/r/EngineeringStudents

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This is a place for engineering students of any discipline to discuss study methods, get homework help, get job search advice, and find a compassionate ear when you get a 40% on your midterm after studying all night.

Check out the official EngineeringStudents Discord!:

discord.gg/EngineeringStudents

This is a place for engineering students of any discipline to discuss study methods, get homework help, get job search advice, and find a compassionate ear when you get a 40% on your midterm after studying all night.


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RULES

^ Read above for the expanded rules. Not reading them and then complaining will not earn you any sympathy.

  1. If the topic of your post is currently covered in one of the megathreads/stickied posts at the top of the page, please put your content as a comment there instead. Otherwise your post may get deleted.

  2. Do your own research, follow basic guidelines, and be sure to google your question beforehand.

  3. Follow homework help guidelines

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  5. Trolling, posts intentionally inciting conflict, personal attacks, and spam will be removed.

  6. No pirated materials.

  7. Avoid posting blogspam, blog self-promotion, or personally monetized links. You can be an account with a website, but not a website with an account.

  8. Meme posts are allowed only Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Meme posts made outside this time will be removed.

  9. No laptop posts.


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Engineering Subreddits

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/r/materials

r/MechanicalEngineering

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/r/Python

r/FE_Exam

Unofficial NCEES FE/PE Exam Discord


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8

Take hard courses elsewhere

I don’t know if this has been talked about on here before but I wanted to throw this out there. I’ve done this a few times, and it was a huge relief with stress and course workload. If you’ve got hard classes you know you need to take in the future, like differential equations, linear circuit analysis, etc, I highly recommend taking them at a community college and transferring the credit to your university. These classes will likely be significantly easier than taking them at your university. I did this with differential equations and a few others, and it was a huge stress relief. You’ll need to make sure in advance that the credits will transfer over, and since it is only the credits transferring and not your letter grade, you only need to pass the course. This will not impact your university GPA in any way. Hope this helps someone!

1 Comment
2024/12/02
18:41 UTC

96

You will get there and it will feel glorious

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts lately of students struggling/failing their classes. And as someone who just finished their last final for their mechanical engineering degree, I just wanna say that please stick it out.

I myself failed many classes, and took 6 and a half years for a 4 year degree. It was exhausting, and sometimes felt like I was stuck in an endless cycle of depression from failing my classes and rejections from internships. This degree has felt like pushing a boulder up a large mountain. There were days when I genuinely wondered if it was worth it, and if I were better off doing something else. The weight of feeling like I wasn’t good enough, like I was falling behind everyone else, was suffocating. Watching friends graduate and land jobs while I was still stuck in the same place broke my spirit more times than I can count. The worst of it was seeing those close to me ridicule me for my inability to graduate which took the biggest toll on me.

But despite all that, I finally made it to the finish line, got the internship I wanted, will have the job I want. And I just want to say for all the other strugglers out there, if you feel like giving up it’s okay to take your time. It’s okay to fail and try again, and you aren’t alone in this because I have been where you are and I promise if you keep going you will look back at your past self with pride because you got through it. Good luck!!!

11 Comments
2024/12/02
18:11 UTC

1

C-W equation on a new Casio 991

May be a long shot but I’m struggling to calculate friction factor on the new Casio 991 colebrook white equation. Does anyone know how to?

Thanks so much if you do 😭😭😭😭

1 Comment
2024/12/02
16:41 UTC

1

I just can’t stop failing my classes

Hi there, for a little bit of context, I am in my second year of mechatronics engineering. I really LOVE all my projects, electronics, and mechanics classes, but in this semester I just hit a break point. I failed half of my classes, such as “Control engineering 2”, “Thermodynamics 1” and fcking “Calculus 1” for the third time. Every semester I have failed at least one class. I don’t even know what to do ti better my grades, I have tried everything, and I really do understand everything I’ve seen in lectures, but my performance in tests is terrible, hitting 25%, 40% and just being happy with a 60%. I really don’t want to drop off because I really don’t see myself in any other career path, could be another engineering but muy uni doesn’t have a lot of options that convince me. I write on this forum because I just want to hear advice from people that understands me, I am questioning my existence and I just would like some help.

0 Comments
2024/12/02
16:42 UTC

1

Location transfer in capgemini

I want to transfer my location from Mumbai to pune. Should I ask hr to transfer my location from Mumbai to pune before the training period or after training period?

1 Comment
2024/12/02
16:57 UTC

1

Reactions and member forces

Can anyone talk me through how to do this question. Thanks in advance

a4 = 1.05 m b4 = 2.25m

2 Comments
2024/12/02
17:23 UTC

0

ChatGPT to notes into quizzes, am I the only one who studies this way?

Hi everyone,

I'm Jack, an MSc Computer Science student (I did my undergrad in business, so the jump has been wild). I’m studying pretty much all day, every day, and still struggling to keep up with all the content.

To manage, I’ve been using spaced repetition and memory retention techniques, then testing myself by making Multiple choice exams with ChatGPT. It works surprisingly well, but it’s also super frustrating—sometimes ChatGPT gets the answers wrong, and I have to manually write down all the questions and answers.

Since I’m studying computer science, I figured, why not just build something better? I know there are some apps that do something similar, but they’re either subscription-based or just too clunky to use. My idea is to create a simple, MCQ maker where you can upload your notes and generate quizzes.

Would anyone else find this useful, or am I just weird for studying this way?

11 Comments
2024/12/02
17:42 UTC

0

Any study buddies?

Anyone who wants to be study buddies for 2 weeks?

3 Comments
2024/12/02
17:29 UTC

2

If you’re looking to do environmental engineering, is it smarter to go straight into getting an environmental engineering major, or should you get a Civil major with some sort of focus on environmental for more job opportunities or something

I’ve heard some say that getting a civil degree first and then specializing later is a good idea, (after taking the PE exam and stuff), not sure though

3 Comments
2024/12/02
16:09 UTC

2

FAQ: Textbook and Resources Thread

This is a thread dedicated to collecting all of the recommendations for textbooks, online lecture series, notes and other material. Your responses will be collected and be put into our Wiki page and will be stickied here in future threads. No self-promotions!---Submitted bi-weekly on Monday, at 10 AM EST.

0 Comments
2024/12/02
15:01 UTC

3

Career and education thread

This is a dedicated thread for you to seek and provide advice concerning education and careers in Engineering. If you need to make an important decision regarding your future, or want to know what your options are, please feel welcome to post a comment below.

Any and all open discussions are highly encouraged! Questions about high school, college, engineering, internships, grades, careers, and more can find a place here.

Please sort by new so that all questions can get answered!

2 Comments
2024/12/02
15:01 UTC

1

Deciding on EE/CE/CS for college

So I’m starting to decide which major to actually pursue in college as a HS junior and have been pretty confused between the three degrees (EE/CS/CE)

As I have been looking, I have been pretty interested in studying computer architectures and low level things more than actual high end software although that is an option I still want to keep open for job purposes.

Based on your experiences, what do you suggest I should take as a major (maybe a minor too?)

1 Comment
2024/12/01
21:15 UTC

1

Help with Project for a 5x5 MIMO Controller designed for a future SCADA

Hello everyone, and sorry in advance. For a college project, I need to develop first of all a MIMO system based on the union of 5 separated processes, each with their own in's and out's. If I have the 5 transfer functions of each plant, I need to merge them into one big MIMO system and then generate a controller for it. I've been searching online but all the information I could gather is either blunt or just simply vague in it's results. This said, I have to make it by hand, pure algebraic construction, but Matlab is permitted to make direct calcs on it.

Essentially, what steps I must follow in order to achieve this? I've been watching videos and mostly speak about superposition process of the systems in tow, but even if that's the path to follow, what comes next after having all the possible combinations? Or even if that's not the path, what should it be?

Please, I would really appreciate the help.

4 Comments
2024/12/01
23:23 UTC

1

Calculus always on my mind

Hello! I am a first year college student studying engineering and I have been studying like never before. I am studying for my last calc final of the semester and everything reminds me of calculus. I am on instagram and I see words and for some reason instantly think “what’s the integral of this” and it’s just a random word. I haven’t been getting good exam grades even thought I put my all into studying and sacrifice things that make me happy like working out or spending thanksgiving with my family to study. I don’t know why my brain is so focus on what I learn but yet my exam grades don’t show how dedicated I am. Even when I do physics work I wake myself up at night solving kinematics equations or newtons theory of gravity. Does anyone else get this?

0 Comments
2024/12/01
23:32 UTC

1

Chess Robot

Built this for fun, thinking of wrapping the project up, what features do you guys think I should add opinions appreciated, here’s the websites project link. https://readymag.website/u2481798807/5057562/image-n-hotspot/

0 Comments
2024/12/02
04:28 UTC

1

Getting a second degree in civil engineering, has anyone else done something similar?

Previously reached out here asking for advice, as I’ve lately found myself in a crisis over my career path. Earlier this year, I graduated with an accounting degree and since realized I made a huge mistake in majoring in accounting, as it’s an extremely monotonous and boring field with absolutely no creativity, math, or critical thinking involved (three things I want from a career). Since then, I’ve developed a plan to go back to college in a year for civil engineering, as I’m interested in transportation infrastructure. I’m planning to work throughout next year and will hopefully have enough saved for housing for my entire time in college and then I’ll try to finance the tuition/fees with student loans (my parents paid my entire tuition for my accounting degree, so I never took out a loan, although they’ve since disowned me for being gay, so I’m no longer in contact with them). Will hopefully finish by spring of 2028 and will be able to work in a far more fulfilling career.

With that said, has anyone here ever gotten a second degree in engineering after obtaining a relatively unrelated degree previously? I feel that engineering is a relatively uncommon major for second degree seeking students, but I wanted to see if there are others similar to my position.

0 Comments
2024/12/02
06:43 UTC

1

Aiming for an internship

Hi, I'm in the final year of computer engineering, and we need to submit an internship certificate that we have done an internship for at least 30 days. I need one, but the internships we are provided from college are priced at 3k a month. I need an online internship or any startup that can provide it. I'm happy to work/learn if it's an interesting and supportive job. 

0 Comments
2024/12/02
06:56 UTC

1

Help with solidworks animation

https://preview.redd.it/4s5saswb0e4e1.png?width=768&format=png&auto=webp&s=8f88ed3653a40303977ed02c4683bca4b8332c9b

Right now the model is full defined but i need to do a solidworks motion study/animation to move the claw in the direction i have shown with arrows. the two cylinders are hydraulics. right now when i go to motion study i cant move a thing i have no idea how to fix this. the hydraulics have their own seperate assembly and when i try to remove some constraints and get the piston to move. the piston moves in the hydraulic assemblly but not in the main assembly.

0 Comments
2024/12/02
07:28 UTC

1

Does this have all the important mechanical Degree modules

This degree is partnered with plymouth uni UK, Its advertised as "B.eng(hons) Mechanical & Mechatronics Degree" Iam interested in Mechanical Engineering but dont really care about mechatronics but its okay if I learn it As long as im learning all that a mechanical engineer is also learning Does this include everything a mechanical engineering degree would have

0 Comments
2024/12/02
09:06 UTC

1

second degree in the future

is it worth it to have second degree in the future as BSCE if my first degree was BSIE? how many years will i be study for earning a second degree? 2-3 years?

or

should I shift from BSIE to BSCE now?

0 Comments
2024/12/02
09:54 UTC

1

Chem vs Mech Eng

Hey everyone,
I just finished the IB with Physics, Math AA, and Chemistry at HL. I loved Chemistry the most out of all my subjects, but I don't wish to pursue BSc Chem so now I'm trying to decide between Chem Eng and Mech Eng.

I’ve done some research, and I know that Chem Eng doesn’t involve a ton of actual chemistry. On the other hand, Mech Eng seems broader, but I’m not sure if I’d love the work or the topics as much.

A few things about me that might help you help me:

  • I’d like to live somewhere cold but not freezing—think refreshing (I’m from southern India, so anything not humid sounds great).
  • Money is definitely a motivator but I also don’t want to hate my life while earning it.
  • I value job satisfaction and life balance.

If you’ve studied or work in either of these fields, what’s your experience been like? Are there any paths within these disciplines that lean more toward what I’m interested in? And how much does location factor into these career choices?

Any advice or personal stories would be super appreciated!!!

0 Comments
2024/12/02
11:01 UTC

1

Get involved in the Siemens Immersive Design Challenge

https://preview.redd.it/1hw4mn9hdf4e1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=f1e8d34c24d2b3d5d0c6e5edbf55553e1fd19219

Are you a student looking to make an impact? Keen on developing your digital mindset and digital skillset, or excited learn more about sustainable design? If so, then the Immersive Design Challenge is for you!

THE CHALLENGE: How would you use immersive design to make a product of your choice more sustainable?

The challenge is open to bachelor’s, master’s or PhD students from any discipline, enrolled thru March 2025. Teams should comprise 3 to 5 students with at least 1 team member learning or ready to learn CAD/NX to create a successful entry. The first round requires responses to just 5 short questions. 

All eligible participants have the chance to…

  • Learn with experts during webinars & inspirational talks.
  • Develop key employability skills.
  • Build a global network among industry and peers.
  • Access to free software & professional certifications
  • Obtain industry-recognized microcredentials on sustainability.

For the teams that go further… Great Siemens merch, work directly with Siemens mentors to take your designs further and be among the first in the world to work with the Sony XR head-mounted display/NX Immersive Designer either on campus or at Siemens. The winning team’s university will receive a Sony XR head-mounted display & a one-year NX Immersive Designer license.

Register, create a team, and submit your idea before 20th December 2024: https://register.immersive-design-challenge.com/register  

0 Comments
2024/12/02
12:03 UTC

1

can anyone (with knowledge of circuit analysis) look at my problem and my solution here and tell me where I'm wrong?

I know for certain I'm wrong but I don't know where exactly is my problem, the solution should be that i=25mA.

I wrote the question with my solution and steps in latex so I'm linking here to the PDF file.

thanks in advance.

1 Comment
2024/12/02
12:43 UTC

3

Do you normally follow any specific style guide for Technical Reports

My uni has set an assignment of writing a technical report but they haven't given very much detail on how to format / style it. They said we can use any referencing style and I normally use IEEE so I will use that but is there any specifications on how to style other parts of the document. My mum is a psychologist and everything she writes has to very specifically fit the APA style but I can't really find a similar guide for engineering. The writing style is quite heavily weighted on the rubric thus I don't want to mess it up so thought I'd see what other people do before just doing it my way.

Edit: spelling / grammar

5 Comments
2024/12/02
14:38 UTC

7

How to make doing projects less anxiety inducing, less difficult, less time consuming, less headache inducing?

Weirdly enough, this doesn’t apply to learning the lecture content. It only applies to projects and essays. Opening my books to work on my assignments always feels like I’m stepping into the gates of hell fire.

If I do four hours at a time - no breaks, I get my work done fast but it gets tiring constantly having to make sure I’m focused and working hard for so long.

If I do pomodoro I end up feeling frustrated that I’m getting work done at such a slow pace and I get upset that I have no life because of the time I spend time studying.

I do what I can to make it a pleasant experience:

-I use Notion to keep myself organised

-I make sure I’ve slept well, I’ve eaten, and my environment is tidy

-I never leave things to the last minute

-I make sure I understand the content before starting my project so that I’m not overwhelmed

-I watch studytok and look at engineering memes (not while studying obviously) to keep myself motivated

-I keep my area aesthetically pleasing (paintings, colour coordinated, etc)

-I write down what I am going to do to research/write/brainstorm and also write down what to do if any step goes wrong and follow the steps so that I dont have to use that much brain power when actually undergoing the process of brainstorming

It just feels so difficult. I don’t know why its so hard

2 Comments
2024/12/02
14:04 UTC

1

What engineering branches might have the best growth in the near future?

I will be studying engineering from next year and thinking about taking mechanical but also looking for any other alternatives which will have good pay and job guarantee

11 Comments
2024/12/02
11:50 UTC

1

Is mechanical engineering worth taking?

I will be taking engineering next year and I'm passionate about taking mechanical but everyone says that there aren't many jobs and even if there are, they aren't high paying and are suggesting to take other branches. People who are already studying engineering, y'all would know right? Please help me choose

4 Comments
2024/12/02
11:20 UTC

3

I'm in my first year and struggling with Engineering Graphics. Are there any good courses/videos online?

I've missed a couple of lectures due to personal reasons and the lectures are not recorded. We are currently studying about dimensioning methods and full sections. If anyone knows any course/video that covers these topics in detail that would be awesome. (I've checked the FAQ and couldn't find anything)

Thanks :)

2 Comments
2024/12/02
08:30 UTC

43

Am I the only one that literally has no time for anything anymore?

I'm on my second year of electrical engineering degree, I work everyday from almost the moment I'm awake to around an hour before sleep (where I try to unwind a bit otherwise I can't sleep) Last year within the semesters I've never even had time to practice, this year I've had some time to practice on a few subjects (but still not nearly as enough as I'd like to) I don't really have friends to learn with and so whenever I hit a block in understanding I end up wasting so much time until I figure it out. For example last week I practiced circuit analysis up to some point and I've made progress, but then this week we received HW about circuit analysis with superposition and I'm always wrong, and I don't know why I'm wrong, it drives me mad.

Like I wonder if I'm just shit at time management or that it's kinda normal for people going through this

16 Comments
2024/12/02
08:27 UTC

1

Am I screwed?

Hey guys, I’m writing this because I think I might be totally fu*ked, and I’m in need of any advice I can get. Sorry if this looks weird, I’ve never posted here before. I’ll try to keep this as short as I can

I’m an aero engineering student, and my school allows students to take core classes over the summer/winter semester at a local community college (cc) and transfer them in fairly easily. This past summer I took calculus 1 at this cc and I unfortunately did not pass and I finished of the class with a D+. I’ve already accepted my mistakes and reflected on what I need to improve on. My problem is… my school never asked for my transcript from this cc before letting me move on to calculus 2. I’ve been taking the class this fall semester and things are not looking to good, but now that it’s time for my academic advising meeting I’m a bit conflicted on what I should do. I’m confident that I’ll be able to retake calculus 2 next spring, but how will this affect me later?

Should I come clean and admit that I never passed calculus 1? Or should I continue to act like I’m still waiting for them to send over my transcript and retake the class next summer? Has anyone been in this situation before? I’ll happily accept any advice I can get, thank you.

1 Comment
2024/12/02
06:01 UTC

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