This is the Message Centre for MrsCloud

Why hello...

Post 1

Ming Mang

Heya MrsCloud!! smiley - biggrin
What's the degree like? Sorry, I only ask because I want to do some sort of Engineering degree... smiley - smiley

I'm an ACE (Assistant Community Editor), and basically what I do is say hello and generally be nice to new people like yourself. smiley - smiley You can say hello to the other ACEs at the homepage http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/Aces
If you have any questions ask away! I can do my best to answer them. smiley - smileysmiley - biggrin
Don't worry if it takes you a while to get back... I have a plentiful if not endless supply of smiley - donuts and smiley - cake and will sit here eating them until you return. smiley - biggrin And do have a doughnut or some cake yourself. smiley - smiley
*offers smiley - donut and smiley - cake*
smiley - biggrin

¦M¦


Why hello...

Post 2

MrsCloud

Hi Ming Mang, yay do engineering we need to get more girls doing it, currently in my year at durham out of 120 theres 15 girls (good ratio eh?!? smiley - smiley) . I did maths (pure aand mechanics), physics and art a levels which put me in a reasonable position starting this degree, you need to be sure of your maths as theres a lot of it, I had a friend who started with only a D in her physics a level and she flunked out after the first year so... But no the degree is cool if you are prepared to put up with 4 years which does make you better qualified (my parents joke thats why i'm doing this degree they only have Bsc's) but it is a hard slog now which I am discovering esp. with most of my friends graduating this year. Err yeah, one of the good things about the degree at durham is that it's a general engineering degree which means if you aint to sure straight away which section you want to go into you can leave it, the first and second year you do everything from microelectronics to structural stuff, then you get to specialise ( ie drop some of the stuff you dont like) in the third year and again in the forth. Umm yeah its diffcult to explain not knowing how much you know about stuff I was well informed cos my dads an engineer. So yeah if there's anything else just ask.

I used to live in Sussex when I was younger, Shoreham-By-Sea actually, dunno if you know it?

Speak to you soon

H


Why hello...

Post 3

Ming Mang

It's OK, at the moment I'm determined to do Engineering. smiley - smiley
I should be OK with the maths, I'm doing maths, further maths and physics A-levels. smiley - smiley And two other AS-level thingies.
A general engineering degree sounds good. smiley - smiley I'll remember that. smiley - smiley
Well... my dad is a "hardware and software design engineer", but I'm not sure what his qualifications are, and he doesn't know that much about the engineering degrees you can do. So nor do I. I tried asking people at our school's career-do, but they looked at me and decided 'female. No' and sort of talked to someone next to me... *sigh* the only people I got anything useful out of were a friend's dad and the only woman, a personnel officer from an engineering company, but all she could tell me was that if I wanted the company to sponser me through uni I'd have to take a gap year and spend it working with them. Which isn't so bad. BTW- it's Ricardo's in Shoreham, I don't know of you know it? smiley - smiley And *grin* I live about four miles from Shoreham!! smiley - biggrin
So anyway, if there's anything you can think of that is basic but important, please tell me! smiley - smiley

¦M¦


Why hello...

Post 4

MrsCloud

Grrr I so would love to work for ricardos even if half the ppl there would remember be as a wee bairn ( ok i've been living in scotland too long) as my dad used to work there about ten years ago. Its a really cool company. If you want to find out more about what its like studying engineering I did this thing in my lower sixth i think it was called Insight which is specifically for girls or you can do Headstart which is mixed and it is a week at a uni. staying in halls and stuff and generally doing engineery type stuff. It was really cool, I went to Cardiff and ended up applying there. Theres this thing called the engineering council and i'm sure if you did a search for them on the web you could find out loads of info also the institutions such as the IMechE (mechanical eng.) or the IEE (electrical and electronic eng.) could provide you with other information.

Basically I knew from the start I wanted to do an mechanical eng. degree so some of the degrees i applied for were pure mech eng. but i also apply to durham as i love the city and found their idea of a general course good, it gives you a better more rounded education for when you are out in the real world as nothing is totally civil or mech etc. and its also good if you aren't sure of dont know much about the different areas of engineering. But if you are sure by all means go for a more specialised course.

The MOST importatant thing is to make sure the course is accredited by the appropriate institutes or else you have to loads extra work when you leave uni to become a certified engineer ( which gives more money).

Hope this helps.
H


Why hello...

Post 5

Ming Mang

Oh cool! It's nice to know someone from outside the company says that. smiley - smiley And someone who doesn't look down at me... *still annoyed about the people at the careers-do even though it was last year...*
*sigh* I really hate all these things for girls only... I mean, yes, more girls ought to go into engineering, but where are the boys only courses for nursing or child-care? But there are grants open to girls only, so I'm going to try for them anyway... smiley - winkeye
OK then. smiley - smiley I'll try a search at some point, see what it throws up. smiley - smiley Thanks! smiley - biggrin
So what exactly IS mechanical engineering?

¦M¦


Why hello...

Post 6

MrsCloud

hmmm what is mechanical.....

well the subjects that I cover are:
fluid mechanics
thermodynamics (heat and cool stuff)
control (making things do what you want them to usually with computers)
energy and the environment (err yeah polotics ish)
electrical drives (err this strays over to the electrical side and bit basic lots of stuff on different type of motors)
stress anaylisis (how things break and how to stop it)
materials (steel, alloys and carbon fibre stuff)
signal processing (again a bit electrical but combines with control to make things do stuff and this is the sort of feedback loop end to check)
computing (some programming)


err yeah i think thats all the courses i took last year.... I hope it gives you a picture and i haven't been to technical. With all the engineering stuff they sort of overflow in to each other like the civils ppl did stress and fluids with us and the electrical did other bits etc.

ok i'm tired and should go to bed speak to you soon
H


Why hello...

Post 7

Ming Mang

Cool, yep, I get it now. smiley - biggrin Thank you! :- And, no you weren't too technical. I understood it all. smiley - smiley

So how's it all going? smiley - smiley

¦M¦


Key: Complain about this post

More Conversations for MrsCloud

Write an Entry

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is a wholly remarkable book. It has been compiled and recompiled many times and under many different editorships. It contains contributions from countless numbers of travellers and researchers."

Write an entry
Read more