Thursday, 02 October 2008
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What do I do in Uni?
Hmm.. This is going to be a little boring, but I thought that it would be good to tell you what I learn in University..
Over here, first year of university for engineers is called Intermediate year. It's like a bridge bewteen high school and uni (more for the locals, since we go to college after high school).
One of the purposes of the Intermediate is to make sure that people doing engineering are really ready for it. For those people who may be interested but are not sure whether engineering is right for them, Intermediate year is the time they find out. Of course, it is not a foolproof system, many people make it through Intermediate but still find engineering not being right for them. I guess in some ways Intermediate is made to be a little tough and a little challenging so that people can make informed choices about what they are really up to.
Statistics show that out of 700 people that do Intermediate year each year, only about 350 actually make it into engineering 2nd year. Engineering is a limited entry course, meaning that only a fixed number of students are allowed into each department of engineering every year. The guidelines that gurantee you a spot in 2nd year is a B- average and no failures (C- and below) for all required subjects.
So as to what we learn...
Maths - Of course, engineering has to do with a lot of maths, so it is a must for us to know the basics. We take 2 papers of calculus sort of maths, one in each semester. My opinion? Maths is not too bad, as long as you're willing to put in the effort, it would eventually turn out okay, as long as you have a good foundation. You'll have to work a lot harder if you've not been doing well since foundation / high school level though.
Physics - quite a bit of repetition if you've done some form of Pre-U physics. Weekly Labs are stressful though. Topics include mechanics, thermodynamics, optics, modern physics (quantum, relativity) etc etc.
Chemistry - very little to do with actual chemical reactions you can see. Lots to do with how fast this reaction is going to happen or how much product can you obtain from this reaction. As well as lots of calculations involving numbers numbers numbers.
Computation and modelling - Something new. Here is where we learn programming to solve our problems. We use a computer program called matlab to do our calculations - not any calculations though - it's calculations that we would take ages to be done by hand but seconds by the computer. Besides the computer, we also learn how to apply basic maths to solve complex problems - the backdoor method to obtaining answers.
Hmm.. There's still biology, mechanics and foundations of engineering. But i don't feel like explaining them. So till next time. I might just tell you what I'm currently learning right now...
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