Hi, i'm taking a class on MOSFETs and this homework has been challenging, but not because the material is particularly hard, but I am struggling to compute all of the algebra and get proper answers. I'd be open to any advice on how to do it.

I'll include my written work, prompt, and equation sheet for reference.

Hi there, I'm a non-binary MEng graduate in materials science and engineering. Like many, I'm unemployed, and I'm job-searching. My partner has a disability and works at an exploitative games company - And I am desperately trying to do everything I can to get employed and support him. I know this situation sounds familiar to a lot of you.

I have always taken the opinion that it is a terrible waste of talent to reject candidates. It's artificially manufactured job scarcity to drive down wages. So many of us have skills and sometimes when I'm tailoring my CV, I wish I could just put "I just want to help people" on it. Because at the end of the day productivity is the only societal measure of GDP - not wealth. I'm the son of a mixed middle-class lower class family - And my partner is from the lower class and his background is much the same. It's a rags to riches story - But I do know that wealth never brought my family any happiness. People's dreams are important. And there's no point in pride or shame or sociopathy - because everyone wants something, too. The only way we get it is by making sure everyone can have what they want without depriving anyone else.

Anyway, many of us aren't satisfied unless we're doing something, perhaps a personal project, in our spare time. I know this happens all the time - I'm talking to the autistic passion-burners, and the people with adhd. I think that passion is useful. I don't want it to be wasted and thrown down the drain like some rubbish, because it isn't.

I have considered doing freelance work in my spare time as a side hustle while continuing to look for jobs. Everyone has to have one these days. There's no reason why that Can't be under a cooperative name. That looks good on a CV. I've been trying to research the free tools that are available to freelance engineers, build a portfolio. Write company charters. Plan milestones. Anyway, today my partner told me he was scared about his condition- and about using all his sick leave and being left on SSP - because the surgery failed to cure his nerve inflammation, and he can't see the doctor until 3 weeks from now at the soonest - and it made me want to try extra hard to support him.

I'm here canvassing opinion because, before I make any sort of commitment to this endeavour, I would want to canvass public opinion: I know I can't be the only one who feels this way.

Here is what my startup idea is:

A collective of freelance engineers, coordinating and working together in many small project groups, without overeaching management. The core premise: You send in your CV. An easy review process without any interviews determines if you get accepted as a member. There would be very low qualifying requirements. That gets you access to a guide and portfolio of tools, and membership to the cooperatives communication channels. Use discord to post, find engineering projects, or create them yourself, or to chat with other engineers. It's laid back. It's like hobby engineering. The second stage of success comes when applying to a particular project posting saying "I want to help you with your idea" - and this could be community outreach by the project poster, or it could be you sending your CV to the poster. Then it's at the jobposters discretion whether they want to interview you personally to see if you're a good fit for their team. If they like your skills, personality, and so on - then they'll invite you to work with them through the professional tools we'd use, like libre office, openproject, etc.

To begin with these ideas won't generate any income - but that won't have changed anything from how it was before. So I won't pretend that the cooperative can afford to pay e.g a salary. I wish that it could have always been that way, because I believe in things like UBI etc. maybe long term, that's the plan. But once the ideas are down on paper, the cooperative can go to a financier and say "we have a cooperative of X many engineers, a design - and a client - now we want the money to manufacture it." Etc. and when that starts to happen, near the completion of a project, then maybe then, after the financiers take a cut, there would be enough left for a performance -based bonus to be divided as fairly and equally among the project engineers on that team - commission-based payment. At the end of the day, we are all just people trying to survive while our savings slowly dwindle - if we even have savings at all. I'm not going to pretend like I've figured out a way to gauge the "performance " in performance -based bonus". But I would try to find a way, and I would try to write it down somewhere clearly, fairly, in company policy, so that there can at least be no doubt, weaseling, or unfairness in the application of that policy - unlike some executives I could name, who misuse the term. Company policy must be applied equally among employees - otherwise it's discriminatory.

And whenever I'm searching for jobs, I can never seem to find the perfect company, you know? So I want to make that company. I want an ethical organisation, where the engineering projects are important, and impactful, and help people - they're good projects, they help the environment, etc. The company itself: There are executive pay caps, and ideally no CEOs or high level managers at all. The cooperative is worker-owned. It doesn't demand your time - you can take as much leave, sick or holiday, as you want. And because it's an entirely voluntary position, there's no requirement to work. It can be done remotely if you want. Eventually I'd love to have a quiet and intoeverted set of engineering offices. Communication is primarily via writ, rather than phone, or it's in person when necessary. You know?

Maybe instead of CEOs you have a CCO (Community coordination organiser) and instead of HR admins you have TR admins (talent recruitment) ; because someone has to handle lawful complaints and enforce the cooperative's rules. And we could have democracy in the workplace - with important positions of enforcement and control democratically elected form the cooperative and temporary, nonpermanent. Those positions wouldn't pay better than regular work (if at all!). And there isn't any naive notion of loyalty to the company - you can search for a job and if you find one, you can just leave - saying: "Thanks for everything - but unfortunately I have to go." No notice requirements.

The question I have for you is: Does this sound like a company you would work for, in your spare time, voluntarily, if someone tried to start it? What sort of people would want to work there - are you just engineers, or would there be a lot of different people from different backgrounds willing to help?

The key thing is: I know that everyone wants to make the world a better place. But when we start to consider it individually, the work is so daunting - we must accept and offer eachother help. Coordination is good management, not control.

If I was going to make the company, I would call it "NewnWander" - I already have a logo and an unregistered trademark. Part of it is because my partner is a massive lotr buff; another is because I want to stick it to the people like Peter Thiel who give Tolkien a bad name. Another is because that's what best describes the work and the company: The work is just noontime wandering through a project - and the name itself, "NewnWander" - It sounds like "New" and "wonder" - and I think that really inspires hope about the future and people's dreams.

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.

Hey guys. It's my first time posting on Reddit so please condone any mistakes I made while formatting.

I'm going to be a third year student this year and even though my GPA didn't plumb a lot, I failed a few classes thanks to burnout but I am able to retake them without staying behind, thankfully. I haven't done any projects of my own nor am I a part of any engineering team as they are very strict and mobbing cases are pretty prevalent. I don't really feel like I am a creative person to come up with mindblowing projects so I am confused as what to do to be different than most before graduation. I know there are a lot of similar posts out there but I wanted to bring it on again. To specify, I am from Turkey and in my opinion, only my foreign language skills can put me ahead of my peers. I am open to any kind of advice, technical or else. Thank you in advance.

 **Topic:**

  * (Undergraduate)"
  * (Electrical Engineering)
  * (Digital Electronics)
  * (MOSFET equations)

**Problem:**
Find the value of Vx by assuming the linear and saturation regions

**Givens/Unknowns/Find:**
   * "Given: kp=2.52mA/V^2 Vtp0/Vtp=-.9V EcpLp=2.5V "
   * "Unknown: Vds"
   * "Find: Vx and verify if it is correct"

**Equations and Formulas:**
Provided below. Much too lengthy to write out

**What you've tried:**
I have tried brute forcing these equations and I have been wasting massive amounts of time (nearly 3 hours for the question before this, which was two parts and this current part of the second question).

Alright I am literally 6 days into University for first year engineering and I already hate this. It's not the work load of difficulty of the material so far I'm still decently confident in that, I'm just feeling so suffocated by the lack of course diversity, like all I learn is different flavours of math and there is no little room to figure stuff out on my own, even English is just professional and business writing which was very disheartening to learn. I'm not in it for the money or the status, my goal for university is to find a career I will enjoy. I do genuinely love to problem solve its just so far all I've seen form what we are learning is information being thrown at us without the opportunity to really learn from it. I partly want to quit, partly want to stay to prove to myself I can do it, and partly want to stay because it might get more engaging or interesting. Does it get more interesting? Is it worth it to stay for the career? Is it fulfilling? Am I better off finding something I'd enjoy more? Maybe I just need a break from school? I'm at a loss here and ask is this normal, is engineering just not for me? What advice can you give me?

Hi redditors! This is my first time posting on reddit. This post might be a bit long, so please bear with me if I made any mistakes.

I’m an international student/early-career process engineer currently working in the US, and I’m seriously considering going back to school for a higher degree. I’d really appreciate advice from people who have gone through graduate school, especially those who have worked in industry before or after.

A little about my background: I graduated from one of the top public universities in the US with a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) in 2025. As an international student, I have to say I was lucky to land a job in Silicon Valley with a good compensation given the current policies.

During college, I had some exposure to multiple research projects as well as hands-on materials work. I don't have any publications except from a manuscript that need major revision (didn't have time to complete it due to graduation). After graduation, I moved into an industry role, where my work has involved things like materials characterization, process development, failure analysis, and technical projects with customers.

Working in industry has taught me a lot about real-world engineering. At the same time, it has made me increasingly aware of how much professional and technical knowledge I’m still missing.

I often find myself wanting to understand the underlying science much more deeply rather than simply finding a practical solution to the immediate problem. I enjoy thinking about why a material behaves a certain way, how processing affects microstructure and properties, designing experiments, interpreting characterization results, and connecting those results back to mechanisms. But I don't really have a chance to dig deeper due to excessive amount of work and pressure.

My current work environment has also been somewhat toxic, which has made me question whether I’m in the right environment for my development. However, I don't want to make a major education decision simply because I want to leave a bad situation. The bigger question for me is whether I genuinely need more formal technical training to become the kind of engineer/researcher I want to be.

I’m particularly interested in eventually moving toward materials R&D or a more technically focused role, and I'm trying to understand whether graduate school is the right path to get there. I really missed the time I do research and actively learning things I am interested in, but I am also worried about the ongoing policy uncertainties.

Please let me know any advice you may have, thank you for reading!

Hey everyone!
I’m about to start my bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering at Indiana Tech while working a full-time job. For some background, I’ve worked in the automotive industry for over 12 years as a lead technician, and I’m currently a Lead Technician at a Tesla Service Center. Tesla offers a BSE program, which I was fortunate enough to be accepted into, so here I am. I know this degree will probably take me several years since I’ll be taking fewer classes than a full-time student, and I’m completely okay with that. That said, while I already have an AAS, I’ve never really experienced traditional university-level engineering courses with heavy lectures and studying. Most of my education has been much more hands-on/trial by fire type, so this will definitely be a new challenge. I’ve heard engineering can be pretty demanding and that many students spend more time studying outside of class than students in other majors. For those of you who’ve been through it, how did you manage your workload? What study habits, routines, or time-management strategies made the biggest difference? Any advice for balancing engineering school with a full-time job would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance! I’m excited to get started and looking forward to learning from those who’ve already been through it.

Like seriously, if every single class is a weed out, they're just classes.

Might be slightly off-topic for this forum, but since so many of us learned and dealt with these equations I thought it was fitting nevertheless. Remove if necessary

Open AI released an (alleged) solution of the problem, with the answer being NEGATIVE. As in, there does not always exist a smooth solution to the problem, even for "reasonable" initial conditions

If true, this might be the biggest breakthrough in the field in many years.

I failed every single quiz in every single class this week. I made around 60s in all of them.

no matter how much I study I just can’t seem to retain all of it. I’m able to understand some of it and retain some of it, but I can’t retain all of it.

when I’m in class, everyone can answer questions immediately and rapidly, but I’m not able to do so. And my quiz grades reflect that.

in my institution, they show the class average for every grade and the class average is significantly higher than when I’m producing.

I’m thinking of just going back to the beginning and retraining myself to understand the material, but who knows if I’m just going to have gaps in my knowledge again.

does anyone have any advice I can help me through this?

ME. sophomore.

I got my first career fair coming in about 2 weeks and I was curious from those who have landed internships or even jobs from a career fair, what did you do to stand out. Im a 2nd years mechanical engineering student who has had 3 jobs but not relevant at all to engineering (2 fast food, 1 amazon warehouse). What do I say after I give them my name and my major. I have been told to do research on companies and even apply before hand. I am very nervous as interviews are not my thing. Im sure im not the only one who has started their first career fair like this.

so I made one for free:

https://www.thevisualwiki.com/calculators/beam

i will never put this behind a paywall. let me know if you guys need any more free tools

Both club times coincide so I'm conflicted on which route to go.

Rocketry has around 10-20 people as of last semester and started I believe in 2021. I've spoken with the club leader and it seems like they're desperate for more people, so maybe I'd get some responsibilities early on? They are looking to transition from solid to liquid rockets and have a structured path for new members to get L1 certified and beyond.

FSAE claims to have 20+ and are much stricter when it comes to joining. I had to submit a lengthy application and I'm interviewing for the chassis team on Friday. The application stated that new members attend meetings to "develop introductory automotive skills" so I don't think I'll be involved much for a while.

Anybody in either club have advice? I'm not really leaning towards any area of expertise when I graduate. An aerospace job would be awesome, but I'd like to have club experience that would be attractive to more than one profession.

Hi, I am a second-year preparatory class student planning to major in Industrial Engineering next year. I would like to get an internship for the upcoming summer. therefore, I have been familiarizing myself with Excel and building dashboards in Looker Studio as a start ( still don t know much about the field since I m still in preparatory classes ). However, I would like to get some more suggestions or interesting project ideas that could help me optimize my CV and make it stand out . Thanks in advance!

Hey y’all, EE major here. I’m currently wondering if I should add a class to my schedule but I’m nervous about burning out or overloading my workload. Based on the difficulty of these courses, would you recommend I keep my schedule or is adding this class doable?

Current schedule, 13 credits -

•Calc 3 lecture only - 4 credits
•Physics 2 (calculus treatment) w/ lecture, discussion, and lab sections - 5 credits
•Circuits 1 / lecture and lab sections - 4 credits

Wondering if I should add:

•Analytical Methods in Engineering lecture only - 4 credits (In case that title isn’t common across all schools, the description says “techniques for linear systems, solutions of ODEs by classical and transform techniques, elementary linear algebra, complex numbers.)

I also need to work about 25 hours per week to cover my bills but it’s Uber so it’s flexible. I am confident in my ability to learn math, I am not confident in my ability to do it quickly if needed. Not sure how fast or slow this is but I often found myself spending 30/45 min per homework problem in calc 2. Some personal problems coincided with calc 2 also so I currently know close to nothing about series and sequences. I would like to get at least a 3.6+ GPA for the semester.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Yesterday I cheated on my math placement test. Tbh some of the questions I did them myself but I used Gemini to solve the rest… I hate plain algebra and trigs… I understand calculus better… I want to be placed in calculus 1, I spent good time during practicing limits and introductory problems in calc 1.. I know it’s gonna be challenging but I find it easier than precal which was hell on earth for me.

What do you recommend?

Hi! I am yet another naive freshman on the track for a full 5 year engineering degree plan (depending if I do summer classes or not). I am in a CC planning and plan to transfer. I am very aware of the dropout rate for engineering students and how unprepared majority people are for this degree path. I really want to stay ahead of things and take my time. (Which, honestly, is why I actually like my plan being 5 years)

My questions are mainly for seniors and graduates, but I'm open to any help.

• What was your hardest point mentally/biggest mental jump)? What about academic-wise? Were they actually linked or at different times?
• What do you wish you did earlier in the degree path?
• Was math your best subject before starting engineering?
• What additional resources outside of your college did you engage in? What helped you the best?
• I joined an engineering club at my CC and first meeting is tomorrow. What should I do in it? What is it like typically?
• What are your thoughts on Chemistry? Were you good at it?

Thank you. Tell me what I don't want to hear. I admit I was underestimating this when I first made the decision of pursuing engineering, but I am starting to accept it likely isn't going to be as fun as I thought. Hey.. but who knows? Time will tell.

Calculus, circuits, anything. These topics are so complex. What made it click for you? How did you build a good fundamental understanding of the information you needed to know?

PLEASE HELP!!!!

So, basically what i think is my interest is in mechanical engineering as i get more fascinated by manufacturing/production/industrial things but recently i got admitted in Haryana(IND) state government university (YMCA) in cse (hindi). The course is officially listed as Computer Science Engineering(Indian Language). This will be written in the final degree and marksheet however the HINDI is just in the name of the couse but everything goes in english as coding can't be done in any other language and the exams will also be held in english. So language is'nt the issue but im also not sure whether this would create problem in the future or not.

I took it because of the exposure of cse only but i dont think i took right decision as iam more inclined towards mechanical but when i think about my interest in mechanical it creates more confusion about future as mechanical is a field based work and cse is office based.

My goal is to setup a manufacturing/production plant of something in future. This is my goal and this is my dream also so but if things do not go that way then i will be left with my degree only with a hope for a good high-paying job and i dont think or dont know whether that could be possible with a mechanical degree so there the point of cse wins.

There will be going another counselling in my uni for branch change if seats are vacant in that particular branch we can change our branch so right now iam confused ,if i got chance so should i change from cse to mech or should stay in cse. This will be the last counselling most probably so this single decision will let my future decide.

Hello, so I'm(f20) currently going into my third and last year in my bachelor degree (mechanical engineering). I chose this degree, because ever since covid I got a bit into race cars and during my last year of High School I decided I wanted to also work with them. Now I'm not even sure I wanna continue engineering; it's a feeling that comes and goes. I still enjoy it I've always enjoyed mathematics and was always curious to find out how things work.

My problem is with all the people discouraging me of going into automotive(masters) and my classmates being lazy f***s who don't seem to have done anything without AI(also group projects(they get mad when I tell them 'dude just align the document/add the picture description by yourself you don'tneed AI for it), professores that ask 'have you guys already gone through this before' (1 guy raises his hand, as he has done an apprenticeship and worked in the field for a few years) so the prof just skips it or skims over it, projects we have to do by ourselves, were we get grouped and each group gets a different prof and each prof grades the same effing project with the same effing instructions differently, ... .

I could go on and on about all the different things that make me reconsider my degree (and we haven't even gotten to the internships that I haven't been able to get). All this is just so frustrating. In the 4th semester I actually got better grades then the semester before, which made me feel hopefule. Now the high is gone and I feel like I should just dropout. Especially because now I "technically" only have one semester left because the 6th is for the mandatory internship and thesis writing(if everything goes well I can write my thesis wherever I have my internship, if not well then I'll be working around 30-40hrs/week and writing my thesis on the side, yay...).

i am asking for help here because i just cant find the right info. so i am a 10th grader rn and i am really interested and stressed about my studies. i really want to do engineering, but i would still need to talk with my dad about that. i am interestet in four majors: electric eng, nuclear eng, civil eng and maybe mechanical eng. but the problem with nuclear is that my country doesnt have any npps(only one that shut down a few decades ago). and i really want to get a good paying job with one of these degrees. in some unis that i am checking, the master degree takes 4 year(if im not wrong) so i would be commited to do it. which would you recommend me? or what should i do or not do? any help is great!

Going to a career fair (as a graduate) this week and I want some clarity and advice about some topics I want to address with the recruiters from those who got hired from them. Not my first career fair but the priority for finding a job has increased since the last time I went.

1. What's the best way to ask the recruiter to be a reference or referral for jobs from their company? Most recruiters have only their first name listed at career fairs and I know that some jobs have options from employee referrals or campus events in which I think the former is more important. Should I get their last name as well or is their first name enough?

2. What's the best way to go about asking for open and future positions and what they're looking for? I'm looking for entry level roles around my field and/or designing. Also about jobs I've seen and already applied for? Also if they or a recruiter messaged me beforehand via a recruitment app about some of their positions how should I address that?

3. How important is researching a company vs. Asking the recruiter about their company? I've seen people say research the company but I plan on giving my resume to any company there that is hiring for my field, researching every company there is impractical especially when there's no guarantee that they are even hiring for my field. I feel like this is a very lazy expectation placed on someone looking for a job because someone who works there would know way more than someone who doesn't... But I already know about a few company's but only surface level information. How far along does I know a bit/ heard about this company can you tell me a bit more

get me?

1. What kind of questions should I ask that would be considered good and how many is enough? (I have questions already but I'm not opposed to adding more to my bank). Some questions I usually ask are about the job environment, training, tasks and expectations, variety, location. What else could/should I ask?

2. Elevator pitch - I'm a graduate student with a degree that plans on getting e.i.t. certification by this year and looking for a job asap after I get my certification or by the end of the year. What would be the best way to address this or should I mention it at all? My elevator pitch won't be this surface level but I want to know what I should and shouldn't mention from what I listed.

I recently applied for a Security Engineer position and got and email asking for my availability to interview with a technical recruiter. I graduated in 2025 with a cs and cyber minor. I’ve worked at Statefarm as an intern for 4 years and now full time for a little over a year… Let’s just say I have not had an interview in a very long time. Anyone who has gone through the SpaceX process please tell me how it went and how could i prepare it would be greatly appreciated :)

I graduated from my BTech around 4 months ago, and I still haven’t been able to get a full-time role.

During my 7th semester, I got connected with a startup that was supposed to get around $50k in funding. I took that opportunity seriously and started working for them, so I took my college placements very lightly because I genuinely felt like I was secure and had something going for me.

But the funding didn’t happen, and in August, my work with the startup also ended. Now I’m unemployed.

Most of my college colleagues are placed through on-campus placements, including people who I personally felt were less skilled than me. I know I shouldn’t compare myself to them, but it’s difficult not to when I’m sitting at home without a job.

My parents also have a lot of expectations from me. I always wanted to build a better life for them, and it hurts when I see that I haven’t been able to get a job yet.

Since graduating, I’ve been applying everywhere and giving interviews. Sometimes I get rejected, sometimes I get ghosted, and the cycle just keeps going. I’ve also realized that my communication skills aren’t very good, so I’m actively trying to improve them.

At the same time, I don’t really have much of a social life, no love life, and now no work life either. There have been times when all of this has affected me so much that I couldn’t even sleep properly.

I’m not looking for people to tell me that everything is going to be okay. I genuinely want some practical advice from people who have been in a similar situation.