Engineer this!

Wednesday, February 17, 1999

Engineer this!

MAJORS: Part math, part physics, all hardcore science –

the various engineering studies all offer students

a challenging yet rewarding curriculum

By Michelle Navarro

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

The engineering students of UCLA might as well be referred to as
the "untouchables," because to most other students on campus,
untouchable is what they are.

On campus there is a school completely separate from the
massive, all-encompassing College of Letters and Sciences; it is
the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and for over
50 years, it has housed the chemical, electrical, aerospace, civil,
computer science, electrical, mechanical, and material engineering
students.

To be a part of this technical crowd requires a separate grant
of admission, which is only extended to incoming freshmen or
undergraduate juniors.

And it is on south campus that these students live in their own
academic microcosm; they even have their own, non-ASUCLA cafe, Cafe
by the SEAS.

"(Engineering students) shelter themselves," said Howard Cheng,
a fourth-year computer science and engineering student. "It’s key
to get friends within your major so you can help each other."

It is partly this separation that creates the "them" and "they"
ideology among other students.

Another reason could be that only 20 percent of the students in
the undergraduate school are female, making the major less
relatable to most women on campus.

Either way, hardly anyone really knows what engineering students
are about or what they do; all that is generally accepted is that
the engineering field is a difficult one to undertake.

Perhaps it is exactly this reason that engineering students
generally stick to their own when it comes to friends.

"You can’t do the work alone," said Cheng. "The people who are
the most successful are the ones who go out and make friends and
help each other. If you work alone, you’re at a disadvantage."

Unlike humanities or science courses, where reading is a major
part of any assignment, engineering coursework is virtually all
problem-solving.

"The professors still want us to read the texts, but it mostly
is problem-solving," said Frances Yang, a fourth-year civil
engineering student. "You definitely have to put in the work. For
one homework set, it takes about six hours."

Whereas the type of problems given are relative to each genre of
engineering, from programming to determining if a bridge can
withstand a number of conditions, the amount of time spent and the
sort of thinking required is roughly the same.

"(The material) is hard because it’s a different way of thinking
– it’s all logic. The whole major makes you think very logically,
step by step," Cheng said. "It’s problem-solving so you must work
out all the minor details until you reach a solution. And you can
easily spend 20 to 40 hours a week doing your homework."

With such an intense workload, students must turn to each other
for help and support, a study method engineering professors
strongly advocate.

"I would think it must be hard to struggle through the problems
alone," added Yang, whose roommates are also engineering majors. "I
count a lot on my peers to keep the homework less than six
hours."

"The bottom line is that engineering is challenging. Unless
you’re gifted, you need the support of other peers," said Enrique
Baez, a third-year mechanical engineering student. "I’ve been
fortunate to be a part of a very close and supportive
community."

Aside from working on homework together, fellow engineering
students often see each other in classes and in clubs. This is
mostly because many engineering prerequisites and core courses do
not include courses from majors in other colleges.

As for the clubs, not only do they provide a way for students to
meet others to form study groups, but they also provide them an
opportunity to get hands-on, practical experience.

"The problem with the UCs, compared to other schools, is that
their engineering schools are all very theoretical," Yang said. "So
they force you to do projects to get the applications and hands-on
training."

"The focus of a lot of clubs is to get that experience and
training so by the time we get our bachelor’s degrees, we are ready
to be engineers," he added.

For example, students in the American Society of Engineers have
been designing and building a concrete canoe that will be raced
against other canoes created by schools located as far away as
Hawaii and Arizona. This year, the competition will be held in
March at USC.

Yang estimated that about 45 percent of undergraduates go
straight into the work force as engineers after graduation, 25
percent work in consulting firms and about 30 percent enter
graduate school. But, in order to start work quickly, students must
get the experience.

"The more internships, co-ops or summer jobs you have the more
companies are going to like you," Baez said. "In many cases people
have their permanent jobs set with the same company because of a
previous internship."

With the technological revolution constantly evolving, the job
market for engineering students appears to be rather large and
inviting.

"There are a lot of opportunities. It’s just a matter of finding
what part you want to do," Cheng said.

The decisions students face range from the area of engineering
they want to work in to the size of the company they work for.

"Students need to find a company they feel comfortable with
because you spend a lot of time at work," said Brook Maples, a 1996
civil engineering alumna.

"You have a choice after graduation as to what you want to get
into, but you can pretty much go into anything with
engineering."

Another advantage to getting jobs and internships is the
opportunity to gain experience in the work environment.

"(The real world) is a huge transition in terms of the time,"
said Sherry Holtzman, a 1998 alumna. "Instead of four hours of
class a day, you’ll be working from eight to six. It’s a big
difference. It also depends on the size of the company you work
for; at a small company you get more responsibility than you would
at a larger one."

But even before that, students must satisfy what employers are
looking for in today’s demanding job market.

"They have to have one head, two arms, two legs," said Margaret
Paulin jokingly, a college recruitment administrator from Northrop
Grumman, an aerospace engineering corporation.

More seriously, she mentioned a good GPA (preferably in the
three’s) and work experience within the major as criteria looked at
when hiring employees.

"They also have to be able to look at you in the eye and ask
questions, as long as they are eager, willing to learn and have
their heart in it," she added.

Paulin said that students who don’t reach the desired GPA level
are still considered, provided they are able to articulate the
reasons why the grades weren’t up to par.

Ultimately, engineering students seem to be in a category all
their own, one which some students view as unreachable because of
the assumed difficulty of course material and technical
applications.

But Cheng offered an explanation.

"Engineering, in general, is just a different way of thinking.
It’s a logical, problem-solving type of deal," he explained.

"We don’t have a good time with open-ended questions."

Such trouble won’t really matter since engineers mainly need the
vision for the future and an eye for creation.

"I’ve always had fun building stuff, from legos to scale models
to those ‘some assembly required’ tables we buy at Home Depot,"
Baez said. "The best part about my major is the type of work you
get to do. Not many majors allow you to work on a microwave
telescope that’s going to study a comet in 2012."

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