So, today, I had an "apprenticeship." This was basically a trip to the University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering. We heard from a freshman advisor as well as 5 students, all in different disciplines of engineering. They told us of all of the programs and co-op opportunities for students. This reaffirmed my decision that I want to, without a doubt, become a mechanical engineer.
We had a student guided tour from an industrial engineering student. She took us to the many labs and interesting places; the RFID lab, the nano-tech lab, and, my personal favorite, the SAE Formula Car shop. We looked at last year's build on display, which was powered by a CBR 600RR tuned to peak performance 6240RPM.
We visited the handful of guys working on the car and they told us all about SAE and the car. I didn't get an opportunity to ask if they participate in the Mini Baja competition, but the car was amazing. This thing was beautiful, and it was only a bare steel, TIG welded frame. I was most amazed by the A-arms. They were 3/8" for the top arms and 1/2" for the bottoms. Every member of the team is a Mechanical Engineer and, in the program's 26 year history at Pitt, 100% of the SAE team members received a job out of college (many with large auto companies like Ford, BMW, Chevy). Some auto manufacturers (Ford, IIRC) will actually credit you one year of work with the company if you participate in SAE for 4 years in college.
I loved the visit and this was what decided my college major. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to go a pre-medical route to anesthesiology or mechanical engineering, but today's visit decided it for me. I have my sights set on becoming a mechanical engineer going into the automotive industry.
We had a student guided tour from an industrial engineering student. She took us to the many labs and interesting places; the RFID lab, the nano-tech lab, and, my personal favorite, the SAE Formula Car shop. We looked at last year's build on display, which was powered by a CBR 600RR tuned to peak performance 6240RPM.
We visited the handful of guys working on the car and they told us all about SAE and the car. I didn't get an opportunity to ask if they participate in the Mini Baja competition, but the car was amazing. This thing was beautiful, and it was only a bare steel, TIG welded frame. I was most amazed by the A-arms. They were 3/8" for the top arms and 1/2" for the bottoms. Every member of the team is a Mechanical Engineer and, in the program's 26 year history at Pitt, 100% of the SAE team members received a job out of college (many with large auto companies like Ford, BMW, Chevy). Some auto manufacturers (Ford, IIRC) will actually credit you one year of work with the company if you participate in SAE for 4 years in college.
I loved the visit and this was what decided my college major. I couldn't decide whether I wanted to go a pre-medical route to anesthesiology or mechanical engineering, but today's visit decided it for me. I have my sights set on becoming a mechanical engineer going into the automotive industry.
