Four years ago, I decided to move to this country with my parents. I was 21 years old, just finished my college career as an ocean science major in Taiwan. After working in a computer company as a quality control operator for almost two years, I started to feel extremely lost and confused, and I always wondered: Is this why I came to this country? What should I do here? In this new country, what I had learned in the past four years in Taiwan didn’t look very helpful for me to get a better job here.
After spending a lot of time talking with my parents, I decided to go back o school and look for a new direction. During the first year at Ohlone College, I took some courses in the different section area, I found that what I had learned in Taiwan was not all useless, they gave me strong skill in mathematics and physics, but I still have to do a lot of work to improve my English. After considering about many positive suggestions coming from the school counselors and friends, I decided to take mechanical engineer as my new major.
Mechanical engineer, as far as we know, they do a lot of work to esearch, design, develop and test tools, engines, machines and other mechanical devices. They work on power-producing machines such as electric generators, internal combustion engines, and steam and gas turbines. They also develop power-using machines such as refrigeration and air- conditioning equipment, machine tools, material handling systems, elevators and escalators, industrial production equipment, and robots used in manufacturing. They also design tools that other engineers need for their work.
Mechanical engineers work in many different industries, and their ork is different by industry and function. Some of them specialize in energy systems, applied mechanics, automotive design, manufacturing, materials, plant engineering and maintenance, pressure vessels and piping, and heating, refrigeration, and air conditioning systems. Mechanical engineering is one of the broadest engineering disciplines. Mechanical engineers may work in production operations in manufacturing or agriculture, maintenance, or technical sales, many are administrators or managers.
In the past, mechanical engineers played a very important part in the reation of the mass production factories of the 1920’s. Today, US manufacturing industries are turning to cost-saving technologies including automated processing and robotics to improve their competitiveness and productivity. Once again Mechanical Engineers are playing a major role. After taking two engineer courses at Ohlone College, I learned how to use CAD (computer-aided design) software to make those design in the blue print connecting with computer, which makes our work more practical and precise.
As a student at Ohlone College, I have to deal with many different inds of mathematics like calculus, linear algebra and differential equations, and almost all kinds of physics and engineer courses are also required in my major. Although this major is totally different from what I had learned in my country and everyone tells me that mechanical engineer is going to be very tough major for me, I am glad that I finally found a right direction. During the past a few semesters, I find that: The more classes I pass, the more confidence I have. I am very sure that I am going to be a professional mechanical engineer in the future.
