of the following labs - LLNL/SNL/LL MIT/NRLMRY/NECSI/SFI through my PhD. For your reference: MS/PhD GPA 3.6/3.8. No money, at the time of graduation. Now making some.

445823809

马克

浪人tjl

学习一下，增加知识面。十分感谢。

hzhuang

学习了，嘿

94371734

翻译成 ME创新之路生存手册 似乎顺口点。

% y# s. a1 t/ H. z0 {对我而言这些随便看看也就罢了，还不如看看机械原理和几大力学来的实在。

dashizuijimo

非常感谢