(Part 2) Top products from r/EngineeringStudents

What everyone said is correct: math, math, math, and enjoy your last summer ;) You may also want to learn how to code in C++ or Fortran (yes, yes, it's ancient, but pretty much all NASA codes are written in C++ or Fortran) or even Matlab, if you have access to it.

Also, if you want to read some inspirational type books: Kelly Johnson's Memoir, the man basically invented Skunk Works. I also loved Flying the SR71, which is all about the Blackbird. It may sound corny, but Rocket Boys is my go-to book and/or movie when I feel discouraged and like I can't hack it as an engineer. And Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" was really interesting to me.

What I found pushed me through the grueling classes, assignments, 50% on a test... was my passion for space exploration and propulsion methods. So I suggest in addition to the math and enjoying the free time you have left that you find what makes you passionate to be an engineer :). Because sometimes, at 2 am in a computer lab, after staring at the same chunk of code for 3 hours and not understanding why it doesn't seem to friggin work out... passion is all you have!

Best of luck to ya!

Your interests are almost identical to mine! I didn't fully decide on my major until Junior year (Electrical Engineering). Started going into Biomedical end of senior year, went to grad school for it, found out it wasn't for me and switched back to EE. Now I'm researching Aerospace navigation systems and absolutely love it.

So no, you aren't going to die if you don't have your life figured out by end of sophomore year. The nice thing about engineering is a lot of the skills carry over between disciplines.

My suggestions are to study topics you are interested on your own; don't wait to learn it in your classes. If you think you are interested in computer engineering and computer science, start teaching yourself digital electronics, learning C and building projects with microcontrollers (AVR microcontrollers are very common) Don't wait for your career to find you, you have to seek it out. Follow your passion and the rest will come naturally.

Side note: I've been teaching myself AVR microcontrollers and digital design this summer, with the end goal of launching a high altitude balloon carrying an HD camera, temp sensors and Geiger counter. Here are the books I've been using, both are fantastic and easy to follow.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1449355781
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0123944244

Good question, good answers so far. I'd also recommend To Engineer is Human by Henry Patroski for a thorough look into that question, the design process in general, and what elevates the truly great engineers from the good ones.

I love engineering paper. I must have 20 pads of the stuff floating around between my apartment, office, and the 5 or so labs. I hated having to use it in undergrad, but it's just so goddamn handy that I ended up getting addicted to it. 1" and 0.2" grid lines, and a nice header space.

I'm also addicted to these things for research work that needs to be properly documented in a bound notebook. I know it's not much different than a standard composition notebook, but the heavyweight paper and cover are durable and just generally awesome.

Materials science and engineering student here. If it's an intro to materials science type course, mwalsh2010 has covered most of it. Additionally, expect to index planes and directions in crystal structures, solid solubility, mechanical properties testing methods, phase percentage and lever rule calculations (under phase diagrams), phase transformation reactions (eutectic, eutectoid, paratectic, etc.), and various processing methods. You'll probably mainly study metals and ceramics since they're generally not as complex as polymeric and electronic materials.

This was the text book used in an intro course I took. I'm sure there's a torrent of it out there and should serve as a pretty solid resource.

Basic mechanical properties of materials.

If you would like more resources, feel free to PM me.

My favorite two books for Calc 1,2, and 3 hands down:

How to Ace Calculus

How to Ace the Rest of Calculus

They're short, to the point, and pretty funny honestly.

As a ECE this book is awesome and only $20. Great practical as well as theoretical info. https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz/dp/1259587541

Try 'Practical Electronics for Inventors' by 'Paul Scherz'. This book is awesome. It is quite cheap too.
https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Electronics-Inventors-Fourth-Scherz/dp/1259587541

You can also try 'The Art of Electronics'. Its 3rd edition was released a year back I think. It has an informal style, so, I suppose you'll like it.
https://www.amazon.com/d/cka/Art-Electronics-Paul-Horowitz/0521809266

This site is also good.
https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/

I looked at the free pages on Amazon and it does seem a bit wordier than the physics books I remember. It could just be the chapter. Maybe it reads like a book; maybe it's incredibly boring :/

If money isn't an issue (or if you're resourceful and internet savvy ;) you can try the book by Serway & Jewett. It's fairly common.

http://www.amazon.com/Physics-Scientists-Engineers-Raymond-Serway/dp/1133947271

As for DE, this book really resonated with me for whatever reason. Your results may vary.

http://www.amazon.com/Course-Differential-Equations-Modeling-Applications/dp/1111827052/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372632638&sr=1-2&keywords=differential+equations+gill

If your issue is with the technical nature of textbooks in general, then you'll either have to deal with it or look for some books that simplify/summarize the material in some way. The only example I can come up with is:

http://www.amazon.com/Div-Grad-Curl-All-That/dp/0393925161/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1372632816&sr=1-1&keywords=div+grad+curl

Although Div, Grad, Curl, and all That is intended for students in an Electromagnetics course (not Physics 2), it might be helpful. It's an informal overview of Calculus 3 integrals and techniques. The book uses electromagnetism in its examples. I don't think it covers electric circuits, which are a mess of their own. However, there are tons of resources on the internet for circuits. I hope all this was helpful :)

https://smile.amazon.com/Advice-Rocket-Scientists-Survival-Engineers/dp/156347655X?sa-no-redirect=1

Amazon smile link for those who want to buy it and support charity

I have had this pencil for FOUR years. I gave the other one to my EE buddy because he kept trying to take mine. It makes such sweet sweet lines. :)

Also, get this eraser. I haven't used a better one in my life. It erases so beautifully. :)

I agree about Felder and Rousseau for Mass and material balances. It is probably the only textbook that I actually reference (mostly for the charts in the back and the unit conversions on the front cover).

I also like Callister for general materials science information.

Perry's is a wonderful reference.

Read the title and came here to recommend getting a mechanical pencil, and it looks like you were already thinking about it!

My rOtring 600 should be here tomorrow. Pretty psyched about it.

A good eraser is also a life changer.

Advice to Rocket Scientists: A Career Survival Guide for Scientists and Engineers - Dr. Jim Longuski, professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics Engineering at Purdue University.

I've read this fantastic (and short) book over and over at various points of my career--while earning my master's degree, in the workforce, and again while working on my PhD. Despite the title, this book contains great perspective on career planning for a wide variety of engineering disciplines and even the sciences. I've lent my copy to half a dozen people so far!

Career planning and maneuvering a workplace are two things that are not often taught in engineering school, so this book highlights these topics for technical people interested in careers in industry and/or academia.

This Pentel 0.5mm was my girl for the last 2 years of school. Definitely a great one on a budget.

My girlfriend is a 3rd year Chem E. She commonly uses this book: http://www.amazon.com/Perrys-Chemical-Engineers-Handbook-Edition/dp/0071422943/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1343794700&sr=8-1&keywords=perry%27s+chemical+engineering+handbook.

Good luck in your studies, that's a very challenging major.

If you need a good refresher on the primary equations, I found A Student's Guide to Maxwell's Equations to be very helpful.

Pick up an old SMAD

It has first order analysis for everything. Great book.

edit: when people say 'aerospace' I never know what they are really talking about. 'aero' and 'space' can be dramatically different.

If you haven't read it already...

http://www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Personal-Memoir-Lockheed/dp/0316743003

It depicts Kelly Johnson from Ben Rich's point of view. A great read.

Not sure if this counts as a book precisely, but Feynman's lectures on EM are free online!

I'm actually far more into the subatomic physic and aerospace side of electrical engineering so that's been my main focus. I'm currently (slowly, and not doing the homework problems) going through this look into everything JPL has been doing in regards to electric propulsion: "Fundamentals of Electric Propulsion: Ion and Hall Thrusters."

Mulling over your question, I should specify that I read educational books aimed toward a technical audience but probably wouldn't be considered "technical" themselves. These were my last three:

• Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military by Neil deGrasse Tyson
  
• The Evolution of Useful Things by Henry Petroski
  
• To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design

We used Elementary Differential Equations by Boyce and DiPrima and I thought it was fantastic, as I had to learn the majority from the book.

Definitely downloadand review the ~200 page FE Reference Handbook. It contains all the equations, tables, and unit conversations that are provided on the exam. The handbook also lists (by percentage) the topics that will be covered in the general morning session and each discipline-specific afternoon session. I had a general idea of where to find each equation, and this saved me a lot of time on the exam.

I purchased a FE Review Manual and the discipline-specific review manual for my major. I studied these for two weeks before the exam, averaging about 2 hours of studying a day. I tried to use the FE Reference Handbook to answer all the questions in the Review Manual, and I found that this helped me get familiarized with all the equations. The Review Handbook (especially the discipline specific handbook) more than adequately prepared me for the exam. The questions in the review manuals often required derivation and extensive algerba or calculus. The problems on the test were almost all "plug and chug."

I probably could have gotten away with just reviewing the Reference Handbook, but I'm easily overwhelmed by nerves and needed that extra "safety blanket" of review problems.

Parts will come back a LOT so you want to be familiar with that if at all possible. I think that is the technique I use most and unlike Trig Sub you cannot just use a table.

When I was struggling in the calc series I found the How To Ace Calculus books to be very helpful. They are good at translating the math into verbal explanations of concepts so I could connect the computations to a bigger picture. You might see if your library has them, if not, they are very cheap on Amazon. The 2nd one has about 25 pages on Series and then the rest is stuff that you see through Calc 2 and Calc 3.

What part of series is messing you up? Just a general foggy confusion or is there something more specific?

I've got a HP-35s and the Casio FX-991EX amazon

 

I bought the Casio as I couldn't take a programmable calculator into exams, and the 991EX is probably the best scientific calculator around right now. It's a newer model than the ES with a better display and a couple of extra features such as spreadsheets. The only negative I have to say about it is you only get 5 columns in the spreadsheet. That's 5 more than most calculators and I've used it successfully for stability calculations in naval architecture exams.
 

If you can get something programmable but don't need graphs, get a HP 35 and learn RPL and stack memory; I can punch numbers out in half the time on that than i can on the casio.

STAEDTLER premium quality vinyl eraser, Mars plastic, white, phthalate & latex free, age-resistant, minimal crumbling, blistercard of 4 erasers, 526 50 BK4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00006IFAN/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_pDMZAbCCEC8YD

If you can, pick up a copy/PDF of Introduction to Materials http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0470419970/ref=mp_s_a_1_6?qid=1404346873&sr=1-6&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70 Extremely useful book for all things material science.

Physics for Scientists and Engineers explains things quite well and has a lot of problems to work on. Nice examples too.

http://www.amazon.com/Physics-Scientists-Engineers-Raymond-Serway/dp/1133947271

highly recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/AVR-Programming-Learning-Software-Technology/dp/1449355781/

Granted, it's not Arduino (it's AVR, the microcontroller Arduino is based on, but you can still use an Arduino with its lessons with some software tweaks) and implies you know a decent amount of C programming, but it's written well enough so even an idiot like me could understand it.

I also had about a 12 year break between HS and college, and like you got through Trig just fine and then found myself drowning in Calc 1. Here's what helped me:
-attended another section of the class with another professor
-books that translated the mathy language into intuition
(http://www.amazon.com/How-Ace-Calculus-Streetwise-Guide/dp/0716731606 and http://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Easy-Way-Douglas-Downing/dp/0764129201/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415864089&sr=1-1&keywords=calculus+the+easy+way)
-MIT OCW videos
-Khan Academy

Good luck. If you make it through this.. well, I'm not going to say it's easy going after, but you will know how to be confused and work through that confusion, and that is a priceless skill in the rest of the curriculum.

Pentel P205 (0.5mm)

Download the NCEES Reference Manual from their website.

Buy the FE Review Manual

They also have a discipline specific review manual for chemical.

https://www.amazon.com/Perrys-Chemical-Engineers-Handbook-Eighth/dp/0071422943

Could this possibly be it?

I bought a couple of these for my labs:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00007LV4B/ref=oh_o02_s00_i00_details

Casio FX-991EX Engineering/Scientific Calculator, Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZZ93346/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_dBGYBbKC723D3

The newer version

i have an fx155es too, if i was buying a calculator today id get either this or this

http://www.amazon.com/National-Computation-Notebook-Inches-43648/dp/B00007LV4B/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421644235&sr=8-1&keywords=lab+notebook&pebp=1421644237150&peasin=B00007LV4B

Pencil: Pentel Graph Gear 1000 0.5mm

Eraser: Staedtler Mars Plastic Eraser

Calculator: Casio fx-115 MS

I use this one

I think the Space Mission Engineering and Orbit and Constellation Design and Management textbooks should have what you're looking for!

Ah but did your tour have a guide?

For when you get into Electricity and Magnetism - This

http://www.amazon.com/To-Engineer-Is-Human-Successful/dp/0679734163

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/0385267746

I've found David Klein's Organic Chemistry as a Second Language to be an indispensable resource.

I used the second edition, but I would imagine the third is still up to par.

http://www.amazon.com/Barrons-FE-Fundamentals-Engineering-Exam/dp/0764137077/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333371509&sr=1-1

I got something around an 86% in Texas just by flipping through this.

http://www.amazon.com/Barrons-FE-Fundamentals-Engineering-Preparation/dp/0764137077

Much cheaper.