A Salute to ENGINEERS

Engineers Week: February 19-25, 2023 CREATING THE FUTURE

Opportunities abound in the field of engineering

Engineers, technologists and technicians are constantly changing the world. They dream up creative, practical solutions and work with other smart, inspiring people to invent, design and create things that matter. Explore the following engineering disciplines:

AEROSPACE ENGINEERING

As an aerospace engineer, you might work on a new spacecraft tasked with bringing crew to the International Space Station, or you might be involved in developing a new generation of space telescopes, the source of some of our most significant cosmological discoveries. But outer space is just one of many realms to explore as an aerospace engineer. You might develop commercial airliners, military jets or helicopters for our airways. And getting even more down to earth, you could design the latest ground and sea transportation, including high-speed trains, racing cars, or deep-sea vessels that explore life at the bottom of the ocean.

OVERVIEW • Median salary: $118,610 • Number of jobs in 2020: 61,400 • Expected job growth over 10 years: 8%

AGRICULTURAL AND BIOSYSTEMS ENGINEERING

Are you looking to improve our quality of life, protect the environment and help meet the needs of a growing world population? As an agricultural and biosystems engineer, you might be asked to use your knowledge of biology and engineering to develop plant-based products such as medicines, biodegradable packaging and biomass energy; design methods of keeping harmful microorganisms out of our food supply; or redevelop streams in areas impacted by mining, urban and agricultural activities. In this rewarding career, you will be constantly innovating to meet the needs of humankind in sustainable ways.

OVERVIEW Median salary: $92,600 Number of jobs in 2020: 2,000 Expected job growth over 10 years: 5%

BIOMEDICAL

Where would modern medicine be without the contributions of biomedical engineering? Imagine hospitals operating without X-rays, ultrasound, EKGs and the thousands of high-tech procedures and devices that diagnose conditions, sustain health and fight disease. As a biomedical engineer, you will make a real difference in the lives of others. You might develop artificial lenses that restore sight to the blind, radiation treatments that fight cancer or incubators that keep premature babies alive.

OVERVIEW Median salary: $92,620 Number of jobs in 2020: 19,300 Expected job growth over 10 years: 6%

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Imagine taking what you’ve learned in chemistry class and using it to create products that improve the lives of others in both large and small ways. That is what a chemical engineer does: uses chemical processes to find innovative and creative ways of producing goods. The work of a chemical engineer can range from the luxurious (developing softer clothes and better cosmetics) to the lifesaving (producing fireresistant materials and safer foods). As a chemical engineer, you might be involved in cutting-edge research at a pharmaceutical company, discovering how to extend the shelf life of antibiotics, or you might be part of a creative team at a food manufacturing company, dreaming up a delicious new candy bar.

OVERVIEW Median salary: $108,540 Number of jobs in 2020: 26,300 Expected job growth over 10 years: 9%

CIVIL ENGINEERING

What would it feel like to have the expertise to build a school that could withstand an earthquake, a road system that puts an end to chronic traffic jams or a sports stadium that offers everyone a great view? As a civil engineer, your job would be to oversee the construction of the buildings and infrastructure that make up our world: highways, skyscrapers, railways, bridges and water reservoirs, as well as some of the most spectacular and high-profile of all engineering feats — think of the iconic Freedom Tower in New York or the fire-breathing Dragon Bridge in Vietnam. Civil engineers are fond of saying that it is architects who put designs on paper, but engineers who actually get things built.

OVERVIEW Median salary: $113,000 Number of jobs in 2020: 309,800 Expected job growth over 10 years: 9%

COMPUTER SCIENCE

As a computer scientist, you might develop cutting-edge music software, come up with a better system to text your friends or invent a new hand-held device. But looking beyond personal computers, did you realize that computer scientists are vitally important in almost every area you can think of? In a hospital, for example, computers track patient records, control X-ray and MRI machines, and offer surgeons visual maps of the operations they are performing. Becoming a computer scientist offers you an enormous range of possibilities, from developing software for managing an air-traffic-control tower to producing animation for the movie industry.

OVERVIEW Median salary: $110,140 Number of jobs in 2020: 1,847,900 Expected job growth over 10 years: 22%

ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING

As an electrical engineer, you could develop components for some of the most fun things in our lives (cellphones, gaming or roller coasters), as well as the most essential (medical tests or communications systems). This largest field of engineering encompasses the macro (huge power grids that light up cities, for example), as well as the micro (including a device smaller than a millimeter that tells a car’s airbags when to inflate). As an electrical engineer, you might work on robotics, computer networks, wireless communications or medical imaging — areas that are at the very forefront of technological innovation.

OVERVIEW Median salary: $103,390 Number of jobs in 2020: 313,200 Expected job growth over 10 years: 7%

ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

Most of us care deeply about stopping pollution and protecting our natural resources. Imagine yourself having more than just a passion for saving our environment, but also possessing the actual know-how to do something about these alarm

ing problems. As an environmental engineer, you will make a real difference in the survival of our planet by finding ways of cleaning up our oceans, rivers and drinking water, developing air-pollution equipment, designing more effective recycling systems or discovering safe ways to dispose of toxic waste.

OVERVIEW Median salary: $92,120 Number of jobs in 2020: 52,300 Expected job growth over 10 years: 4%

INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

Do you think of yourself as superorganized? Do you think you’re good at understanding the big picture and figuring out how things could work better? If so, you might make a great industrial or systems engineer. Your job would involve organizing people, places, equipment and information. Whether it is shortening a roller-coaster line, streamlining an operating room, distributing products worldwide or manufacturing superior automobiles, these challenges share the common goal of improving quality and productivity.

OVERVIEW Median salary: $88,950 Number of jobs in 2020: 292,000 Expected job growth over 10 years: 14%

MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING

As a manufacturing engineer, you and your team will use technical expertise and skill to plan, design, set up, modify, optimize and then monitor the manufacturing process of such things as medicine, food and oil. From raw materials to the finished product, manufacturing engineers work to improve the production process, using the most cost-effective methods while reducing the impact of production on the environment. Manufacturing engineers are designers who combine their analytical and creative problem-solving skills to work across many industries.

OVERVIEW Median salary: $88,950 Number of jobs in 2020: 292,000 Expected job growth over 10 years: 14%

MATERIALS SCIENCE

Even the most innovative design can’t live up to its potential if it is not made out of the right stuff. As a materials scientist or engineer, your job might be to create biocompatible glass that helps to heal broken bones, produce battery materials that will allow electric cars to travel for hundreds of miles on a single charge or diagnose the cause of failure when a steel bridge collapses. The right materials can have revolutionary results — the telecommunications industry, for example, was transformed when fiber optics replaced copper wires; medicine took a giant leap with the development of biomaterials and tissue engineering, which are now used to heal diseased and damaged parts of the body; and automobile efficiency and safety have seen great leaps forward, thanks to new grades of high-strength steel.

OVERVIEW Median salary: $95,640 Number of jobs in 2020: 25,100 Expected job growth over 10 years: 8%

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

As a mechanical engineer, you might develop a bike lock or an aircraft carrier, a child’s toy or a hybrid car engine, a wheelchair or a sailboat — in other words, just about anything you can think of that involves a mechanical process, whether it is a cool, cutting-edge product or a lifesaving medical device. Mechanical engineers are often referred to as the general practitioners of the engineering profession because they work in nearly every area of technology, from aerospace and automotive to computers and biotechnology.

OVERVIEW Median salary: $90,160 Number of jobs in 2020: 299,200 Expected job growth over 10 years: 7%

NUCLEAR ENGINEERING

Safely harnessing the power of the atom to produce energy or to diagnose and treat medical problems is the work of the nuclear engineer. As a nuclear engineer, you may work on nuclear reactors that generate power for large cities, submarines or even spaceships. Your work may involve researching the nuclear fuel cycle from production to the safe disposal of nuclear waste. Or you might explore the development of fusion energy. Or you might work in nuclear medicine, developing machines that image the human body and destroy cancer cells.

OVERVIEW Median salary: $116,140 Number of jobs in 2020: 17,200 Expected job growth over 10 years: 8%

PETROLEUM ENGINEERING

Energy is at the center of our daily lives — from powering our individual needs to fueling our collective resources. As an oil and gas engineer, you will work in the United States and abroad on discovering new gas and oil sources; researching new technologies to environmentally and efficiently extract more gas and oil; building out new oil and gas fields; and streamlining production operations. In this exciting field, you will be powering our future in an environmentally responsible way.

OVERVIEW Median salary: $137,330 Number of jobs in 2020: 28,500 Expected job growth over 10 years: 8% PROJECT MANAGEMENT Do you like being at the center of things? Helping people keep organized and on track as you continually create something new while successfully accomplishing big goals and delivering results? As a project manager, you will work alongside team members from the initial idea to the finished product. And project managers work in vir tually every field — leading hospitals through the creation of new patient producers, developing the latest software update, building 40-story high-rises or producing the latest Netflix special. OVERVIEW Median salary: $116,000 Number of jobs in 2020: 16.5 million Expected job growth over 10 years: 33%