Life of an Engineer

Author: Jonathan C., SEAS ’14

When I joined the Engineering School, I knew there was a reason I was meant to be there.  I understood that being an engineer requires working late into the night.  While I have yet to experience an all-nighter, I had a late night a few weeks ago.  It was for my MEAM-101: Introduction to Mechanical Design class (check out the PRESS project).  The project was to make anything, as long as it used press-fits.  Short explanation: a press fit is where you have a slot and a peg out of a given material, and you make the peg slightly larger than the slot (on the order of a few thousandths of an inch).  Then, when you press the peg into the slot, the peg slightly deforms and will stay firmly fastened, creating a connection between the two parts without needing adhesive.

I decided to build a space shuttle and started with a model on the computer.  I went to the room at 10 PM thinking it would take maybe an hour to cut all the pieces out and put it together.  By the time I was cutting the last piece out, the clock read 1 AM.  Suddenly, I understood the joy of being an engineer.  There are people out there who would have meticulously watched the clock, and would have left the room with a partially-finished product with the intent to come back the next day to finish it.  But I had become so engrossed in the project that I was shocked by the amount of time that had passed.  And, when I got to the end and had a finished product, I was filled a combination of exhaustion and great satisfaction. At that moment, I knew that being an engineer was the right choice for me.

Not my project, but an example of a press-fit project