Career change to Control Engineering
Career change to Control Engineering
(OP)
I have an BS and MS in mathematics and my thesis involved a lot of control theory. I have decided I want to change my career to control engineering. I got accepted to a Masters program called Measurement and Control Engineering at ISU. I'm wondering though if it is necessary to get this degree, or if there is a quicker or cheaper path than getting another college degree?





RE: Career change to Control Engineering
Their curriculum is heavily oriented toward control theory, and knowledge of control theory is simply not enough to become a good controls engineer. It only helps you develop the control algorithm for a particular process, but that's just one small part of what makes up a control system. You should know the fundamentals of motion, energy, and mass transport, because that's what you're really controlling and manipulating as a controls engineer. It also helps you develop models of systems so you can design controller algorithms. I can't tell you how many times I've relied on this knowledge. This means study of chemistry, physics, dynamics, kinematics, thermodynamics, fluid flow, heat transfer, etc. If you don't have a strong background in these topics, you may want to do some postbaccalaureate work in engineering fundamentals first. You need to learn controller hardware platforms (from custom embedded to commercial off-the-shelf), programming, digital signal processing and digital control systems, industrial networking and network security, sensors and actuators, human factors engineering for interface development, etc. I omitted the math courses I'd recommend since you have math degrees, but the calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra are important to control theory. Finally, you should also learn engineering design: drawings, specifications, codes and standards, engineering economics, project management, etc. Honestly, I think you'd be better off taking undergraduate core engineering courses for the same amount of time and earning a second BS in engineering. I don't know if there is a cheaper or better path.
xnuke
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RE: Career change to Control Engineering
RE: Career change to Control Engineering
Additionally, one has to wonder whether the person getting all these degrees is more interested in academic matters than in getting business matters going.
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RE: Career change to Control Engineering
RE: Career change to Control Engineering