|
A: FROM MENTOR DEBORAH GRUBBE IN LONDON
Chemical engineers do many, many different things! We are involved in making make-up, to making food, to making gasoline for cars and planes, to making special kinds of fabrics, to putting the stretch in your bathing suit, to making tires for bikes and cars, to making toothpaste and perfume, and in making paper and inks. Chemical engineers make toys, make the things that computers are made of, make all sorts of plastics and polymers, make the windshield in the car not break, and I could go on and on. Chemical engineers do the following kinds of work: research, development, design, construction, operations, manufacturing, sales, marketing, safety and environmental. It is truly a career that has no bounds. Chemical engineers become lawyers, doctors, professors, and high school teachers. They own their own businesses and they work for companies. They can work in one place or travel all over the world! Chemical Eng! ineering is exciting and two careers are never identical!
Your chemical engineering career can be what you make of it!
********************
A: FROM MENTOR WANDA RITCHIE IN MA
Tajkia, it's likely that you have more time than you may realize to explore
different engineering fields. Many colleges, universities and technical
schools focus on core engineering course during the first three or four
semesters of an Engineering curriculum. During your first couple of years,
you will study math, physics, chemistry, basic circuits analysis,
engineering drawing and design no matter what your final specialization
becomes. A program designed in this way allows the student some time to
evaluate engineering options without losing time or credits.
Chemical engineering is a very broad field. In general, I would say that
chemical engineers use fundamental chemical processes to create some kind of
effect - the effect can be: creation of a product, purification of a
substance (air, water, metals, other chemicals), separation of one substance
from another, release of energy, etc. We generally design ways to create
these effects on a large scale - often our work involves the scale-up of
processes - learning to make larger and larger quantities. Once processes
are designed, we strive to make them better - more efficient. There are
almost always surprises when we take our work out of the lab and begin to
work with larger equipment.
Chemical engineers work across all aspects of business - from basic
research, to manufacturing, to marketing and sales. We work not just in the
chemical industry - but often in the environmental, health and safety
fields, pharmaceutical, food, biotech industries. We often work with very
diverse people - scientists, mechanics, production workers, equipment
manufacturers, raw material suppliers, government regulators, etc.
I hope this helps to give you some idea of the work of chemical engineers.
Good luck as you move forward with your education and career exploration.
********************
A: FROM MENTOR BRENDA WOLFE IN CO
Dear Tajkia -
I chose Chemical Engineering because it offers you many different career choices.
I know of Chem E's working for Proctor and Gamble to develop processes for the making of shampoo and soap. I know of Chem E's working for Dow Chemical and DuPont working on synthetic polymers to go in baby diapers or how to achieve better hydrids of food such as corn. There are alot of Chemical engineers working for Oil Companies/Refineries in TX. My college roommate is also a Chem E and she went to work for the EPA in their SuperFund Hazardous Waste Div. Another Chem E friend went to work for the CIA and she could never tell me what she is doing!! :)
I have worked for the following companies: ( always as a process engineer doing technical sales)
Nalco Chemical - selling chemicals in the oil field. Eagle-Picher building aerospace batteries for Hughes and McDonald Dougless satellites, Metso Minerals selling filters and heat exchangers into the mining industry.
For more general info: check out www.discoverengineering.org. Take the Links/ Engineering Information and they have a section on Chemical Engineering. (discoverengineering.org/Engineers/chemical_engineering.asp )
********************
A: FROM MENTOR MAYLING WONG IN IL
Hello, Tajkia,
The Society of Women Engineers has a webpage with a lot of information
about engineering and how to prepare for getting into an engineering
program. Go to:
www.swe.org
Click on "K-12 Programs" in the left-hand column
Click on "Programs" under K-12 Programs
Scroll down to "Discover Engineering"
|
