I'm completely fine with problem solving, which is actually what I want to do. I just find myself struggling with the ability to create unique designs myself. I enjoy the technical/mathematical side of things within engineering is what im trying to get at.
You'll never have to do it. In residential or any building really, the architect is the prime consultant. You're responsible for either the civil drawings, geotechnical report or structural drawings. You won't be tasked with creating unique designs from scratch. If you go into structural you might have to work with the architect and let them know what a disaster it would be structurally and from a construction point of view to make their slanted column a reality.
Yeah that's pretty much what I'm trying to go for. I feel like it can be related to just doing a physics problem, with an architect providing the details and basically the "givens" of a problem, and me trying ot figure out if it can all work. I know it's a kind of stupid analogy, but that's really what I want to pursue and see myself enjoying it.
You're overthinking it for sure. You won't be doing any physics problems outside of basic things like calculating areas to convert loads into forces for elements. You'll be a glorified excel spreadsheet master. Especially your first 8 years. You will see once you get to your later years that the design courses follow a set of codes and rules that serve as the basis for getting loads and sizing up elements. When you get to overly complex stuff, you will have PhDs and Master's students working with finite element software to ensure the sizing is appropriate for the stresses generated. Learn AutoCAD and other software like Revit really well and you will progress nicely in your career. You will end up as a CAD monkey or doing a lot of shop drawing reviews to ensure dimensions match your design your first 2-3 years.
Structural engineering may be right up your alley. Besides a couple years doing bridge work, I’ve either had architects for clients at worked directly with architects my whole career. I’ve always enjoyed it. Many engineers love to hate on architects, but I’ve always had good relationships with my architect clients and coworkers.
Structural is exactly what I wanted to go for! My sister is studying architecture, and my parents think we could make a great team and maybe start a company together. Transportation also interests me, but I know I can pursue either with my degree. I'm very exicted!
Yeah commented separately I’m a transpo, and I feel like to advance it is a lot of creativity(you rub into problems and have to backtrack in the design process, find an alternative path that may have a different end outcome, sell a bunch of people on exploring the alternate, and try and make it work. Structural is similar, but more math/standards based and less “how can we find an outside way to make this work”.
Yeah this situation always never works for me. I seem to just never be able to come up with outside out of the box solutions. For example when I practiced CS problems, I always wanted to pursue the brute-force solution no matter what, and never really thought about other solutions, although more efficient and better. I understand that I can't be like this all of the time, but I would much rather prefer to work on the math based standard and less on creative solutions as you've described.
That’s awesome! I fell in love with the idea of structural engineering when I took statics. It all just made sense to me. I don’t regret my choice at all.
Thats amazing to hear. I fell in love with all of this from my physics classes. I used to want to pursue CS, and I know about the better pay and all of that, but the problems I get to solve within CE just seem so much more fun in my opinion. I'm very excited to take my statics class in a year or so. Thanks so much for your insight!
That's exactly what I want to go for then! This is what I was assuming, but wanted to make a clarifying post to see others' opinions (especially those actually in the field)
Highly recommend bridge engineering, we don’t work with architects, we design the bridge itself, but it’s not design as in creative design, it’s more like finding a solution to a physics problem that has certain boundary conditions
Another one for the bridge world. Occasionally consult an architect for random things like dealing with historical society's but they rarely have much plan input beyond the form liner on the barriers.
They can get pretty involved with the signature bridge type projects (think golden gate sized, whatever that spider monstrosity they built in Florida etc.) But those are generally not the typical or frequent project.
Some civil engineers that specialize in large scale infrastructure rarely work on building sites or anything requiring artistic creativity. Problem solving creativity is a requirement for just about any AEC field however.
Yes if you focus on structural, you'll have plenty to work with architects. The structural engineers are the ones that figure out how to make to architect's design stand up.
I've been in civil engineering since 1998. The whole spectrum from water resources to commercial, apartments, schools, utilities, environmental...
Design creativity is not something you'll need.
I'll leave it to others to comment on other types of "creative thinking" or whatnot that may be important for any endeavor.
I hate to burst your bubble, but CE requires quite a bit of problem solving and creativity just to make the architects design work in real life.
I'm completely fine with problem solving, which is actually what I want to do. I just find myself struggling with the ability to create unique designs myself. I enjoy the technical/mathematical side of things within engineering is what im trying to get at.
You'll never have to do it. In residential or any building really, the architect is the prime consultant. You're responsible for either the civil drawings, geotechnical report or structural drawings. You won't be tasked with creating unique designs from scratch. If you go into structural you might have to work with the architect and let them know what a disaster it would be structurally and from a construction point of view to make their slanted column a reality.
Yeah that's pretty much what I'm trying to go for. I feel like it can be related to just doing a physics problem, with an architect providing the details and basically the "givens" of a problem, and me trying ot figure out if it can all work. I know it's a kind of stupid analogy, but that's really what I want to pursue and see myself enjoying it.
You're overthinking it for sure. You won't be doing any physics problems outside of basic things like calculating areas to convert loads into forces for elements. You'll be a glorified excel spreadsheet master. Especially your first 8 years. You will see once you get to your later years that the design courses follow a set of codes and rules that serve as the basis for getting loads and sizing up elements. When you get to overly complex stuff, you will have PhDs and Master's students working with finite element software to ensure the sizing is appropriate for the stresses generated. Learn AutoCAD and other software like Revit really well and you will progress nicely in your career. You will end up as a CAD monkey or doing a lot of shop drawing reviews to ensure dimensions match your design your first 2-3 years.
Structural engineering may be right up your alley. Besides a couple years doing bridge work, I’ve either had architects for clients at worked directly with architects my whole career. I’ve always enjoyed it. Many engineers love to hate on architects, but I’ve always had good relationships with my architect clients and coworkers.
Structural is exactly what I wanted to go for! My sister is studying architecture, and my parents think we could make a great team and maybe start a company together. Transportation also interests me, but I know I can pursue either with my degree. I'm very exicted!
Yeah commented separately I’m a transpo, and I feel like to advance it is a lot of creativity(you rub into problems and have to backtrack in the design process, find an alternative path that may have a different end outcome, sell a bunch of people on exploring the alternate, and try and make it work. Structural is similar, but more math/standards based and less “how can we find an outside way to make this work”.
Yeah this situation always never works for me. I seem to just never be able to come up with outside out of the box solutions. For example when I practiced CS problems, I always wanted to pursue the brute-force solution no matter what, and never really thought about other solutions, although more efficient and better. I understand that I can't be like this all of the time, but I would much rather prefer to work on the math based standard and less on creative solutions as you've described.
That’s awesome! I fell in love with the idea of structural engineering when I took statics. It all just made sense to me. I don’t regret my choice at all.
Thats amazing to hear. I fell in love with all of this from my physics classes. I used to want to pursue CS, and I know about the better pay and all of that, but the problems I get to solve within CE just seem so much more fun in my opinion. I'm very excited to take my statics class in a year or so. Thanks so much for your insight!
This is exactly what structural engineering is.
That's exactly what I want to go for then! This is what I was assuming, but wanted to make a clarifying post to see others' opinions (especially those actually in the field)
Go into structural engineering, the more detailed the better, look for curtain wall design firms, or product/manufacturing/precasting design
Highly recommend bridge engineering, we don’t work with architects, we design the bridge itself, but it’s not design as in creative design, it’s more like finding a solution to a physics problem that has certain boundary conditions
Another one for the bridge world. Occasionally consult an architect for random things like dealing with historical society's but they rarely have much plan input beyond the form liner on the barriers. They can get pretty involved with the signature bridge type projects (think golden gate sized, whatever that spider monstrosity they built in Florida etc.) But those are generally not the typical or frequent project.
Some civil engineers that specialize in large scale infrastructure rarely work on building sites or anything requiring artistic creativity. Problem solving creativity is a requirement for just about any AEC field however.
Yes if you focus on structural, you'll have plenty to work with architects. The structural engineers are the ones that figure out how to make to architect's design stand up.
I've been in civil engineering since 1998. The whole spectrum from water resources to commercial, apartments, schools, utilities, environmental... Design creativity is not something you'll need. I'll leave it to others to comment on other types of "creative thinking" or whatnot that may be important for any endeavor.