Industrial or Mechanical Engineering?

[Chris Darwin]

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I've been trying a career change
to Engineering Drafter/Technician and having trouble getting a foot in
the door. I have the skill set just not on paper, so looking at an
Associates degree. There are two online degrees available, Industrial
Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. Sort of wondering what are the
basic differences between them, and trying to make a decision which one
I should take.

a
couple of the places in the area that have been hiring and that I'm
interested in are Boeing and a tunnel boring machine company

here's links to the credit descriptions

Mechanical

http://www.pennfostercollege.edu/mecheng/ProgramOutline.html

Industrial

[url]http://www.pennfostercollege.edu/industreng/ProgramOutline.h tml[/url]

Don't know if this is the correct forum for this topic....
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[dicksham]

if you are interested in Mechanical design and strong in physics & mathematics, i suggest you take Mechanical Engineering.


Mechanical engineering is hard, industrial engineering is soft.


To make a blender, as an example, mechanical graduates are responsible for


- mechanical structure (material selection, fitting & mounting, safety clearance...)


- fan design for cooling (fluid mechanics/ flow & some thermal analysis)


- noise control (sound/acoustics)


- packing design(dynamics/ drop test)


but industrial graduates are mainly responsible for logistics, production planning, project management, cost controls....


Since ME need many complicated equations& mathematics to explain & predict those "GOD" -made phenomena, like heat, fluid flow, sound & mechanics, it is not an easy subject.

 

[jimshaw]

Chris,


One way to look at it, from a design standpoint, is Mechanical Engineers are typically responsible for the function, and Industrial Engineers are typically responsible for the form (among many other things of course).


I think it is a safe assumption to say that ME's use much more math/physics on a daily basis then IE's. My experience is that we also like to get our hands a little dirtier - such as working directly with testing, fabricating and production.


Good luck!


Jim