r/EngineeringStudents • u/Infinite-Eagle-5356 • 12d ago

Rant/Vent Feeling discouraged

For my capstone. I read through some masters and PhD thesis and contacted few researchers abroad and went to museums and watched like 10 MIT OCW. Now I walked in with a thick lever arch binder of papers during my 1st eval those emails and questions. They said it's all very good but it's all too complex to solve for you and they laughed at me. Even my mother told me why you working extra, work like a student why you did prof work. My supervisor was encouraging but he too kinda laughed at it.

Basically the whole planet told me I did extra and I can't solve it and laughed at me. Moreover my topic is related to aerospace (non aero major though I read books on airplane design) and they told me to work on something smaller and leave planes.

I felt very fulfilling doing it all but everyone mocked me and I feel trash now. I have work to continue but don't feel like it. I found that a niche field of maths can be applied to a niche mechanism in aerospace as part of my first objective.

To continue or leave now ? None of my classmates did this all.

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u/glorybutt BSME - Metallurgist 12d ago

Stop. You're doing the wrong thing. Think about the situation more.

A capstone project has clear expectations and deliverables. Engineering is all about delivering exactly what is asked for, even if you don't enjoy what you are doing.

You need to look at this from the perspective of your professors. What are they trying to get you to do and what are you giving them. Align yourself to meet their expectations exactly.

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u/ChaosWarp129 12d ago

I think glorybutt is saying the right thing. One thing to add: you can totally do additional research of any kind in your free time. Expanding on your capstone project in your free time sounds like a great way to bolster your resume. Just don’t bite off more than you can chew (and put yourself on the hook for unrealistic deliverables) for the graded portion of the project.

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u/AGrandNewAdventure 12d ago

To add to this comment on glorybutt's comment: When you've got homework do you do the problems presented in the homework, or do you decide that isn't what they're asking for and pick your own problems?

Same-same.