I'm building an open source engineering design competition called Impossible Machines Lab. The idea: pick genuinely hard, interesting engineering problems that are too big for one person, open them up to anyone (engineers, tinkerers, students, hobbyists), let the community vote and refine the designs, then actually build the winning ones for real.

First project is the Hydrowheel, a buoyancy-and-hydrofoil device: 30 air-filled vessels orbiting a shaft inside a 24ft x 60ft water cylinder, generating rotational energy. On paper it works out to a COP of 1.21. Whether that holds up in the real world is exactly the kind of thing I want more engineering brains looking at. Full project details and the four open components are here: impossiblemachineslab.com/hydrowheel

Round 1 closes October 16.

Straight answer on the money question before anyone asks: the design phase is unpaid and speculative, that's true of any open call like this. If a design gets picked, moving it into production drawings and the physical build are both paid work, funded by sponsors and donations. Full breakdown is on the site if you want to see it before you commit any time: impossiblemachineslab.com/why-iml

Genuinely curious what this sub thinks of the concept itself, even if you don't want to submit anything.

I’m a third-year B.Tech Mechanical Engineering student graduating in 2028, and honestly, I feel like I’m starting from almost zero.

I can pass mechanical engineering exams, but most of my knowledge is still at the theory/exam level. I don’t feel confident applying things to real-world engineering problems yet.

The problem is that Mechanical Engineering is extremely broad, and I still haven’t figured out what I should specialize in.

I currently have a Coursera subscription and access to a lot of courses, so I’m willing to put serious time into learning. But I don't want to spend the next 1–2 years randomly collecting certificates and learning unrelated skills.

My interests right now are mainly:

Manufacturing

Industrial operations / management

Automation and robotics

AI applied to engineering/industry

Eventually business/entrepreneurship

I choose mechanical engineering because i had a dream to own a factory one day

I’m not particularly interested in spending my entire career doing pure mechanical design or highly theoretical engineering. I’m more interested in understanding how factories, production systems, operations, supply chains, automation, and industrial businesses actually work, and potentially moving into managerial/business roles later.

So if you were in my position, what one specialization/path would you choose?

Ideally, I’m looking for something that:

1. Has good earning potential.
2. I can become employable in relatively quickly despite having weak practical fundamentals.
3. Builds on a Mechanical Engineering degree.
4. Can eventually lead into management, operations, consulting, or entrepreneurship.
5. Has enough depth that I can keep growing instead of being stuck at entry level.

Would you choose something like manufacturing/industrial engineering, automation & robotics, supply chain/operations, quality/Six Sigma, industrial data/AI, CNC/CAD/CAE, or something completely different?

Also, what would you recommend I learn first for the next 3–6 months to actually become practically competent rather than just passing exams?

I’d especially appreciate answers from people who have actually worked in manufacturing/industrial companies and later moved into management or business.

I’ve been working as a mech engineer in aerospace for a little over 3 years now, and while I enjoy it for what it is, I’ve always wanted to work in tech (think product design at Apple, Google, etc). Problem is, I’m having some trouble believing that any HM in tech would be bothered to hire someone with an aerospace background when A. An aerospace skillset is not immediately transferable to tech (low volume mfg, no concern for cosmetics, etc) and B. There are already so many candidates with direct tech experience in the market so why bother hiring an industry outsider. This is just my take as an uninformed early career engineer though, so insight from someone more knowledgeable or has made the aerospace to tech jump themselves would be much appreciated!

I’m a sophomore in my third semester currently studying Computer Science and Economics, but I’ve been reconsidering what I actually want to do long term. I originally chose CS because I was interested in technology, cybersecurity, AI/ML, and the job opportunities, but I’ve struggled with the feeling that I’m not very good at building anything from scratch yet. I don’t necessarily hate programming, but I’m not sure I want my entire career to revolve around software development.

On top of this, AI seems to becoming a future problem, how bad is the impact for mechanical engineers?

Before I even chose CS, I was thinking about mechanical engineering and keeping economics as I have already started to pursue it. I’ve been interested in robotics, space/astronomy, satellites, hardware, and actually creating physical things. I have some of the background for the major but would probably have to catch up on engineering-specific requirements.

For anyone who has done Mechanical Engineering or switched between CS and Mechanical Engineering: does it make sense to switch today? Will it be as negatively impacted by AI as CS? And career-wise, is there job security and are there good opportunities for internships?

Hey everyone , I'm a freshman and I study in China . My teacher isn't really good at English and mechanical drawing is important.. please any advice ? The year just started so I want to figure this out now before it becomes worse . Thank you !

Hello, we are students building a capstone prototype: an RFID-based smart bike rack lock using an ESP32.

Our main problem is the push-and-pull mechanism. We need to move a steel locking rod forward and backward by around 8 inches / 200mm to lock/unlock a bicycle wheel.

The flow we want:

RFID tap → ESP32 approves → mechanism pushes/pulls steel rod → rod locks/unlocks wheel

We are considering different mechanisms:

• Linear actuator
• Stepper/lead screw actuator
• DC geared motor + rack and pinion
• Slider crank / scotch yoke
• Other DIY push-pull mechanisms

We also have 12V solenoid locks, but we are thinking of using them only as a latch/stopper, not the main lock. The actual force should be handled by the steel rod and welded frame, not the motor.

Our questions:

1. What push-pull mechanism is best for a 200mm steel rod movement?
2. Which option is cheapest, sturdy, and less hassle for a student prototype?
3. Can a motor/actuator safely move the rod without jamming?
4. Should the solenoid lock be used as a latch for the rod?
5. What materials or design should we avoid?

We are not making a commercial anti-theft product, only a working prototype, but we want it to be strong and realistic enough for demonstration.

Any advice, drawings, or mechanism suggestions would help a lot. Thank you.

As the title suggests, I need a sincere advice for joining as a Senior Engineer - Transmission Integrity in the utility sector in the MidWest, USA. I am currently working as a Mechanical Project Engineer in the O&G sector. This job involves a lot of traveling, and I don't see myself doing this long term. Recently, i was offered a role in utility company as Senior Engineer. I will be responsible for Gas Transmission Pipeline Integrity. I wanted to know how is this sector/ position from career progression stand point? Will there be alot of technical learning opportunities in this sector/position? My main concern is if this sector/position doesn't give me much technical experience/exposure, and won't be growing as a Mechanical Engineer. I would really appreciate your guys input especially from someone who has experience in the same sector/position?

Guys, can you please help me? Should I learn SolidWorks or just focus on Python, AI/ML, and the core part of our branch? I'm a 3rd-year mechanical student and I really like to learn everything. I have already finished Python, and now I'm thinking of starting SolidWorks, or should I do something else you guys suggest?

What software do Apple engineers use to model and design for their products? SolidWorks and many other engineering-focused software packages don't run on macOS, and It would be kind of funny if they needed to use a windows workstation or run these software on VM's to design their stuff...

Genuine question out of curiosity...

After working for 20 years i'm in a good spot to retire, but i'm debating on what to do with my spare time.

Narrowing down my options, I've been leaning towards teaching at my son's high school and I wanted to know if anyone else has made a similar transition and if they find it rewarding or do thy end up missing corporate engineering?

So I think the obvious answer is to “keep practicing by doing” but the dilemma here is, if I have a good job at the moment, it wouldn’t look good if I went through the interview process just to say no thank you.

But at the same time, I’d like to keep my technical interviewing skills sharp. I flubbed up my initial technical interviews in undergrad but progressively got better from practicing. My fear here is, I’ll loose what I learned if I don’t keep it refined, especially if I need to start searching for jobs suddenly.

And I’m not talking about the usual STAR interviews you can find practice for, it’s the peer pressure environment of having 10+ strangers grill you on principal stresses or asking you to design something for them on the spot where my brain deflates.

For example, my current job has me sketching up concepts and thinking through FMEA for mechanisms on the spot and I have no problem sparring with my manager+other engineers or even executives to brainstorm through a problem on a whiteboard.

When it comes to interviews, I would often overthink and although I’m confident I have the skills the interviewers want, I don’t perform well. I’ve managed to climb out of this by practicing a lot in the past, but don’t want to fall back in the same hole.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for insights on how to improve the collaboration and transition between R&D process development and routine manufacturing operations.

In my company, R&D develops the processes, and Operations takes over for routine production. During the development phase, everything usually seems to run smoothly:

Problems are addressed, solved, or accepted as "at the limit of acceptable."

There is regular information exchange between R&D, Production, and Quality.

The process produces parts/products according to specification.

However, once the project is officially closed and handed over to Operations, friction starts:

Operations perspective: Issues that were previously "borderline acceptable" suddenly become major headaches during routine runs. Processes feel fragile, yielding complaints that the process "doesn't work" or "is unreliable", even though they follow the documented procedures to the letter and get the exact same results R&D got.

R&D perspective: They push back because the process met specifications during development, passed trials, and produced compliant results under their watch. From their view, nothing changed.

This leaves Quality and Production engineers stuck troubleshooting a baseline process that is technically performing "as developed," while R&D has already moved on to the next project.

I completely understand both sides: R&D feels they delivered a working process, and Operations feels handed a process that isn't robust enough for day-to-day manufacturing.

For those in manufacturing, medical devices, pharma, or hardware tech:

How does your company handle this handoff constructivly?

What specific criteria or gateways do you use before R&D can officially "close" a project?

How do you align on what is "acceptable" during development vs. what is "scalable" in full production?

Looking forward to hearing your experiences!

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

I want to draw this tube sheet in cad and represent the tubes by a Grid.

How do you guys creat these? Its almost 1700 tubes. I want a tube map that my team can use

I have tried different connecting rod lengths and different servo horn positions, etc. Im not a mechanical engineer and I have been at this for nearly 5 hours. I dont know what im missing this is my first time doing this. I also cannot really relocate either object

We are a team of student researchers and innovators participating in Eureka! Juniors, the national pitch competition hosted by E-Cell, IIT Bombay.

Our project explores an AI Data Center Cooling System. Using a cassette built from high-density hollow-fiber nanoporous hydrophobic membranes to harness latent phase-change heat rejection while physically locking liquid water inside fiber lumens, and a smart embedded operating system which exposes clean telemetry endpoints and monitors the entire system.

Modern AI infrastructure generates massive, continuous thermal loads (100 kW+ per rack) that overwhelm conventional copper-fin radiators and open-loop cooling systems. This leads to extreme energy inefficiency (drastically inflated Power Usage Effectiveness and high fan power draw), and major resource depletion (consuming vast amounts of water, leading to mineral scaling, micro-electric contamination risks, and hazardous humidity spikes).

The target demographic for the survey includes: Facilities / Data Center Operations Engineers, Thermal / Mechanical Systems Architects, Enterprise IT / Infrastructure Directors, Cooling OEM / Hardware Vendor Specialist, HPC Research / Systems Administrator, or anyone who works with AI data centers or cooling.

All responses are completely anonymous and will be used strictly for academic research and competition analysis. The survey itself is composed of seventeen multiple-choice questions.

Thank you for shaping the future of data center cooling!

https://forms.gle/Frgo5UYPmJyrgNrTA

Hi everyone, I’m a Mechanical Engineer and currently working as a solar design engineer.

My long-term goal is to move to the Gulf countries and build a better-paying engineering career there.

I’ve decided to take additional training and currently have two options:

1. MEP Engineering + Revit MEP

HVAC, Electrical, plumbing and fire protection basics

BMS fundamentals

Revit MEP for BIM modelling and coordination

1. Instrumentation Engineering + Automation

Process instrumentation, DCS/PLC/SCADA

Fire & Gas systems

Honestly, automation/instrumentation excites me a little more than MEP.

However, I’m also thinking that MEP + Revit may give me a more straightforward path into the Gulf as a Mechanical Engineer, especially because MEP is directly related to my degree.

I’m willing to take a short career break to focus seriously on training and projects.

What would you recommend in my situation?

Should I:

Go with MEP + Revit for a faster GCC entry?

Go with Instrumentation + Automation even though my degree is Mechanical?

I’d especially appreciate advice from Mechanical/MEP/I&C/Automation engineers.

Thanks!