There are many types of engineers. Engineering is all about building things and making things work, but there are lots of ways to do it. Here are some examples of different types of engineers and what they do:
Aerospace
engineers study and design technology and materials related to aircraft and
spacecraft.
They design everything from the planes in the sky to the space station orbiting earth, rockets that fly out of the atmosphere and spacecraft that orbit Saturn. Like other engineers, they also use physics and math to figure out how their designs will work and to answer questions such as, “Once I send this satellite up into space, what path will it take as it orbits Earth?” or “How can I get this plane to use less fuel?”
Bioengineers figure out ways to make your body work better. The cool thing about bioengineering is that you can use tools and skills from other types of engineering to solve health problems. For example, you could use electrical engineering to build a robot that does surgeries or use chemical engineering to make a special type of medicine.
There are lots of different jobs that bioengineers do. Some bioengineers make the materials and tools you'd find in a hospital, like prosthetic arms or X-ray machines. Some others work on tissue engineering, which means they are looking for ways to make new organs like kidneys for people whose kidneys don't work. Other bioengineers try to find the best way to take medicines to the right spot in your body, which is called drug delivery.
If you want to check out some bioengineering experiments, click here!
Chemical engineers use everything from biology, physics, math, and, most importantly, chemistry to solve problems involving food, drugs, energy, and much more. Chemical engineers design and create processes to not only produce materials but also to transform and transport them. Chemical engineers are also involved in finding solutions to environmental problems and even use their technical skills to solve problems outside of the field. For this reason, chemical engineers work everywhere from oil refineries to biotech companies to companies like Intel.
To find out more about chemical engineering, click here!
From the roads we walk on, the bridges we cross, the buildings we live in, and the water we drink, a civil engineer worked on bringing these valuable resources to us. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), civil engineering is the design and maintenance of public works such as roads, bridges, water and energy systems as well as public facilities like ports, railways, and airports. To sum it up, a civil engineering is all about the people.
With civil engineering covering a diverse range of public works, most civil engineers specialize in a specific topic. For example, the sub-fields include environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering (buildings, bridges, ect), and water resources engineering. Once again, civil engineering is all about the people. If you are interested in creating safer buildings, improving our public transportation, or working with out environment, civil engineering is the major for you.
You probably have a personal computer at home, but you might not know that there are also computers in cell phones, alarm clocks, printers, calculators, cameras, and many other items you own!
Electrical engineers work on anything and everything that has to do with electricity, naturally! That covers everything from the tiny circuits that power your smartphones all the way to the electric controls that power satellites and spaceships. There are so many different areas that electrical engineering cover, from hardware (actual circuits with parts that you can fiddle with to make something new) to studying signals ( they send information, like sound waves). With technology becoming more and more important in today's world, electrical engineers are always working on ways to make our lives easier!
Environmental engineers work on ways to produce energy and clean up pollution in the world. They combine the skills from many other disciplines of engineering - civil, chemical, mechanical, materials - in order to solve an environmental problem. For example, some environmental engineers study ways to clean up waste water before disposing of it in the ocean. One way they accomplish this is by adding tiny bacteria to the water which "eat up" most of the contamination. Environmental engineers also collaborate with materials engineers as they develop new ways to build solar panels which are more efficient and cost less.
To learn more about environmental engineers, check out this Live Science post.
Materials engineering is the
study of “stuff” – from the metal inside your ball-point pen to the building
you’re in, to the highways and streets you drive on. They work from the atomic level all the way up to macroscopic level such as studying the wings of airplanes. Materials engineers work
with three main classes of materials- metals, ceramics, and polymers
(plastics). In addition, they also work with composites (combination of
different materials.) They design new materials, or try to develop and enhance
existing materials. Materials engineers can work in various professions, or they
can work in research labs. They can work in the aerospace industry, developing
material that allows planes and shuttles to be lighter and more fuel-efficient.
New materials are also found in biomedicine (hip, knee replacements). Materials
engineers are constantly developing materials so that people can live in new
and improved ways in their day-to-day lives.
Check out this NOVA series to learn more about how Materials Engineers are advancing technology.
Have you ever wondered how cars, robots, or roller-coasters work? Mechanical engineers study the way these things move and how they move. They design and build moving, mechanical parts and systems (like roller-coasters!). With the help of physics and math, they try and predict how their designs will behave in real life. If their design works on paper, they build it, test it and figure out how to make it better.
Aerospace Engineering
Aerospace
engineers study and design technology and materials related to aircraft and
spacecraft. They design everything from the planes in the sky to the space station orbiting earth, rockets that fly out of the atmosphere and spacecraft that orbit Saturn. Like other engineers, they also use physics and math to figure out how their designs will work and to answer questions such as, “Once I send this satellite up into space, what path will it take as it orbits Earth?” or “How can I get this plane to use less fuel?”
Interested in planes? Read about this new airplane design. It’s made of composite material instead of aluminum and a lot of it is built as
one big piece instead of a bunch parts that need to be assembled.
To learn more about some space missions that are in the
works, check out NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory!
Bioengineering
Bioengineers figure out ways to make your body work better. The cool thing about bioengineering is that you can use tools and skills from other types of engineering to solve health problems. For example, you could use electrical engineering to build a robot that does surgeries or use chemical engineering to make a special type of medicine.There are lots of different jobs that bioengineers do. Some bioengineers make the materials and tools you'd find in a hospital, like prosthetic arms or X-ray machines. Some others work on tissue engineering, which means they are looking for ways to make new organs like kidneys for people whose kidneys don't work. Other bioengineers try to find the best way to take medicines to the right spot in your body, which is called drug delivery.
If you want to check out some bioengineering experiments, click here!
Chemical Engineering
Chemical engineers use everything from biology, physics, math, and, most importantly, chemistry to solve problems involving food, drugs, energy, and much more. Chemical engineers design and create processes to not only produce materials but also to transform and transport them. Chemical engineers are also involved in finding solutions to environmental problems and even use their technical skills to solve problems outside of the field. For this reason, chemical engineers work everywhere from oil refineries to biotech companies to companies like Intel.
To find out more about chemical engineering, click here!
Civil Engineering
From the roads we walk on, the bridges we cross, the buildings we live in, and the water we drink, a civil engineer worked on bringing these valuable resources to us. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), civil engineering is the design and maintenance of public works such as roads, bridges, water and energy systems as well as public facilities like ports, railways, and airports. To sum it up, a civil engineering is all about the people.
With civil engineering covering a diverse range of public works, most civil engineers specialize in a specific topic. For example, the sub-fields include environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering (buildings, bridges, ect), and water resources engineering. Once again, civil engineering is all about the people. If you are interested in creating safer buildings, improving our public transportation, or working with out environment, civil engineering is the major for you.
Click here to see more of our posts on civil engineering and civil engineering related experiments.
Computer Science
You probably have a personal computer at home, but you might not know that there are also computers in cell phones, alarm clocks, printers, calculators, cameras, and many other items you own!
Computer scientists control what these computers do. They also come up with ways of making computers faster and easier to use. Some computer scientists design the programs we use on our computers, like Microsoft Word, video games, or the web browser where you’re reading this sentence! Others work on robots, protecting your computer from viruses, and more.
If you want to find out more about computer science, check out all of our posts on this topic here.
Electrical Engineering
Electrical engineers work on anything and everything that has to do with electricity, naturally! That covers everything from the tiny circuits that power your smartphones all the way to the electric controls that power satellites and spaceships. There are so many different areas that electrical engineering cover, from hardware (actual circuits with parts that you can fiddle with to make something new) to studying signals ( they send information, like sound waves). With technology becoming more and more important in today's world, electrical engineers are always working on ways to make our lives easier!
Environmental Engineering
Environmental engineers work on ways to produce energy and clean up pollution in the world. They combine the skills from many other disciplines of engineering - civil, chemical, mechanical, materials - in order to solve an environmental problem. For example, some environmental engineers study ways to clean up waste water before disposing of it in the ocean. One way they accomplish this is by adding tiny bacteria to the water which "eat up" most of the contamination. Environmental engineers also collaborate with materials engineers as they develop new ways to build solar panels which are more efficient and cost less.
To learn more about environmental engineers, check out this Live Science post.
Materials Engineering
Materials engineering is the
study of “stuff” – from the metal inside your ball-point pen to the building
you’re in, to the highways and streets you drive on. They work from the atomic level all the way up to macroscopic level such as studying the wings of airplanes. Materials engineers work
with three main classes of materials- metals, ceramics, and polymers
(plastics). In addition, they also work with composites (combination of
different materials.) They design new materials, or try to develop and enhance
existing materials. Materials engineers can work in various professions, or they
can work in research labs. They can work in the aerospace industry, developing
material that allows planes and shuttles to be lighter and more fuel-efficient.
New materials are also found in biomedicine (hip, knee replacements). Materials
engineers are constantly developing materials so that people can live in new
and improved ways in their day-to-day lives.Check out this NOVA series to learn more about how Materials Engineers are advancing technology.
Mechanical Engineering
Have you ever wondered how cars, robots, or roller-coasters work? Mechanical engineers study the way these things move and how they move. They design and build moving, mechanical parts and systems (like roller-coasters!). With the help of physics and math, they try and predict how their designs will behave in real life. If their design works on paper, they build it, test it and figure out how to make it better.
Try designing your own roller-coaster here, using physics to make
it safe and fun.
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