Types of Engineering

From the ancient cities of Mesopotamia to the Curiosity rover roaming on Mars, engineers have played an important role in shaping the world as it is today. As it includes diverse parts of our lives, engineering can be categorized into six core engineering disciplines – electrical, civil, mechanical, chemical, aerospace, and biomedical engineering.

However, the world of engineering is ever-growing and evolving, so numerous specialized engineering fields are emerging to fulfill societal needs for transportation, housing, energy, medicine, and beyond. In the vast engineering field, you’ll find countless career opportunities encouraging problem-solving, innovation, and creativity. Get ready to explore the different types of engineering, what they do, and how to choose the right engineering path for you. 

What is Engineering?

Engineering concerns the application of mathematics and science to solve problems and design, test, build, and improve structures and systems and solve problems. Engineers are responsible for applying discoveries made by scientists and making them available to the world.

As our societal needs evolved with time, so have the types of engineers and what they do. Various engineers specialize in different areas, such as civil engineers who work on infrastructure projects like roads, bridges, tunnels, dams, etc., or aerospace engineers who design and manufacture aircraft and spacecraft. So, it’s more than likely that engineers were involved in making the phone you use, the house you live in, the street you walk on, and other essential products.

Understanding the diverse types of engineering is crucial for students, career seekers, and anyone interested in the field, as it gives you a clear picture of how the world works and how you can align your interests and skills to contribute to advancing the field.

Core Engineering Disciplines

Engineering entails scientific and technological branches that involve designing and developing structures, products, or machines. Therefore, it is a diverse field with numerous disciplines, subdisciplines, and specialties. Here are the six core engineering disciplines. 

Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering is concerned with studying and designing equipment that uses electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. Electrical engineers focus on electrical-powered technology, from microchips to power station generators. They also design, develop, monitor, and test electrical equipment, machines, devices, and systems.

The electrical engineering field is divided into several subfields: power engineering, control engineering, telecommunications, computer engineering, electrophysics, signal processing, microelectronics, and electromagnetics. Electrical engineering has a broad spectrum of applications in robotics, energy systems, avionics, renewable energy, power generation, and more. 

Civil engineering

Civil engineering involves designing, constructing, and maintaining structures like city and country infrastructure and naturally built environments. Civil engineering infrastructure projects include bridges, airports, canals, pipelines, railways, sewage systems, buildings, and airports. 

Civil engineers apply environmental, structural, constructional, or geotechnical principles to plan and construct infrastructure projects. Moreover, they analyze plans, survey reports, and maps related to project design; prepare cost estimates for equipment, materials, and labor; oversee surveying to establish building locations; and manage the construction or repair of buildings and infrastructure. 

Mechanical engineering

Mechanical engineering is an engineering discipline responsible for designing and producing specific devices and machines such as vehicles, weapon systems, turbines, and farm machinery.

Mechanical engineers combine the principles of thermodynamics, materials science, and mechanics and their applications so that designs function safely and are efficient and reliable. Moreover, they work on various machine and device projects ranging from the smallest components, like sensors and switches, to large systems, like satellites.  

Chemical engineering

Chemical engineering is a significant engineering discipline that focuses on the practical applications of chemistry to procure and develop products through chemical processes. This discipline is so important because it covers a wide range of industries like cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food production, petroleum, and more. Chemical engineers design equipment, systems, and processes for refining raw materials to make commercially viable products. 

Aerospace engineering

Aerospace engineering is among the newer disciplines and focuses on designing, developing, and testing aircraft and spacecraft-related systems. This discipline includes topics like propulsion systems, materials science, and aerodynamics.

Aerospace engineering encompasses aeronautics (aircraft) and astronautics (spacecraft). Aerospace engineers design and develop various types of aircraft (commercial airplanes and military jets) and propulsion systems (jets and propellers) and work on improving navigation, communication, and control systems. On the other side, aerospace engineers also work on designing spacecraft for satellites, probes, and human-crewed spacecraft and developing and optimizing rockets and launch systems. 

Biomedical engineering

Biomedical engineering focuses on designing and creating medical equipment, devices, and systems. Biomedical engineers work on developing technologies to improve healthcare, such as medical imaging devices, prosthetic limbs, and artificial organs. Biomedical engineers combine science with engineering principles to design and create computer systems, software, equipment, and medical devices to improve human health. For example, they might design computer simulations to test new drug therapies or design rehabilitative exercise equipment. 

Emerging and Specialized Engineering Fields 

Environmental engineering

Environmental engineering is considered a sub-discipline of civil engineering that aims to address environmental challenges through the application of engineering principles. It combines knowledge from biology, chemistry, geology, ecology, hydrology, hydraulics, microbiology, and mathematics to improve the quality of the environment. Moreover, it focuses on developing sustainable solutions for problems like pollution, waste management, climate change, air and water quality, soil health, and toxic materials control.

Environmental engineers collaborate with architects and planners to create eco-friendly infrastructure, from utilizing renewable energy sources to incorporating green building practices. Environmental engineering also advocates for the responsible use of resources and strives to assess and mitigate environmental risks. 

Software engineering

Software engineering is an engineering branch that focuses on creating effective and reliable software products and applications through engineering principles and programming language knowledge. Software engineers are responsible for employing engineering principles and computer science knowledge to create, design, develop, and test end-user applications.

Although the field focuses on different aspects, key components are programming and software development. Programming involves using programming languages to create functional applications. Software development consists of creating, designing, and testing different software applications.  

Materials engineering

Materials engineering is an interdisciplinary field that applies basic principles of physics and chemistry to understand the structure and properties of different materials. This engineering field investigates the properties of existing materials and substances, researching and discovering materials to develop new materials with enhanced physical and chemical properties and understand why some materials fail. It aims to optimize the properties of materials through processing and structure modification to use them for real-world applications. 

Materials engineers work with metals, alloys, polymers, ceramics, glasses, composites, and electronic and magnetic materials. Materials engineering has also included nanomaterials like graphene and carbon nanotubes, 3D printing materials, and biomaterials like artificial tissue and surgical mesh in recent decades.

In response to environmental concerns, material engineers are also focusing on creating sustainable materials and processes to minimize environmental impact. 

Nuclear engineering

Nuclear engineering is a subdiscipline of energy engineering that focuses on studying the principles of nuclear physics and radiation processes and their application to design and operate nuclear processes and technologies. It encompasses the design of new systems, maintaining new systems, or researching ways to improve the efficiency and stability of nuclear plants.

Nuclear engineering also has an important use in healthcare for medical imaging and radioactive drugs. Nuclear engineers harness nuclear power through processes like nuclear decay, fusion, and fission. These processes release large amounts of energy, which can harm the population if the necessary safety considerations aren’t met. 

Robotics and automation

Robotics and automation is a field of engineering that focuses on designing and creating robots and utilizing computers to manipulate robot actions. Moreover, it combines mechanical, biological, electrical, computer, and software engineering principles and knowledge.

Robotics and automation engineers have been making our lives easier by maintaining, repairing, building, and developing new models for machines and vehicles. They also design engines, enhance safety features, and optimize performance.

In recent years, robotics and automation have found a rise in interest and demand in many industries, such as construction, shipping and packaging, transportation, manufacturing, logistics and storage, harvesting, cleaning and hygiene, and beyond. 

Choosing the Right Engineering Path

If you’re interested in joining the engineering field, you can find many opportunities in diverse industries such as construction, healthcare, renewable energy, research, IT, etc. As there are various types of engineering, there are a few things you should consider before choosing the right path for you, such as:

• Personal interests: Identify which aspects of engineering excite you and understand where your passion lies.
• Skills: Assess your strengths and abilities. For example, electrical engineering might be right for you if you excel in mathematics and problem-solving. On the other hand, environmental engineering might be better for you if you have an aptitude for researching and analyzing scientific data. 
• Employment prospects and demands: Due to technological advancements, increased construction, and societal needs, fields like civil engineering, environmental engineering, and software engineering are growing in relevance and demand, which can affect your long-term career prospects.

Educational and career pathways

The minimum academic requirement to become an engineer is earning a bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline or related field. An engineering degree will arm you with the knowledge and skills to perform the designing, testing, and calculations required in most engineering careers. Usually, it involves coursework related to mathematics, science, technology, and specialized courses depending on the type of engineering.

For example, a degree in chemical engineering covers courses like thermodynamics, process systems, techniques for separation of materials, etc. However, your educational journey doesn’t have to end there, as a master’s degree in engineering can help you advance your knowledge in the field, develop specialized skills, and lead to a higher salary.

Another requirement to become an engineer is taking the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) and Principles and Practice of Engineering (PE) exams to become a licensed engineer.

The fruits of finishing an engineering degree are the vast career opportunities and growth potential. Different engineering disciplines and specializations offer many government and private sector job opportunities. Besides, engineers can work in a wide range of fields, such as energy production, construction, aerospace, electrical systems, and more.

According to BLS data, engineering occupations are estimated to grow faster than the average, with about 188,000 openings projected yearly. The critical factor contributing to the high demand for engineers is the need for skilled professionals as technology, energy, and automation advance rapidly.

Furthermore, the urgency of developing sustainable practices and structures highlights the need for various engineers to collaborate and find solutions to minimize pollution and waste. 

What Salary can you earn with an Engineering Degree?

Although working as an engineer has its challenges, it also tends to pay well regardless of the field. Owing to the fact that engineers play a crucial role in the advancement of technology, construction, machinery, and overall society, the demand for different types of engineering jobs is on the rise. Here is the average salary and projected employment growth for different kinds of engineers. 

• Electrical engineer:
  • Salary: $104,610
  • Job outlook: 5%.
• Civil engineer:
  • Salary: $89,940 
  • Job outlook: 5%
• Mechanical engineer:
  • Salary: $96,310 
  • Job outlook: 10%
• Chemical engineer:
  • Salary: $106,260 
  • Job outlook: 8%
• Aerospace engineer:
  • Salary: $126,880 
  • Job outlook: 6%
• Biomedical engineer:
  • Salary: $99,550 
  • Job outlook: 5%
• Environmental engineer:
  • Salary: $96, 530 
  • Job outlook: 6%
• Software engineer:
  • Salary: $124,200 
  • Job outlook: 25%
• Materials engineer:
  • Salary: $100,140 
  • Job outlook: 5%
• Nuclear engineer:
  • Salary: $122,480
  • Job outlook: 1%
• Robotics and automation engineer:
  • Salary: $101,639 
  • Job outlook is  estimated to be faster than average than all occupations. 

Conclusion

The diverse engineering landscape, with each field representing an essential block to building a functional society, is a testament to human innovation and the need to solve problems, from the solid foundations laid by civil engineering to the intricate applications of software engineers. Therefore, a career in engineering can be a promising and exciting opportunity to shape the world.

Choosing the right path for you can become overwhelming with the diverse core disciplines and the numerous emerging and specialized engineering fields. Therefore, as you dive into the myriad opportunities engineering offers, keep in mind to go where your interests and skills align best. So, let the diverse wonders of engineering propel you to a future filled with discovery and impact.