I'm doing petroleum engineering (undergrad) but I have lost passion for it. Now I like rocketry.

[RocketEnthusiast101]

I'm a Graduate Gemologist. Worked 23 years doing propellant R&D for small solid fuel motors.

M

Woah. What did you improve yourself in as in like skills such as 3D designing, calculus, etcetera, to be involved in R&D? This is pretty epic.

 

[RocketEnthusiast101]

Statics, Dynamics, Thermo, Fluid Dynamics, and Strengths of Materials are the basic foundational classes for a Junior in almost any engineering curriculum. You simply must do well at those if you wish to be able to be selective when seeking a job, especially outside of your major. They’re also especially important for anyone hoping to be a professional rocket scientist. My advice would be to redouble your efforts on those core courses.

that exactly what I have started to do atm but it will take time as I mean, there are only 24 hours a day and also I got classes and then my PE stuff. So yes, I have started to work on them but going to do them in stages like the first FM, then S&D etcetera.

 

[MClark]

Woah. What did you improve yourself in as in like skills such as 3D designing, calculus, etcetera, to be involved in R&D? This is pretty epic.

Very easy.
Not once have I used calculus since leaving school. I designed propellants not hardware. When I did work with hardware engineers it was mostly old school with guys who knew what they were doing and very little computer work other than Solidworks to get parts made.

 

[boatgeek]

Woah. What did you improve yourself in as in like skills such as 3D designing, calculus, etcetera, to be involved in R&D? This is pretty epic.

Here’s a dark secret if engineering. Very few engineers actually use calculus in practice. The computer does that math and the engineer needs to know what the answer should be so they can gut check the computer.

In 23 years of engineering I have done little or no math more advanced than trig and square roots.

 

[dr wogz]

Ditto.

My "math" is all drawn on the screen. the only real things I need to work out are what tolerances I need, and determine what is acceptable & realistic..

I've even go so far as to correct some colleagues, as just littering a drawing with dimensions is not enough. I've seen some drawings, where a hole is dimension-ed in such a way, that in the worst case tolerance stack, the hole is off the part.. Or, another who expects ±0.010" over 4 or 6 bends [sheet metal work]..