Mechanical Engineering

Gulfstream757

Hi,

I'm doing the LC at the moment and the main course I'm considering is engineering in UCD, I just wanted to know what students think of the course facilities etc. I also wanted to know how it is decided as to who gets what specialty in 2nd year as you can see I think I would like to do mechanical engineering.

Also would the subjects that I'm doing at the moment, applied maths, physics and engineering be helpful for the course? Obviously I'm not going to change them now but would be interested.

Thanks very much in advance,
Gulf757

kilrush

Hey GS,

Im a final year chemical engineering student and I think its a great course. We are kind of spoilt as chem is the smallest school and I think we probably get taken care of a little bit more than the rest because of it but I still think the general facilities are great.

The way it worked for us (and I'm 95% sure the way it still works) was that during the middle of second semester first year you have to choose which stream you want to go into. Then as long as you pass everything/get through to stage two you are in that stream. They don't say you have to get an A in the chemistry modules to do chemical or anything like that, if you want to do mech you can do mech!

I'm not sure about leaving cert engineering as I didn't do it in school but Physics and applied maths will definitely help you out in first year anyhow. (again I don't know how much it helps the different streams after that!) Mechanics and Physics were the two hardest subjects in first year and definitely having applied maths gave me the bit of a head start in mechanics that I needed to get through it and physics is thought from first principles so having the basics from leaving cert is a plus too.

To be honest as long as you kind of like the maths and physics side of things there is nothing you need coming from the leaving cert that you won't be told at some point in lectures anyway so I wouldn't be worried about what subjects you are doing too much as long as you like them!

I'm kind of realising im ranting and waffling here but it is study week so this almost counts as a productive form of procrastination. If you want to know anything else just ask.

kilrush

Gulfstream757

kilrush wrote: »

Hey GS,

Im a final year chemical engineering student and I think its a great course. We are kind of spoilt as chem is the smallest school and I think we probably get taken care of a little bit more than the rest because of it but I still think the general facilities are great.

The way it worked for us (and I'm 95% sure the way it still works) was that during the middle of second semester first year you have to choose which stream you want to go into. Then as long as you pass everything/get through to stage two you are in that stream. They don't say you have to get an A in the chemistry modules to do chemical or anything like that, if you want to do mech you can do mech!

I'm not sure about leaving cert engineering as I didn't do it in school but Physics and applied maths will definitely help you out in first year anyhow. (again I don't know how much it helps the different streams after that!) Mechanics and Physics were the two hardest subjects in first year and definitely having applied maths gave me the bit of a head start in mechanics that I needed to get through it and physics is thought from first principles so having the basics from leaving cert is a plus too.

To be honest as long as you kind of like the maths and physics side of things there is nothing you need coming from the leaving cert that you won't be told at some point in lectures anyway so I wouldn't be worried about what subjects you are doing too much as long as you like them!

I'm kind of realising im ranting and waffling here but it is study week so this almost counts as a productive form of procrastination. If you want to know anything else just ask.

kilrush

Hi Kilrush,

Thanks so much for your great answer!! I really appreciate it.
I was also wondering what are the hours/timetable like week to week? I've heard that engineering is one of the most time consuming courses?

Thanks very much in advance!

kilrush

Gulfstream757 wrote: »

Hi Kilrush,

Thanks so much for your great answer!! I really appreciate it.
I was also wondering what are the hours/timetable like week to week? I've heard that engineering is one of the most time consuming courses?

Thanks very much in advance!

The timetable can be tough alright, it can be close to 30 hours a week lectures/labs/tutorials. That's about the same for any of the professional courses though and while in law or arts don't have as many contact hours they make up for it in essay writing and reading random law cases people barely cared about when they were current 50 years ago. (I'm sure that's really interesting to people if you like that sort of thing)

It does get lighter as you move up through the years but of course you probably do replace those hours in the library.

I'm not trying to put you off it can be great and you are with the same people all the time so some amazing friendships can be built up with students and lecturers but it is a lot of hours

Andru93

Gulfstream757 wrote: »

Hi,

I'm doing the LC at the moment and the main course I'm considering is engineering in UCD, I just wanted to know what students think of the course facilities etc. I also wanted to know how it is decided as to who gets what specialty in 2nd year as you can see I think I would like to do mechanical engineering.

Also would the subjects that I'm doing at the moment, applied maths, physics and engineering be helpful for the course? Obviously I'm not going to change them now but would be interested.

Thanks very much in advance,
Gulf757

Just adding onto what Master Kilrush said, I also a Chem though I'm on internship instead of being in fourth year.

Engineering in LC is a little bit different to what you will be doing in college. Their is a major focus on the two practicals in LC (something like 50% from what I remember). There will still be some projects you will do in college whether it be building a bridge with a high load to mass ratio or build a self propelling vehicle to go 5m in 10s and be as light as possible.

There will be more focus on the theory than anything such as structure forces such as tensile / compressive forces along with other material properties such as ductility, conductivity etc. Other areas you study are in the electrical side of engineering, design of plants / systems, and Materials Sciences.


As for hours every course is different. In Engineering we've about 25-30 hours per week and a few assignments nothing to major!

kilrush wrote: »

I'm not trying to put you off it can be great and you are with the same people all the time so some amazing friendships can be built up with students and lecturers but it is a lot of hours

Your struck with all the first year engineers throughout first year as 9 out of your 12 modules everyone has to do, so it is very easy to make friends as all you've to do is say 'Hello'

Gulfstream757

Andru93 wrote: »

Just adding onto what Master Kilrush said, I also a Chem though I'm on internship instead of being in fourth year.

Engineering in LC is a little bit different to what you will be doing in college. Their is a major focus on the two practicals in LC (something like 50% from what I remember). There will still be some projects you will do in college whether it be building a bridge with a high load to mass ratio or build a self propelling vehicle to go 5m in 10s and be as light as possible.

There will be more focus on the theory than anything such as structure forces such as tensile / compressive forces along with other material properties such as ductility, conductivity etc. Other areas you study are in the electrical side of engineering, design of plants / systems, and Materials Sciences.


As for hours every course is different. In Engineering we've about 25-30 hours per week and a few assignments nothing to major!



Your struck with all the first year engineers throughout first year as 9 out of your 12 modules everyone has to do, so it is very easy to make friends as all you've to do is say 'Hello'

Thanks Andru!
Could I ask what exactly are the times on the timetable day to day e.g 9am-5pm or how long is each class block? Is there anywhere I could see a sample timetable?
Sorry if this is a stupid question I'd just like to get as much information as possible.

Thanks very much,
GS

Andru93

Gulfstream757 wrote: »

Thanks Andru!
Could I ask what exactly are the times on the timetable day to day e.g 9am-5pm or how long is each class block? Is there anywhere I could see a sample timetable?
Sorry if this is a stupid question I'd just like to get as much information as possible.

Thanks very much,
GS

Unfortunately I'm still a little bit new to post links.

Normally schedule for first year engineer for first semester
Monday 9am to 11am, 2pm to 4pm
Tuesday 9am to 1pm, 2pm to 3pm
Wednesday 9am to 1pm, 2pm to 6pm
Thursday 9am to 10am, 11am to 1pm, 2pm to 3pm
Friday 9am to 11pm, 2pm to 3pm

That is a very rough schedule, every year module times differ so can't take this for granted also it has been nearly 4 years since I've done it so things may have changed in the that time.

Gulfstream757

Andru93 wrote: »

Unfortunately I'm still a little bit new to post links.

Normally schedule for first year engineer for first semester
Monday 9am to 11am, 2pm to 4pm
Tuesday 9am to 1pm, 2pm to 3pm
Wednesday 9am to 1pm, 2pm to 6pm
Thursday 9am to 10am, 11am to 1pm, 2pm to 3pm
Friday 9am to 11pm, 2pm to 3pm

That is a very rough schedule, every year module times differ so can't take this for granted also it has been nearly 4 years since I've done it so things may have changed in the that time.

Thanks very much Andru, is there any other advice you would give if you were doing the course again?

Andru93

Gulfstream757 wrote: »

Thanks very much Andru, is there any other advice you would give if you were doing the course again?

Nothing comes to mine at the moment. All I can say is go to the different college open days.