Which engineering

Studying for a degree in Electronics you will learn to understand the inner workings of such equipment. You will learn to design and develop electronic components, and understand how complex electronic or communication systems work. With technology playing an ever-larger role in our lives, you are bound to have an exciting career lined up for you. Decades of pollution have left our environment in bad shape. Governments and businesses alike slowly realise that responsibility and sustainability are key imperatives for our future.

That makes Environmental Engineering an exciting discipline with great career perspectives for years to come. As an Environmental Engineer, you will apply scientific and engineering principles to reduce industrial pollution and improve the environment for humans, animals and plants. Detrimental effects on the environment can be reduced and controlled by educating the public, promoting conservation of natural resources, defining and implementing regulations and by applying good, sustainable engineering practices.

Find study programmes in Environmental Engineering. Such courses usually begin by giving you a basic overview of all relevant disciplines and employ you with a solid understanding of the mathematical and physical foundations that you will need to explore the more specialised fields. Industrial systems and processes can be complex - and Systems Engineering is the field in which you learn to develop, integrate and maintain them.

Process design and evaluation is part of it, as is the reduction of inefficiencies. A degree in Industrial Engineering or Systems Engineering will allow you to learn a great deal about a broad range of Engineering disciplines.

That makes it a good foundation for a flexible career in your future. If you want to work at the intersection of Business Administration and Production or Engineering, a degree in Industrial Management is the right choice for you.

Working in the field of industrial management means improving efficiency in businesses and can include analyzing, planning logistics and costs for a business; supervising engineers; analyzing data; and coordinating production processes. Find study programmes in Industrial Management. If you have an interest in the research, development and construction of new marine craft and their components, a degree in marine engineering is an excellent option.

Marine engineers are the people who design, build, test and repair boats, ships, yachts, underwater vessels, offshore craft, and drilling equipment, and they usually work hand in hand with naval architects. Find study programmes in Marine Engineering.

Materials Science, or Materials Engineering, deals with properties of matter and its use in various scientific and engineering areas.

Materials Science study programmes cover aspects of material chemistry and physics at the atomic and molecular level. You will learn to understand material composition in order to analyse and test materials, and you will learn to design, develop and manufacture new materials with novel characteristics - for all kinds of applications.

Find study programmes in Materials Science. Mechanical Engineering is all about moving parts: As a mechanical engineer, you apply principles from Mathematics, Physics, Materials Science and other Engineering disciplines to design, build and improve mechanical systems.

Find out about the different degrees available, how your choice relates to your future career and what the best bets are if you want to keep your career options open.

Common types of engineering degree include: Mechanical engineering Electrical engineering Electronic engineering Civil engineering Chemical engineering See our article on types of jobs and employers in engineering for more information about these engineering disciplines. Jobs you can do with an electrical engineering degree Jobs you can do with a mechanical engineering degree Jobs you can do with an electronic engineering degree Jobs you can do with a civil engineering degree What's the best type of engineering degree to keep my options open?

Search for Related articles. Read more. Degree Explorer The Degree Explorer helps you plan for your future! Get started. Sign up. Teacher or parent? Extra information elsewhere Already studying for a degree? Organisations to check out. Universities to check out. This did not end particularly well for his son Icarus, whose wings melted when he flew too close to the sun. This put an end to early experiments in human flight.

He also sketched prototype gliders, hot air balloons, and parachutes. Hot air balloons became commonplace across Europe. More importantly, the English engineer Sir George Cayley arrived at a coherent understanding of basic aviation principles, such as weight, lift, drag, and thrust. So, the field of modern aeronautical engineering was born. It took another hundred years and the invention of the gasoline engine — then, in , the engineers Orville and Wilbur Wright, achieved the dream at last, flying their manned plane for twelve seconds at the thrilling altitude of three metres above the ground.

What does the history of flight tell us about engineering? Second, while engineers often dabble in science, they are not loyal to any one discipline. Instead, they borrow freely from them, taking whatever is necessary. Thus, the first manned flight relied on insights from maths, physics, mechanics, climatology, materials design, and so on. Finally, the pursuit of one goal in engineering can often lead to, or draw upon, various complementary innovations.

For example, the dream of human flight awaited the invention of the gasoline engine. A mere fifty years later, spaceflight — the next frontier — would drive breakthroughs in computing, food science, astronomy, robotics, and more. In short, engineering is about a process rather than an outcome. This process can be applied to various categories of problem, and this has given rise to the specialities we most often talk about today — civil engineering, mechanical engineering, pharmaceutical engineering, chemical engineering, electrical engineering, etc.

Graduate opportunities can be found across a broad range of areas and industries, including telecoms, consumer goods manufacturing, energy, mining, the built environment, health, education, and pharmaceuticals. While most engineers are employed by private organisations, they are also indispensable in the public sector, providing guidance to defence, government, local councils, federal research bodies like CSIRO , and other departments.

Engineering roles cover a wide expanse of duties, including research, product design and development, management and commercial responsibilities. Many graduates are attracted to the sector by opportunities for travel and the satisfaction that comes from seeing their designs turned into finished products. From the first hot air balloon in to the first manned airplane flight in , people have long dreamed of using the principles of science to achieve the power of flight.

Aerospace engineers draw on computer science, physics, earth sciences, and maths to design, build, and test flying machines. This profession includes aeronautical engineers, who focus on aircraft, and astronautical engineers, who focus on spacecraft.

They are responsible for mastering the intricacies of topics such as propulsion, aerodynamics, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, flight mechanics, and structural analysis. Due to the demanding nature of these disciplines, many aerospace engineers choose to specialise and often have specific job titles, such as design aerospace engineer, computational fluid dynamics engineer, and materials aerospace engineer.

Indeed, this is necessary to enter and successfully graduate from the growing number of aerospace engineering degrees. Once you begin your career, it will be advantageous to possess curiosity, creative thinking skills, and the ability to work well within diverse teams. You may also benefit from continuing your education by completing a relevant masters program or pursuing professional accreditation.

Chemical engineering involves the development, manufacture, and practical application of chemical products, usually in industrial quantities. This often entails the assessment of the processes and equipment used to produce chemicals. It also involves supervising the use of those chemicals to generate secondary products, such as plastics, metals, pharmaceuticals, and food products. Chemical engineers receive a broad education in the fundamentals of chemistry, physics, mathematics, and, of course, engineering itself.

This prepares them for stimulating roles across a range of industries, from mining to manufacturing. The work of civil engineers also known as structural engineers is behind much of the built environment that surrounds you each day. Civil engineers draw on a strong understanding of physics, maths, hydraulics, geology, and various other principles.

They then apply this knowledge to the safe construction of buildings, dams, roads, bridges, airstrips, water purification plants and more. Their overall goal is to modify the natural environment in ways that make it more conducive to human endeavours, while, increasingly, ensuring that such modifications are sustainable and low-impact.

Civil engineers are employed by a broad range of industries, including construction, consulting, mining, and transportation. They may have various responsibilities.

For example, consultant engineers often assist in the development of blueprints for an entire project or advise on the practicality of existing designs. This can mean borrowing insights from fields such as economics, demography, and ecology. Other civil engineers may focus on more specific building projects, such as the laying of pipes or the construction of railways.

To become a civil engineer, it helps to augment your technical skills with a strong work ethic, communication skills, and a penchant for working methodically through complex problems with great accuracy. Electrical engineers oversee the design, development, and manufacturing of tools and equipment used in the production and distribution of electricity. This equipment commonly includes generators, transformers, electric motors, and electric ignition systems.

Electrical engineers have been behind several transformative innovations, such as the development of modern audio encoding protocols such as MP3 , as well as new advances in virtual reality. To achieve their goals, electrical engineers apply concepts from physics, mathematics, computer science, and engineering.