It would be a great idea to go through the courses in Part 2 right?
BTW this post is super-long but a tl;dr would be Part 2 is a big step up from everything in Part 1, there’s a lot of design projects to be ready for, and get involved in university life to get the most out of your time here!
Sem 1
MECHENG 242: Continuation of ENGGEN and CHEMMAT 121. Lots of statically loaded members, how they handle shear, stress, strain, torsion, bending, and how they would fail based on their yield stress and stiffness. It’s pretty nifty, and by the end you’re armed with multiple methods to analyse loads on objects and their failure mechanism. Because of how grounded in realism the course was, I mostly enjoyed it. That being said, I do enjoy a cheeky physics problem here and there :)) I’ll give it a 7.5/10
MECHENG 201: ROBOTS. Like, seriously, this is pretty much about robots.
And Hazim <3
You get given a lil pet robot at the start of semester, and you program it, implement control systems, and make it navigate an obstacle course. The next half of the course is all about electronic components their main functions, and types. Although it may seem like a lot of content to learn, it is all super important for understanding circuits and building your own mechatronic systems! A lot of us desperately want an Arduino after this course :)) I’ll give it a 8.5/10
MECHENG 235: Probably the most disliked course in Sem 1. Although much of it could be attributed to lecture quality and the ‘minimal-guidance’ approach to tutorials, this and 236 are the big, bad, boys of Part 2 mechanical. The course content is actually very interesting but may not be presented in the most interesting way (all the lecturers are busy people so it’s understandable). The two big design projects are BIG and BAD and UGLY and cause quite some stress. The best thing to do with design projects is to trust the process, understand the rubric fully, and keep it chugging along every day. It’s very easy to fall behind for large assignments like these. I’d give it a shakey 5.5/10 (most of the pics of me sleeping came from this course unfortunately.)
ENGSCI 211: A butt-load of maths in this one. Lots of things being built on ENGSCI 111, with some new stuff like data analysis (pretty much stats for nerds), laplace transforms (integration for nerds), and multivariable calculus (essential knowledge for mechanical chads). Although I’m fairly decent at maths, this course was quite challenging for me, I’d give it a 7.5/10.
Sem 2 (three weeks in)
MECHENG 236: New lecture content that follows along from 235, plus a HUUGE bridge project worth 43%. This project goes on for 12 weeks, requires client meetings, building a model, and designing a moving bridge that meets NZ regulations. Although it feels a lot like 235, it also feels like real engineering. With two design projects already under our belt, we know the process better and have learnt a lot from our mistakes. So far so good!
MECHENG 211: Thermofluids, thermodynamics, and heat transfer! Like 140, but harder and with more equations. This course takes time and effort to get used to but is hugely essential knowledge for mechanical engineers. Get ready to crack open that theory.
MECHENG 222: Oh boi lots of theory this semester! 211 and 222 are hard, dry dynamics theory. We apparently use Matlab and coding in this course, but we haven’t gotten up to that yet. What we have done is a lot of coordinate systems. Like three weeks of learning all the different coordinate systems you can use in Dynamics. This semester is gonna hurt.
ENGGEN 204: A very chill course about the soft skills of engineering. I quite like this one – there’s no exams, minimal theory, and a lot of practicals like report-writing and oral presentations. It’s kinda fun, and you chill out during lectures which is nice. I’m glad we don’t have four full-on courses this sem!
INTRODUCING, An advice segment called ‘What I Should Have Done in First Year But Didn’t Do”:
A big thing that you will read everywhere is to get involved in university. And it makes sense right? You’ll read so many UoA confessions about how bored and apathetic people feel about student life – they go to lectures, study, commute, and sleep. It’s so important to have a break every few times a week. I’m not talking Shadz although that is a completely viable option.
I’m talking about the extracurriculars. Take part in uni clubs (a great one to start with would be the Ultimate club), do the Engineering Revue (xx come this year xx), and expand your CV and work experience. Do things that break up your time and develop the things you don’t learn in the classroom.
You will be busier, but you’ll feel better! And be more productive (I think). And the important thing is to do as much as possible without breaking yourself. We can always do more, but sometimes doing what we do already is enough <3
ALSO, COME TO THE ENGINEERING REVUE! AUGUST 29, 30, AND 31 AT 7:30PM, SKYCITY THEATRE, TICKETS ARE @ https://engrevue.co.nz/
WHAT IS THE REVUE? It’s where engineering students all come together to put on a big-ass, bad-ass show. Featuring skits, dances, music, it’s packed with laughs and good clean R16 fun. Come with your mates, have a few drinks, and enjoy a great start to the midsem xx
Di Kun (software chad), Michael (EngSci nerd), and I (Mechanical beta) are all in it so you know it’s gonna be good xx