M-megatronics?

Kia ora koutou and hello! I extend my greetings to you all, regardless of whether you’re already pretty dead set on mechatronics, to those of you who still have absolutely no clue what to pick and are hoping sem 2 will give you a better idea, cheeky Part II’s from some crazy year in the future (2023? 2024?!) snagging some tips and tricks for the upcoming sem, or to those who were in the same boat as me a year ago: mechanical or mechatronics??

Who am I?

I’m a typical Part II engineering student: sleep deprived, head deep in extra curriculars, trying to balance being healthy and not broke, and my expectations lowering by the day.

Mechanics slapped in high school, and Hazim (despite his best efforts) did not traumatise me enough to crush my questionable passion. The only issue is, I was on the fence between mechanical and mechatronics – what’s the difference, and which is for me?

Gonna be honest with ya – when the time came to choose, I still wasn’t sure. I figured it wouldn’t be hard to switch from mechatronics to mechanical, so being the indecisive person I was (and still am), I put mechatronics as my first choice, and mechanical as my second. I put software in third for the meme; if you were hoping for a blogger with a 9.0 GPA, sorry to disappoint, but you’ve got the wrong person!

Given that seven of the eight courses are the same for mechanical and mechatronics in second year, you’ll get to hear all about my internal quarrel between the two specs, and why I finally decided to stick with mechatronics (and how to prep for your relatives asking what “megatronics” is). But I’ll tell you now, while it was great to try a bit of everything in first year, it’s even better now that my courses focus on the stuff I actually enjoy. 

Super quick introduction to the four courses in first sem (the same four for both mech and tron):

• ENGSCI 211: Mathematical Modelling 2 – ENGSCI 111 but harder. (Hey, what did you expect?)
• MECHENG 201: Introduction to Mechatronics – All things robotics, sensors, programming and control systems. I find it hilarious that this paper used to be only for mechanical students. 
• MECHENG 235: Design and Manufacture 1 – If you’ve heard that this course is ENGGEN 115 on steroids, well… yeah, it is. Despite that however, I definitely found it to be one of the more practical, enjoyable papers. 
• MECHENG 242: Mechanics of Materials – Imagine ENGGEN 121, the “Mechanics” paper, and CHEMMAT 121, the “Materials” paper, had a child together (see the name of this paper). Being the absolute genius I am, I also figured out that 121 + 121 = 242. I’m still trying to figure out if that was intentional or a coincidence.

That was a pretty terrible introduction, but I promise to give you a proper breakdown in my next post about what we actually did in these courses!

Standing tall at 4’11”, I’m pretty easy to spot around campus. Feel free to come say hi, or if social interaction makes you want to cry, flick me a message! Add me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarina-todd-a91434216/), send me an email (stod140), hit me up on Messenger, or send me a dm wherever you can find me! My usual business hours are from 10pm – 4am (no, that’s not a mistake), because what’s an engineering student without a permanently screwed sleep schedule?

Until next time!

Sarina ☆