Mechanical vs Bio-medical

john62

Hello,

I have to make a decision between studying either mechanical or bio-medical next year in college and I am just wondering if anyone could give me a general overview of both or what a future career would be like after studying either.

Thanks.

Celly Smunt

I'd usually recommend a foundation in mechanical and continuing on with a specialist subject such as Bio-medical,but then again bio-medical is the new and upcoming thing along with mechatronics apparently.

enda1

Clearly mechanical as a grounding.
Fundamental degrees are more powerful than specialised.

Feel free to do an MSc afterwards of course.

longhalloween

Is there any online resources to do with learning about medical engineering? Im doing elec engineering and I need something to do over the summer.

Darren1o1

pmcmahon wrote: »

I'd usually recommend a foundation in mechanical and continuing on with a specialist subject such as Bio-medical,but then again bio-medical is the new and upcoming thing along with mechatronics apparently.

I did it the opposite i guess. I would suggest going into a common course, learning more about what you like and deciding. It is hard to say which way you would want to go without exposure.

Vitamin T

longhalloween wrote: »

Is there any online resources to do with learning about medical engineering? Im doing elec engineering and I need something to do over the summer.

You can try this (http://oyc.yale.edu/biomedical-engineering/beng-100) if you can't find anything else. Might be useful to you.

starWave

The courses are usually generally the same with a few specialist courses, so it's easy to change after you graduate, either with a postgraduate course or a job.

It's probably easier to switch from mechanical to biomed than the other way around, or easier to switch from mechanical to anything else, than switching from biomedical.

That's my politically correct recommendation. My unpolitically correct controversial opinion is that biomed is just an advertising gloss put on the mechanical course to attract more people cos its a buzzword and attracts medically orientated people who may not have gone for straight forward mechanical engineering. And biomed engineering is not as glamourous in reality unless you are in research. And you could get into that research just as easy with a mechanical course. But that's just my biased opinion.

Darren1o1

starWave wrote: »

That's my politically correct recommendation. My unpolitically correct controversial opinion is that biomed is just an advertising gloss put on the mechanical course to attract more people cos its a buzzword and attracts medically orientated people who may not have gone for straight forward mechanical engineering. And biomed engineering is not as glamourous in reality unless you are in research. And you could get into that research just as easy with a mechanical course. But that's just my biased opinion.

I would agree to disagree. coming from both the biomed and mech background I can attest at undergrad (at least in DCU) while first year is common, we spent more time in separate specialist (Biology, biochem, Biokinectics, surgical device design etc) courses than in general mechanical courses in the final years. I am in design and development in the med device industry in the US and it has helped tremendously.

john62

john62 wrote: »

.............

I have to make a decision between studying either mechanical or bio-medical .......................what a future career would be like after studying either.

..............

I'd study whatever you reckon appeals to you more.

For a start a general overview of both is easily gotten from a variety of third level web sites so I'm not going to speel on about that.

A degree won't pigeon hole you, your career doesn't have to be defined by your choice of college course. If you are more interested in traditional mech eng theory etc than I'd encourage you to go that route, as mentioned there is an awful lot of stuff in the bio-med courses not covered in mech eng courses. Obviously the reverse also applies.

I know many people with mech eng degrees working in the medical device industry that would have had little to no interest in doing a bio med course.

Similarly I know many people with bio med qualifications working in med devices that would have had no interest in doing mech eng at college.

Personally I have worked in the med device industry (in quite a few companies) and had no interest in studying either at college

dh0011

OP if you are thinking about the two courses in UL they are both the same at the start. You can start one and swap during your studies.

mawk

Yeah, I did mech and went to work In med devices for a few years, now I'm working in specialist electronics. Particular degrees definitely don't pigeon hole you if you are interested in continuing to learn new tricks.

Good jobs train and support you anyway so don't worry.

Ime the biggest difference with mech and bio is having to learn regulations vs getting workshop experience.

Personally I think all engineers need to know tool/machine/process abilities and limitations to be able to design or specify anything but thats just my opinion. Which to me seemed like a deficiency in bio med.

valerossi

If atal possible do a common entry but it can be more challenging as oppose too say h/c in mechanical and branching out after, also look at renewable it really is the direction things are going. I studied mechanical and manufacturing and it is relatively straight forward course once you find a good balance between social life and study which is not easy, as regards working most work in Ireland for mechanical engineers is related to design, saying that i don't work as an engineer now i find myself working as a chief rough neck on rigs or concrete work on turbines off shore because my heart was with the more practical side of it really not the hours and hours of design just so someone could take a pen to it and change components at the last second, sorry little grudge against an old boss.

mossy2390

i would say go for Mechanical, i am just finished myself and have a job with a large multinational medical device company, yet i had not interest in studying biomedical.

I was in a lot of classes in college with biomeds and i am good friends with them, they all regret not doing Mechanical purely because of the jobs front. Out of 25 in my class 15 have jobs and we only finished 2 weeks ago, out of the Biomeds 25 only around 3 have jobs and the rest are struggling to get any feedback. One of the bios that got a job is even in a pharma plant (he did have previous experience working in the plant so without this i would be unsure if he had got it).

At the end of the day Mechanical will set you up to work in a wide variety of jobs in different sectors (pharam, medical, food, oil, manufacturing, design etc) whereas biomedical is limiting your options to the medical industry.

bradyle

Trinity's Engineering is undenominated for the 1st 2 years (study civil, elec, mech, bio and comp) then in year 3 you can choose which to specialise in. Could be a good way to go if you're unsure which you would like to do.

Other colleges probably do this too but I only really know about Trinity.

I do think stick with mech to start and then specialise. I went to Trinity first thinking I'd do electronics after the undenominated...quickly realised I have zero aptitude and mech was more my thing. I loved Biology in school so when I heard about the Bio Eng stuff I decided this was the way for me. I was there before Bio was a separate stream so I still chose mech but I picked my thesis in Bio as well as doing all the related subjects. Hated it! Just wasn't for me at all!

So really what I'm trying to say is you might think you'll love something and definitely want to work in it but it really is good to give yourself options because you never know what you will like till you start doing it!