Job: Research Engineer

[Alexsteen]

Is it possible to do something like biomedical engineering or nanoengineering in your spare time? My knowledge of physics and math far outstrips what is required in my major (mechanical engineering). I'm talking real analysis, topology, and my having a strong grasp of quantum mechanics. Thing is, research doesn't really excite me, and I don't feel fulfilled... It's too abstract for me. I'd like to reap more practical rewards i.e. being doctor .but I also want to contribute scientifically.

[wbeaty]

@Alexsteen To contribute on a professional level, you have no choice but PhD. If not, then instead do amateur projects. Or go into teaching.

If biochem and nano are your thing, you'll be competing with thousands of others, with many being hotshots and top brains. Science is full of fads and hot topics best avoided. To be useful, avoid these. Polish your skills at sniffing out the many unexplored niches unknown to the crowd-followers. Go against the flow, become an eccentric character.

[wbeaty]

@Alexsteen Another tactic: sniff out facts "everybody knows," which actually aren't correct. For example, "everybody knows" that worthwhile science exclusively involves extreme complexity, and only top postdocs have any chance of working on it. Says who? Classic breakthroughs are often very simple, and entire research communities looked right at them for decades without seeing them. Pursue Feynman's Alternate Toolkit. Develop your intuition (such things are currently disfavored! Big bonus!)

[wbeaty]

Oh also track down the book "The Art of Scientific Investigation" by Beveridge. He reveals many tricks of working professionals. Become one of these rare types...

"Many very serious-minded, solid and knowledgable people work hard in science all their lives and produce nothing of the smallest importance, while others, few by comparison and not highly erudite, exhibit a serendipity of mind that enables them to have valuable ideas in any subject they may choose to take up." -Lyttleton

[Alexsteen]

@wbeaty Thanks wbeaty! You should write a self-help book for intelligent people lol. There's enough pablum out there.

I definitely want to become that type. If it's possible, a surgeon who does research in the background. But speaking with my med school friends they actually discourage me from medicine in general. 90+ hour weeks, HUGE overhead costs in liability and insurance. And very little free time. Maybe I should just become a firefighter in my spare time.

[CaptainDonou]

so in a nutshell your a glorified handyman who in his spare time dabbles as an inventor/science enthusiast. Neat =]

[wbeaty]

> glorified handyman

Wear old clothes, because today we're climbing around under mass spectrometer magnet

[21Blitz]

@wbeaty Now I see man this is cool, cuz one i love to fix things even its fancy things u dont do everyday. Plus u seem to have a great deal of intrest in it. U do more then ask "how to fix it" U reserch and pursue them. too Understand them, Kickass

[Losuol]

Hey I'm thinking of taking a 4 month co-op course helping with Nuclear Research - is it a good idea? What does ur normal day look like?

[MrOZed]

There are, as well, many research engineers who also actively participate in the research process itself, depending on the type of research or project. It is often difficult to distinguish between engineers and applied physicists. For example, half of the Nobel Prize for Physics this year went to Charles Kao, an electrical engineer, for his ground-breaking work in fiber optics at Standard Telecommunication Laboratories in the UK.

[nikkiglider]

I have ended up a physics teacher, though I never had any intention of doing so (my degree is in Biology). I wanted to tell you that you are my hero.

[novatodeguitarra]

wow jack nicholson is an engineer

[10601a]

I'm surprised they let you touch anything!

[prototype9000]

you should go for lockheed martin they pay really good for skills like that should have never quit there for dell to be laid off.

[Fullperson]

I want to go into physics, but as research, not as a guy who fixes things.... I also heard physics is like math. It gets you the tools but you really can't find a job to do outside of teaching.

[wbeaty]

> I want to go into physics,

I'd get to the nearest college library and read lots of "PRL," the journal "Physics Review Letters." That should give a good view of current physics.

Yep, physics is math first, PhD minimum requirement. But you could go into experimental.

Then there's the other tradition. Get a normal 9-5 day job in hardware or software or the Swiss Patent Office, and work on physics/inventing/etc. in your spare time. Get lucky like Einstein and others, and strike it rich.

[hottdog2007]

woot! woot!

go dawgs

u know what I'M talkin' about!

[mklvebu]

Awesome! I like the real world shop!

[riknapeclipse]

Wow. This field is under mechanical engineering, right?

I've always wanted to become and RnD engineer when I graduate, albeit under wireless technology. Thanks. This video really amplified my desire to do my best in my courses today.

[wbeaty]

Nope, it's the electronics and computer department. We create analog stuff and embedded controllers, design PCBs, help with the physics side, etc. Our mechanical people I think are more considered "machinists," and run the machine shop.

BUT... it's probably different in other places like Physics, Space&Aero, etc., and at other universities.

[riknapeclipse]

ah. I see... I'm so excited nyihaha.

I hope you don't mind me asking, but is there such a field/degree called "electronics and communications" engineering (not electronics and computer engineering)?

[wbeaty]

Sure. You just specialize in analog electronics rather than digital, then go into "RF" the radio circuitry field and microwave etc. Power electronics.

[mklvebu]

riknapeclipse: Auburn University has a wireless engineering program.

[CONCERTMASTER69]

you give someone such trivial tasks so that it isn't the individuals (i.e., grad students & post-docs) who actually do the research don't end up wasting their time (and the federal grant money that usually pays their salaries) fixing things (even though though they're perfectly capable of it or perfectly able to figure out how).

[CONCERTMASTER69]

-don't +that

[biowerks]

Watching your videos I've always assumed that you were a professor or something like that. At any rate it must be fascinating to be around all of those interesting devices and be able to "tinker" with all of the tools.

[dirtchew]

Looks like a really fun job. Do you have any interesting stories about lab jokes/accidents?

[loltehinternet]

In the US, people are paid for operating far below their potential.

[anengineeringmind]

Im an engineer. Take a look at the video above for some more answers about what engineers do all day! I feel you man!

[clkdragzta]

how much do u earn a year?

[wbeaty]

> how much do u earn a year?

It would be $70K-$80K for an outside electronics company. Pay at universities is lower.

My first really fun job was running Tech dept. at Boston's science museum, and paid $20K with engineering degree. I'd been making way way more at a HW/SW company, before dumping the normal engineer salary and going after the fun. But back then I didn't have house payments, family, etc. I guess it was the nerd equivalent of hitchhiking Europe for a couple of years.

[pkhamidar2com]

really nice

[boxa888]

u seem like a really smart man is there anything u have come across in your life thats out of the ordinary with your research. stuff that messes with physics and stuff that would be cool . thanks

[PixelPi]

Sounds more like an research engineering technician then a research engineer. How is a research engineer different from a scientist? I'd like to know, I plan on entering the field some day. What's the best route for someone who likes Electronics, Computers, Math, Physics, and likes to works with his hands? I'm working on a Physics AS degree right now and I already have a professional background in computers.

[wbeaty]

> Sounds more like an research engineering technician... Well, more like jack of all trades. Over half is technician work. But this job also requires analog/dig design, microwave PCB design, optics, machine shop, embedded VB, C/assembler, high voltage design... as well as skilled repair of all sorts of bizarre devices not taught in any tech school. I suspect that they want engineers with physics knowledge so they won't get killed by high-power high-voltage equipment.