College sure isn't what I remember

[Aloha_Shooter]

Re: relying on PCs and Mathcad, if I'm paying [not cheap amounts of money] for a college degree, I would expect to learn higher-level thought processes than how to manually calculate something a computer can do in 0.1 seconds. In the real world, nobody gives a **** if you can manually compute a Fourier transform.

Yes and no. I don't expect someone to calculate a Fourier transform manually but I want the to know the material well enough to recognize when the numbers coming out of the programs don't make sense. I see too many junior engineers these days that just trust outputs directly because it came from the computer. The process of actually doing the work yourself conveys learning and helps you understand when to trust your tools and understand their limitations.

[Fmedges]

Yes and no. I don't expect someone to calculate a Fourier transform manually but I want the to know the material well enough to recognize when the numbers coming out of the programs don't make sense. I see too many junior engineers these days that just trust outputs directly because it came from the computer. The process of actually doing the work yourself conveys learning and helps you understand when to trust your tools and understand their limitations.

The problem that I had in the engineering program hat I used to attend was that it was so disconnected from industry. Learning hand calculations are good to a point, but we never learned how to do it any other way. It's hard to teach to people going into industry when most professors are career students. I have other college gripes but that's a big one to me.

[hollohas]

The problem that I had in the engineering program hat I used to attend was that it was so disconnected from industry. Learning hand calculations are good to a point, but we never learned how to do it any other way. It's hard to teach to people going into industry when most professors are career students. I have other college gripes but that's a big one to me.

My wife got an architectural degree. In 4 years, they never used CAD. It was not a required elective. Even at the time I thought that was insane. I was extremely proficient in CAD out of highschool yet college architectural students weren't required to learn it. They spent more time building paper models and making furniture out of recycled trash than learning to design buildings. It was so desiconnected from the real world, one that requires 7 or 8 VERY extensive tests after years and years of on the job to get a license.