Engineering Jobs Ireland

Engineering

About the various engineering branches including computer science, mechanical, chemical, automobile, architecture, etc

Engineers apply the principles of science and mathematics to develop economical solutions to technical problems. Their work is the link between scientific discoveries and the commercial applications that meet societal and consumer needs.

Many engineers develop new products. During this process, they consider several factors. For example, in developing an industrial robot, engineers precisely specify the functional requirements; design and test the robot's components; integrate the components to produce the final design; and evaluate the design's overall effectiveness, cost, reliability, and safety. This process applies to the development of many different products, such as chemicals, computers, power plants, helicopters, and toys.

In addition to design and development, many engineers work in testing, production, or maintenance. These engineers supervise production in factories, determine the causes of component failure, and test manufactured products to maintain quality. They also estimate the time and cost to complete projects. Supervisory engineers are responsible for major components or entire projects. (See the statement on engineering and natural sciences managers elsewhere in the Handbook.)

Engineers use computers extensively to produce and analyze designs; to simulate and test how a machine, structure, or system operates; to generate specifications for parts; and to monitor product quality and control process efficiency. Nanotechnology, which involves the creation of high-performance materials and components by integrating atoms and molecules, also is introducing entirely new principles to the design process.

Most engineers specialize. Following are details on the 17 engineering specialties covered in the Federal Government's Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. Numerous other specialties are recognized by professional societies, and each of the major branches of engineering has numerous subdivisions. Civil engineering, for example, includes structural and transportation engineering, and materials engineering includes ceramic, metallurgical, and polymer engineering. Engineers also may specialize in one industry, such as motor vehicles, or in one type of technology, such as turbines or semiconductor materials.

Aerospace engineers design, develop, and test aircraft, spacecraft, and missiles and supervise the manufacture of these products. Those who work with aircraft are called aeronautical engineers, and those working specifically with spacecraft are astronautical engineers. Aerospace engineers develop new technologies for use in aviation, defense systems, and space exploration, often specializing in areas such as structural design, guidance, navigation and control, instrumentation and communication, or production methods. They also may specialize in a particular type of aerospace product, such as commercial aircraft, military fighter jets, helicopters, spacecraft, or missiles and rockets, and may become experts in aerodynamics, thermodynamics, celestial mechanics, propulsion, acoustics, or guidance and control systems.

Agricultural engineers apply knowledge of engineering technology and science to agriculture and the efficient use of biological resources. Because of this, they are also referred to as biological and agricultural engineers. They design agricultural machinery, equipment, sensors, processes, and structures, such as those used for crop storage. Some engineers specialize in areas such as power systems and machinery design; structures and environment engineering; and food and bioprocess engineering. They develop ways to conserve soil and water and to improve the processing of agricultural products. Agricultural engineers often work in research and development, production, sales, or management.

Biomedical engineers develop devices and procedures that solve medical and health-related problems by combining their knowledge of biology and medicine with engineering principles and practices. Many do research, along with life scientists, chemists, and medical scientists, to develop and evaluate systems and products such as artificial organs, prostheses (artificial devices that replace missing body parts), instrumentation, medical information systems, and health management and care delivery systems. Biomedical engineers may also design devices used in various medical procedures, imaging systems such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and devices for automating insulin injections or controlling body functions. Most engineers in this specialty need a sound background in another engineering specialty, such as mechanical or electronics engineering, in addition to specialized biomedical training. Some specialties within biomedical engineering include biomaterials, biomechanics, medical imaging, rehabilitation engineering, and orthopedic engineering.

Chemical engineers apply the principles of chemistry to solve problems involving the production or use of chemicals and biochemicals. They design equipment and processes for large-scale chemical manufacturing, plan and test methods of manufacturing products and treating byproducts, and supervise production. Chemical engineers also work in a variety of manufacturing industries other than chemical manufacturing, such as those producing energy, electronics, food, clothing, and paper. They also work in health care, biotechnology, and business services. Chemical engineers apply principles of physics, mathematics, and mechanical and electrical engineering, as well as chemistry. Some may specialize in a particular chemical process, such as oxidation or polymerization. Others specialize in a particular field, such as nanomaterials, or in the development of specific products. They must be aware of all aspects of chemicals manufacturing and how the manufacturing process affects the environment and the safety of workers and consumers.

Civil engineers design and supervise the construction of roads, buildings, airports, tunnels, dams, bridges, and water supply and sewage systems. They must consider many factors in the design process, from the construction costs and expected lifetime of a project to government regulations and potential environmental hazards such as earthquakes and hurricanes. Civil engineering, considered one of the oldest engineering disciplines, encompasses many specialties. The major ones are structural, water resources, construction, environmental, transportation, and geotechnical engineering. Many civil engineers hold supervisory or administrative positions, from supervisor of a construction site to city engineer. Others may work in design, construction, research, and teaching.

Computer hardware engineers research, design, develop, test, and oversee the manufacture and installation of computer hardware. Hardware includes computer chips, circuit boards, computer systems, and related equipment such as keyboards, modems, and printers. (Computer software engineers-often simply called computer engineers-design and develop the software systems that control computers. These workers are covered elsewhere in the Handbook.) The work of computer hardware engineers is very similar to that of electronics engineers in that they may design and test circuits and other electronic components, but computer hardware engineers do that work only as it relates to computers and computer-related equipment. The rapid advances in computer technology are largely a result of the research, development, and design efforts of these engineers.

Electrical engineers design, develop, test, and supervise the manufacture of electrical equipment. Some of this equipment includes electric motors; machinery controls, lighting, and wiring in buildings; automobiles; aircraft; radar and navigation systems; and power generation, control, and transmission devices used by electric utilities. Although the terms electrical and electronics engineering often are used interchangeably in academia and industry, electrical engineers have traditionally focused on the generation and supply of power, whereas electronics engineers have worked on applications of electricity to control systems or signal processing. Electrical engineers specialize in areas such as power systems engineering or electrical equipment manufacturing.

Electronics engineers, except computer are responsible for a wide range of technologies, from portable music players to the global positioning system (GPS), which can continuously provide the location, for example, of a vehicle. Electronics engineers design, develop, test, and supervise the manufacture of electronic equipment such as broadcast and communications systems. Many electronics engineers also work in areas closely related to computers. However, engineers whose work is related exclusively to computer hardware are considered computer hardware engineers. Electronics engineers specialize in areas such as communications, signal processing, and control systems or have a specialty within one of these areas-control systems or aviation electronics, for example.

Environmental engineers develop solutions to environmental problems using the principles of biology and chemistry. They are involved in water and air pollution control, recycling, waste disposal, and public health issues. Environmental engineers conduct hazardous-waste management studies in which they evaluate the significance of the hazard, advise on treatment and containment, and develop regulations to prevent mishaps. They design municipal water supply and industrial wastewater treatment systems. They conduct research on the environmental impact of proposed construction projects, analyze scientific data, and perform quality-control checks. Environmental engineers are concerned with local and worldwide environmental issues. They study and attempt to minimize the effects of acid rain, global warming, automobile emissions, and ozone depletion. They may also be involved in the protection of wildlife. Many environmental engineers work as consultants, helping their clients to comply with regulations, to prevent environmental damage, and to clean up hazardous sites.

Health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors prevent harm to people and property by applying knowledge of systems engineering and mechanical, chemical, and human performance principles. Using this specialized knowledge, they identify and measure potential hazards, such as the risk of fires or the dangers involved in handling of toxic chemicals. They recommend appropriate loss prevention measures according to the probability of harm and potential damage. Health and safety engineers develop procedures and designs to reduce the risk of illness, injury, or damage. Some work in manufacturing industries to ensure the designs of new products do not create unnecessary hazards. They must be able to anticipate, recognize, and evaluate hazardous conditions, as well as develop hazard control methods.

Industrial engineers determine the most effective ways to use the basic factors of production-people, machines, materials, information, and energy-to make a product or provide a service. They are primarily concerned with increasing productivity through the management of people, methods of business organization, and technology. To maximize efficiency, industrial engineers carefully study the product requirements and design manufacturing and information systems to meet those requirements with the help of mathematical methods and models. They develop management control systems to aid in financial planning and cost analysis, and design production planning and control systems to coordinate activities and ensure product quality. They also design or improve systems for the physical distribution of goods and services and determine the most efficient plant locations. Industrial engineers develop wage and salary administration systems and job evaluation programs. Many industrial engineers move into management positions because the work is closely related to the work of managers.

Marine engineers and naval architects are involved in the design, construction, and maintenance of ships, boats, and related equipment. They design and supervise the construction of everything from aircraft carriers to submarines, and from sailboats to tankers. Naval architects work on the basic design of ships, including hull form and stability. Marine engineers work on the propulsion, steering, and other systems of ships. Marine engineers and naval architects apply knowledge from a range of fields to the entire design and production process of all water vehicles. Other workers who operate or supervise the operation of marine machinery on ships and other vessels sometimes may be called marine engineers or, more frequently, ship engineers, but they do different work and are covered under water transportation occupations elsewhere in the Handbook.

Materials engineers are involved in the development, processing, and testing of the materials used to create a range of products, from computer chips and aircraft wings to golf clubs and snow skis. They work with metals, ceramics, plastics, semiconductors, and composites to create new materials that meet certain mechanical, electrical, and chemical requirements. They also are involved in selecting materials for new applications. Materials engineers have developed the ability to create and then study materials at an atomic level, using advanced processes to replicate the characteristics of materials and their components with computers. Most materials engineers specialize in a particular material. For example, metallurgical engineers specialize in metals such as steel, and ceramic engineers develop ceramic materials and the processes for making them into useful products such as glassware or fiber optic communication lines.

Mechanical engineers research, design, develop, manufacture, and test tools, engines, machines, and other mechanical devices. Mechanical engineering is one of the broadest engineering disciplines. Engineers in this discipline work on power-producing machines such as electric generators, internal combustion engines, and steam and gas turbines. They also work on power-using machines such as refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment, machine tools, material handling systems, elevators and escalators, industrial production equipment, and robots used in manufacturing. Mechanical engineers also design tools that other engineers need for their work. In addition, mechanical engineers work in manufacturing or agriculture production, maintenance, or technical sales; many become administrators or managers.

Mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers find, extract, and prepare coal, metals, and minerals for use by manufacturing industries and utilities. They design open-pit and underground mines, supervise the construction of mine shafts and tunnels in underground operations, and devise methods for transporting minerals to processing plants. Mining engineers are responsible for the safe, economical, and environmentally sound operation of mines. Some mining engineers work with geologists and metallurgical engineers to locate and appraise new ore deposits. Others develop new mining equipment or direct mineral-processing operations that separate minerals from the dirt, rock, and other materials with which they are mixed. Mining engineers frequently specialize in the mining of one mineral or metal, such as coal or gold. With increased emphasis on protecting the environment, many mining engineers work to solve problems related to land reclamation and water and air pollution. Mining safety engineers use their knowledge of mine design and practices to ensure the safety of workers and to comply with State and Federal safety regulations. They inspect walls and roof surfaces, monitor air quality, and examine mining equipment for compliance with safety practices.

Nuclear engineers research and develop the processes, instruments, and systems used to derive benefits from nuclear energy and radiation. They design, develop, monitor, and operate nuclear plants to generate power. They may work on the nuclear fuel cycle-the production, handling, and use of nuclear fuel and the safe disposal of waste produced by the generation of nuclear energy-or on the development of fusion energy. Some specialize in the development of nuclear power sources for naval vessels or spacecraft; others find industrial and medical uses for radioactive materials, as in equipment used to diagnose and treat medical problems.

Petroleum engineers search the world for reservoirs containing oil or natural gas. Once these resources are discovered, petroleum engineers work with geologists and other specialists to understand the geologic formation and properties of the rock containing the reservoir, determine the drilling methods to be used, and monitor drilling and production operations. They design equipment and processes to achieve the maximum profitable recovery of oil and gas. Because only a small proportion of oil and gas in a reservoir flows out under natural forces, petroleum engineers develop and use various enhanced recovery methods. These include injecting water, chemicals, gases, or steam into an oil reservoir to force out more of the oil and doing computer-controlled drilling or fracturing to connect a larger area of a reservoir to a single well. Because even the best techniques in use today recover only a portion of the oil and gas in a reservoir, petroleum engineers research and develop technology and methods to increase recovery and lower the cost of drilling and production operations.

Work environment. Most engineers work in office buildings, laboratories, or industrial plants. Others may spend time outdoors at construction sites and oil and gas exploration and production sites, where they monitor or direct operations or solve onsite problems. Some engineers travel extensively to plants or worksites here and abroad.

Many engineers work a standard 40-hour week. At times, deadlines or design standards may bring extra pressure to a job, requiring engineers to work longer hours.

Engineers typically enter the occupation with a bachelor's degree in an engineering specialty, but some basic research positions may require a graduate degree. Engineers offering their services directly to the public must be licensed. Continuing education to keep current with rapidly changing technology is important for engineers.

Education and training. A bachelor's degree in engineering is required for almost all entry-level engineering jobs. College graduates with a degree in a natural science or mathematics occasionally may qualify for some engineering jobs, especially in specialties in high demand. Most engineering degrees are granted in electrical, electronics, mechanical, or civil engineering. However, engineers trained in one branch may work in related branches. For example, many aerospace engineers have training in mechanical engineering. This flexibility allows employers to meet staffing needs in new technologies and specialties in which engineers may be in short supply. It also allows engineers to shift to fields with better employment prospects or to those that more closely match their interests.

Most engineering programs involve a concentration of study in an engineering specialty, along with courses in both mathematics and the physical and life sciences. Many programs also include courses in general engineering. A design course, sometimes accompanied by a computer or laboratory class or both, is part of the curriculum of most programs. General courses not directly related to engineering, such as those in the social sciences or humanities, are also often required.

In addition to the standard engineering degree, many colleges offer 2-year or 4-year degree programs in engineering technology. These programs, which usually include various hands-on laboratory classes that focus on current issues in the application of engineering principles, prepare students for practical design and production work, rather than for jobs that require more theoretical and scientific knowledge. Graduates of 4-year technology programs may get jobs similar to those obtained by graduates with a bachelor's degree in engineering. Engineering technology graduates, however, are not qualified to register as professional engineers under the same terms as graduates with degrees in engineering. Some employers regard technology program graduates as having skills between those of a technician and an engineer.

Graduate training is essential for engineering faculty positions and many research and development programs, but is not required for the majority of entry-level engineering jobs. Many experienced engineers obtain graduate degrees in engineering or business administration to learn new technology and broaden their education. Many high-level executives in government and industry began their careers as engineers.

About 1, 830 programs at colleges and universities offer bachelor's degrees in engineering that are accredited by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET), Inc., and there are another 710 accredited programs in engineering technology. ABET accreditation is based on a program's faculty, curriculum, and facilities; the achievement of a program's students; program improvements; and institutional commitment to specific principles of quality and ethics. Although most institutions offer programs in the major branches of engineering, only a few offer programs in the smaller specialties. Also, programs of the same title may vary in content. For example, some programs emphasize industrial practices, preparing students for a job in industry, whereas others are more theoretical and are designed to prepare students for graduate work. Therefore, students should investigate curriculums and check accreditations carefully before selecting a college.

Admissions requirements for undergraduate engineering schools include a solid background in mathematics (algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus) and science (biology, chemistry, and physics), with courses in English, social studies, and humanities. Bachelor's degree programs in engineering typically are designed to last 4 years, but many students find that it takes between 4 and 5 years to complete their studies. In a typical 4-year college curriculum, the first 2 years are spent studying mathematics, basic sciences, introductory engineering, humanities, and social sciences. In the last 2 years, most courses are in engineering, usually with a concentration in one specialty. Some programs offer a general engineering curriculum; students then specialize on the job or in graduate school.

Some engineering schools have agreements with 2-year colleges whereby the college provides the initial engineering education, and the engineering school automatically admits students for their last 2 years. In addition, a few engineering schools have arrangements that allow students who spend 3 years in a liberal arts college studying pre-engineering subjects and 2 years in an engineering school studying core subjects to receive a bachelor's degree from each school. Some colleges and universities offer 5-year master's degree programs. Some 5-year or even 6-year cooperative plans combine classroom study and practical work, permitting students to gain valuable experience and to finance part of their education.

Licensure. All 50 States and the District of Columbia require licensure for engineers who offer their services directly to the public. Engineers who are licensed are called professional engineers (PE). This licensure generally requires a degree from an ABET-accredited engineering program, 4 years of relevant work experience, and successful completion of a State examination. Recent graduates can start the licensing process by taking the examination in two stages. The initial Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) examination can be taken upon graduation. Engineers who pass this examination commonly are called engineers in training (EIT) or engineer interns (EI). After acquiring suitable work experience, EITs can take the second examination, the Principles and Practice of Engineering exam. Several States have imposed mandatory continuing education requirements for relicensure. Most States recognize licensure from other States, provided that the manner in which the initial license was obtained meets or exceeds their own licensure requirements. Many civil, electrical, mechanical, and chemical engineers are licensed PEs. Independent of licensure, various certification programs are offered by professional organizations to demonstrate competency in specific fields of engineering.

Other qualifications. Engineers should be creative, inquisitive, analytical, and detail oriented. They should be able to work as part of a team and to communicate well, both orally and in writing. Communication abilities are becoming increasingly important as engineers frequently interact with specialists in a wide range of fields outside engineering.

Certification and advancement. Beginning engineering graduates usually work under the supervision of experienced engineers and, in large companies, also may receive formal classroom or seminar-type training. As new engineers gain knowledge and experience, they are assigned more difficult projects with greater independence to develop designs, solve problems, and make decisions. Engineers may advance to become technical specialists or to supervise a staff or team of engineers and technicians. Some may eventually become engineering managers or enter other managerial or sales jobs. In sales, an engineering background enables them to discuss a product's technical aspects and assist in product planning, installation, and use. (See the statements under management and business and financial operations occupations, and the statement on sales engineers elsewhere in the Handbook.)

Numerous professional certifications for engineers exist and may be beneficial for advancement to senior technical or managerial positions. Many certification programs are offered by the professional societies listed as sources of additional information for engineering specialties at the end of this statement.

In 2006, engineers held about 1.5 million jobs. The distribution of employment by engineering specialty follows:

About 37 percent of engineering jobs were found in manufacturing industries and another 28 percent were in the professional, scientific, and technical services sector, primarily in architectural, engineering, and related services. Many engineers also worked in the construction, telecommunications, and wholesale trade industries.

Federal, State, and local governments employed about 12 percent of engineers in 2006. About half of these were in the Federal Government, mainly in the U.S. Departments of Defense, Transportation, Agriculture, Interior, and Energy, and in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Most engineers in State and local government agencies worked in highway and public works departments. In 2006, about 3 percent of engineers were self-employed, many as consultants.

Engineers are employed in every State, in small and large cities and in rural areas. Some branches of engineering are concentrated in particular industries and geographic areas-for example, petroleum engineering jobs tend to be located in areas with sizable petroleum deposits, such as Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Alaska, and California. Others, such as civil engineering, are widely dispersed, and engineers in these fields often move from place to place to work on different projects.

Engineers are employed in every major industry. The industries employing the most engineers in each specialty are given in table 1, along with the percent of occupational employment in the industry.

Aerospace engineers

Agricultural engineers

Biomedical engineers

Chemical engineers

Civil engineers

Computer hardware engineers

Electrical engineers

Electronics engineers, except computer

Environmental engineers

Health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors

Industrial engineers

Marine engineers and naval architects

Materials engineers

Mechanical engineers

Mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers

Nuclear engineers

Petroleum engineers

Employment of engineers is expected to grow about as fast as the average for all occupations over the next decade, but growth will vary by specialty. Environmental engineers should experience the fastest growth, while civil engineers should see the largest employment increase. Overall job opportunities in engineering are expected to be good.

Overall employment change. Overall engineering employment is expected to grow by 11 percent over the 2006-16 decade, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Engineers have traditionally been concentrated in slower growing or declining manufacturing industries, in which they will continue to be needed to design, build, test, and improve manufactured products. However, increasing employment of engineers in faster growing service industries should generate most of the employment growth. Job outlook varies by engineering specialty, as discussed later.

Competitive pressures and advancing technology will force companies to improve and update product designs and to optimize their manufacturing processes. Employers will rely on engineers to increase productivity and expand output of goods and services. New technologies continue to improve the design process, enabling engineers to produce and analyze various product designs much more rapidly than in the past. Unlike in some other occupations, however, technological advances are not expected to substantially limit employment opportunities in engineering because engineers will continue to develop new products and processes that increase productivity.

Offshoring of engineering work will likely dampen domestic employment growth to some degree. There are many well-trained, often English-speaking engineers available around the world willing to work at much lower salaries than U.S. engineers. The rise of the Internet has made it relatively easy for part of the engineering work previously done by engineers in this country to be done by engineers in other countries, a factor that will tend to hold down employment growth. Even so, there will always be a need for onsite engineers to interact with other employees and clients.

Overall job outlook. Overall job opportunities in engineering are expected to be good because the number of engineering graduates should be in rough balance with the number of job openings between 2006 and 2016. In addition to openings from job growth, many openings will be created by the need to replace current engineers who retire; transfer to management, sales, or other occupations; or leave engineering for other reasons.

Many engineers work on long-term research and development projects or in other activities that continue even during economic slowdowns. In industries such as electronics and aerospace, however, large cutbacks in defense expenditures and in government funding for research and development have resulted in significant layoffs of engineers in the past. The trend toward contracting for engineering work with engineering services firms, both domestic and foreign, has also made engineers more vulnerable to layoffs during periods of lower demand.

It is important for engineers, as it is for workers in other technical and scientific occupations, to continue their education throughout their careers because much of their value to their employer depends on their knowledge of the latest technology. Engineers in high-technology areas, such as biotechnology or information technology, may find that technical knowledge becomes outdated rapidly. By keeping current in their field, engineers are able to deliver the best solutions and greatest value to their employers. Engineers who have not kept current in their field may find themselves at a disadvantage when seeking promotions or during layoffs.

Employment change and job outlook by engineering specialty.

Aerospace engineers are expected to have 10 percent growth in employment over the projections decade, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Increases in the number and scope of military aerospace projects likely will generate new jobs. In addition, new technologies expected to be used on commercial aircraft produced during the next decade should spur demand for aerospace engineers. The employment outlook for aerospace engineers appears favorable. The number of degrees granted in aerospace engineering has declined for many years because of a perceived lack of opportunities in this field. Although this trend has reversed, new graduates continue to be needed to replace aerospace engineers who retire or leave the occupation for other reasons.

Agricultural engineers are expected to have employment growth of 9 percent over the projections decade, about as fast as the average for all occupations. More engineers will be needed to meet the increasing demand for using biosensors to determine the optimal treatment of crops. Employment growth should also result from the need to increase crop yields to feed an expanding population and produce crops used as renewable energy sources. Moreover, engineers will be needed to develop more efficient agricultural production and conserve resources.

Biomedical engineers are expected to have 21 percent employment growth over the projections decade, much faster than the average for all occupations. The aging of the population and the focus on health issues will drive demand for better medical devices and equipment designed by biomedical engineers. Along with the demand for more sophisticated medical equipment and procedures, an increased concern for cost-effectiveness will boost demand for biomedical engineers, particularly in pharmaceutical manufacturing and related industries. However, because of the growing interest in this field, the number of degrees granted in biomedical engineering has increased greatly. Biomedical engineers, particularly those with only a bachelor's degree, may face competition for jobs. Unlike many other engineering specialties, a graduate degree is recommended or required for many entry-level jobs.

Chemical engineers are expected to have employment growth of 8 percent over the projections decade, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Although overall employment in the chemical manufacturing industry is expected to decline, chemical companies will continue to research and develop new chemicals and more efficient processes to increase output of existing chemicals. Among manufacturing industries, pharmaceuticals may provide the best opportunities for jobseekers. However, most employment growth for chemical engineers will be in service-providing industries such as professional, scientific, and technical services, particularly for research in energy and the developing fields of biotechnology and nanotechnology.

Civil engineers are expected to experience 18 percent employment growth during the projections decade, faster than the average for all occupations. Spurred by general population growth and the related need to improve the Nation's infrastructure, more civil engineers will be needed to design and construct or expand transportation, water supply, and pollution control systems and buildings and building complexes. They also will be needed to repair or replace existing roads, bridges, and other public structures. Because construction industries and architectural, engineering and related services employ many civil engineers, employment opportunities will vary by geographic area and may decrease during economic slowdowns, when construction is often curtailed.

Computer hardware engineers are expected to have 5 percent employment growth over the projections decade, slower than the average for all occupations. Although the use of information technology continues to expand rapidly, the manufacture of computer hardware is expected to be adversely affected by intense foreign competition. As computer and semiconductor manufacturers contract out more of their engineering needs to both domestic and foreign design firms, much of the growth in employment of hardware engineers is expected in the computer systems design and related services industry.

Electrical engineers are expected to have employment growth of 6 percent over the projections decade, slower than the average for all occupations. Although strong demand for electrical devices-including electric power generators, wireless phone transmitters, high-density batteries, and navigation systems-should spur job growth, international competition and the use of engineering services performed in other countries will limit employment growth. Electrical engineers working in firms providing engineering expertise and design services to manufacturers should have better job prospects.

Electronics engineers, except computer are expected to have employment growth of 4 percent during the projections decade, slower than the average for all occupations. Although rising demand for electronic goods-including communications equipment, defense-related equipment, medical electronics, and consumer products-should continue to increase demand for electronics engineers, foreign competition in electronic products development and the use of engineering services performed in other countries will limit employment growth. Growth is expected to be fastest in service-providing industries-particularly in firms that provide engineering and design services.

Environmental engineers should have employment growth of 25 percent during the projections decade, much faster than the average for all occupations. More environmental engineers will be needed to comply with environmental regulations and to develop methods of cleaning up existing hazards. A shift in emphasis toward preventing problems rather than controlling those that already exist, as well as increasing public health concerns resulting from population growth, also are expected to spur demand for environmental engineers. Because of this employment growth, job opportunities should be good even as more students earn degrees. Even though employment of environmental engineers should be less affected by economic conditions than most other types of engineers, a significant economic downturn could reduce the emphasis on environmental protection, reducing job opportunities.

Health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors are projected to experience 10 percent employment growth over the projections decade, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Because health and safety engineers make production processes and products as safe as possible, their services should be in demand as concern increases for health and safety within work environments. As new technologies for production or processing are developed, health and safety engineers will be needed to ensure that they are safe.

Industrial engineers are expected to have employment growth of 20 percent over the projections decade, faster than the average for all occupations. As firms look for new ways to reduce costs and raise productivity, they increasingly will turn to industrial engineers to develop more efficient processes and reduce costs, delays, and waste. This should lead to job growth for these engineers, even in manufacturing industries with slowly growing or declining employment overall. Because their work is similar to that done in management occupations, many industrial engineers leave the occupation to become managers. Many openings will be created by the need to replace industrial engineers who transfer to other occupations or leave the labor force.

Marine engineers and naval architects are expected to experience employment growth of 11 percent over the projections decade, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Strong demand for naval vessels and recreational small craft should more than offset the long-term decline in the domestic design and construction of large oceangoing vessels. Good prospects are expected for marine engineers and naval architects because of growth in employment, the need to replace workers who retire or take other jobs, and the limited number of students pursuing careers in this occupation.

Materials engineers are expected to have employment growth of 4 percent over the projections decade, slower than the average for all occupations. Although employment is expected to decline in many of the manufacturing industries in which materials engineers are concentrated, growth should be strong for materials engineers working on nanomaterials and biomaterials. As manufacturing firms contract for their materials engineering needs, employment growth is expected in professional, scientific, and technical services industries also.

Mechanical engineers are projected to have 4 percent employment growth over the projections decade, slower than the average for all occupations. This is because total employment in manufacturing industries-in which employment of mechanical engineers is concentrated-is expected to decline. Some new job opportunities will be created due to emerging technologies in biotechnology, materials science, and nanotechnology. Additional opportunities outside of mechanical engineering will exist because the skills acquired through earning a degree in mechanical engineering often can be applied in other engineering specialties.

Mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers are expected to have 10 percent employment growth over the projections decade, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Following a lengthy period of decline, strong growth in demand for minerals and increased use of mining engineers in the oil and gas extraction industry is expected to create some employment growth over the 2006-16 period. Moreover, many mining engineers currently employed are approaching retirement age, a factor that should create additional job openings. Furthermore, relatively few schools offer mining engineering programs, resulting in good job opportunities for graduates. The best opportunities may require frequent travel or even living overseas for extended periods of time as mining operations around the world recruit graduates of U.S. mining engineering programs.

Nuclear engineers are expected to have employment growth of 7 percent over the projections decade, about as fast as the average for all occupations. Most job growth will be in research and development and engineering services. Although no commercial nuclear power plants have been built in the United States for many years, nuclear engineers will be needed to operate existing plants and design new ones, including researching future nuclear power sources. They also will be needed to work in defense-related areas, to develop nuclear medical technology, and to improve and enforce waste management and safety standards. Nuclear engineers are expected to have good employment opportunities because the small number of nuclear engineering graduates is likely to be in rough balance with the number of job openings.

Petroleum engineers are expected to have 5 percent employment growth over the projections decade, more slowly than the average for all occupations. Even though most of the potential petroleum-producing areas in the United States already have been explored, petroleum engineers will increasingly be needed to develop new methods of extracting more resources from existing sources. Favorable opportunities are expected for petroleum engineers because the number of job openings is likely to exceed the relatively small number of graduates. Petroleum engineers work around the world and, in fact, the best employment opportunities may include some work in other countries.

Engineers

Aerospace engineers

Agricultural engineers

Biomedical engineers

Chemical engineers

Civil engineers

Computer hardware engineers

Electrical and electronics engineers

Electrical engineers

Electronics engineers, except computer

Environmental engineers

Industrial engineers, including health and safety

Health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors

Industrial engineers

Marine engineers and naval architects

Materials engineers

Mechanical engineers

Mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers

Nuclear engineers

Petroleum engineers

Engineers, all other

Earnings for engineers vary significantly by specialty, industry, and education. Variation in median earnings and in the earnings distributions for engineers in various specialties is especially significant. Table 2 shows wage-and-salary earnings distributions in May 2006 for engineers in specialties covered in this statement.

Aerospace engineers

Agricultural engineers

Biomedical engineers

Chemical engineers

Civil engineers

Computer hardware engineers

Electrical engineers

Electronics engineers, except computer

Environmental engineers

Health and safety engineers, except mining safety engineers and inspectors

Industrial engineers

Marine engineers and naval architects

Materials engineers

Mechanical engineers

Mining and geological engineers, including mining safety engineers

Nuclear engineers

Petroleum engineers

All other engineers

In the Federal Government, mean annual salaries for engineers ranged from $75, 144 in agricultural engineering to $107, 546 in ceramic engineering in 2007.

As a group, engineers earn some of the highest average starting salaries among those holding bachelor's degrees. Table 3 shows average starting salary offers for engineers, according to a 2007 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

Aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical

Agricultural

Architectural

Bioengineering and biomedical

Chemical

Civil

Computer

Electrical/electronics and communications

Environmental/environmental health

Industrial/manufacturing

Materials

Mechanical

Mining and mineral

Nuclear

Petroleum

They use a range of tools and engineering skills, depending on the particular sector of the industry.

Marine engineering technicians may work at sea:

• on the equipment used to explore the seabed for oil, gas and minerals
• on the operation and maintenance of offshore platforms and the equipment used to extract materials from the sea
• on cruise liners, leisure vessels, cargo ships or pipe-laying vessels to keep the engines, equipment and systems running properly
• helping develop environmentally-friendly ways of disposing of unwanted machinery and equipment in the sea.

Marine engineering technicians may also work on dry land and this may include:

• shipbuilding and ship repair
• making specialist equipment for boats
• maintaining a fleet of leisure vessels for holiday and charter companies
• checking marine safety for coastguard agencies.

Marine engineering technicians often work in teams under the direction of a professional engineer.

The starting salary for a newly-qualified marine engineering technician is around 14, 000 a year.

Hours and environment

Working hours vary from job to job, but technicians usually work around 37.5 hours a week. There might also be overtime and shift work.

Marine engineering technicians work in a wide range of different environments, including factories and manufacturing units, shipyards, ports, marinas and coastal stations, at sea and on the seabed.

They may need to wear safety equipment, such as hard hats and protective overalls, for some jobs, and technicians working underwater need appropriate diving and underwater equipment.

Jobs at sea can mean working in rough weather conditions and some jobs can involve long periods away from home.

Salary and other benefits

These figures are only a guide, as actual rates of pay may vary, depending on the employer and where people live.

• The starting salary for a newly-qualified marine engineering technician may be around 14, 000 a year.
• An experienced marine engineering technician can expect to earn around 19, 000 a year.
• Top salaries for a marine engineering technician could be around 35, 000.

Skills and personal qualities

A marine engineering technician needs:

• practical engineering skills
• to be able to understand technical drawings and information
• to be able to use a range of hand and power tools
• to be able to react quickly and find solutions to problems
• to be able to work as part of a team

Interests

It is important to:

• be interested in science, technology and new developments
• have an interest in the sea.

Getting in

Marine engineering technicians work for a wide range of organisations:

• shipbuilders and repairers, where most of the work is based in six large commercial shipyards in the UK and in major ship repair facilities at ports around the coast
• boatbuilders, where the work is usually in specialist firms involved in the construction and repair of yachts and small ships
• plant equipment manufacturers which design and make equipment for use in shipyards, oil platforms and on ships and boats
• the leisure marine industry that includes small engine manufacturers, inland waterways hire fleets and marinas
• the Royal Navy where technicians are prepared for work on aircraft carriers, destroyers, mine counter-measure vessels and submarines

There is a shortage of trained and skilled people and there are good opportunities for technicians at the moment.

Jobs are likely to be advertised in Marine Engineers Review, The Journal of Offshore Technology, in the local press and through employers' websites, particularly those of shipping companies.

Entry for young people

The usual entry route is through an Advanced Apprenticeship leading to a technician level qualification. Some Apprenticeships lead directly to engineering technician registration by the Engineering Council UK, which means individuals can use the letters EngTech after their name.

Entry requirements for Advanced Apprenticeships vary, but are likely to be four GCSEs/S grades (A-C/1-3) including maths, science or technology, or equivalent qualifications. In some cases an A level/H grade or equivalent is required.

Entry requirements for marine engineering technician training in the Royal Navy or Merchant Navy may vary. Their websites and the job articles on Royal Navy and Merchant Navy jobs have full details.

Apprenticeships which may be available in England are Young Apprenticeships, Pre-Apprenticeships, Apprenticeships and Advanced Apprenticeships. To find out which one is most appropriate, log onto www.apprenticeships.org.uk or contact your local Connexions Partnership.

There are different arrangements for Apprenticeships in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. For further information, contact Careers Scotland www.careers-scotland.org.uk, Careers Wales www.careerswales.com; and for Northern Ireland, contact COIU www.delni.gov.uk.

Entry for adults

Applications are welcomed from adults without the usual entry qualifications, but who have relevant work experience.

Training

The Apprenticeship programme takes three to four years and includes training at work and at college. It leads to an NVQ/SVQ in Marine Engineering at either Level 2 or 3 and often to additional qualifications such as a BTEC national certificate/diploma.

To achieve EngTech status, technicians must register formally with the Engineering Council as an engineering technician and will need:

• an appropriate qualification such as an NVQ/SVQ Level 3, a BTEC national certificate/diploma or an SQA national certificate group award
• at least three years' relevant work experience, including suitable further training and development
• to be a member of a relevant professional institution
• to take a final test called a professional review.

A diploma will help you make a more informed choice about the type of learning that best suits you and about what kind of work or further study you may want to do afterwards.

The Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) accredits training courses that lead to membership at engineering technician level.

Getting on

Promotion prospects in the larger companies and with the Royal Navy are very good.

With experience, marine engineering technicians can move into jobs with more responsibility or into supervisory roles in all areas of the industry.

With further study, technicians could progress to incorporated or chartered engineer status.

The Difference Between Industrial Design And Design Engineering

BIOINFORMATICS FOR THE MASSES

Application service providers offer tools to a wide market via the Internet as others attempt to integrate users at major firms

Ann M. Thayer

C&EN Houston

Drug research is data rich but information poor. Genomics or gene-sequencing projects, high-throughput screening, combinatorial chemical synthesis, gene-expression investigations, and pharmacogenomics and proteomics studies are creating massive volumes and multiple sources of biological and chemical data. Data threaten to cause a bottleneck in drug discovery and development. Relating and turning this complexity of data into useful information and knowledge is the primary goal of bioinformatics.

As computing and biology have converged, software tools for data capture, management, analysis, mining, and dissemination have emerged. More than 40 companies, most of them small, are trying to capitalize on the development and marketing of new bioinformatics tools. Whereas the market for generated data or "content" is very lucrative, bioinformatics sales are expected to reach about $160 million this year, according to market research firm Frost & Sullivan , Mountain View, Calif.

Consultants and companies envision tremendous market potential-as much as $2.0 billion to $2.5 billion in five years-if drug and biotechnology companies together spend on the outside as much as they've been estimated to spend internally on bioinformatics. The need for new, faster, and more sophisticated tools is unequivocal. And consultants predict double-digit rates of sales growth in a market that is less than saturated.

To successfully map the genomes of various species, Celera has begun operating what will be one of the world's largest data centers. [Courtesy of PE Corp.]

But low market saturation, say many in the business, may be more a problem of accessibility than finding the untapped buyers. Commercial bioinformatics software typically is very high priced, with larger packages selling for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Customized systems can cost millions of dollars, not including computer hardware. On yet another level, academics and other researchers are giving away software.

It's not surprising, then, that most customers have been large pharmaceutical companies that can afford bioinformatics tools and don't want to depend on giveaways. However, these same customers also can be competitors in that many have extensive in-house bioinformatics efforts under way. Although their need is great and they are willing to spend R&D dollars on bioinformatics, major pharmaceutical firms still represent a limited market.

In addition, software providers have designed many bioinformatics tools with expert users-bioinformaticists or bioinformaticians, as they are called-in mind. But there is a broader market, bioinformatics companies believe, comprising researchers who want and need a variety of easy-to-use tools. Many work within the large corporations, but even more are in smaller companies and universities with limited resources. Removing the barriers to top-notch tools and reaching a larger customer base is a goal of several bioinformatics companies.

"Who I really want as customers are the scientists themselves, " says John Couch, chief executive officer of DoubleTwist , Oakland, Calif. "We're challenged in this field to deliver something to the scientists so that they can do their science." In December 1999, Pangea Systems, one of the more successful of the bioinformatics tools providers, recast itself as DoubleTwist.

Bioinformatics dot com

"What this industry needs is an environment that reduces the cost and complexity of genetic research, " Couch continues. As an applications service provider (ASP), DoubleTwist operates an Internet-based "research portal." Through the portal, researchers can access tools (many originally developed by Pangea) and search algorithms, databases, patent and scientific literature, news, and jobs listings. Automated agents take requests and then retrieve and interpret data, returning results to the user.

The site will offer three subscription levels. Bronze, which is free, will provide limited access to some databases and search tools and should serve the academic community, Couch says. Silver and gold levels get additional sequences and proprietary databases and tools. Low-level access may cost about as much as a journal subscription, or about $500 per year, Couch estimates, whereas commercial subscriptions could run a few thousand dollars per "seat, " and "full-fledged genomic analyses" may be more expensive.

DoubleTwist has been testing its site at Stanford University and with the biopharmaceutical firm Chiron, Emeryville, Calif., and small drug discovery company Tularik, South San Francisco, Calif. In mid-January, a trial version of the site was opened to the public. DoubleTwist recently announced that it has signed on 13 new partners, for a total of 20, for data content, tools, computing infrastructure, and e-commerce.

Combining the Internet and bioinformatics is not new. Major public databases-such as GenBank, maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information , and others from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) -have long been available through this channel. And DoubleTwist has not entered the Internet-based ASP market alone.

eBioinformatics' BioNavigator Internet site is a spin-off from efforts dating back about nine years at the University of Sydney and the Australian National Genomic Information Service . The Pleasanton, Calif.-based ASP was created about two years ago to make low-cost and easy-to-use bioinformatics tools and resources available to researchers in academia and in small and midsized biotechnology and drug discovery companies.

As of Jan. 22, eBioinformatics dropped its subscription model, opting instead for a pay-as-you-go system. Registered users can run certain gene-analysis programs and store data for free. "Only when they want to go to the next step in the process do they then begin to burn 'eBio' units, " explains James Nelson, vice president for product marketing. The billing schedule is based on the kind of program run and how much computing power is required. "A relatively active molecular biologist might run about 1, 000 units per year, " he notes, "and at that level the units are about 50 cents each."

Nelson emphasizes that BioNavigator has licensed many popular algorithms and programs for gene and protein analysis through more than 20 alliances. As part of its services, it provides private work spaces where user data can be stored and analyzed on its server rather than being transported back and forth across the Internet. To work in a group or team, users can identify other registered users who can share data.

Security and privacy are important concerns. Nelson points out that data are transmitted securely only once and maintained in a secure environment. eBioinformatics agrees never to access data except under user direction, and it will not share information with other customers. The company also does not track what kind of data is stored or what analysis tools are being used, which can be a competitive concern for drug discovery firms.

Viaken Systems believes it can offer similar capabilities to small and midsized companies in a more secure fashion than through a public Internet site. The Gaithersburg, Md.-based ASP provides and manages complete bioinformatics platforms, including software licensing, hardware, training, and support, on an externally hosted server. Clients link through virtual private networks to user-dedicated hardware, data storage, processing, and e-commerce capabilities.

"Because of the tremendously valuable information that can be the 'crown jewels' of most of these companies, we believe that security is a critical element of providing a full-service environment, " says James W. Serum, Viaken's chief operating officer. "Because of the high-speed connections and secure data links, the outsourced bioinformatics service behaves essentially as if it's inside their organizations."

Last year, Oxford Molecular's Genetics Computer Group (GCG) granted Viaken an exclusive license to offer GCG's bioinformatics products through a hosted environment. GCG's products include the Wisconsin package, one of the most widely used and comprehensive sequence-analysis tools available.

ASPs believe they have a competitive advantage in being able to continually update data and tools. "Software needs change, and a single software package rarely meets a scientist's needs over any length of time, " Serum says. "The rate of change of technology and capability is so fast that users can't keep up with it alone or afford the large capital investment. So we make alliances with a wide variety of best-in-class and public software capabilities to give users a complete portfolio."

Viaken also offers high-performance computing, which requires a significant capital investment to install and support. Viaken spreads the cost over multiple users and charges on a per-usage basis, which makes it affordable for small or infrequent users. Viaken and Hewlett-Packard together are developing hosted high-performance computing solutions. HP also chose Viaken as its preferred ASP for the life sciences market.

"In the past, software and hardware vendors have focused only on the very top tier of pharmaceutical companies, " Serum says. But small, midsized, and even large companies face similar challenges and have similar computing needs. "Beyond the critical few big pharmaceutical firms, you have a world of smaller companies that are generating huge amounts of data and need access to these tools."

Compugen , Jamesburg, N.J., has been known for its software and hardware, having supplied bioinformatics systems for gene searching to a few major drug companies and the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. In December 1999, it launched its LabOnWeb Internet-based research engine that is still in the testing phase. Test sites include Harvard; New York University; the University of California, San Francisco; Hebrew University in Jerusalem; Tel Aviv University; and the Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.

Based on user feedback, the site continues to evolve in content and appearance, says Lior D. Ma'ayan, Compugen's chief operating officer. Although not finalized, LabOnWeb probably will include subscription-based plans for commercial organizations as well as pricing per query or information request. "If you package it right, the web enables you to reach many more people and actually get to the bench scientists, " Ma'ayan comments. "And if you do it right, you actually deliver real value in a way that is the most efficient."

One-stop shopping

To facilitate the research process, many Internet-based sites and ASPs are including e-commerce features such as links to suppliers of reagents, DNA sequences, or research clones. DoubleTwist's Couch calls it "contextual e-commerce" in which suggestions or links to suppliers can be returned with data search results. DoubleTwist recently hooked up with SciQuest.com to let users order research supplies from its electronic marketplace.

Content providers are using the Internet as a means to sell gene sequences and their associated bioinformatics tools as well. The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) , Rockville, Md., makes its databases and a number of tools available free for researchers at nonprofit institutions using them for noncommercial purposes. Geneva Bioinformatics , exclusive licensee of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (SIB) , offers the same deal for access to SIB's Swiss-Prot protein database. However, commercial users can spend a few thousand dollars per user or up to $90, 000 per year for unlimited access.

In May 1999, Curagen , a New Haven, Conn.-based genomics and drug discovery company, launched an Internet portal called GeneScape . It gives access to the company's CuraTools gene- and protein-analysis software and selected proprietary databases, and it will give access to public sources such as the Human Genome Project and the SNP Consortium database of single-nucleotide polymorphisms or genetic variations. A freely accessible version is intended primarily for academic use, and commercial users get a 30-day trial period to evaluate the site.

In contrast, Incyte Pharmaceuticals , Palo Alto, Calif., has been more exclusive, garnering multi-million-dollar licensing fees from most of the major drug and biotech companies that want to see its gene-sequence databases. Its partners can also use a collection of bioinformatics tools, called LifeTools, that are available through the company's web site. The software processes, stores, analyzes, and manages both proprietary and public genomic data and includes some project management and data sharing for research teams.

Gene Logic , Gaithersburg, Md., combines data management and analysis tools with its gene-expression databases. Because Gene Logic's data are warehoused in electronic form and in a relational database, the company has the flexibility to repackage and price the data in different versions. In the past few years, it has been constructing custom databases for several major drug partners.

The company just recently signed on its first multiyear subscribers to its new large-scale GeneExpress database. Three-year subscriptions are between $3 million and $5 million per year. GeneExpress users connect over secure Internet links to Gene Logic's main computer facility. Through this web interface, they can search and analyze the database, saving results in dedicated work spaces.

The various public and private databases often have different and incompatible structures. Gene Logic emphasizes that its "object-oriented" software lets customers manage, integrate, and query these databases as if they were part of a single database. And, it adds, because the information is distributed over the Internet, the company envisions future money-making e-commerce opportunities with a portal system.

Hyseq , Sunnyvale, Calif., has taken a different approach, one that it hopes will help it capture a broader segment of the market. Rather than requiring multi-million-dollar fees for access to its databases, Hyseq has made available to all researchers its proprietary gene data, which can be purchased on a per-item basis. Last fall, it launched GeneSolutions . com as the vehicle for gene-sequence, homology, and expression data.

Similarly, Lexicon Genetics' Lexgen . com site offers free searches of a portion of the company's OmniBank gene database that represents known human and mouse genes. Corporate subscribers and academic collaborators have access to new discoveries in OmniBank. Once users find a desired gene, the Woodlands, Texas-based company hopes to sell them "knockout" mice engineered for gene-expression studies.

Although it produces content, Celera Genomics, Rockville, Md., the gene-sequencing powerhouse that is part of PE Corp. , calls itself an information, rather than a genomics, company. Its Internet-based business model includes a strategy for delivering genomic information electronically to the biomedical and agricultural research communities. Revenues come from database subscribers, but to promote use of its data, the subscribers, not Celera, have rights to any discoveries made using the data.

Celera already has drug industry subscribers that pay $5 million per year for five years. Celera has said it expects to extend subscriptions to academic and other researchers at a different cost this year ( C&EN, Jan. 17, page 11 ). Although its Internet site for genomic data is not yet operating, Celera says it intends to offer data-mining, analysis, and visualization tools as well.

Uniting the R&D masses

In the same way that individual users and small companies may move to integrated solutions on the Internet, large pharmaceutical firms are seeking ways to integrate their own drug discovery and development processes. They want to tie together separate R&D operations-gene discovery and function; target screening and selection; chemical structure and synthesis; and development efforts in toxicology, pharmacogenomics, and clinical studies-and deliver the information and tools across an organization to individual scientists on their desktops. Companies want to do this without losing their investment in proprietary or legacy systems.

"Although we certainly still need them, having newer algorithms isn't really the biggest problem, [it's not] where the bottleneck is right now, [and it's not] where there is value to a pharmaceutical company going forward, " says Steve Gardner, CEO of Synomics , Cambridge, England. "In the postgenomic era, we're going to have all this information. Getting the data into the right form and to the right people and allowing them to look at it in the right way with all the other information that's relevant in decision-making is really the challenge."

Data volume alone also isn't the issue because "you can just throw computing power at the problem, " Gardner believes. "What really does get difficult is that you're expecting a user to sit in the middle of all this growing information and deal with the much more complex relationships that we have now between data. It's a terribly intimidating place to be."

Differing data types and formats, software languages, operating systems, and computer hardware complicate integration efforts. Integration typically is accomplished by creating small, object-oriented software elements, or "wrappers, " that let a single overlaying, often browser-like, desktop application interact with all the pieces. The original separate systems are intact and functional, and new ones can be added, while the underlying complexity is transparent to users.

There still are many challenges and different degrees of success in integration at the level of both data and processes, but computing environments are becoming more unified, flexible, and expandable. To make the process easier, informatics and drug firms have set up a life sciences research task force within the international Object Management Group to establish software and computing standards. There also are several projects in ontology to create definitions or descriptions of biological data types.

Companies want to integrate processes and information because they can generate a competitive advantage by making better decisions, based on all available information, and make the decisions faster, Gardner explains. Synomics is working with a number of top-20 drug companies on projects that range from smaller to million-dollar-plus deals, he says. Projects often include R&D processes and data-even bibliographic sources, competitor information, and patent data-as well as everyday work tools such as word processing and spreadsheet programs.

Synomics offers integration architecture, called Alliance, that lets public, proprietary, and third-party licensed databases, processes, software, and applications be accessed simultaneously. "It manages the complexity and the difficulties of dealing with that, " Gardner says. "Then you can build on it with data visualization and project management tools to allow all of those technologies that you invested in to work together better and be put in the hands of people in an effective way." To this end, Synomics created a desktop interface called Project Explorer.

Base4 , Carlsbad, Calif., recently announced that, after one year of marketing, it has orders from more than 12 major pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms for its PharMatrix knowledge management system. PharMatrix provides project support with access to internal and external databases and analysis tools. The system can be used, for example, to capture and disseminate data and information involved in target identification, assay development, screening and lead optimization, and preclinical development.

"Future success depends on how good a job a company does now in selecting targets, developing assays, optimizing new drug candidates, and getting them to the clinic before its competitors, " explains Martin Sumner-Smith, Base4's president and CEO. "There is a huge amount of unstructured, ad hoc data around the decision to pick one target versus anything else, and that requires a knowledge management system, " he adds.

"The two biggest issues for pharmaceutical companies are knowledge management and the discovery/development interface, " he continues. "In many ways, those are the same thing. The problem with the discovery/development interface is that what people know in the discovery phase isn't being passed on to the people doing development." Knowledge management, he suggests, "is changing this linear development process into an iterative one."

Other companies, such as LION Bioscience , Genomica , and NetGenics , have developed similar concepts. Heidelberg-based LION (Laboratories for the Investigation of Nucleotide Sequences) has several tools that are components of its "i-biology" integrated environment. For example, its SRS6 software, licensed from EMBL and to several major drug firms, integrates disparate databases through a single query and navigation interface, allowing for simultaneous or cross-database searches. LION also produces bioScout, an automated gene-analysis tool.

LION, which also conducts genomics work, is probably best known for having signed a $100 million deal with Bayer in June 1999. Under their five-year agreement, a LION subsidiary is creating an information technology management system for drug discovery.

Genomica, based in Boulder, Colo., has a system called Discovery Manager, which manages software tools, databases, and projects. According to the company, the object-oriented Discovery Manager software will incorporate results from epidemiological studies and clinical trials into the same database structure as the genomics data to allow for data sharing and querying. The software has been licensed to both Glaxo Wellcome and the National Cancer Institute.

Before it became DoubleTwist, Pangea had created the Pangea Unified Life Science Environment, or PULSE, for integrating and analyzing genomics and biological information. Although PULSE is compatible with different computer platforms, it changes the underlying structure of public and proprietary databases and consolidates them into a centralized repository. It also includes tools for gene-sequencing analysis and project management.

NetGenics' Synergy is another enterprise-wide framework that supports different databases and applications. Last year, the Cleveland-based company released Distributed Synergy, which enables real-time sharing of data, project information, and analytical functions between research teams at multiple company locations. It has deals with Pfizer and American Home Products.

"People tend to forget that, in addition to integrating data sets and tools, the third thing that needs to be integrated is the actual people doing the work, " says Manuel J. Glynias, president and CEO of NetGenics. Synergy therefore incorporates what Glynias calls "teamware."

"We want the organic chemist, the molecular biologist, the biochemist, the enzymologist, the medicinal chemist, and other scientists all to be able to work together to solve problems, " he explains. "They all have access to each other's data, not at the depth that only a specialist would understand, but at a summary level where it is interesting and useful to everybody. That's a real missing link in this sort of software and something we've been trying to build."

Data, data everywhere

NetGenics' approach is to leave data in independent databases that can each be accessed through one channel. Users can be unconcerned with a tool's or data's source, format, or location. However, existing instrumentation and software applications can operate unchanged, databases can be updated, and specialists can still work with familiar or specific data for more detailed analysis.

NetGenics recently agreed to help IBM market its new DiscoveryLink product, the first from IBM's life sciences organization formed last year. DiscoveryLink creates a virtual database as though the data were in a single database. The data remain highly heterogeneous in format and decentralized. The alternative, Glynias explains, is converting all the data into a common format and storing it in a data warehouse.

Silicon Graphics' Visualizer MineSet scatter plots let researchers visually examine data relative to parameters. The vertical purity axis indicates signal consistency for each gene over the 20 features measured. The avg diff axis indicates comparative expression levels (genes toward the front are expressed at higher levels). The horizontal axis, chgf, indicates the change observed in expression level (points further to the right or left indicate genes that have been down- or up-regulated, respectively). Blue and red points indicate genes that have been turned off or on, respectively. The size of the point indicates the reproducibility of the experiment. [Courtesy of Roche ]

"DiscoveryLink addresses a core issue: the ability to perform complex queries-queries not even possible today-across heterogeneous data sources, " Glynias says. DiscoveryLink understands the schema of different databases and what kind of queries each can handle, he explains. Then, when a person or program poses a query, DiscoveryLink breaks it down and sends the parts off to the various databases. The partial answers are combined, and an answer is returned.

PE Informatics , a division of PE Corp.'s PE Biosystems Group , has a software product called BioMerge. At its core is a relational database that lets users integrate and query disparate proprietary, public, and other third-party data for analysis and annotation. It uses technology from Oracle, which produces some of the most widely and generally used information management tools.

Data can also be exchanged securely among BioMerge servers; for example, Celera's genomic data can be delivered by this route. And PE Informatics sells a software suite called Discovery Tools that works on top of BioMerge for data analysis, and other programs, such as GeneKeeper, for data management. The company anticipates expanding the capabilities of BioMerge as revisions are released.

"The focus of the market right now is still largely on the [gene] discovery end, " says Catherine Baldwin, marketing manager for PE Informatics. "We believe the next big step is proteomics, and gene-expression data are part and parcel of that. After that, people are going to want [to work with] chemical structure and metabolic pathway data, " she notes.

In data management, the first steps have been accessing separate databases from one application followed by more sophisticated data warehouses or virtual databases for advanced querying. However, sometimes the challenge "just is getting some types of data into an electronic format, " comments Edward Hodgkin, senior director for contract and discovery research at Tripos. "A great deal of information has not been available to discovery scientists."

Through its software consulting services, St. Louis-based Tripos provides integration services for biological, chemical, and other data to major companies. One of Tripos' major integration products is its MetaLayer architecture. Tripos and other companies that have strengths in chemical informatics-such as Oxford Molecular with its Diva program, MDL Information Systems' Chemscape, and Molecular Simulations' WebLab-are already producing tools that combine chemical library, lead identification, physical property, and molecular structure data.

"When scientists and companies see the power of data integration and disseminating information across an organization, the imperative to get data into an electronic form will be understood, " Hodgkin continues. "The integration of data allows one to make decisions and that must feed back into the design of experiments. So, the next step is to use data integration to drive experiments in a seamless fashion."

Seeing is believing

Having data in an electronic format is worthwhile only if scientists can actually work with it in a way that is useful. "It's critical that scientists have the ability to visualize data and look for trends because visualization is the mechanism for extracting information, " Hodgkin says. Data visualization consists of graphs, images, spreadsheets, molecular modeling, and any other ways of presenting and interpreting information.

Spotfire , Cambridge, Mass., has taken the data visualization market by storm. The company says that it has the top 25 pharmaceutical and 40 major biotech and ag biotechnology firms in the U.S. and Europe among its 200 customers. Bioinformatics partners also incorporate Spotfire's products as the visualization tools in their overall data management and analysis.

Spotfire's lead product is Spotfire Pro, with which users can interactively mine or explore multiple or massive databases and construct visual representations of the data. Its Decision Explorer add-on uses algorithms to assist users with integrating, navigating, and analyzing complex data sets to show correlations among desired variables. Another extension to the program is its Discovery Server, which lets researchers put the visualization results in electronic reports that can be shared with others.

Spotfire also produces other modular software packages such as Structure Visualizer, which can link Spotfire Pro with MDL's ISIS program, a chemical structure database tool, or Oxford Molecular's RS3 Discovery database of biological activity and chemical structure data.

Visualization tools for the drug research community also are being developed by major computing companies such as IBM and Silicon Graphics ; smaller companies such as Neomorphic, Berkeley, Calif., and Silicon Genetics , San Carlos, Calif.; and various academic and industrial consortia.

Silicon Graphics, Mountain View, Calif., has data-mining and visualization software called MineSet. The company also is a major supplier of computers, software, and algorithms to the bioinformatics and cheminformatics markets. MineSet is being used at EBI and at drug companies including Zeneca Pharmaceuticals (now part of AstraZeneca ), Roche , and Bayer with gene-sequence, proteomic, protein and chemical structure, high-throughput screening, and gene-expression data.

Likewise, Neomorphic has collaborated with University of California at Berkeley, Novartis , TIGR, Genentech , Monsanto , and SmithKline Beecham . The company has helped build what will be the front-end browser application for Celera's genomic databases. The browser ties together large amounts of disparate information, Neomorphic says, into "an easy-to-navigate pictorial gene landscape, allowing scientists to study specific genes in the context of a complete genome."

In July 1999, Silicon Genetics launched GenEx , a public Internet database for gene-expression data from microarrays, DNA chips, and related technologies. Using features from Silicon Genetics' more comprehensive genomics and proteomics visualization and analysis program called GeneSpring, GenEx is designed to let researchers publish text and image files on the Internet in a format that is viewable by other scientists using any web browser. Silicon Genetics is providing free access and plans to work with the National Center for Genome Resources to expand GenEx' capabilities.

Whether it is with data visualization programs or through integration efforts at large corporations and Internet-based ASPs, the goal increasingly is to put the tools in researchers' hands. Bioinformatics offerings continue to evolve and target individual scientists, often through their desktop computers.

Competition is heating up, say company executives. "But it's actually very good news because it's a sign that it's about time to deliver bioinformatics to the bench scientist, " Compugen's Ma'ayan says, and others agree. "Historically, informatics knowledge was in the hands of a few, and now it's time to deliver it to the masses."

Bioinformatics companies say they will increase access to more data and tools as they are generated, moving beyond the most widely used gene-sequencing analysis to include areas such as gene expression, protein identification and structure, biochemical pathway data, pharmacogenomics, and chemical structure and activity. From a user perspective, scientists hope to get integrated packages of data, software, patent citations, literature, and supplier links to support their research. These combined elements are anticipated to decrease time spent handling, manipulating, transmitting, and analyzing data to ultimately speed up drug discovery and development.

Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a wide field of study, which comprises all aspects of energy systems. It has to do with the generation, distribution and optimal application of electrical energy. Examples of these are:

Thermic coal power-stations - here chemical energy is transformed to electrical energy - an example of the generation of electrical energy.

The use of sun cells and wind-chargers to transform wind and sun energy into electrical energy - two examples of alternative ways to generate electrical energy .

Transmission lines that cross the country, substations and eventually the separation box in a residence - distribution of electrical energy.

Just think for a moment how your day would be during a total power failure - this will give you a good idea of how electrical energy is applied to benefit all people. Even for those who do not have electricity at home it will be easy to see the advantages of electrification.

New technologies such as new materials, super computers, super-wiring and driving electronics are responsible for great innovations / strides in electrical energy techniques.

Electrical and electronic engineers are busy with the fulfilment of a phase (or phases) of the engineering process, especially with relation to the electrical and electronic related disciplines. This process comprises various aspects including studying, problem formulation, setting up specifications, pre-studies and analysis, design, simulation, research, development, testing, realisation, marketing, maintenance of electrical and electronic components, subsystems and systems. Electrical and electronic engineers are not necessarily involved with all the phases mentioned above, but usually specialise in one or more.

Within electrical and electronic engineering there are various disciplines in which the engineer can specialise. This includes electromagnetism, energy systems, computer engineering, bio-engineering, electrical machinery, signal assimilation, telecommunication, control systems, photonics, acoustics and micro-electronics. Many engineers are in management positions where they, to some extent do technical engineering work.

Electronic and electrical engineers typically work in offices or design centres. Depending on the nature of the work, the engineers usually spend a lot of time in the laboratory. The electrical engineers frequently find themselves in large constructions and / or installations such as power-stations. The nature and range of modern electrical and electronic engineering are such that practising engineers are usually always close to a computer.

Requirements

What kind of personality do I need? The electrical and electronic engineer should have the following characteristics: independent thoughts, an urgency to create, imagination and vision, above-average intelligence and a keenness to learn, combined with logical reasoning. The engineer must be capable of identifying a problem and must then try to find the best solution as fast as possible and at the lowest cost. Sometimes the optimum solution requires unlogical thinking. They must also have a aptitude and a liking for Mathematics, be innovative and have the potential to work independently, as well as part of a team.

Where can I work?

The electronic and electrical industries are nowadays the fastest growing. Electrical and electronic engineers work in a wide spectrum of organisations and firms. This includes private consultation firms and development laboratories, large and small private companies involved with design, development, production and marketing of electronic systems, subsystems and components of products, as well as government and semigovernment organisations.

Can I work for myself in this occupation?

Electrical and electronic engineers are being trained to see themselves not only as potential employees, but also as potential employers. By becoming entrepreneurs they can create a better society through the creation of jobs. Through the use of modern technology the electrical or electronic entrepreneur can compete on the international market. Exports, surely the most important form of creating prosperity for a country, can be affected. Another potential market for the young entrepreneur is import replacement.

Your Career as an Electrical Engineer

Electrical engineering is a profession that uses science, technology, and problem-solving skills to design, construct, and maintain products, services, and information systems. Electrical engineering is the historical name for what is now called electrical, electronics, and computer engineering.

Typically electrical engineers have earned a Bachelor's or Master's degree in engineering in areas that include electronics, electrical engineering, or computer engineering. A junior engi- neer may spend the first year or two on the job learning the company's products and design procedures before choosing a technical specialty. Job responsibilities include specification, design, development, and implementation of products or systems, as well as research to create new ideas. This role provides a number of challenges ranging from problem identification and the selection of appropriate technical solutions, materials, test equipment, and procedures, to the manufacture and production of safe, economical, high-performance products and services.

An electrical engineer may choose to couple the technical aspects of a position with management responsibilities. The technical expertise required for management today is increasing because of the explosion of knowledge in engineering, technology, and science.

A Bachelor of Science degree in engineering with a specialty in electrical engineering may also serve as a starting point for careers in many other diverse fields, ranging from business to law, medicine, and politics, since the problem-solving skills acquired in an electrical engineering program provide an extraordinarily valuable asset. The same skills will equip you to assume leadership roles in your community and in professional circles outside the workplace.

In addition to the primary fields of electrical, electronics, and computer engineering, a Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering serves as an appropriate base for several allied fields. These include, for example, biomedical engineering, com- puter science, and aerospace engineering.

Here are some typical job titles for engineers:

• Design Engineer
• Project Engineer
• Engineering Specialist
• Chief Engineer
• Quality Control Engineer
• Software Engineer
• Development Engineer
• Reliability Engineer
• Research Engineer
• Systems Design Engineer
• Field Engineer
• Test Engineer
• Sales Engineer

Your Career as a Computer Scientist

Computer science may be a viable alternative for those who are interested in applying mathematics and science toward the solution of technical problems and who enjoy working with computers but do not desire to pursue a career in engineering. Computer science stresses the more theoretical aspects of both computers and computation.

In many instances, the computer science program is part of the school (college) of engineering or the school of engineering and applied science. In this situation, the first year or two of the computer science program may have considerable commonality with the computer engineering program. After that, the two paths diverge, with the computer science program placing more emphasis on data structures involving additional mathematics, programming languages, and other software concepts.

In other situations, the computer science program may be part of another department of the university and have little if any commonality with the computer engineering program.

Your Career as a Technologist or Technician

Career paths for engineers, technologists, and technicians vary in many ways. Just as the amount and content of education required for these three positions vary, so do professional responsibilities. In general, an engineer's position stresses theory, analysis, and design. A technologist's job incorporates applications of theory, analysis, and design, and a technician is involved with fabricating, operating, testing and troubleshooting, and maintaining existing equipment or systems.

Engineers, technologists, and technicians join together to form a problem-solving and solution-implementing team. A possible scenario could be described this way. An engineer uses theory and design methods to develop products and systems. The design concept is then given to a technologist, who has the responsibility for transforming the concept into a prototype or product. The device is passed to a technician, who is responsible for testing it to confirm the specifications or operation as originally designed. In actual practice, the interactions among members of the team can vary considerably.

Your Education and Employment as a Technologist

Typically, a technologist will have completed a Bachelor of Engineering Technology (BET) or Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology (BSET) in the field of electrical, electronics, or computer engineering. Employment opportunities range from design operations or sales to project management.

Your Education and Employment as a Technician

Technicians are generally required to complete one to two years of specialized education, usually leading to ail Associate's degree. While technicians are not responsible for designing products or systems, job satisfaction comes from "hands-on" involvement with these products and systems. Technicians typically install, test, and maintain products in the field and are integral to the manufacturing process.

Typical job titles for technologists and technicians include:

Engineering Links

• Stereolithography - Design Prototyping Technologies is a rapid prototyping company specializing in stereolithography.
• Optimex Engineering Limited is a firm of consulting engineers and manufacturers in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
• Titanium Metal Supply supplies titanium mill products to the metal finishing industries - aerospace, architectural, automotive, biomedical, chemical processing, industrial, marine, and oil industries.
• SubsTech is a free and open knowledge source on Materials Engineering. It contains a wide range of information on metals, ceramics, polymers and composites, including their properties, applications and technologies.
• The Engineers Club Online Resource - software & resources for the engineering community.
• Engineering Boffin - The online reference for information in every field of engineering.
• Used Equipment, Machinery & Machine Tools - EquipMatching is a marketplace for used and surplus equipment, machinery and spare parts.
• Cypress Industries' high pressure die castings foundry in China has the ability to design and manufacture close tolerance die cast metal products for many different industries.
• Maritime Engineers, based in Fremantle, Western Australia, provides ship surveys and marine engineering consultancy services to the maritime industry.
• Newcalc offers FE/EIT & PE engineering exam products and pre-programmed calculators. Also provides exam advice and free engineering software.
• Security Clearance Lawyer - B. Daniel Lynch can help if you are trying to obtain a security clearance or are in danger of having your clearance revoked.
• Text Engineer offers intensive, personalized writing coaching service tailored for technical professionals.
• The Science & Engineering Encyclopedia has lots of relevant scientific and engineering information on their website.
• Tau Industries CAD & Drafting Service - detailed and assembly drawings for almost every application.
• F & L Industrial Solutions, Inc. - build anything with 80/20 aluminum t-slots. Lightweight & easily reconfigurable.
• Thomas Global Register - online industrial directory with 550, 000 industrial companies, 10, 500 product headings, suppliers from 29 countries, 10 different languages.
• EngineerSeals.com sells seals, stamps and electronic files for all states. They have products for engineers, land surveyors and architects.
• Superfactory - resources, tools, events, and communities supporting lean manufacturing excellence.
• Storming Media provides access to thousands of Pentagon reports about science, technology and policy.
• ShopMatch matches up job shops with engineers and designers seeking to create custom manufactured parts.
• SourceAuthority is an online marketplace for manufacturing - find quality suppliers & engineers.
• CCAD offers experienced drafting & design services, AutoCAD training & AutoCAD enhancements.
• AutoCAD Central offers lots of resources for AutoCAD users.
• Direct Textbook - low prices on new and used engineering textbooks.
• Realty Locator Search - Details about online real estate listings, companies and agencies.
• EngineeringReference.com - practical engineering data and tools for medical device professionals.
• MK Automation - Technology Leader for Industrial Profile Systems and modular Material Handling.
• All Metals & Forge, LLC is a ISO-9002/AS9100 Supplier of Specialty Steels, Stainless Steels, and many types of Alloys.
• Process Industries Supplier Registry - supplier directory, news, links, forums, event calendar for process industries.
• Medibix is a medical parts reference guide for medical and design engineers.
• SteelOnTheNet.com - steel industry news, opinions, classified ads, exhibitions information plus a range of price, capacity and trade statistics.
• Downtime Central is a website dedicated to exploring the true cost of manufacturing downtime.
• AZoM.com is a free access materials knowledge base and news service for the engineering, design and materials community worldwide.
• O'Donnell Consulting Engineers, Inc. offers analytical, design, testing, and technical problem solving skills to meet the needs of its clients.
• OzGrid Business Applications is a Professional Excel consultant providing services in all aspects of Excel and VBA for Excel, from remote training to custom enhancements and beyond.
• Refrigeration Engineer provides a gateway to refrigeration on the Internet.
• Canadian Wellsite is an industry directory for the Canadian oil industry.
• Subsea Oil Production Links - The subsea oil industry internet portal. Subsea equipment and company database. Industry news.
• New Standard Institute provides maintenance management consulting and technical training services to industrial clients.
• EngineeringExhibitions.com gives engineering professionals the opportunity to visit several relevant exhibitions from the comfort of their office or home ANYTIME.
• Virtual-Engineer.Net is an Engineering portal with links to suppliers, consultants, companies etc.
• Edinburgh Engineering Virtual Library (EEVL) - UK based website concentrating on UK resources
• Tannen Engineering Services is a California-based corporation offering a comprehensive range of engineering, design, development and turnkey manufacturing services.
• Marshall Engineering, Inc. is a full-service engineering firm providing Technical Personnel, In-House Design and Contract Manufacturing.
• ThomasRegional.com is a free industrial marketplace containing 550, 000 distributors, manufacturers and service companies in 6, 000 categories.
• ISO - International Organization for Standardization
• ANSI - American National Standards Institute
• MfgQuote.com is a Web-based marketplace that connects job shops with companies purchasing custom manufacturing services.
• ETL SEMKO provides testing, certification, and other services to manufacturers, importers and distributors.
• EngineerSupply.Com - Engineering bookstore, resources etc.
• ENGnetBASE is an On-Line engineering database which provides the user with essential engineering information in various engineering disciplines.
• WebBooks - the worldwide source for discount engineering books and free author assistance since 1988.
• Association of Consulting Engineers of Canada
• American Ceramic Society
• The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society
• ASM International
• The Materials Research Society
• SearchMonster is the fastest-growing web directory online!

Additional Factors Affecting Your Career

One way to assess career opportunities is to look at the size and kind of company you want to work for. In a small organization you may have several responsibilities. Restricted capital resources and the small number of employees are often balanced by the speed with which decisions can be made and by the impact of individual ideas or abilities.

In a large corporation, virtually all categories of positions are found, and there is a greater opportunity to specialize in a given area of interest. Large corporations tend to offer a larger number of training programs, greater stability, and more capital and equipment support. Larger companies tend to move more slowly than smaller companies.

Employment opportunities and career paths are affected by changes in the economy and political shifts within society. The engineering profession, like other occupations, is affected by the balance of trade, defense policies, import-export restric- tions, and investment tax policies. The quality and quantity of engineering practiced elsewhere in the world may alter the demand for your own expertise-favorably or unfavorably. As you plan your career, keep in mind that opportunities may change with the times.

An Educational Roadmap to Your Career in Engineering

Because of the diverse activities involved in engineering, technology, and technician careers, no single approach will guarantee a successful career. Prospective employers look for a wide range of characteristics. In addition to a solid technical background, employers look for such qualities as integrity, ambition, drive, organizational ability, oral and written communication skills, and interpersonal skills. Employers also seek graduates interested in expanding their knowledge and taking on advanced assignments.

Preparing for Your Career While You're Still in High School

Preparation for a career as an engineer, technologist, or technician begins in high school or even earlier. It requires strong grounding in the fundamentals of mathematics and science, with particular emphasis on physics and chemistry. An effective written and oral command of language and a basic understanding of history, culture, and current events are necessary.

You can take one of three educational paths toward a career in the electrical, electronics, or computer engineering fields:

• An appropriate Bachelor of Science or Bachelor of Engineering degree (in electrical, electronics, or computer engineering), leading to employment as an engineer; or
• An appropriate Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology or Bachelor of Engineering Technology degree (in electrical, electronics, or computer technology), leading to employment as a technologist; or
• An appropriate Associates degree (in electrical, electronics, or computer technology), leading to employment as a technician.

Typical high school requirements for entrance into these programs are shown on the chart below. Keep in mind that each institution has its own admission standards. Therefore, these are general requirements.

Some universities in U.S.A. offers an option to students in all of their graduate Master's programs to change to a "co-op" internship program after they join the university. In the "co-op" program, international students can work up to 40 hours per week in "practical training" jobs for which they are paid regular wages.

All of the internship employment positions are with off-campus American based companies in the nearby areas. Full-time employment at "regular" wages is available only for Master's students who select the "Internship" programs at these universities.

What are the programs offered? What is the location?

The programs currently offered are:

Coleman College, San Diego, California (Fee: $ 25, 000)

• MS Information Technology

Globe University, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Fee: $ 25, 000)

• Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Lincoln University, Oakland, California (Fee: $ 20, 000)

• MBA - International Business
• MBA - Financial Management and Investment Banking
• MBA - General Business
• MBA - Financial Engineering
• MBA - Project Management
• MBA - Management Information Systems

Stevens Henager College, Salt Lake City, Utah (Fee: $ 25, 000)

• Master Of Nursing Administration
• Master Of Health Administration
• Master Of Business Administration

Advantages

There are many advantages of studying a co-op program:

• Low Cost: The institutes offerering co-op courses are amongst the cheapest universities in US. The tuition fee for a graduate program is just around US $ 12, 500 per year.
  
• Fee Installments: Unlike other universities where you have to pay the tuition fee for the entire semester initially, these universities allows you to pay your tuition fee in installments..
  
• Earn & Learn scheme: In the co-op option, you can get an authorization to work for 40 hours per week in an American company outside the campus. This way you will be able to earn your living and tuition expenses by working along with your course.
  

What are the initial costs?

The total initial costs of the system are as follows:

• Amount to be paid during application:
  Application Processing fee - US $ 95

• Co-op service fee
  (To be paid once you get the offer letter)
  Co-op service fee - US $ 3500
  

What are the total expenses?

The total expenses are as follows:

• Annual tuition fee: US $ 12500 (approx.)
  (To be paid in installments)

• Annual living expenses: US $ 6000 (approx.)

	Contact our offices by phone or using the inquiry form.
	We will study your profile and give you the details. You will need a TOEFL or IELTS score. Depending on your profile, you may also need either a GRE score or a GMAT score.
	We will send you the application form and details. You will fill the same and return it to us along with all other required documents.
	You will also send us the application processing fee of US $ 95. This includes all expenses related to processing your application.
	Once the university has confirmed your admissions, we will send you a copy of the the I-20. Once you get a copy of the I-20, you need to make the co-op program service fee for US $ 3500. Once the payment is made, we will guide you for the visa process.

Know More or Apply:

Please fill the inquiry form or contact your nearest Infozee office by phone or email:

Some universities in U.S.A. offers an option to students in all of their graduate Master's programs to change to a "co-op" internship program after they join the university. In the "co-op" program, international students can work up to 40 hours per week in "practical training" jobs for which they are paid regular wages.

All of the internship employment positions are with off-campus American based companies in the nearby areas. Full-time employment at "regular" wages is available only for Master's students who select the "Internship" programs at these universities.

What are the programs offered? What is the location?

The programs currently offered are:

Coleman College, San Diego, California (Fee: $ 25, 000)

• MS Information Technology

Globe University, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Fee: $ 25, 000)

• Master of Business Administration (MBA)

Lincoln University, Oakland, California (Fee: $ 20, 000)

• MBA - International Business
• MBA - Financial Management and Investment Banking
• MBA - General Business
• MBA - Financial Engineering
• MBA - Project Management
• MBA - Management Information Systems

Stevens Henager College, Salt Lake City, Utah (Fee: $ 25, 000)

• Master Of Nursing Administration
• Master Of Health Administration
• Master Of Business Administration

Advantages

There are many advantages of studying a co-op program:

• Low Cost: The institutes offerering co-op courses are amongst the cheapest universities in US. The tuition fee for a graduate program is just around US $ 12, 500 per year.
  
• Fee Installments: Unlike other universities where you have to pay the tuition fee for the entire semester initially, these universities allows you to pay your tuition fee in installments..
  
• Earn & Learn scheme: In the co-op option, you can get an authorization to work for 40 hours per week in an American company outside the campus. This way you will be able to earn your living and tuition expenses by working along with your course.
  

What are the initial costs?

The total initial costs of the system are as follows:

• Amount to be paid during application:
  Application Processing fee - US $ 95

• Co-op service fee
  (To be paid once you get the offer letter)
  Co-op service fee - US $ 3500
  

What are the total expenses?

The total expenses are as follows:

• Annual tuition fee: US $ 12500 (approx.)
  (To be paid in installments)

• Annual living expenses: US $ 6000 (approx.)

	Contact our offices by phone or using the inquiry form.
	We will study your profile and give you the details. You will need a TOEFL or IELTS score. Depending on your profile, you may also need either a GRE score or a GMAT score.
	We will send you the application form and details. You will fill the same and return it to us along with all other required documents.
	You will also send us the application processing fee of US $ 95. This includes all expenses related to processing your application.
	Once the university has confirmed your admissions, we will send you a copy of the the I-20. Once you get a copy of the I-20, you need to make the co-op program service fee for US $ 3500. Once the payment is made, we will guide you for the visa process.

Know More or Apply:

Please fill the inquiry form or contact your nearest Infozee office by phone or email:

List of top 50 engineering universities in USA:

Computer Engineering Guide

*Some of the resources below are available both in print and online. To access online resources, you must be logged intoo the UM network with a validated library account name and password.

Encyclopedias, Handbooks & Dictionaries
Books
Computer Manuals
Journals
Indexes & Abstracts
Online Full-Text Sources
Professional Organizations
IEEE & IEE Materials
Standards
Internet Resources

Encyclopedias, Handbooks & Dictionaries

CRC Handbook of Modern Telecommunications
Online access only: http://www.engnetbase.com/ejournals/books/book_summary/summary.asp?id=460

Data & Telecommunications Dictionary
Call Number: TK 5102 .P481 1999 - shelved in lower level.

Encyclopedia of Computer Science
Call Number: QA 76.15 .E56 1993

Encyclopedia of Software Engineering
Call Number: QA 76.758 .E531 1994

Handbook of Internet Computing
Call Number: TK 5105.875 .I57 F881 2000 - shelved in lower level.

Hargrave's Communications Dictionary
Call Number: TK 5102 .H37 2001

International Handbook of Computer Security
Online access only: http://www.netLibrary.com/urlapi.asp?action=summary&v=1&bookid=46506

Newton's Telecom Dictionary
Call Number: TK 5102 .N49 1999

Thomas' Concise Telecom and Networking Dictionary
Call Number: TK 5102 .T46 2000 - shelved in lower level.

Voice and Data Communications Handbook
Call Number: TK 5101 .B3171 2000 - shelved in lower level.

NetLibrary

List of top 50 engineering universities in USA:

Online access only: http://www.lib.umich.edu/netlibrary

Books

Find books on computer engineering by doing searches in Mirlyn. A 'words anywhere' search is generally the best starting point. If an appropriate title is found, you may want to use the subject headings listed with that title to guide further searches.

For more help in using Mirlyn to find books, please see: Using Mirlyn from an Engineering Perspective.

Computer Manuals

Computer manuals are listed in Mirlyn. Use a 'words anywhere' search with the name of the program and/or platform to find manuals. Manuals provided by CAEN are available at the 2nd floor reserve desk and circulate for four hours; all other manuals are shelved in the (lower level) book stacks and circulate as normal books.

Selected Journals

UM Libraries receives the following journals in Chemical Engineering, either in print or electronic form. Electronic journals can be accessed from the Electronic Journals & Newspapers List. Use Mirlyn to identify additional journal holdings.

ACM Transactions/Journals...
Call Number: see Mirlyn Catalogs

Artificial Intelligence
Online access 1996-current
Call Number: Q 335 .A79

Autonomous Robots
Online access 1997-current
Call Number: TJ 210.2 .A97

Computers & Society
Call Number: TK 7885 .A1 C75

IEEE transactions on.5
Online access 1998-current
Call Number: see Mirlyn Catalogs

International Journal of Computer Vision
Online access 1997-current
Call Number: TA 1632 .I651

International Journal of Supercomputer Applications
Call Number: QA 76.5 .I5671

Journal of Cryptology
Online access 1996-current
Call Number: Z 102.5 .J86

Machine Learning
Online access 1997-current
Call Number: Q 334 .M15

Mathematical Programming
Online access 1999-current
Call Number: QA 264 .M43

Neural Computation
Online access 1998-current
Call Number: QA 76.5 .N42551

Pattern Recognition
Call Number: Q 327 .P32

PC Magazine
Online access 1995-current
Call Number: QA 76.5 .P11

Wired
Selected articles on website
Call Number: TK 5105.5 .W571

Indexes & Abstracts

Indexes and abstracts are used to locate journal articles, conference papers, and technical reports. Online versions are linked below:

Online Full-Text Sources

The library subscribes to many online full-text resources. Those of particular interest to computer engineers include:

Professional Organizations

Listed below are some important professional societies in Computer Engineering and their Web addresses.

IEEE & IEE Materials

Abstracts and full-text of the following IEEE & IEE materials published since 1988 can be accessed online (while on the campus network) via IEEE Xplore:

• IEEE journals, transactions, and magazines
• IEEE conference proceedings
• IEE journals
• IEE conference proceedings
• Current IEEE standards

Standards

Standards can be found using the ILI Standards Database. The Art, Architecture & Engineering Library Engineering & Related Standards page lists additional Standards information and resources.

Internet Resources

A Typical High School Curriculum to Prepare for Your Career

Bachelors Degree Program in Electrical, Electronics, or Computer Engineering or in Computer Science:

* including trigonometry and precalculus
** including chemistry and physics

Bachelor's Degree Program in Engineering Technology

Associate's Degree Program in Engineering Technology

As you can see, the typical engineering program requires more mathematics and science in high school than does the Bachelors degree program in technology or the Associate's degree program for technicians. Mathematics, science, and English form an extremely important foundation for an engineering career.

Typical College Curriculum to Prepare for Your Career

Engineering Bachelor's Degree Programs

Electrical and Electronics Engineering

*Electives may include additional technical courses in Semiconductor Device Construction, Advanced Topics in Computer Languages, Computer Architecture, Computer Construction, Communications, Microwaves, etc., depending on the interests and the size of the faculty. Topics in business and arts and sciences may also be included.

Computer Engineering

Engineering Technology Programs

Bachelor's Degree Program

Associate's Degree Program

Engineering courses require a high degree of analytical skill and the ability to handle abstract models of physical phenomena. In general, the more abstract or theoretical the course, the more condensed is the information, and the more broadly it can be applied when accompanied by fundamental concepts and common sense. Learning the theory of engineering allows you to create designs and to build models of systems. It also allows you to analyze the potential failure of systems that have already been constructed.

An electrical engineering program will usually include more mathematics and science than will technology and technician programs. The program may include electives in electronic design, communications, control and signal processing theory, solid state devices, integrated circuit design, radio wave and optical communications systems, and power generation and distribution. Mathematics courses will typically include calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, probability theory, and statistics.

The basic courses of computer engineering are almost identical to those for electrical and electronics engineering. The differences occur toward the end of the college program where the technical concentration is on computer architecture, switching theory, and computer design. You will probably find more electives in numerical methods, database design, operating systems, artificial intelligence, data communications, and voice communications.

Engineering technology programs emphasize both technical and practical proficiency. They are more likely to specialize in a particular discipline starting with the first year. They also include a laboratory experience with almost every technical course, and they usually include courses in computer-aided drafting (CAD), fabrication, software development, data acquisition, and report writing.

An electronics program may emphasize solid-state circuitry and communications, while an electrical program would offer more instruction in electrical machines, control systems, power systems, robotics, and automated manufacturing. Computer technology programs provide students with a stronger background in computer software and hardware, but still include basic circuits and electronics courses.

If you compare courses in engineering with similar courses in engineering technology, you'll find that engineering technology programs tend to be oriented to contemporary devices and systems and current technology. There is less emphasis on the underlying science and more on the here and now.

Work experience can help make educational activities more meaningful, and it often provides insight into the kind of work you will be doing after graduation. A number of universities offer co-op programs, which involve alternating education and work experience. These programs may take longer than the standard four years to complete, but many employers compensate for this with higher starting salaries. Summer jobs or internships in engineering offer alternatives to practical co-op experience and provide some of the same benefits.

Beyond a Bachelor's or Associate's Degree

Because technology is always changing, some applications and methods covered in school may not be useful or current five years later. Your education has only begun with the completion of a formal, full-time educational program. Engineering has been described as a "learning profession, " and many engineers spend several hours a week in continuing education, formally or informally.

Additional education in a broad range of subjects other than engineering may be needed in order to meet professional challenges. Such studies might include economics, finance, law, management, and the sciences. Graduate study and other forms of continuing education are activities that engineers must anticipate.

A Bachelor of Science program constitutes the full-time formal education for most engineering graduates. However, many will continue studying for a Master's degree, and those whose interest is focused on research will pursue a doctoral (Ph.D.) degree.

A Masters degree program is necessary for most advanced design, development and research programs. It generally takes from one to two years of additional full-time effort. A doctoral program typically takes three to five years beyond the B.S. degree and is of primary importance to students who wish to teach or conduct research. Doctoral programs are designed to bring a student to the frontier of knowledge in a specialized discipline and extend that frontier. In a Ph.D. program, you are expected to contribute to advancing the field through a published dissertation.

Sometimes students from Bachelor's degree programs in engineering technology want to go on to graduate programs in engineering or engineering technology. You can transfer directly from a four-year program in engineering or technology into a Master's degree program in technology. However, if you wish to go on to a graduate program in engineering or computer science, you may have to take additional undergraduate courses as required by the individual college or university.

For many technicians, the Associate's degree program fulfills the need for a formal educational experience. However, career advancement and a personal desire for more education frequently draw technicians back to pursue a Bachelor's degree in engineering or engineering technology.

Technical knowledge, management skills, and professional relationships all play a role in determining how far one advances. Additionally, common sense, an ability to relate well with people, and an ability to recognize growing fields will help your career. Some of these skills may be developed by participating in professional societies.

Membership in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) is a transnational professional society with more than 300, 000 members in over 130 countries. The world's largest engineering society, its objectives are scientific, educational, and professional.

IEEE strives to advance the theory and practice of electrical, electronics, and computer engineering and computer science. To meet these objectives, the Institute holds more than 4, 000 conferences and meetings every year; publishes 23 percent of the world's literature in electrical, electronics, and computer engineering; provides a number of ongoing educational programs; works to advance the professional standing of its members; develops worldwide standards; recognizes excellence in its fields of interest with hundreds of awards and scholarships each year; and promotes the study of the history of electrotechnology

IEEE plays an active role in accrediting engineering and engineering technology programs, as well as computer science programs. It participates in the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) by providing financial support and volunteers to serve on accreditation committees. Similar support is provided to the Computer Science Accreditation Board (CSAB). Program accreditation ensures that certain educational standards have been met.

IEEE also has a mandate to enhance the quality of life for all people through the application of technology and to promote a better understanding of the influence of technology on the public welfare. Today, IEEE is the leading source of technical informa- tion in areas ranging from aerospace, computers, and communications to bioengineering, electric power, and consumer electronics.

IEEE and Students

To foster student interest in the profession, IEEE has Student Branches in more than 500 educational institutions throughout the world. Student members have access to all Institute-wide activities and publications, plus a number of special student services. Potentials is a quarterly magazine for students that offers guidance in educational and career planning. Student Professional Awareness Conferences are coordinated by individual Branches. An Employment Guide for Engineers and Scientists offers salary information and state-by-state listings of prospective employers.

Electrical engineering has been a professional field since 1884. Since that time, technology and areas of expertise have developed to cover a wide range of services. IEEE has expanded with the field and serves members' specialized interests in:

• Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing
• Aerospace and Electronic Systems
• Antennas and Propagation
• Broadcast Technology
• Circuits and Systems
• Communications
• Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology
• Computers
• Consumer Electronics
• Control Systems
• Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation
• Education
• Electromagnetic Compatibility
• Electron Devices
• Engineering Management
• Engineering in Medicine and Biology
• Geoscience and Remote Sensing
• Industrial Electronics
• Industry Applications
• Information Theory
• Instrumentation and Measurement
• Lasers and Electro-Optics
• Magnetics
• Microwave Theory and Techniques
• Nuclear and Plasma Sciences
• Oceanic Engineering
• Power Electronics
• Power Engineering
• Professional Communications
• Reliability
• Robotics
• Social Implications of Technology
• Solid State Circuits
• Systems, Man and Cybernetics
• Ultrasonics, Ferroelectronics, and Frequency Control
• Vehicular Technology

Additional Information on YOUR CAREER in Electrical, Electronics, and Computer Engineering May Be Obtained From These Sources:

Schools of Engineering in the United States:

American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), 1818 N Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036, telephone (202) 331-3500. ASEE publishes two directories annually, one on undergraduate study and another on graduate study and research, in all fields of engineering. They may be purchased from ASEE Publications, same address and phone.

Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, (ABET), 111 Market Place, Baltimore, MD 21202, telephone (410) 347-7700. Two publications may be purchased, one listing accredited schools of engineering and the other listing accredited schools of engineering technology, covering all fields of engineering.

Scholarships, Fellowships, Financial Assistance:

Students should talk with the financial aid administrators at the schools of their choice. Special programs may be available for minority students.

Federal Student Financial Aid Information Center, (800) 333-INFO. Information on U.S. Government Assistance to undergraduate and graduate students, all fields of study. A "Student Guide Fact Sheet" may be obtained by writing to Federal Student Aid Programs, P. O. Box 84, Washington, DC 20044.

Information on IEEE related undergraduate and graduate-level scholarships, fellowships, and awards may be obtained from IEEE Student Services, P. O. Box 1331, Piscataway, NJ 08855-1331, telephone (908) 562-5523.

Minorities and Women in Engineering:

National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME), 3 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001, telephone 212/279-2626.

Society of Women Engineers (SWE), 120 Wall Street, New York, NY 10005, telephone (212) 509-9577.

Employment Projections for Electrical and Electronics Engineers:

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, "U.S. Occupational Handbook, " available in public libraries. See the section on engineering.

Employers of Electrical and Electronics Engineers:

IEEE's Employment Guide for Engineers and Scientists, Student Edition, available in some university libraries. May also be purchased from IEEE; Student Edition, $14.95 members, $19.95 nonmembers); write to Publications Sales Department, IEEE Operations Center, P. 0. Box 1331, Piscataway, N.J. 08855-1331. Includes directory of companies that employ electrical, electronics, and computer engineers.

Engineering LInks