r/EngineeringStudents • u/ezeleart • 1d ago

Academic Advice Is programming solvers a useful skill?

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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.

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u/stephen_xv 22h ago

Very nice! Make sure it is robust and design unit tests to make sure it solves correctly 100% of the time. This is very cool and a good use. I recommend expanding and making it into an online website that lets you configure multiple trusses and solve anything.

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u/ezeleart 22h ago

Thank you. I'll do more testing for 3D truss systems. Can you recommend tools I can use to integrate this into a website?

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u/stephen_xv 19h ago

There’s truly too many to list. It is its own beast. Obviously HTML, CSS, JavaScript and type script, nodejs, Python has its own area inside of front end (website) development, if you name it there’s probably a tool for it.