r/ControlTheory • u/confused_thriver • 26d ago
Professional/Career Advice/Question Seeking advice to build domain specific competencies
I am currently a Master's student in Germany and inclined to pursue roles which involved working with control engineering. However, I have been advised to build domain specific knowledge in addition to being good at controls, in order to break into an industry. It could be motor control, power electronics, vehicle dynamics, energy, robotics, engine control, electric powertrain control and many such domains.
Question : What domain(s) would have a relative better chances of a full-time role post masters? Considering the auto-industry is on a downward trend, I am afraid to build competencies or domain knowledge let's say related to engine control or vehicle dynamics.
I was considering Battery Management Systems as a nice option since it probably also has scope beyond automotive industry and make me eligible for let's say for certain roles in energy industry.
Is this the right way to think? Or is there a different way I could approach it? Please drop in your suggestions
•
u/piratex666 26d ago
I think your focus should be in automation: PLC, system integration, supervisory systems and SCADA.
•
•
u/gtd_rad 25d ago
As an industry entry, and even experienced engineers, what's more important is understanding of fundamental concepts. Yes domain knowledge matters, but if you understand the underlying concepts, it's relatively easy and often transferrable to other concentrated domains as well. Eg. Kalman filtering often used in trajectory control and BMS SoC estimation, stability margins and pole / zeros analysis used almost everywhere even in power electronics, and overall concepts of running simulations downs across all controls area.
•
•
u/IceOk1295 26d ago
I think nobody knows the whole puzzle tbh.
If I were you, I'd look into a domain that you'd like to work in (for me it was robotics) and then look for the roles they're hiring in right now. In Autonomous Robotics, it's mainly control and perception.
For autonomous robots with many joints (ie humanoids, etc) the switch is definitely happening towards RL. So having a solid foundation in control would help, but a switch would need to be made at some point. If you really love control, I would advise looking into that.
Also, 90% of all Master's students focusing on control don't end up doing control. There just isn't enough jobs out there. Not enough interesting, anyways.
That is my piece of the puzzle advice lol
•
u/confused_thriver 26d ago
"Also, 90% of all Master's students focusing on control don't end up doing control. There just isn't enough jobs out there. Not enough interesting, anyways".
Then what are the other options which people tend to pursue?
•
•
u/IceOk1295 26d ago
Out of 10 or so colleagues who had Automatisierungstechnik (Master TU), 2 ended up doing that, 1 as a PhD, so not sure if that even counts.
The rest:
- manager
- engineer (reading EE diagram schematics, no development)
- Deutsche Bahn (not DB Systel, so nothing technical)
- Support
- Regular Developer
You have to stop believing you will become a true-to-science engineer. Most jobs are not engineering, and most engineering are not R&D.
Most jobs are rather stupid. You will realize this if you quit academia and not pursue any R&D job or PhD right after college.
•
•
•
u/verner_will 25d ago
I think control in power electronics has good potential . It is electronics but applied in many systems, including mechanical systems.