node information : the goal of this node (you're welcome to create nodes about *your*
professions, like for instance "
how ah became a pimpe", or "
how I became a slashdot editor" - I make no
insinuations), is to explain country-wise, how one becomes an
engineer.
This is the entry for
Belgium.
The process of becoming an engineer started when I had to choose the amount of
mathematics I would be taking for the two last years of
secundary school. We had the
choice between 2, 4, 6 or 8 hours (50 minute hours) a week of
maths and as I was one of the two most talented
mathematicians in my class, I chose for the
maximum allowed. (In Wallonia the southern part of Belgium, the maximum amount was 7 hours.
The second choice I had to do was between
Economics,
Sciences and
Latin. Having abandonned Latin two years before, and having never ever had an economics course, I
settled for sciences although I hated
biology and the biology teacher - called the Sex Midget.
The next year (called the fifth year) passed without great events, I always managed to work just
no more, no less than necessary. When I arrived in the sixth and final year, our maths teacher proposed us to take one
lunch break every week to prepare for the
entrance exam for
civil engineering. Some ten students signed up, but after some months I was the last one left who was interested. This disappointed our maths teacher, because although she saw I was
talented, she also saw I was
lazy (I still am). She was often upset because I hadn't prepared the exercises she had given me. But she didn't give up on me and in july
1996 I presented the exam.
The exam was split in five parts :
- Written on algebra
- Written on calculus
- Written on geometry
- Oral on analytical geometry
- Oral on calculus
I failed for the first and the third, got a 10/20 on the fourth and did ok on the second and the last. In total I got 58/100. While this was
in se not the required 60/100, it would have been stupid to have me come back in september for just to miserable points. So I was "deliberated away". The very next day I took my
inscription for the
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Faculty of Applied Sciences /
Polytechnic School, where I had passed the
exam.
The engineering studies take five years : first two
theorical years called the "candidatures", then three more practical years called the "licenses".
The first year (first candidature) we received
education in
physics,
chemistry, calculus, algebra,
programming/
CS, and
discrete mechanics. The courses went on from october to may. I passed in second exam session (basically, we get two tries, one in june/july - first session, one in august/september - second
session). I was not a superhard worker, but
I was smart enough to keep my head above the water.
The second year (second candidature), we received courses on
quantum physics/
optics,
continuum mechanics, more calculus,
statistics,
electricity,
numerical algorithms,
non-numerical algorithms,
physical chemistry. I passed again in second session.
The third year (first license), we had to make a choice based on what we were good at or what we liked. We had to choose between
Construction (for those who liked continuum mechanics),
Electrotechnics (basically
electronics and CS, low
voltage), Mechanics/Electrotechnics (
Robots,
electromotors, high voltage), Chemistry (
masochists), and Material Science. As a geek, I chose the
E.
we got
system theory,
control theory,
materials science,
computer architecture, networks and
filter design,
transformers and electromotors,
telecommunication (a
joke),
electromagnetism, electronics,
digital circuits,
microelectronics,
heat and mass transfert (HMT). I didn't pass that time, because of one exam in HMT, the most
useless course ever for an E-engineer. Not in first session, not in second session.
Basically, I had to do the first license again. But I didn't want to be left alone in a class with people I didn't know, and besides all pretty girls had passed and the only girl in the new class was
ugly. So I set up a special program to pass the third and fourth years in one year, giving up already my
summer holydays for 2000.
In the fourth year (second license), E-engineers had to choose between electronics (EL), telecom (TC),
photonics (FO) and CS (IN). EL was not for me, although I was in love with a girl who had picked that, FO was for people who liked solving
Schrödinger's Equation, not me, although I was in love with a girl who had picked that, TC seemed
boring although almost all my friends took that, so I chose IN wich was perfect as it gave me much
freedom for the courses I took and that was just what I needed for my special program.
So as a 4E/IN student, I took control techniques (a joke),
DSP, advanced measurement techniques, advanced microelectronics, advanced electronics (mainly
amplifiers), Cinematics and dynamics of machines,
parallel computing,
signal theory,
interpreter masturbation,
compilers,
TCP/IP, application layer (yet another joke), Electronics design and
implementation, and a free assignment on
raytracers to learn
c. I passed the third year in first session, the fourth year in second session. I was again a
regular student.
In the fifth year (Third license), the most important thing to do was to choose a final
thesis. The four years before I had learnt that the people from the CS department were a joke, so I did not want to have anything to do with them. I was planning to take a thesis outside of faculty, maybe in general CS, until I met my measurements professor, who was looking for someone to write an
instrument driver for a
signal generator. I took it. Other course given that year were : introduction to the corporate world (well kinda),
expert systems, economics (a joke),
image processing and synthesis (a catastrophe),
databases,
protocols,
software engineering,
real time OSes,
AI, to which I added a website design in
PHP/ODBC, electronics/software
codesign,
audio DSP (for a girl), and
lighting techniques (a joke). I passed in first session of 2001, and that's how I received, on
July 13, 2001, the
academic grade of Burgerlijk Elektrotechnisch Ingenieur.
All in all, this is the type of studies I would recommand to people that are either
hard working, either
intelligent. Hard working, stupid people will pass without a problem, intelligent people too, even if they are lazy. I am one of those. But
stupid,
lazy people just won't cut it. I know people who were in their second first candidature when I arrived in 1996, and are not much further right now.