UTA Engineering dept question

[altiain]

I said it before and I'll say it again...

If you're interested in finding out more about the team, contact Dr. Bob Woods in the Engineering Department.

[altiain]

I have heard the same things about UTA, not necessarily that the ENG courses were easy, but rather that UTA math is KILLER. I've heard this from multiple sources including professors(only in community college though). Makes me glad i've got 99% of my math out of the way already at community college. Classes were hard but all my professors were excellent and really helped a lot. I've only got engineering classes from here on out.

Math at UTA was brutal. Much harder than the actual Engineering courses I took. Except for one. Fundamentals of Composite Engineering. That was a graduate level course I took my final semester to fulfill my remaining engineering elective requirement. Kicked my ass.

[Jiggerachi]

^Did you also take some math classes at TCC? How would they compare to the UTA math classes?

I had a DCCCD professor tell me that UTA engineering dept relied on required math skills above what they accepted as transfer. So anyone transferring into UTA was basically DOA and wouldn't succeed. Same guy emailed me after dropping his class to specifically tell me engineering school with kids and a job was not feasible and I didn't have enough time to succeed there. I dismissed it as a language barrier but I did buy a massive advanced engineering math textbook in case I needed references outside my calc/diff-e books.

I made As & Bs all through Cal1-3 & Diff Eq so i'm sure I can handle whatever I run into, but I've always been a little curious.

I said it before and I'll say it again...

Yea I didn't want to bug him directly with a stupid question unless I really needed to, but I ended up talking to him a few days ago. Very nice guy, got the info I needed. There is no calendar, they meet every week. I'm still looking for the ASME info, but i'll start asking around campus next.

[Jiggerachi]

Random question for recent engineering grads, how much did you personally use SolidWorks in the undergrad program?

I'm taking an engineering graphics class next semester, and thinking this is a good excuse to upgrade my POS laptop for a more college friendly (size, etc) laptop. I don't want to drop a grand on a high end laptop only to use it heavily for simple graphics in ONE class. But if, and I assume this is the case, it will be used frequently until graduation and past, I can justify spending extra. I'm sure it'll come in handy for the senior design projects and such, but that won't be for a couple years yet.

For the record I hate my POS laptop and I'm looking for an excuse to get a new one, lol. I'm looking at the Dell & Lenovo with 14" screens and Core i5 or i7's & graphics yadda yadda.

[altiain]

I studied Pro/E in school, and it's what my company uses as well. I did not have a laptop when attending school (class of '05). Don't get hung up too much on specific CAD programs - they all do basically the same thing, and you may or may not end up working for a company that uses whatever program you studied in school.

If you want to go into design engineering, I encourage you to focus on mechanics of materials, GD&T, assembly of welded and/or bolted components, finite element analysis, understanding machining and fabrication, etc. These are the skills that will give you a leg up as a new hire.

The core requirements may have changed, but I do not feel that the program at UTA focused enough on these requirements. Mechanical Engineering is a very broad degree, and Design Engineering should almost be a separate discipline.

[rmonheim]

I got one of these a few months ago for "engineering", although I've yet to do any CAD, etc. http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops...-series/y410p/

It will do any of the latest racing sims on high settings, so it should be more than enough for any 3D design work. I've had no issues with it so far, and it's just stupid fast.

[tailchaser]

I'll make you a sweet deal on a gently used Lenovo T510 with 15" screen and 8 gigs of RAM...

[Jiggerachi]

^I'll keep that in mind. I'm looking at the 14" laptops for portability. I have a 15.6 now and it sucks to lug around and try to use on a classroom desk, the size is among other things though, but the 14's i've tried seem the perfect "student" size. I have a 24" screen my wife uses for working at home so screen size doesn't matter, it's mostly portability as well as performance at this point, but that T510 fits the latter of the bill.

PM me your price. Thanks

I got one of these a few months ago for "engineering", although I've yet to do any CAD, etc. http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops...-series/y410p/

I'm going to frys to check these out today. I'm debating between a gaming rig and one of the sturdy business focused Thinkpads, since I don't really play any games other than Mario Kart, lol.

[goofygrin]

Dell latitude business laptops. Very study and 3 year warranty. Buy from the outlet with a coupon. We buy fully loaded 7400 or 7200 series for our developers and I hear no complaints. I7, ssd, 1920x1080 res min spec.