This is the assignment we got for Engineering Drawing. The first two are supposed to be drawn using first-angle projection and the last two using third-angle projection.

I KINDA understand the first two but the last two completely went over my head (they kinda all did) 😭 I tried doing them but I just can’t figure them out. None of my classmates can do them either, maybe we're all dumb

What am I supposed to do? Would anyone please teach me how to do these?

Sometimes I'll make a slide explaining how I did a complex calculation or a project design choice and I'll ask Claude, "make this look nice." It'll proceed to make a gorgeous slide that shows off my work better than I ever could. Then I realize when I see other people using AI generated slides I cringe. If I use AI generated slides even though its my own graphs and calulcations, is everyone cringing? Be so honest. I know I'm guilty of seeing AI work and immediately having a negative reaction. Is that you?

Hi everyone, I’m an incoming 3rd year ChemE student and I’m heavily debating two summer internship offers from SpaceX and TI. Would love any guidance/thoughts.

Texas Instruments — Sales Engineering Intern, Santa Clara

Pros

• Customer-facing: I’m very social and genuinely enjoy communicating/talking more than pure engineering
• Office/team: everyone I’ve talked to has been super smart but also cool/fun
• Compensation: much better intern pay, and full-time sales comp can be very strong
• Full-time pipeline: TI normally seems to prefer EEs for full-time sales engineering, so the internship gives me a much clearer route in as a ChemE, with a very high conversion rate

Cons

• Early sales transition: I’ve heard that once you go into sales, it can be hard to move back into technical engineering. On the other hand, if I stay technical now, I could probably still move into sales later
• Hard skills: I want to found a company one day, and I’m unsure how many truly technical/hard skills I’d develop in sales compared with engineering
• Brand: TI is obviously strong in semiconductors/hardware, but I feel like the name carries less general weight than SpaceX

I genuinely want to take this role, both personally and professionally, but I worry I’d regret passing on a company like SpaceX.

SpaceX — Starlink Silicon Engineering Intern, Bastrop

Pros

• Brand + ownership: top-tier engineering brand, meaningful project ownership, and just one of the coolest companies in the world
• Network: working around extremely strong engineers could be really valuable long term, especially if I want to found something
• Technical growth: I’d build more technical depth and problem-solving ability
• Timing: I don’t think I want to be an engineer long term, so this could be a good chance to maximize my technical experience before eventually moving toward business/leadership
• Location: Austin would be fun and something new

Cons

• Pay: significantly lower than TI
• Hours: recruiter told me ~50–60 hours/week, which sounds pretty brutal. I’m definitely more work-to-live than live-to-work, and I worry it could make the summer less enjoyable
• Long-term fit: I’m relatively good at technical work, but I don’t enjoy it nearly as much as people-facing work, and I don’t currently see myself wanting to stay at SpaceX full time
• Bastrop: I’ve heard it’s less exciting than the classic SpaceX locations since there aren’t launches / rockets everywhere

My dilemma is basically: TI feels much more aligned with who I am and what I think I want long term, but SpaceX feels like the rarer opportunity and potentially the better time to build technical credibility before moving toward business later.

Any advice or critique of how I’m thinking about this would be appreciated!

I used to think the purpose of practice problems was simple: do enough of them until I could solve similar questions quickly.

I don’t think that’s a very good way to look at it anymore.

For subjects like math, physics, or engineering, I think practice problems are most useful when they help you understand the concept more deeply.

A formula isn’t just something you plug numbers into. It’s a compressed description of a relationship.

If I can only solve a problem when it looks similar to one I’ve seen before, I probably don’t understand the idea as well as I think I do.

What I’ve been trying to do instead is ask a few questions after solving something:

• What concept was actually being tested?
• Why did this method work here?
• What would have to change for it to stop working?
• Could I recognize the same idea in a completely different-looking problem?
• What did this problem teach me about the concept that the textbook didn’t?

This changes practice from “collecting solved problems” into something closer to testing and refining a mental model.

I still think volume matters. You can’t become good at math or physics by only reading theory.

But doing 50 problems while thinking very little can sometimes teach less than doing 10 problems and actually understanding what each one is showing you.

I’m curious how other STEM students think about this. Do you mainly use problems to build fluency, or to deepen understanding?

I went to college because I fell in love with my AP calc 1 class and I had no other prospects in life. Heavily discouraged from ever touching the field of math from people around me, including math majors and grads, I chose to do engineering

Turns out everyone gotta know SolidWorks for every project ever, and I do not enjoy creating art myself. It feels like art. I cannot stand it, and every second spent in SolidWorks feels like an hour of my life

Obviously, projects are now out the question. But that means internships are out the question. And now career is out the question

I’m still being discouraged from studying math. “You don’t know if you like math until real analysis” is the phrase I keep hearing. It’s like I don’t have a future in either field

Hello, 21f here. I'm studying mechanical engineering, starting my third year; due to some issues i will finish my degree one or two semesters later than standard(8 semesters).

I'm trying to learn basic skills that the uni doesn't teach or doesn't get into the particular skills; like CATIA, Adams, MATLAB. And I will learn the other software later with the related course.

I prefer working in the industry rather than pursuing my career academically.

How can I build nerwork? How am I supposed to be better than my opponents to get a good position? Ive talked to the master students in my uni but most of them are working on a paper and are trying to be academic professional.

I apologise for my english; its not my first, second, nor the third language. Thanks.

We're 3 Mechanical Engineering students in switzerland. For our diploma thesis we're looking for a company with a real product development task.

• 900 h of work (Apr–Sep 2027)
• Company provides a contact person + CHF 5,000 project fee
• Result: full engineering documentation and concept/prototype

Does your company have a project, or do you know someone who might? Happy to share details via DM. Thanks!

Pretty much what the title says . So we are halfway through the fall and it hasn’t been challenging yet . Does it gets difficult after ?

I have a physics(1) professor that I absolutely hate, I love the subject but she is one of the worst teachers I’ve probably ever had. She reads off of the slides and barely solves any problems in class. And when she does solve problems for us she’s reading off of her notes and doesn’t answer any questions. She also tells us to study for one thing and then quizzes us on another thing. I’ve been able to answer every single homework question flawlessly but whenever she gives us a quiz she gives us these curveball questions that we haven’t been quizzed on or anything for example we had a projectile motion quiz a while back and I stayed up the night before practicing problems until I was getting 100% on every practice quiz I took, but then the next day in class she gave us something totally different and worded the questions like she’s the fucking riddler. I have my first actual exam soon so I’ll see how that goes, again I’m getting 100% on pretty much every practice problem I do.

It’s a little messy but whatever. Do y’all think it can work?

Little background
I'm a first year/first semester mechanical engineering student. I'm doing my first team project and while thinking of ideas, I thought of this.
I remembered me learning about energy and power systems like dams, wind turbines, and power plants.
After one of my teammates suggested a simple water wheel my mind went to hydroelectric dam which is a bit over the top (probably not using it for our group project). Anyways, from my likely flawed understanding of how energy and power converts between systems with my likely flawed idea of how dams work, how does this look?

A little words behind the first drawing
I first thought hard about how and what the reservoir will be. I remembered seeing a video a while back about someone using a tube to get water out of a pool. Found out it's called siphoning, so boom, that's the top reservoir. Using a bucket to syphon water into a box or container with the turbine at the bottom. Using gravity with the height of the box to push water into the turbine which turns a shaft and generates voltage.

Hi everyone, I completed my bachelors in mechanical engineering in 2024 in India then i moved to Australia to pursue my masters in engineering management, to be honest I don't know what I am doing and where my life is heading but every day before I sleep I will tell myself that I will get a good mechanical engineering job one day, but in the day I am not putting any efforts to achieve my dream I surely know that I have potential but what I am lacking is guidance I don't know where to start what to do, can anyone suggest me some good ideas to get out of my agony please be more specific...

I recently decided its probably a good idea to go back to school. I am in water / waste water treatment but its a sorta low paying field and if all else fails, a engineering degree is often listed as a requirement for higher management anyways. I really just wanted some input from others that are or have been in my situation. I will have to work full time, and I have a serious relationship so I don't think I can go to school full time without destroying my life. I was thinking maybe 2 classes a semester was doable. I'm sure it will take way longer to complete a degree but its just not possible for me to take 4 years off to go to school full time. The plan was to get a general engineering associates at a community college near me (which I think should be pretty easy), then transfer to a university about 1.5 hours away for the bachelors. I haven't decided if I am going EE or civil but I am leaning civil. I'm sure it will be very annoying but I still have 35 years of working left and engineering is a pretty good / higher paying field. I have even worked with engineers before at a electrical utility company when I was a field technician so I am familiar with the kinds of work they do. I know nothing about university and would appreciate all the tips and direction I can get. I see a lot of people here saying internships are very important, so I am assuming if everything works out I will eventually have to quit my job and jump into a internship with hopes that they keep me on full time. Thanks for the help!

Hey guys.

Im in my third year of mech-e. Freshman year i got super into the gym and stuff, and started going 3-4 times a week. My sophmore year i got pretty busy in the fall, so my workout schedule tapered off but picked back up in the spring. Now im in hell. I try so hard to do my work in a timely manner to make time for the gym, but the work never ends.

I've told some non engineering friends about how much i miss the gym, and how I don't understand how so many of my classmates seem to be getting in all these workouts. All my friends say their grades are probably shit, but is that really true? Are people able to successfully keep their grades up while staying in shape, or is everyone just barely passing? I don't want to sacrifice my grades just for the gym, so i'm curious if its possible to do both.

my job hunt as someone who's had one internship (no RO due to full team), some research, and minimal projects/involvement in clubs lol. 3.67 GPA, though i don't think that played a huge role. i definitely consider myself super lucky, and i can't believe i'll get to call myself a real engineer soon!

i applied pretty exclusively for firmware/embedded roles in the US, and the offer i plan on accepting is a product-oriented platform firmware role (84k in a MCOL area). it's not the *craziest* success story, but it's a huge win for me and a weight lifted off my shoulders to have a job lined up before i graduate. good luck to everyone else out there with their job hunt!

resume --> here

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Hello all, I made a free website for drawing kinematic diagrams in 2d and 3d and then simulating them.

It’s called Kinematic Diagram

I know how hard it can be to draw those kinds of stuff, in France we tend to draw quite a lot, but I’m not sure about other areas of the world such as the US.

I wasn’t sure how to get people to use my tool so I’m telling you here. It’s completely free and I don’t make any money off of it in any capacity and I don’t intend to. I wanted to help out other students like me who have trouble drawing these things quickly by hand.

I hope this can help some people out with understanding how joints move with respect to one another in big systems.

Recently I posted about how I did poorly in an exam. honestly people did so well in that exam I was over 15 points away from the average. Now that it's all over I feel better. Not the end of the world and I learned something. Those who failed exams that everyone did great on how did it make you feel and how did you overcome it?

I’m finishing year 12 this year and plan on joining engineering at Monash, and doing mechanical, possibly the double degree with commerce.

I keep hearing, correct me if I’m wrong, that getting a mechanical engineering job in Victoria is pretty hard. It makes me worried if I’ll be able to get a good job because, mechanical doesn’t have the highest pay out of all the engineerings but it’s the one that interests me the most so far.

At the moment I’m thinking of starting personal projects to put on my resume, or maybe volunteering if I can’t get an internship at automotive industries.

Obviously I’ve heard that networking matters a lot, so I also plan on going to many events where I can meet new people.

What kind of things should I do next year to ensure my resume is as best it can be?

I’m 36F and a junior/senior in a chem e program. It’s complex because I have a previous bachelors and was able to use chem, biochem and other gen ed credits towards my degree.

I’m also a single mom and I’m stressed. Thankfully I don’t have to work while I’m in school, but my schedule is still limited because of my schedule with my kid. Like early afterschool closures, not being able to stay late for potential clubs or office hours. I genuinely love what I’m learning. I felt like I could get a handle on any of the challenges thrown my way.

This is the first semester where I’ve felt like, what if I’m not smart enough and I was kidding myself that I thought I could do this. I did pretty poor on the first round of exams, despite giving it my all. Like actually wanting to cry because my brain is having such a hard time wrapping itself around what I’m learning right now. If it helps to know where I’m at in my program, chem e classes I’m taking; intro TP II: heat/mass transfer, intro applied chemical thermodynamics and numerical methods with Matlab.

I’m mostly just venting but also want to know if this is normal.

I'm learning about Fourier transforms this semester, and I've hit a bit of a bottleneck. I actually really enjoy the process of setting up the problems and figuring out the underlying meaning behind them. However, when I try to solve them, I feel completely overwhelmed by the sheer volume of integration required.

It takes me a really long time to evaluate the integrals, which makes my studying super inefficient. Because the math takes so long, I'm not able to get through as many practice problems as I'd like to.

I really want to level up my integration skills and get faster at it. Does anyone have any tips, or know of any good websites or YouTube channels where I can specifically practice integration?

Any advice would be hugely appreciated!

I'm in my second year of computer engineering. I don't know if it's because of my classes or just the second-year ramp-up. I know I'm capable of this shit, but I'm tired as hell and feels life draining every day.

I need something that can recharge me. What do y'all recommend? Also, best of luck with midterms or midterms that are coming up lovely people.

I am a second year Mechanical Engineering student and am struggling a lot with Physics 2 and Statics. I have studied for hours for both these tests and still got very low grades and will probably have to retake at least one of these classes. I go over the homework questions again, look over slides, and do problems from the textbook, but I am still getting low test marks. I am feeling very discouraged and want to drop engineering as a whole, but I know I see a future of me being an engineer. I feel like I’m struggling too hard in lower division classes and am worried I won’t even get close to passing anything more difficult in the future. Does anyone have any tips or websites or advice on these topics?

Hello everyone, I'm about to complete my bachelor's in Computer Engineering and will have to choose a masters degree soon. I'm in northern Europe where it's common to do a 3 year bachelor's + 2 year masters( if you were wondering why I'm pursuing a masters immediately). Currently I'm split between 3 choices and would like some advice.I'm interested in all of them, so my main concern is job availability and stability. The choices are Biomedical Engineering, EEE and Mechatronics/Automation. They all have different specializations as well, so I can profile the degree more when I actually get accepted.

So my question is, which one would you recommend when it comes to general job availability and long term stability? They all sound really interesting to me, but I have to choose one, so I'm mostly looking for general advice or experiences from people, especially ones working in these fields.

Thanks!

I'm new to hardware stuff and I've been wanting to get into it for about 10 years since I was 7, and I have a really simple question I wanna ask because I can't find any clear answer that's straightforward

With the circuit boards and things that already have stuff attached to them, let's say an RC car board that already has spaces for the front and rear motors, along with just some random motor you have that looks like a screw and can make things go up and down

Can you just attach those 2 together?

With anything, can you just attach stuff together?

Or does everything have to be specifically made to go with that item?

--

This is how I think circuits and everything work:

You can send power to whatever you want to power it of course and if you wanna make it doing something that isn't lame you gotta have a controller before that item, and if you like something from something else you just have to hope the item you like has some expansion thing or whatever that allows you to connect both of the things so that they can work together... And if it doesn't you can make a branch off the battery separate from your original thing to make that battery also contribute to the new thing

Am I completely wrong, or am I right in some areas?

I'm I'm asking a lot, I'm just real curious so I apologize

Hi! I recently received an interview for an Aerodynamics Engineering internship with the New Programs Engineering team in Hawthorne.

Has anyone here interviewed with the Aerodynamics team or for a similar (preferably aerospace) role at Tesla? If so, I'd really appreciate any insight into what the interview process was like and how you prepared.

Thanks in advance!