Into what other forms of engineering has programming taken you?

Question

Over the years, I've come to realize that the analytical psychology of programming has spilled over into other forms of engineering disciplines. It seems whenever I have the time, money, and energy I wind up taking on pet projects that typically solves problems but more often are motivated by wanting to learn.

Not long after getting my driver's license, I quickly got hooked on the modified sports car hobby. It's been a while now, and like software development, I've stuck to it. For example, I've recently completed a full 5-speed transmission rebuild with upgraded parts. This, IMO, required a some engineering skills, a great deal of motivation to learn, the right tools, and ability to figure out mechanical problems from not-so-obvious symptoms.

I could've sent it to a shop for about $1000 to have it done professionally, but that would've been a failure in my eyes. I made mistakes and probably spent as much doing it myself, but was fully rewarding knowing I did it and I'm now driving it.

Where has your technical knowhow taken you outside of software? Provide some examples.

Answer 1

Besides automotive mechanics like you, my main one would be Electrical Engineering.

Answer 2

I've been delving into hardware more and more as I advance through programming. Being a low-level (reverse engineering/compiler dev/kernel dev) guy, it's a natural progression for me, with the bonus of not having to deal with high-level userspace nonsense.

Answer 3

I was once literally at the coal-face in a power generation plant.

I wrote a program to help estimate when the large steel balls used for crushing coal in a coal mill would need to be replaced.

Answer 4

I went the other way - I graduated as a Civil Engineer and went into programming afterwards.

Answer 5

Speech engineering. Its fascinating and there's some breaking research happening always. Kind of keeps you on your toes always.

Answer 6

I came into programming from engineering, actually from Avionics. I worked on Automated test equipment used to maintain Avionic systems. While I had been a computer user, I had not really done any programming. From there I moved to general automation and today spend most of my time teaching application programming for industrial robots.

Answer 7

For me, it seems to go the other way. A lot of the people I work with started off in Engineering or science, and have moved to Software development.

My boss is a Mechanical Engineer A colleague is a Mech. Eng. I'm a Civil Engineer Previous colleagues include electrical engineers, even someone who had a PhD in Laser Physics.

I don't know anyone who's gone the other way.

Answer 8

... I've come to realize that the analytical psychology of programming has spilled over into other forms of engineering disciplines.

Not engineering for me, per se, but I've branched out into several other hard science disiplines. My current favorite is Physics, with a particular interest in Quantum Mechanics and Relativity. Math, particularily Differential Equations and Spacial Geometry are also facinating.

On the arguably-even-geekier side of things, I've become increasingly interested in linguistics and language formation because of the highly elegant structured nature of Sindarin and Quenyan.

I could go on.

None of these are "engineering" in the classical sense, but I've found myself drawn to them for the exact reason you describe...because of the analytical nature required to appreciate them.