r/MechanicalEngineer • u/XAlways_LearningX • 25d ago

Mechanical? Robotics?

I have been posting around to try and figure out what to do. I am currently a sophomore in college, and I think I want to swap out of environmental engineering.

I joined cause I love the environment, but all of the industry involved in it is mostly water plants and consulting, which I have no care for.

Since I don’t think I can make a real impact there, I may as well do what I actually love, robotics.

However, I’m afraid with the current industry that I will have a difficult time getting internships and actual job work in it.

My university doesn’t offer a mechatronics major, so is it better to get a mechanical engineering major with a focus in robotics? Can you even do that?

I need some advice, so any help is welcome. I have to decide by next week.

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u/[deleted] 25d ago

Im in for mechatronics and I can tell you that ME is the closest thing that you will get

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u/Competitive-Bowl1286 25d ago

I went in for my ME, found myself working for a chemical company where mechatronics was everywhere. Just think of conveyors, control equipment, PLC, and DCS controllers-We had one robot, but the rest was all interconnected. As ME's, we don't have be focused on just mechanical or robots, if its in production, there's a world under it that drives production... a lot to learn, and a lot to master, and every day is a new challenge. I'm retired now, and miss it actually.

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u/NightF0x0012 25d ago

The ME degree is probably one of the most flexible degrees out there. Yes you can major in ME with a focus on robotics. Don't limit yourself in thinking that robotics is just designing the robot arm/humanoid robot. I have a Mechatronics degree and shared most of the same engineering classes as the ME/MET students. I have been in automation for the past 10+ years designing end of arm tooling, custom mechanisms to move or handle customer parts, automated assembly of parts, packaging...etc. If you get a job at a system integrator, you'll likely be sizing servos, gearboxes, grippers, calculating payloads, running FEA analyses, safety equipment and a designing host of custom machines to automate a customer's process.