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Overview Of Engineering In Me-37100: Computer Aided Design Course

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I have spent a semester learning about engineering in ME-37100: Computer-Aided Design course. As part of a class assignment, I read three articles discussing the role of independent judgment in engineering. The articles I referred to are: “A Question of Credibility,” by Jack Thornton, “The Mathematical of Structural Engineers,” by Julie Gainsburg and “How Engineers Lose Touch” by Eugene Ferguson. The purpose of this paper is to relate the descriptions in these articles with my experiences in the course as well as my expectations in a career as engineer. The articles mentioned earlier were very pleasant to read because the stories were really familiar. I am going to refer to Thornton’s article which deals with Finite-Element Analysis. …show more content…

The only way to set the problem correctly is to actually understand what the problem is. I had to analyze a pulley for an assignment in this course and in order to set the problem properly I had to look at an actual pulley. In order to conduct a good FEA I need to have a good grasp of the real world. Ferguson’s article mentioned this: “Students took field trips to power plants, steel mills, heavy machine shops, automobile assembly plants, and chemical works, where company engineers with operating experience helped them grasp the subtleties of the real world of engineering.” (Ferguson 1993). I have never set foot in an factory or a company as a student engineer but I was fortunate enough during this course to have a professor that bring actual objects to the classroom and help us set up experiment in order to better understand the physics of a problem. According to Ferguson, a lot of engineers are disconnected from the real world and lack good judgment. In ME-37100 the professor always encouraged us to use our judgment when we are dealing with software simulation and Ferguson’s article is all about good judgment. As an engineer, it is imperative to exercise good judgment because people’s life and money are at stake. After the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows bridge, Sir Alfred Pugsley cited the cause as “ the un-wisdom of allowing a particular profession to become too inward

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