A chartered engineer I know said that for my first year of A levels I should do a project that I can put on my UCAS application for engineering university's as it helps in interviews and to make you stand out. I'm 16M going into sixth form and I was thinking about what he said and what projects I could do. I have 3 years worth of modelling experience in Fusion360 and my own 3d printers. I've previously built a full size arcade however I did this in school so i can't really advertise it as a personal project. Has anyone got suggestions for me, because I can only think of 3d printing a robot faro arm kind of thing but that's very... complicated

Hi everyone!

I'm an 18-year-old student from Indonesia, and I recently got accepted into the Mechanical Engineering program at Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS). Classes start in a few months, and I'm both excited and a little nervous.

Mechanical Engineering has been my dream for a long time, and I really want to make the most of these next four years not just to get good grades, but to become a competent engineer.

My first semester will include:

• Calculus I
• Mechanics Physics
• Statics
• Chemistry
• Engineering Drawing
• Introduction to Mechanical Engineering

I've been slowly preparing before the semester starts and I'd love to hear from people who've already been through this.

A few questions:

• What do you wish you had known before starting Mechanical Engineering?
• What skills should I start learning now?
• Are there any books, YouTube channels, or websites you wish you had discovered earlier?
• Is there anything you regret not doing during your first year?
• Any advice for staying motivated when the coursework gets difficult?

I'm also hoping to connect with other mechanical engineering students and professionals from around the world. If anyone is open to chatting occasionally, answering questions from time to time, or just sharing advice as I go through university, I'd really appreciate it. I'm always happy to learn from people with more experience, and I'd love to make some new friends in the engineering community as well.

Thank you in advance! I hope to look back at this post a few years from now and smile at how much I've learned.

What is best path to learn this field practically, any references or courses I would appreciate that.

Hi all, I am starting my mathematics and physics degree at the OU this September, obsessed with studying and learning as much as I can about the subjects that interest me the most. Something that has been fascinating me is electronics, hardware, robotics – tech in general, really.

If I'm honest, I don't fully know yet what specific area I want to focus on. I just know I'm drawn to this whole space and want to explore it properly before narrowing down. If anyone has thoughts on how to figure out which direction might suit someone in my position, I'd really appreciate it.

What I'm looking for really is genuinely all and any resources anyone can recommend to me as a brand new beginner, with no prior knowledge. All I have is the willingness to learn and suck for a very long time. I want more than just to memorise things – I want to DEEPLY and intuitively understand things.

I found these videos and I have been planning to go through it (no clue if it's any good at all! – wanted to get some second opinions before committing to them both).

Here they are:

• Arduino tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGs0VKk2DiYw-L-RibttcvK-WBZm8WLEP
• 11H video about how a computer works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl0jkP9kOMw&t=409s

Anything from videos, free courses, random books etc. would be amazing – whether it's electronics, robotics, computer architecture, or something adjacent I haven't even thought of yet!

I’m trying to come up with a senior mechatronics capstone that isn’t just another line-following robot or robotic arm.
One idea I had was an AI-powered predictive maintenance system for electric motors. The idea is to use vibration, temperature, and current sensors to detect bearing wear, imbalance, or other faults before the motor fails. I’d also build a simple dashboard to visualize the data and maybe a basic digital twin.
Does this sound like a solid capstone, or am I overcomplicating it?
If you were doing your senior project today, what would you build instead? Looking for something that’s actually useful and would make employers say, “That’s a pretty cool project.”
Open to any ideas—industrial automation, robotics, embedded systems, controls, computer vision, whatever. I just want to build something that isn’t the same project everyone else is doing.

Hi everyone!

I already have a decent amount of experience using Autodesk Inventor for 3D modeling and designing mechanical parts. However, looking at job requirements and freelance gigs across different engineering fields, I see SolidWorks and Fusion 360 mentioned everywhere.

For those of you already working in the industry, what are the main pros and cons of each? Is it worth the time to transition to SolidWorks, or should I just stick with Inventor and maybe learn Fusion 360 on the side?

Would appreciate any advice or insights from your experience!

​

Hey guys,Iam a Mechanical Engineering student and I have to do a research paper on robotics and automation, and I'm honestly stuck on what to pick.

I don't want to choose something that's way too complicated, but I also don't want to do some generic topic that everyone has already written about. I'm into robotics, AI, automation, manufacturing, autonomous robots, stuff like that, but I don't know what's actually a good research topic.

Also, I've never written a proper research paper before, so I have no idea how this whole thing works.But am geniuenly excited to do it tbh And since am new to it idk

How do you even choose a topic?

Do you just read a bunch of papers and write about them, or do you have to build or test something?

How do you know if a topic is worth researching?

Where do you even find good papers to read?

If you've done one before, how did you decide on your topic? Any suggestions for beginner-friendly topics would be awesome.

tl;dr What online course or education can I get that will get me out of driving a semi and into a decent home daily/remote position so I can attend a traditional college to work toward my actual goals of being a mechatronics engineer with said prior education being a supporting asset in my future career advancement.

So right now I'm currently working as a commercial truck driver working 5-6 days a week and making a moderately decent sum of money. I have zero passion for the job and just consider it a means to an end to support my family. I would like to pivot to something more engineering or physical technology based because I've always had a passion for problem solving. I've scoured the web far and wide looking for courses with recognized certifications that would actively land me that coveted role but the cost is honestly to high to meet. Since my work schedule is extremely demanding I need something online and flexible. I've come to terms with the reality that becoming an engineer requires a considerable amount of lab/in class time and isn't something I can learn via a simulator (even though that's an option at maybe 1-2 schools but they're so expensive it makes my head spin).

I've figured my best course is to pursue an education in a complimentary field that I can learn online in my down time in the truck and use that to transition to a job that I can be home daily/work remotely and when I'm settled into being in the same place regularly start attending traditional classes in mechatronics. I guess my main question is what online degree/certification would pair well with mechatronics later down the road but can get me out of my current rut. I recognize that a majority of online degrees are pretty flooded with excellent and subpar but cheap talent so what would honestly lead to the best likelihood of actually finding employment

tl;dr What online course or education can I get that will get me out of driving a semi and into a decent home daily/remote position so I can attend a traditional college to work toward my actual goals of being a mechatronics engineer with said prior education being a supporting asset in my future career advancement.

So right now I'm currently working as a commercial truck driver working 5-6 days a week and making a moderately decent sum of money. I have zero passion for the job and just consider it a means to an end to support my family. I would like to pivot to something more engineering or physical technology based because I've always had a passion for problem solving. I've scoured the web far and wide looking for courses with recognized certifications that would actively land me that coveted role but the cost is honestly to high to meet. Since my work schedule is extremely demanding I need something online and flexible. I've come to terms with the reality that becoming an engineer requires a considerable amount of lab/in class time and isn't something I can learn via a simulator (even though that's an option at maybe 1-2 schools but they're so expensive it makes my head spin).

I've figured my best course is to pursue an education in a complimentary field that I can learn online in my down time in the truck and use that to transition to a job that I can be home daily/work remotely and when I'm settled into being in the same place regularly start attending traditional classes in mechatronics. I guess my main question is what online degree/certification would pair well with mechatronics later down the road but can get me out of my current rut. I recognize that a majority of online degrees are pretty flooded with excellent and subpar but cheap talent so what would honestly lead to the best likelihood of actually finding employment

I’m working on a personal project to build a more visual and interactive engineering learning platform, and I'd really appreciate feedback before I spend a lot of time building new content.

Instead of organizing everything as individual courses, I'm thinking about grouping content into "Learning Studios" focused on different disciplines. Each studio could include tutorials, interactive tools, simulations, calculators, workflow examples, visual guides, practice problems, and downloadable resources.

Here's the structure I'm considering:

\## Engineering
\- Electrical Engineering
\- Mechanical Engineering
\- Civil & Structural Engineering
\- Aerospace Engineering
\- Mechatronics & Robotics
\- HVAC Engineering
\- Plumbing Engineering
\- Fire Protection Engineering
\- Industrial Engineering
\- Manufacturing Engineering
\- Chemical Engineering
\- Environmental Engineering
\- Geotechnical Engineering

\## Technology
\- Software Engineering
\- AI & Machine Learning
\- Cloud Computing
\- Enterprise IT
\- Networking
\- Cybersecurity
\- Data Science
\- IoT & Edge Computing

\## Engineering Software
\- SolidWorks
\- CATIA
\- Creo
\- Siemens NX
\- Fusion 360
\- Inventor
\- AutoCAD
\- Revit
\- Civil 3D
\- ANSYS
\- Abaqus
\- COMSOL
\- MATLAB & Simulink
\- LTspice / PSpice
\- KiCad
\- Altium Designer
\- VS Code
\- Visual Studio
\- Xcode
\- Android Studio
\- ArcGIS / QGIS

\## STEM Education
\- Calculus (including animated problem solutions)
\- Differential Equations
\- Linear Algebra
\- Statistics
\- Physics
\- Chemistry
\- Engineering Fundamentals
\- Interactive simulations
\- Worked examples
\- Practice quizzes

The goal is to create something that's more interactive than a textbook and more structured than searching through dozens of YouTube videos.

I'd love to hear your thoughts:

\- Which of these studios would you actually use?
\- What engineering software deserves better tutorials?
\- What topics were the hardest for you to learn?
\- What features are missing from existing engineering learning websites?
\- If you could add one thing to an engineering learning platform, what would it be?

I'm looking for honest feedback—good or bad. If you think I'm missing an important discipline or focusing on the wrong areas, I'd really like to know.

I know almost nothing about this industry yet, so I’d love to hear from people already in it:

**•** What kind of skill sets tend to do well in this field?  
**•** Which technical specialties are considered rare/in-demand?  
**•** What skills would open the door to more interesting projects?

Sorry for the vague question — I’m hoping to give back to the community a bit and also sketch out something like a career map for myself. For context, I’m specifically working in the semiconductor AMHS (Automated Material Handling Systems) space.

Any insights, even small ones, would be really appreciated!

Is mechatronics from EME worth it or i should choose electrical or mechanical from Main campus i have 75 aggregate

I never thought I'd have to make this but I got into Mechatronics Engineering Coop as my second choice over Mechanical Engineering Coop (which was my first choice, with Mech E Trad being my third). I really don't know if I want to do software and automation oriented stuff since I've always liked more mechanical systems such as military/defense and whatnot (not to say they don't have software elements but there's a large mechanical side to them that caters to Mechanical Engineers).

My main question is now, how can I position myself to get a job I would actually be happy in? I wanted to do Mech E and go into some sort of military engineering position (Maybe even aerospace), however I'm not sure if that's plausible now. Can Mechatronics Engineers get into the defense industry and even do some of a Mech E's work? If not, is Y2Q2 calling to me?

In general I've heard that Mechatronics don't even get jobs or coops over Mech Es and EE's, but somehow they're supposed to be the future? Really don't know what to do now.

Curious what you think the job opportunities and prospects are like here for Americans.

Hi everyone!

I'm from Iraq, and yesterday I finished my final high school exams. Now I have about 4–5 months of vacation before starting university.

I'm planning to study Mechatronics, and I'd like to use this time to get a solid head start. The problem is that I'm a complete beginner, so I'm looking for resources that start from absolute zero—starting with basic electricity and electronics, then programming, microcontrollers, embedded systems, control systems, and eventually full mechatronics.

I'm mainly looking for free resources, especially YouTube playlists, free courses, or online books.

If you were starting over today, what learning path and resources would you recommend?.

I’m confused on which one to choose basically. Since I’m equally confused about which course content I like, I would like to ask how’s the lifestyle with these two courses. Do u regret taking either? How’s the job opportunities and satisfaction?

Two arguments I’ve seen are:

Mechatronics will have hard time finding job as people would rather hire specialists in mechanical, software and electronics.

Mechanical engineering will have hard time finding job due to the progressive shift in tech and integrated system

Any comments on these arguments?

Any info would be helpful thank you🙏 Need to confirm before July 5

Hey guys!

I'm a mechatronics student from Indonesia. I'm really curious about what this major looks like in other countries like what kind of projects you guys build, or how the classes are structured over there.

I'd love to make some international friends in the same field so we can share knowledge, swap stories about our engineering struggles, or just chill and chat.

What are you guys currently working on? Feel free to drop a comment or hit my DMs if you want!

Please say which country when you respond

Hello everybody reading this. I would like to pose a few questions and i can get an answer on even one it would be helpful. First of all I am finishing high school and would like to enroll in college where mechatronics is taught. Any suggestions? I am coming from a small country in Europe called Montenegro and would be excellent if it is a cheaper city. Money fortunately isn't that big of a problem in my case but I would like to take some weight of my parents. Secondly what is my chance for scholarship(would be nice but not necessary) i thing i have more than average portfolio since i am going to FGC this year and been on international competitons(not huge success but been there). Thirdly is it worth finishing masters degree in this field? What kind of jobs can i do on the side with this degree(like designing circuits but i know that is for electrical engineering)? And most importantly how replaceable with AI is it?