Thread: A New Engineering student!!!

Hello there ,

I'm Neamah from dhibouti 18 years old...I'm a student at Qatar University ,in college of engineering.Actuallt I just finished the peparation year and I'm going to start my major which is chemical engineering next semester. I want to know more about this major and make sure that that was a good choise . I like math and chemistry and that's why i chose the chemical engineering. Iwent to the head of the department many times and I did ask them about it but I didn't find the right answers for my Questions. This course i started taking Calculus 1 , Engineering Methods and Ethics ,Computer programming , General Chemistry and it's lab. Until now I'm happy with them but also I know that it's just the beginning . Besides, the studying here is in English with a high academic language and I'm a second english speaker . I tried to improve my language and still . hope you could help me . If anyone here know anything about this major , useful webs or books ,hope to tell me and i will be thankful. waiting for rplying.....

see u

Neamah

wowza, calm down on the writng, other than that, have a nice stay...

yes, small is beautiful ...

Well, I'm in the same situation right now. I'm going to University of Nottingham in Malaysia in September. I managed to spent the last months keeping myself busy. But now, I really need something to "wake" the student inside me.

Any web sites to recommend for this poor guy about to step into Chemical Engineering?

Btw, I also had Chemical Engineering with Environment as choice. I didnt choose it. Would it be good to "specialise" since the start?

Thanks!

Take care,
Ieshwar

Many fields of engineering are highly regulated by local laws and subject to high barriers of entry. E.g. if one wants to be a nuclear engineer, one will have trouble finding training, and then one might well have trouble finding work. By contrast, if one wants to be a software engineer, one might be able to work without even having a degree.

Should one specialize from the start?

Start by getting some training and lab experience. If you're young, just learn as much as possible.

I'm a former software engineer, re-training as an industrial engineer. I do have to specialize, based on the availability of professional opportunities. However, I have work experience and I can gather info on such things more easily than I can explain them.

If you're starting your first degree, focus on technical excellence, worry about job prospects in a year or two when you're sure you can pass all the tests.

As for professional development as an engineer -- that's a separate issue, and it varies widely from specialty to specialty.

Edit:
Chemical engineers are often sought after by petrochemical corporations, but chemical engineering is useful to many, many fields.

Also be aware that often times young engineers fresh from graduation will be quickly hired, worked very intensively for high pay, and then laid off. It can be easy to think that one has job security when in fact one just has high pay with no real job security.

Also be aware that often times young engineers fresh from graduation will be quickly hired, worked very intensively for high pay, and then laid off. It can be easy to think that one has job security when in fact one just has high pay with no real job security.

Yeah, that's true. But what about contract? Don't they make contract?

Thanks

Ieshwar

Welcome Neamah,

Why the MASSIVE font??

Job prospects for chemical engineers are excellent now, thanks to high energy prices, investment in refinery upgrades and expansions, development of alternative fuels (gas to liquids - huge in Qatar - google Oryx GTL), work on CO2 sequestration etc., and a shortage of engineers worldwide. Things can change rapidly, as they did in the 1980s when chem eng went from boom to bust, but I can't see that happening in the near future.

As an entry level engineer in an engineering firm you would most likely be put to work doing heat and mass balances and running process simulators like Hysys to model and optimize a chemical process before it is designed in detail. If you joined an oil company you'd more likely be working as an operator, operating a unit within a refinery (under close supervision of course).

ChE Forums is a good place to see what practicing chemical engineers are working on and talking about.

http://www.cheresources.com/invision...ion/index.php/

http://www.aspentech.com/products/aspen-hysys.cfm

Good luck.