Mechanical or Mechatronics?

[bblovee]

So i'm trying to make up my mind about which field of engineering to study, since i pretty much have to decide on one when i enroll into BSc/BE @ monash

I picked these two because they sort of overlap in several aspects... kind of? what with the design/operation/manufacture of machines or mechanical products..
i think both fields can lead to studying prosthetics, which im quite interested in.

i would really appreciate any opinions on this, especially from current engineering students

[jimmy999]

If you choose the first year subjects that you do for Mechatronics, then you can always make your decision later. This is because mechanical and mechatronic share a first year subject, whilst another subject you do is electrical eng based which is required for mechatronic. So do the mechatronics pathway, and if you don't like it you can either change into Mechanical or into Electrical if you want

[bblovee]

thanks for the advice, i guess i should find out more at the uni
because i can't seem to find information about the mechatronics branch in the sci/eng course handbook

[IntoTheNewWorld]

searching Mechanical Engineer in Seek gives me 1,688 results

searching Electrical Engineer gives me 1,759

searching Mechatronics Engineer into Seek gives me 60 results

just a thought.

[crappy]

I was in the mechatronics eng/sci course at the start of the year and just changed to electrical. You wont find the mechatronics branch in the handbook because its a seperate degree, you cant do sci/eng and then just pick the mechtronics branch. If you really want to do mechtronics, you'll have to apply for a mid year transfer into the mechatronic/sci double degree.

Anyway, the mechatronics course at monash has a larger emphasis on mechanical with a bit of electrical and software on the side. Both streams are great but the only problem with mechatronics is the lack of jobs in australia. Its slowly becoming mainstream but it will take a few years until employers actually know what mechatronics consists of, yes most employers don't even know what it is.

[bblovee]

@crappy
okay taking what you said into consideration, i might just be better off sticking to my sci/eng but i hate how they make us choose a branch we want to specialise in before commencement of the course.

something else i was wondering, i want to study mechanical, but also want to major in materials science, however that's not possible since the handbook outlines that students who specialise in mechanical eng must major in maths and physics or astrophysics. so now i'm wondering whether i should look into materials engineering. is there a major difference between materials and mechanical?

[crappy]

@crappy
okay taking what you said into consideration, i might just be better off sticking to my sci/eng but i hate how they make us choose a branch we want to specialise in before commencement of the course.

something else i was wondering, i want to study mechanical, but also want to major in materials science, however that's not possible since the handbook outlines that students who specialise in mechanical eng must major in maths and physics or astrophysics. so now i'm wondering whether i should look into materials engineering. is there a major difference between materials and mechanical?

YES, there is huge difference between materials and mechanical lol. Materials has a lot of chemistry and its not really hardcore mathematical like mechanical is.


Take a look at these coursemaps for mechanical and materials:

materials:
http://www.eng.monash.edu.au/current-students/download/0032-materials-2010.pdf

mechanical:
http://www.eng.monash.edu.au/current-students/download/0032-mechanical-2010.pdf


Mechanical involves things like thermodynamics, fluid mechanics and electromechanics etc, where as materials involves engineering alloy processing, polymer and composite processing. They are two completely different fields.

[bblovee]

@crappy
LOL thanks for the information.
im interested in materials eng since it could lead to interesting practical work towards the environment and even towards medicine
however im also interested in the units in mechanical.
eg would i be able to study thermodynamics in materials out of interest? or am i restricted to studying units within the materials branch (assuming i pick materials)

what do you reckon about majoring in maths and materials science while specialising in materials eng?

[crappy]

@crappy
LOL thanks for the information.
im interested in materials eng since it could lead to interesting practical work towards the environment and even towards medicine
however im also interested in the units in mechanical.
eg would i be able to study thermodynamics in materials out of interest? or am i restricted to studying units within the materials branch (assuming i pick materials)

what do you reckon about majoring in maths and materials science while specialising in materials eng?

Im not really sure you can pick any thermo units in materials but you could just sit in the lectures if you really wanted to lol

materials sci/maths and materials eng is a solid combo, jobs for materials engineers should be abundant in coming years.

[Kopite]

searching Mechanical Engineer in Seek gives me 1,688 results

searching Electrical Engineer gives me 1,759

searching Mechatronics Engineer into Seek gives me 60 results

just a thought.

i think mechatronics MAY be booming in a few years. MAYBE.

[riv]

@crappy
LOL thanks for the information.
im interested in materials eng since it could lead to interesting practical work towards the environment and even towards medicine
however im also interested in the units in mechanical.
eg would i be able to study thermodynamics in materials out of interest? or am i restricted to studying units within the materials branch (assuming i pick materials)

what do you reckon about majoring in maths and materials science while specialising in materials eng?

Most of the units you do in materials engineering are similar if not the exact same to the ones in materials science except with different codes. Look at the prohibitions of each subject and you'd realise that if you did materials engineering most of the materials science subjects would become prohibited.

[bblovee]

@riv
does that mean i wont be able to do units in materials science (ie major in it) if i do materials engineering?

what major do you suggest i do then?

[riv]

@riv
does that mean i wont be able to do units in materials science (ie major in it) if i do materials engineering?

what major do you suggest i do then?

I honestly don't know. I had science/engineering as my first preference until I saw the prohibitions...