Engineering Careers In Science and Technology
Engineering covers a multitude of career options and skill levels. It's likely that you're looking for a chance to contribute technically and creatively if you want to get into either aero engineering or auto engineering.
According to Loughborough University, there are more than 600 companies in the aerospace industry in Britain alone, with a combined turnover in excess of 17 billion pounds. When it comes to the automotive industry, over 300,000 people in the UK are employed in design, development and manufacturing.
Courses Of Repute
You'll find a very high concentration of aero and auto engineering based undergraduate degree courses in the UK - many with international reputations. In addition, some offer post-grad courses for Engineering and Physical Sciences graduates. It's also possible to find other engineering diplomas and fitting vocational courses. Degree courses can be studied with or without an industrial placement year. Engineering departments often have good links with industry for gaining work experience.
Some universities will also offer a more formal split between training and working time. The Armed Forces and certain private companies will sponsor students to qualify in both of these disciplines, in exchange for an agreed period of working time. As you do your research into the different training options, look for details of graduate sponsorship programmes.
Automotive Engineering
Every facet of a motorised machine has been developed because of automotive engineering. The automotive engineer's skills are tested right from the initial design concepts. Modern vehicle engineers can utilise the latest technologies - for example in relation to electric cars or active suspensions.
We can split auto engineering into product or design engineering, development engineering and manufacturing engineering. The designers have to create the parts on a vehicle and ensure that they meet all of the stated requirements. The second discipline is covered by development engineers, who engineer all the features of the vehicle. They may stipulate certain requirements to the design engineers. Working out how to actually assemble and produce the vehicle is the manufacturing engineers' job.
Students will find their training is both extensive and intense. Amongst other subjects, you will be taught about aerodynamics, performance, emissions and vehicle dynamics. Safety is a top priority, and so all elements of a design will be tested via crash simulations and test dummies etc.
Design engineers test individual components, but they must also be tested to prove synchronicity with the vehicle as a whole. Thus students will be taken through aspects of development or systems engineering. Sometimes opposing requirements have to be taken through a trade-off process, to ensure each system doesn't compromise another. Finally the development engineer has to conduct tests on the full vehicle, such as level testing, validation and certification.
Following on from the product and development stages, comes the processes needed for manufacturing. Engineers involved in this stage of the build use statistics and process controls to ensure every stage of the manufacture meets rigorous quality standards. Tasks include equipment design and machine specifications as well as people layout and management.
Aero Engineering
Aero engineering is all about turning ideas into reality by applying scientific principles to produce sophisticated flight products. If you are very analytical by nature and have a great capacity for highly technical and innovative thinking, you could do very well building a career for yourself in the aerospace industry. As an aside - Formula One racing cars share a common technological base with modern airliners.
All aircraft have to endure severe conditions and stresses, such as changes in atmospheric pressure and temperature, and structural loading on the components. Due to the complexity of flight vehicle development and design, it would be impossible to learn enough about all the technologies involved, so teams of engineers deal in their own specialisations.
With a strong emphasis on analytics, training will include all aspects of design, materials, forces and integration of systems. Analytical methods will be developed which allow aeronautical engineers to design and analyse aircraft.
The behaviour of fluid can now be tested with computerised simulations, reducing the time and expense spent on wind tunnel testing. Nonetheless, university students will still benefit from wind-tunnel experiments and other physical testing methods.
Applying yourself to practical applications is an important engineering principle. You can expect a group project that requires students to design a complete vehicle or aircraft, along with significant individual projects. Other more broad based vocational skills may be incorporated into an engineering degree programme. Things like oral communication, leadership skills and teamwork might be on the list.
Aero and auto engineering degrees not only provide the opportunity to develop technical expertise, they also put graduates into the top sector for employment opportunities. Refer to the Engineering Council for details on becoming a Chartered Engineer (CEng) or an Incorporated Engineer (IEng).
