Faculty of Engineering demystified

Faculty of Engineering demystified

Growing up, we were asked by our guardians, teachers and siblings what we wanted to become in the future. Undoubtedly, many of us wanted to become Engineers! We nursed the dream as our ultimate and went through high school equipping ourselves to take on the challenge of going through the university system for at least four years. The grooming process of the university is the first real chance at achieving the goal of becoming an Engineer. Every college is able to give the would-be Engineer this training through its accredited Faculty of Engineering.

A great lot of us who want to be engineers have great expectations about how our training would go in the university. Great laboratories, core practical classes, tool handling, design and construction, software simulations and field work! But all too often our expectations are not met as we presumed they would be. Instead, we are faced with several annoying, puzzling and confusing things during our engineering programme at the Faculty of Engineering. Many of us keep asking ourselves why a lot of “unnecessary things” are done at the Faculty of Engineering. Several other puzzling questions and activities that the typical Faculty of Engineering put the would-be-engineer through remain a mystery.

How can anyone be able to cope with the study workload that is typical of engineering faculties? Every semester has at most four months of lectures, laboratory practice and examination. Engineering mathematics and other very broad and quite detailed courses are taken every semester for the duration of an engineering programme and if care is not taken, the workload can lead to depression, stress and inadequate enthusiasm. But all hope is not lost! A lot of successful engineers today have gone through the same system and have been able to cope very well. Every engineering student has what it called a “Course adviser” assigned to them. These advisers are mostly full time lecturers that help students draft a plan that would enable them to successfully do all that needs to be done within the stipulated minimum or maximum number of years an engineering programme is designed to last. A visit to your course adviser would put your mind at ease about how to cope with an engineering programme’s workload. Advisers listen, counsel and assist students with such tasks as Course Registration and the way in which the courses are spread out across the entire duration of the programme. Workload can also be eased by the simple act of discipline. Engineers are disciplined people. Disciplining yourself to start studying for the end of semester examination and tests on time can save you from undue stress. Assignments should be taken seriously, done properly and submitted before it is late to do so.

High school mathematics! Oh my! Why do we have to bother ourselves with high school mathematics again? There is also Chemistry, Physics and Pure science laboratory practice added to the mix.” I came to do pure engineering and not all these abstract and annoying courses. Where is the state of the art engineering laboratory in the faculty? Where are the computer laboratories for simulation sessions? Why can’t we just focus on what we came to the Faculty of Engineering to do – design and construction”. These are the typical questions that puzzle fresh engineering students on their arrival and start of academic activities in the Faculty of Engineering. Truth be told, every engineering programme usually begins with the basics. Most of what we learnt during our high school days are revisited during the first year of any engineering programme and taught more thoroughly and in detail. No vacuum is left. Physics, Mathematics and Chemistry form the bedrock of the engineering practice and a sloppy knowledge of these basic courses would make it difficult to cope with engineering at higher levels.

What it is with General studies? What relationship has engineering with culture, politics and history? Engineers are part of the society and definitely have to mix with people from various backgrounds in terms of political view, culture and tradition. The engineer is not an island. A good basic knowledge of the people the engineer may have to relate with would make doing his job easier. History is one part of General studies that a lot of engineering students dislike. Memorizing dates and what happened on those dates are one of the least appealing things to engineering students. The Faculty of Engineering places serious emphasis on the study of the basics of language, culture, politics and history by engineering students. These courses are most times not waived. Engineering students just have to pass them! Well, there are a lot of Engineers that are politicians, isn’t it?

Why do all engineering students have to take similar courses and from many engineering departments as possible? This puzzle makes a lot of engineering students cringe with distaste for other engineering practices that are different from what they originally set out to learn. Most Faculties of Engineering would make their students take at least one course from other engineering departments besides their chosen department. This is usually done during the second year of an engineering programme. These courses are usually selected based on their importance and relevance to everyday engineering problems. Technical drawing as a course for example may belong solely to the Mechanical Engineering Department but all other engineering departments apply the principle and technique taught when learning how to draw technically and thus even if an engineering student were from the Department of Electrical Engineering, the student would take the technical drawing course that belongs to the Mechanical Engineering Department because of its relevance to everyday engineering practice. The same applies to other departments. In fact, engineering practice is a very complex network of interdependent fields that it is almost impossible for any engineering feat of the twenty first century to consist of a sole field’s work. This alone has made it very imperative for Faculties of Engineering to give their students exposure to other engineering fields besides the one they chose to learn.

Accounting, management and administration are another riddle in the Faculty of Engineering. For most of us  that are engineers, we never as much as touched accounting during our high school days much less administration and management. It can be a boring and uninteresting thing to have to learn accounting, management and administration. The Faculty of Engineering usually makes their students do a course in Engineering Accounting, Management and Administration in the penultimate and final year on their engineering programme. It is evidently clear from the meaning of accounting; management and administration that engineers are also made to fill accounting, managing and administrating roles when it is deemed necessary. Lately, there have been explosions of core engineering firms and industries that can only be run effectively by engineers that have a detailed understanding of the processes that go on in them. Thus, with the aid of their knowledge in accounting, management and administration, engineers can be truly accountable and responsible. The professional accountant, managers and administrators are always there to provide any additional backup and finishing needed. What more do we need? Moreover, engineers can become entrepreneurs!

The final year of any typical Faculty of Engineering usually make room for true specialization. Thus, by the final year of an engineering programme, students are encouraged to select courses based on what they hope to specialize in. The confusion here is what constitutes the course content make up of a particular specialization? Many engineering students have had to battle with indecision and information overload in the final year of their undergraduate studies. Thus, most final year engineering students are advised as to what constitutes the course content makeup of the area of specialization they have chosen in the final year of their undergraduate studies. The courses are core and optional courses. The core courses are the courses the student must take to be regarded as specializing. The optional courses are the other useful but not overly essential courses. Usually, engineering students are told to take all the core courses and some of the optional courses. The optional courses are usually few and the student is asked to pick one, two or more of the optional courses in addition to the mandatory core courses.

As undergraduates, engineering students are inundated with offers to join various clubs, organisations and regulating bodies. A lot of confusion may arise and knowing what to do can become somewhat difficult. Basically, it is important to join the main regulatory body for the overall engineering body in one’s country and one or more institute related to one’s chosen engineering field.

The main and perhaps the most puzzling fact about the Faculty of Engineering is the readiness of its graduates to take up real life engineering challenges and problems. Most engineering students who succeed in getting their first degree in engineering find themselves struggling to keep pace with an ever evolving and changing marketplace. They seem to be lost in the ocean of reality that is the feeder of the engineering mind and feel like they have not really learnt anything of importance all the years they spent in college. Many engineering graduates cannot boast of any particular skill. The reason for this is not far-fetched. The Faculty of Engineering structure  the learning experience of their students – especially those at the undergraduate level – in such a way that a broad and not very in-depth understanding of engineering and engineering practices are impacted. This makes the engineering graduate look like a “jack of all trades”. The Faculty of Engineering tries to remedy this problem by making it mandatory for their students to undergo industrial training at a point during their engineering programme and undertake a major project work at final year. This serves to put the engineering graduate’s preference into perspective. The engineering graduate, through exposure to the industry and a major project as an undergraduate is able to bring all the theoretical and laboratory practices they have learnt into reality and see how they work in real situations. Perhaps one of the most useful and bold steps in becoming an engineer who is confident and with a specialized skill is going on to postgraduate school to obtain a Masters and Doctor of Philosophy in a highly specialized field of engineering. The graduates that are lucky enough to get hired as graduate trainees with established engineering firms and corporations would get to see and use what they have learnt as undergraduates first hand. Joining research and development cause is also another way of solidifying engineering skills. “Do it yourself” has also proved to be of immense help to those who want to become competent engineers. Here, the graduate takes the time to develop skills in one or more branches of engineering by learning these skills through extra-curricular activities, special vocational training and self-development.

In the long run, the run, the Faculty of Engineering help would-be engineers to achieve their dreams by instilling in them competencies and a knowledge base that form the foundation upon which the successful engineer builds a career and business no matter how strange and puzzling the process may seem.