r/AskEngineers • u/[deleted] • Sep 02 '17
Most math-heavy engineering field?
Going into the last year of high school I have been wondering about the degree I'll pursue.Math and physics are both my strongest and favourite subjects,especially when it comes to problems where the answer can be more abstract.Therefore,engineering seems to be the answer.I know all engineering fields take advantage of physics ,but I'm not sure which one uses advanced math concepts in practice on a day-to-day basis.Could you guys enlighten me?
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u/StrengthAbsolute Sep 03 '17
How strong is your math background? A lot of people say they like math but never took a really advanced courses. You should look into systems engineering. It is more abstract and you get to make ideas into products.
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Sep 03 '17
Well this year we will study semi advanced calculus and analyse strongy on functions as well as some other things that don't come to mind.
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u/TractorMan90 MechE Automotive R&D Sep 03 '17
As u/jaask mentioned, mechanical engineering with either controls or fluids specialization is heavily math based. What surprised me was the amount of math and computational mathematics was involved with Finite Element Analysis programs. In order to truly run FEA correctly, you need to understand the physical system, the mathematical equations, and the computational logic processing involved. Those who truly excel at FEA end up being computer scientists and computer programmers who have a mechanical mind (typically at PhD level). If you go into college with this knowledge, you will have an easier time setting yourself up correctly for this field.
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u/confusedaerospaceguy aircraft structures Sep 02 '17
if you do a computational field, whether that be statistics (big data? idk), fluid mechanics or solid mechanics like i do, theres a lot of math. well, the computer does all the math, but you have to know how to set up all the matrices and whatnot
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u/MostlyTolerable Sep 04 '17
I can't speak for a lot of mechanical, aero, civil, etc. but I have a similar motivation, which is why I am doing an undergrad in EE. First of all, I love signal processing, which is basically all applied math.
I realized this was something I loved when I took a Signals and Systems course. You do tons of calculus and linear algebra. You look at how real world systems can be represented by differential equations. Then if you want to analyze real signals, you have to learn how probability works.
I even take computer engineering classes that talk about group theory and do a lot of boolean algebra. I love every second of it.
My plan is probably to go to grad school for control systems, which is pretty similar to signal processing. One branch of control systems is robotics. There is a ton of math involved in stuff like robotic vision, or forward and inverse kinematics.
I'm sure other fields do a lot of math. But I'm pretty stoked about the amount of math I get to do in EE. And it's also a pretty broad field. So once you get well into your undergrad, you can start specializing in the field that catches your interest.
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u/Silkey Sep 02 '17
Software engineering may be best for you. Mathematical concepts (linear algebra, for example) are paramount to creating solid algorithms that solve problems in areas such as machine learning, deep neural networks, robotics, etc.
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Sep 02 '17
I have considered it.What is the most advanced area of application as far as math goes?
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u/Silkey Sep 02 '17
There's not really any one area of application that's most advanced. Deep neural networks, convolutional neural networks, machine learning, etc. all use pretty intense math to optimize.
I'm a mechanical engineer by trade, so I can't speak to specific applications, just the broad topics that use math on a day-to-day basis.
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u/jaasx Sep 02 '17
I'd probably vote EE or controls (a subset of EE or mech). Fluid flow (mech) has tons of math. Although any field has specialties with intense math. But civil would be less than mech or aero - usually.