Question Answer submitted by:Panadda Marayong

Hi Na Huang! Glad to talk to you! Coming from Asia myself, I totally understand your concern. :) When I first told my parents that I wanted to go into mechanical engineering, they thought of the same thing, i.e. working with cars and lots of heavy machinery. Mechanical engineering is a very wide field with many disciplines. There is a lot more to it than most people think. Automotive and machine designs are a few examples but that's not all mechanical engineers do. I myself work with robots for medical applications. There are mechanical engineers who work in fluid dynamics, heat transfer, mechanics of materials, dynamics and controls, etc. In many cases, the work they do involves mainly simulations and designing software. As an undergraduate student, you will get to explore all these core mechanical engineering areas. I think having my background in MechE provided me with a very good foundation to transfer to another engineering discipline if I wanted to. There will definitely be some design aspects, which may involve working with machinery, making your own parts in the machine shop, etc. You may think of that as men's work, however, I think what is more important is whether it is something you would enjoy doing. I think at the end, that's all that matters. If you like it, don't be afraid and go for it! Who says women can't get their hands dirty? :) -Nim