An EEG device similar to one used in MECH 465, used to record brain waves. Photo by Mindfield Biosystems on Unsplash.
You might have heard about the various options that MECH offers for students to specialize for their 3rd and 4th year. These are the options:
- Flex – maintain a broad focus of MECH, with more freedom for choosing courses
- Aerospace – anything to do with flight, such as aircraft and spaceflight
- Biomechanics and Medial Devices – motion within the human body and designing devices to improve human health
- Energy & Environment – energy, sustainability, transportation
- Mechatronics – combining MECH with computer, electrical, and controls engineering
- Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering – marine transportation to offshore wind farms
For more information about the MECH options and selection process, visit the UBC MECH website.
Today I’ll be talking about my experience with the Flex option. I’ll describe why I chose this option and what it looks like in comparison to the others.
Why I chose the Flex Option
Although I knew I was interested in mechanical engineering, I wasn’t sure exactly what field interested me most. Since mechanical engineering is such a broad field, there are numerous industries that we can work in. The Flex Option includes 22 credits of technical electives that students can choose from. This opportunity to continue exploring different interests and customize my degree seemed like the right fit for me. Additionally, I think that a good engineer is one that is well-rounded. All options and MECH have an aspect of this, where we have a standard set of mandatory classes in things from heat transfer to controls. The Flex Option has the most support for this well-rounded approach, since students can choose so many of their electives. Mechanical engineering interfaces with multiple areas. When designing any system, being able to see it from multiple sides – from electronics, software, energy, thermodynamics, manufacturing, and more – that is what allows us to create successful designs.
Elective options
In this section I’ll discuss some of the electives I chose, and what others in Flex have also enjoyed. Some of my electives were taken abroad on my exchange at DTU (read more here), but I was still able to have a lot of choices at UBC.
I took:
- MECH 380, Fluid Dynamics: Focuses on external and compressible flow for applications to planes, automobiles, pipelines, etc. I took this class to open doors if I decided to learn more about aerospace.
- MECH 327 , Thermodynamics II: Air cycles, gas mixtures, and reacting systems, among other topics. It was interesting to learn more about how engines work – I felt that this was important knowledge to have as mechanical engineers.
- MANU 465, AI and Machine Learning Applications in Manufacturing: AI and machine/deep learning in Python with applications to manufacturing processes. With all the new advancements in technology these days, I wanted to gain some basic knowledge to stay current! Our final project was to use an EEG device and interpret the data using machine learning principles. My group did ours on measuring the change in brain activity while listening to different genres of music.
- MECH 496, Engineering Management: Organization and management structures, finance, project management, and other business topics. I was always interested in business before I chose engineering, and have thought about doing an MBA. This was a good overview of what that might look like. As engineers we usually either go into the technical side or management side of a company.
- MECH 436, Fundamentals of Injury Biomechanics: anatomy, impact experiments, test devices. As someone who grew up playing sports, I’m excited to learn about how sports equipment is developed and why injuries occur! I’m interested in getting some breadth, testing out if I’m interested in a more biomedical focused field.
If you’re like me and are unsure about what industry you want to work in, or want to keep your options open, or just want to try multiple things before graduating, the Flex Option might be a good choice for you!