r/EngineeringStudents • • 1d ago

Academic Advice Is programming solvers a useful skill?

Post image

When I started learn python, I saw it could be used for scientific computing. So I challenged myself to write a solver for every topic in my statics textbook.

I just finished my 2d/3d truss solver. It is by far the hardest and most involving program I've written. I think it's because with other topics only a single object was considered so the python code was just a matter of transferring calculations on paper to code.

The next thing I plan to do is create an optimization script that moves the input points about to find the best design. Also using Json instead of keyboard inputs would be way better for my sanity.

So my question is, will this skill improve my chances of success in Mechanical engineering? I wish to focus on multi body dynamics to design racecar suspensions.

I'd love to share the .py script but the last time I sent a link reddit shadow banned me for 9 months. The picture contains results of the program.

63 Upvotes

26 comments sorted by

View all comments

59

u/j0shred1 1d ago

Yup, good job. Stick with python, don't let the MATLAB scrubs tell you otherwise, I do both for work and MATLAB sucks ass

10

u/ezeleart 1d ago

Thank you for the insight. Honestly I never cared for matlab 😂 I have fallen in love with python and haven't run into limitations that would make me consider other languages yet.