Computer Science



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What is Engineering?

The word itself comes from the Latin ingenerare, to create. Engineers turn ideas into reality. They are problem solvers...people who make things work better, more efficiently, quicker and less expensively. They work to make the world a better place everyday and for everyone. Without engineers, we would still be riding horses to work and school; we would read by candlelight; we would be missing the cool “toys” we have today.

Benefits Of Being an Engineer

Engineering provides a diverse field of study with challenging work right on the cutting edge of technology. It is a terminating degree that can be obtained through a four-year or two-year accredited institution. Engineers are huge contributors to society because they improve the standard of living for all. The engineering profession provides many additional perks such as flexibility in hours with options to telecommute. Lastly, engineers are in high demand offering them more job options and often better salaries or benefits.

The Diverse Field of Engineering*

Computer Science

Computer scientists include the wide range computer professionals who generally design computers and the software that runs them, develop information technologies, and develop and adapt principles for applying computers to new uses. Computer scientists are distinguished from other computer professionals by the higher level of theoretical expertise and innovation they apply to complex problems and the creation or application of new technology.

As a computer scientist or engineer, you may:

• Work as a theorist or researcher at a university creating new programming languages, developing uses of robotics, as well as many other things.

• Design, develop, test, and supervise the manufacture of computer hardware-for example, chips or device controllers.

• Use knowledge and skills to solve computer problems and enable computer technology to meet the individual needs of a corporation or the government.

• Design software for the general public such as applications for personal computers and video games.

Agricultural Engineering

As an agricultural engineer, you will create new technology for agricultural systems, materials and products that will help provide high-quality and affordable food and fiber for the world's billions. Every aspect of food production, processing, marketing, and distribution can benefit from your expertise.

As an agricultural engineer, you may...

• Design and develop new water systems to optimize crop production throughout the world while protecting scarce natural resources.

• Devise electronic instruments and methods for testing quality and safety of food and fiber products and their packaging.

• Lead teams in developing machines that work in various environments around the world to optimize the production of food, fiber and biological products.

• Design reliable systems of waste treatment and utilization and insect control for production systems where environmental lapses could endanger food supply.

Electrical Engineering

Electrical engineering, the largest of the engineering fields, is a broad, diverse profession. Electrical engineers work in most industries, including the computer, telecommunications, power, aerospace, manufacturing, defense, and electronics industries. They design high-tech devices ranging from tiny microelectronic chips to powerful computers that utilize these chips to efficient telecommunication networks that interconnect these computers. They operate a wide array of complex technological systems, such as huge power generation and distribution systems and modern computer-controlled manufacturing plants. They also are involved in sales, marketing, testing, quality control, and research. After additional training, they contribute in other professions, such as education, medicine, and law.

As an electrical engineer, you may:

• Design, build, and analyze electronic circuits for use in audio amplifiers, digital audio components, and filters.

• Learn to model, analyze, and design electrical power systems, including generators, transmission and distribution systems, and electric machines.

• Examine the propagation of electromagnetic waves, antennas, and radio frequency circuits.

• Design and analyze digital logic systems such as micro-controllers, microprocessors, and random access memories (RAM).

• Learn how to design automatic feedback control systems, such as found in chemical processing plants, automobiles and airplanes.

• Study how to extract information from digital images and noisy signals using computers, used in video imaging and communication links.

• Learn how to analyze and design modern communication systems such as computer modems, cellular telephones, and satellite communication links.

Optical Engineering

As an optical engineer, you will have the opportunity to combine optical theory, which deals with the properties of light, with engineering in the actual design and development of devices, measurement systems and manufacturing processes. You may be designing improvements in light detectors used in fiber optics communications, holograms that store 100,000 fingerprints on a fingernail-sized CD-ROM for criminal justice, a zoom optical lens for a snapshot camera, or a laser that scans blood samples to measure the hemoglobin properties in a microsecond. Many of the latest advances in computers, microelectronics, and measurement science will depend on your knowledge of optical principles.

As an optical engineer, you may:

• Analyze new materials as an optical research engineer to improve the capacity of optical memories like CD-ROMs, quick-switch optical coatings that block polarizing sun glare, and diamond-like hardened coatings for plexiglass aircraft windows.

• Work as an optical systems engineer with other teams of engineers from different fields (mechanical, electrical, chemical, etc.). Design, build and test optical instruments that monitor physical and chemical changes in objects.

• Develop miniature video cameras as an optical device engineer for high-altitude, remotely piloted vehicles that record multiple terrain features like the LANDSAT and SPOT satellites.

Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical engineers create machines to work for humankind. In a concrete way, mechanical engineering touches every aspect of life on our planet. Mechanical engineers design or work with computers, machines, power systems, factory production lines or vehicles for sea, land, air and space. The use of power is central: harnessing energy to work for all of us will be your fundamental activity.

As a mechanical engineer, you may:

• Work with computer software to design and develop new machinery, or use powerful super-computers to study the aerodynamics of the autos of tomorrow.

• Analyze the performance of a host of machines and devices—gas turbines, control devices, jet engines, and power plants—and develop more efficient ways to keep them running smoothly.

• Design a new rocket engine for the sub-zero cold of space, or a microprobe to dissect a single-nerve cell under a microscope.

• Create an intelligent automotive suspension system that does away with shock absorbers, replacing them with onboard computers, acceleration sensors, and hydraulic actuators that raise wheel struts in response to changing road conditions.

• Manufacture an ultrasonic device that deters whales, dolphins and seals from swimming into fishing nets.

Civil Engineering

As a civil engineer, you will find yourself working in many diverse areas. Civil engineers design and build solutions to ensure the future. The civil engineer designs roads, bridges, irrigation systems, water treatment plants, transit systems, and airports.

Civil engineering uses the latest concepts in technology to plan new communities, space satellites, and even toys and athletic equipment. Civil engineering works with many other occupations to make everyday life easier.

As a civil engineer, you may:

• Design tunnels such as the Channel Tunnel—or "Chunnel"—linking Britain and France. At 38 kilometers underwater it is the longest undersea tunnel ever built.

• Help create the world’s tallest building.

• Help clean up local harbors and restore the water quality of an area with new wastewater treatment plants.

• Meet increasing energy needs with computer controlled mirrors that provide solar power for electricity.

• Create a 3-D computer model of a new highway to preview how it will appear to the drivers.

Audio Engineering

Most people take the sounds we hear every day for granted. But it may surprise you to learn that the creation of audio is a unique endeavor that blends both art and science. Did you ever stop to think how they created the sounds in a video game, or in a movie, TV show or at a concert? There are literally thousands of different jobs available in this field that are as rewarding as they are challenging.

As an audio engineer, you may:

• Work at a digital audio workstation and program sounds to make hit CDs of your favorite artist;

• Edit sound cues in a film postproduction studio;

• Perform groundbreaking research on computational acoustics, environmental acoustics and hydro-acoustics;

• Use images produces by sound waves to probe the human body and test materials for industry.

Aerospace Engineering

We are immersed in the space age. It’s hard to imagine that the Wright brothers did their pioneering flight experiments at Kitty Hawk within the same century. Today's airplanes carry millions of passengers; the Space Shuttle orbiter and the hundreds of "workhorse" satellites now orbit the Earth. These achievements and many more in the future belong to you as an aeronautical and astronautical engineer.

As an aerospace engineer, you may:

• Devise a jet engine that has a steerable exhaust system, giving planes better maneuverability and radically reducing their takeoff and landing distances;

• Help physicians understand what happens to the fluid mechanics of blood circulation under conditions of weightlessness in space flight;

• Help design space missions;

• Study the dynamic loads imposed on aircraft and spacecraft parts during takeoff;

• Help design computer programs to collect and analyze data from wind-tunnel

• Tests of aerodynamics and turbulence;

• Help select engine materials that can stand extreme temperatures;

• Find solutions to reduce the harmful effects of engine noise or sonic booms on the environment;

• Improve aircraft instrument landing systems.

Chemical Engineering

Chemical engineers are constantly being asked to put their creativity to use to synthesize new materials, transform combinations of elements of matter, and develop the processes to do it all safely, efficiently, and on a large scale. Chemical engineers process and package many of the foods we eat, help power our cars and heat our homes, and develop new materials from garbage. The continued demand for new products, and for more economical processes to improve older products, can make for an exciting, dynamic future for chemical engineers.

As a chemical engineer, you may:

• Help ease world hunger by designing better ways to produce food, and environmentally safer pesticides and fertilizers.

• Ensure the quality of water and air by developing cleaner manufacturing processes;

• Create cleaner fuels to power cars and other vehicles.

• Find safer ways to dispose of municipal and industrial wastes.

• Streamline industrial processes to produce life-saving drugs, antibiotics, and vaccines more efficiently and at less cost.

• Find ways to use our limited petroleum reserves.

Biological Engineering

Biological engineers control living systems through engineering and keep desirable biological systems alive while terminating the growth of others, frequently at the same time! Biological engineers sustain ecological systems so that the long-term quality of human life improves. Thus, biological engineering impacts everyone.

As a biological engineer, you may:

• Create more healthful living environments for people, animals, or plants.

• Develop sensors that ensure the safety, desirable texture, and nutrient content of processed foods.

• Invent and test fermentation technologies that convert waste materials to usable energy.

• Develop and test systems for cleanup of water and soil contaminated by toxic wastes.

• Develop ways to avoid repetitive movements that cause worker injury.

Industrial Engineering

Industrial engineers deal with people as well as things. They look at the "big picture" of what makes a system perform best—the right combination of human resources, natural resources, and man-made structures and equipment.

As an industrial engineer, you may:

• Participate in the long-range planning and facility design for a major transportation company.

• Design the admissions procedure at a hospital or health institution.

• Discover a new way to assemble a product that will prevent worker injury.

• Train workers how to operate new equipment.

• Use software programs to analyze equipment maintenance requirements.

• Write proposals to justify the purchase of new equipment for a manufacturing facility.

Materials Engineering

Materials engineering is the study of how materials behave and can be combined to perform in predictable ways that improve your quality of life; from meeting basic needs to fulfilling your dreams. Materials engineers work with metals, ceramics, plastics, and composites and believe that everything can be improved if the right material is used.

A materials engineer may:

• Help manufacturers determine the best materials option for a component;

• Develop new and improved processes for producing materials;

• Adapt and apply a material for a specific use; and

• Analyze engineering problems and failures and develop materials solutions.

Ceramic Engineering

The multi-billion dollar ceramic industry converts processed materials and raw materials taken directly from the earth (clay, sand, etc.) into such useful products as spark plugs, glass, electronic components, nuclear materials, abrasives, rocket components, and even tableware. High- temperature processing is the key to ceramic engineering, and the products are always inorganic, nonmetallic solids. From a single chemical source, ceramic engineers make useful materials in many forms. Carbon as diamond is used as an abrasive for grinding; carbon in the form of graphite is used for lubrication, as glass for crucibles, and as fiber for cloth. In the future you may help other specialists develop superconducting materials from carbon.

As a ceramic engineer, you may:

• Develop improved heat tiles to protect the space shuttle and the future supersonic space plane from the searing heat of reentry into the earth's atmosphere.

• Produce ceramic teeth, bones, and joints to replace parts of the human body or improve advanced medical equipment to continue research in the war against disease.

• Help make innovative, ultra-fast computer systems using ceramic superconductors, lasers, and glass optical fibers.

• Develop materials to enclose and support aircraft engines that run at high temperatures.

• Improve fiber optic cables that allow doctors to see inside the human body and permit the human voice to travel to thousands of miles under the ocean without distortion.

• Discover new ways to use ceramics to build highways and bridges, or to carry water and waste to treatment plants.

Manufacturing Engineering

As a manufacturing engineer, you will work with designers and others as a team to devise and maintain efficient and reliable manufacturing systems to produce products. Results of your work might later be found in a factory, in a space vehicle, or in a hospital operating room where critical lifesaving equipment stands ready to assist the surgical team during high-risk operations.

As a manufacturing engineer, you may:

• Be asked to develop alternatives for making a part or device, keeping in mind the costs of the manufacturing procedures or inventory control that must be used for each alternative.

• Direct studies that lead to the selection and purchases of manufacturing equipment that will be most cost effective.

• Lead a program at a plant to automate the production of vaccines or antibiotics with robotics and remote control devices in a germ-free environment.

• Develop a step-by-step automated manufacturing method for making a product.

Nuclear Engineering

Nuclear engineers harness the power of the atom to benefit humankind. They search for efficient ways to capture and put to beneficial use those tiny natural bursts of energy from a disintegrating atom. As a nuclear engineer, you may be challenged by problems in consumer and industrial power, space exploration, water supply, food supply, environment and pollution, health, and transportation. Participation in these broad areas may carry you into many exciting and challenging careers. These may include interaction of radiation with matter, radiation measurements, radioisotope production and use, reactor engineering, and fusion reactors and materials.

As a nuclear engineer, you may...

• Develop designs for nuclear plants for electric power and ships.

• Apply radiation in the diagnosis and treatment of disease.

• Develop ways to use radiation to produce and preserve food supplies.

• Operate and support nuclear energy systems to reduce environmental pollution from fossil fuels.

• Develop power plants to power satellites and deep space probes.

• Develop and apply regulations to ensure safety in handling radiation sources and operation nuclear systems.

*Engineering discipline descriptions provided by .

Women in Engineering

How underrepresented are we in reality?

In the US:

10% of engineers are women.

16% of college graduates earning their bachelor’s degree in engineering are female.

At MIT:

• 32% of the students majoring in Aeronautical and Astronautical engineering are female.

19% of the students majoring in Computer Science are female.

22% of the students majoring in Electrical Engineering are female.

• 32% of the students majoring in Mechanical engineering are female.

• Overall, the engineering school is 33% female.

The Roadmap

How you can start now!

Classes

Be ambitious in your choice of classes. Try to take the most challenging courses your school has to offer that fit into your schedule. Below are suggestions from .

Language Arts (English)

8 credits (4 years) in:

• Literature

• Writing/composition

• And/or speech

Math

6 to 8 credits (3 or 4 years):

• Algebra

• Geometry

• Algebra II

• Trigonometry and/or calculus

Science

6 credits (3 years) in lab science, including:

• 2 in biology

• 2 in chemistry and/or physics

• 2 in earth/space sciences, advanced biology, advanced chemistry, or physics

Social Studies

6 credits (3 years), including:

• 2 in U.S. history

• 1 in U.S. government

• 1 in economics

• 1 in world history or geography

• 1 more credit in the above or other areas

Extracurricular Activities

What makes an application memorable to colleges is you – academics come first, but your activities also reveal a great deal. Colleges want to know:

• What your non-academic interests are.

• Whether you can manage your time and priorities.

• Whether you can maintain a long-term commitment.

• What diversity you'd bring to the student body.

• How you've made a meaningful contribution to something.

Look for opportunities to shine in school activities, after-school jobs, and community service.

Testing

Most schools now require at least one standardized test. Take tests early in case you want to retake them. If you have the opportunity, take advanced placement tests to possibly save some time and money when you get to college. Check out for information about SATs, Advanced Placement tests and for information about the ACT.

Summer Programs

Summer programs are a great opportunity to explore interesting topics and get a little taste of college life. Check out schools in your area for programs or venture to another part of the country. See the list below for some helpful links.

The Next Step

Where can you learn more about engineering?

Engineering Summer Programs:

• MIT Women’s Technology Program (WTP):

• Boston University's Program in Mathematics for Young Scientists (PROMYS):

• Caltech Young Engineering and Science Scholar Program (YESS):

• Camp Entrepreneur (females only):

• Camp $tart-Up (females only):

• Cornell University's Summer College for High School Students:

• Davidson's College's July Experience:

• Duke University: Talent Identification Program:

• John Hopkins University: Pre-College Program:

• Mathematics & Science for Minority Students at Phillips Academy (MS)2:

• MIT Minority Introduction to Engineering, Entrepreneurship, and Science:

• MIT Educational Outreach Programs:

• Research Science Institute at MIT (RSI):

• Morehouse College Upward Bound Math/Science Southeast Regional Institute:

• NASA Sharp Plus:

• Phillips Academy Summer Session:

• Quest Scholars Program at Stanford University:

• Smith College Summer Science Program (females only):

• Syracuse University Summer College for High School Students:

• Tuskegee University Computer Science Summer Program:

• University of Wisconsin's Engineering Summer Program:

Additional Resources:

•

• Camp Channel:

• National Association of Precollege Directors:

• New England Board of Higher Education: Opportunities for Minority Students:

• Peterson's Guide to Summer Opportunities:

• Summer Adventure: Directory of Opportunities for Minority Pre-College Students:

• science_camps_for_kids_at_webfan.htm

Program Spotlight:

The MIT Women's Technology Program is a new 4-week summer school for high school girls entering their junior or senior year.  Students live at MIT and explore modern electrical engineering and computer science through exciting hands-on projects and teamwork.

Students can register or find out more information at or email wtp@mit.edu.

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