Engineering in the UK

[doodab]

I am thinking of doing an OU degree. I fancy studying electronic engineering, perhaps with some more basic physics as well.

Primarily I want to do this for my own satisfaction but I'm wondering do people think this is likely to be beneficial to my "career"?

[Gonzo]

I am thinking of doing an OU degree. I fancy studying electronic engineering, perhaps with some more basic physics as well.

Primarily I want to do this for my own satisfaction but I'm wondering do people think this is likely to be beneficial to my "career"?

One Uncle of mine studied Electronic Engineering during the Seventies.

He made a very good living out of it during the Eighties.

He still gets work but it has been more of a struggle for him since then.

[xoggoth]

Low paid compared to commercial stuff. I'm always amazed at the rates some people say they get on here.

[northernladuk]

The problem with the OU is that a lot of the stuff doesn't get updated that regularly so content wise is utter poo. The maths 101 is still done by a guy in brown cords, thick glasses and a bushy beard but then maths hasn't really changed so fair enough.

I did the communicating technology course (can't remember course number) and we learnt the differences between VHS and Betmax and how they worked, we had to explore how to investigate technical differences to meet requirements using an example of a Hi 8 video camera and in the weekend shool had to demonstrate we had learned presentation techniques using an overhead projector and sliding a page down to reveal the next topic.

It was a joke and of no use to man nor beast. They did update it a year later I believe.

I did the computer aided design course and used a package that had no 3D capability but was I was teaching Acad R14 and AEC 3D + 3DSMAX at the time. It was just awful.

Maybe, if you catch the course as soon as it is released it may help but don't think for a minute you are going to get any cutting edge information from the OU.

[craig1]

A lot of the OU's Engineering courses have been revamped and I'm seriously considering making the jump this year as from 2012 the substantially higher fees kick in for new starters.

[OwlHoot]

Why not get into robotics? I think it involves a fair amount of modern maths, such as the use of Grobner bases for expressing limb movement equations in tractable forms, for efficient real-time computations. But robots are where the action will be in a few years.

[doodab]

Why not get into robotics? I think it involves a fair amount of modern maths, such as the use of Grobner bases for expressing limb movement equations in tractable forms, for efficient real-time computations. But robots are where the action will be in a few years.

Yes I'd quite like to build a robotic arm.

[Paddy]

I am thinking of doing an OU degree. I fancy studying electronic engineering, perhaps with some more basic physics as well.

Primarily I want to do this for my own satisfaction but I'm wondering do people think this is likely to be beneficial to my "career"?

Three of my friends, two of whom are old school mates have their own electronic companies. All three were self taught and have no formal qualifications.

[doodab]

Like the one on the Big Bang Theory?

You're Howard, aren't you?

I have to confess I've never seen it. Is it good?

[doodab]

Three of my friends, two of whom are old school mates have their own electronic companies. All three were self taught and have no formal qualifications.

Do they manufacture things?