Originally Posted by cypher

Thanks so much for you help! What do you mean Biomedical doesn't exist in Canada? So I haven't been on top of any research on this, but I thought it was a new and growing field in Canada?

This is hard to prove. I might end up retracting that statement to save myself the trouble of explaining it.

Biomedical Engineering is a growing field. You have to look at the fine line when they spit out percentage for growth. 5 Biomedical Eng. jobs growing to 50 in 10 years sounds great statistically, but in reality it is still very small.

Lets compare US and Canada.

As of 2008, US report of 16,000 jobs in Biomedical Engineering field alone.

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos027.htm

Canada has a bit over 78,000 jobs. The key point is Canada does not split Biomedical Engineering into its own statistic. It is combine with other Professional Engineering like:

Industrial and Manufacturing Engineers (2141)
Metallurgical and Materials Engineers (2142)
Mining Engineers (2143)
Geological Engineers (2144)
Petroleum Engineers (2145)
Aerospace Engineers (2146)
Computer Engineers (Except Software Engineers and Designers) (2147)
Other Professional Engineers, n.e.c. (2148)

http://www.workingincanada.g c.ca/r...d=biomedica l

I'm assuming you want a Research position. For Biomedical Engineering, those position are mainly in Universities. It is not easy to get a job in a University.

There are jobs out there. You just have to look at the companies and start doing your own research. Take everything people say with a grain of salt.

http://www.jobpostcanada.com /engin...aterials.h tm

Job prospect is really hard to gauge. 4 years is a lot of time. We might all die by then...

ECE best stream man, best stream
(in my opinion)

Software is where it's at - if you want to get a co-op job. There are liek over 9000 times more software jobs available than anything else jobs.

Personally I think the research being put into here it is pretty dumb (tabular expressions? come on...) but the program itself is alright.

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

Software is where it's at - if you want to get a co-op job. There are liek over 9000 times more software jobs available than anything else jobs.

Jobs Rated 2011 says software engineer is the top job of 2011. I believe in 2006 or something it was Chemical Engineer. Who knows down the road...

Originally Posted by Ownaginatios

Software is where it's at - if you want to get a co-op job. There are liek over 9000 times more software jobs available than anything else jobs.

Personally I think the research being put into here it is pretty dumb (tabular expressions? come on...) but the program itself is alright.

Yup.. getting sick of seeing postings that require programming experience listing random languages I don't know!

Go software if you want a job!

Software and Civil engineering are probably the most numerous when it comes to jobs. However, for civil engineering, there is a huge number of students you will be competing with to get these jobs and for software engineering, you will likely be competing with other disciplines that train in many of the same skills. For civil engineering, there are so many jobs at engineering consulting firms, construction companies, firms that deal with buildings and architecutre, as well as public jobs for infrastructure, wastewater, etc. So there is really a lot to be had, and if you look at programs such as the infrastructure stimulus fund that the government has been pushing over the last year, you can see that it would employ many more civil engineers than otherwise.

Electrical engineering can be good when looking for public jobs where pay and benefits will be good (ie. power engineering) and there are certainly many private jobs available at which level I would say it is comparable to mechanical engineering (ie. machine design for generation will involve both types of engineer).

In terms of materials engineering, chemical engineering, manufacturing engineering, mechatronics and some aspects of mechanical engineering, you will find many of the jobs focussed in the manufacturing and high tech sector. These can be very rewarding but are probably a little less stable than a public sector job, for instance.

Biomedical and engineering physics are probably on the more specialized end of the spectrum and though I am sure the jobs are very rewarding due to their scarcity and high tech nature, I would think that there aren't that many of them out there, relatively speaking.

The work environment you would like to be engaged in is probably a good way to choose your discipline in combination with your love for the discipline itself, as you won't want to work somewhere crappy doing something good, and you won't want to work somewhere good doing something crappy. Of course there are many exceptions to the rule and this is just my opinion. I am not aware of a specific discipline that Mac is known for. If I had to pick I would guess bio-medical due to the possible interaction with the health science department and their resources.

Summary of a long winded response:
if you want to get a job: civil or software
if you want essentially guaranteed money: petroleum or mining (not offered at Mac).

Originally Posted by cypher

E&B was kinda random actually considering I've never taken a single Biology course in my life. But for some reason, the application just seem really really interesting So are the science courses you would have to take in E&B manageable if you've never taken them in high school?

Make sure you like biology before you go into it, or anatomy in third year will make you want to kill yourself.

The great thing about elec and biomed is that you have a lot of options. If you find that research isn't really your thing you can follow a more electrical engineering line of work and have some biomed knowledge as a bonus. If you decide to go into research you can go to grad school and have a little extra knowledge from both fields. I believe if you stay at mac, you can get your m.eng in one year through the elec and biomed program

ECE ftw.



12chars

Originally Posted by Aftermath

Jobs Rated 2011 says software engineer is the top job of 2011. I believe in 2006 or something it was Chemical Engineer. Who knows down the road...

Mathematician is 2nd! Hooray.

EDIT: 3.97 "physical demands"? What? Writing and breathing register as physical demands?

Just pointing out: McMaster Engineering sent 6 teams out to Montreal last weekend to the Concordia international bridge building competition. Almost 40 teams there I believe, from out West, East, and from the States. One of the teams, for the second year in a row, set records: Their bridge was so strong that the machine was not capable of testing it's full capacity. After ~2900 kg, that was it... The machine could not go further. The team consisted of various years (from first years, up).

I heard about a team of chemical engineers that put a bridge together as well, and didn't do half bad for themselves. In the top few teams. I'm looking for all of these results on the Troitsky Bridge Building website to clarify further, but it's not posted yet :S

I'm curious as to why Engineering Physics wasn't discussed? Mac is one of the few universities in Canada to have a nuclear reactor on campus, wouldn't that make it credible in the field of nuclear engineering?

Mac is highly regarded for nuclear eng... I guess no one in here is in Nuc eng and just didn't discuss it. Eng phys is broken up into 3 streams, and that's only in 3rd year: Hence, anyone in here that may have gotten into eng phys may have chosen one of the other streams. All streams of eng phys are considered highly respectable.

Originally Posted by adaptation

...wouldn't that make it credible in the field of nuclear engineering?

I sat in on a nuclear engineering class (?) by accident once and they were talking about visiting the reactor, but I don't think many students actually do stuff in the reactor itself. Honestly, theory is very important in nuclear engineering moreso than other disciplines so its not like the reactor will magically give students' diploma any more weight.

They have a new building coming in that has something to do with the reactor, I think... maybe that will help people?

Oh i see, thanks for the quick replies!

Gah...I've been considering elec and biomed from the beginning of the year, and I still placed it as my first choice for next year, but the fact that there aren't many jobs out there is making me rethink this.

So...could I work as an electrical engineer in case I can't find a job in Canada in the biomedical field?