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The Leading Edge Of Science: Engineering Degrees

Engineering covers a multitude of career options and skill levels. If you've chosen to explore training in Automotive and/or Aeronautical Engineering, it's likely you're looking for a technical challenge and an exciting career. Great Britain is renowned for its aeronautical engineering excellence, and its aerospace industry turns over many billions of pounds every year. In addition, the auto industry also has a global influence, not least from a design and development point of view.

Quality Training

There are many internationally recognised British university degree courses that train students to a very high level in both auto and aero engineering. Also more advanced PhD courses are offered on some campuses.

(Shorter courses are available from local technical institutions as well.) BEng and MEng courses at university usually follow the same structure for the first two years, and then take on a different format for the final year or two.

Sandwich courses can also be available on certain training programmes. The Armed Forces and certain private companies will sponsor students to qualify in both of these disciplines, in exchange for an agreed period of working time. Whatever your circumstances and ambitions, look into as many training alternatives as possible.

Automotive Engineering

Automotive engineering has come a long way in the last hundred years. Auto engineers need to have knowledge of several other engineering principles - primarily mechanical engineering. Things are changing all the time and modern engineers need to lead those changes, for example to produce greater efficiencies in materials and emissions.

We can split auto engineering into product or design engineering, development engineering and manufacturing engineering. Designers are not only responsible for the automotive design, but also for testing each component part. Development engineers are concerned with the attributes or qualities of the complete vehicle. These people often provide information to design engineers to regulate performance etc. With all the design and development work complete, the manufacturing engineers have to build the vehicle.

There are a great deal of product disciplines for the auto engineering student to take on board. Modules will cover all aspects of design, development and manufacture - and use examples to illustrate principles such as fluid mechanics.

One of the most crucial areas of auto engineering is safety engineering. All aspects of a vehicle are stringently tested in both partial and full vehicle crashes and simulations.

All components have to function well for the job they're designed to do, but they also have to work synergistically with the whole vehicle. Thus students will be taken through aspects of development or systems engineering. This area also covers trade-offs - such as learning how to achieve performance whilst maintaining fuel economy. Development engineers ultimately have to be sure that everything on the completed vehicle not only meets the manufacturers spec, but is also compliant with the latest regulations.

The manufacturing process takes over once all the design and development work has been done. This is where it all comes together, and so every last detail has to be planned and engineered. This complex discipline is sometimes regarded as the most esteemed area of automotive engineering.

Aero Engineering

Aero engineering is all about turning ideas into reality by applying scientific principles to produce sophisticated flight products. Students who train as aeronautical engineers would be preparing themselves for a career in the aerospace industry -a most interesting industry at the forefront of science and technological developments. You might also be interested to know that the development and design of a Formula One racing car uses aerospace technology!

Atmospheric pressure and temperature changes place huge stresses on aircraft during flights. Consequently the building of an aircraft will take many engineering disciplines and aeronautical engineers will all deal in specialist technologies.

Degree courses will cover design, systems (such as landing gear), flight mechanics, forces, materials, performance and stability. A thorough treatment of analytical subjects will be included. Analytical methods will be developed which allow aeronautical engineers to design and analyse aircraft. Computational fluid dynamics is used to simulate the behaviour of fluid today, which reduces wind-tunnel testing time and expense. (However students will still carry out experiments using jet engines, large structural testing machines and wind tunnels).

Applying yourself to practical applications is an important engineering principle. Whichever programme you choose to follow, as a student engineer you will be involved with a major group design project at some time throughout your training. Undergraduate engineering training programmes also provide other useful skill-sets for their students. These could include time management, teamwork, organisational techniques, leadership and foreign languages.

Aeronautical and automotive engineers are at the forefront of technological advances, and can make a valuable contribution to society. To apply for professional status following graduation, engineers should contact the Engineering Council - a national body that promotes and advances the science and practice of engineering.