I am currently in my third year of school at the Federal University of Agriculture in Abeokuta, where I major in Mechatronics engineering.
When most people hear of the term "Mechatronics", they think of it as something that came straight out of the Transformers movies. And the reason for this is that, in comparison to other engineering fields, the field is very young.
Mechatronics: What is it all about?
Mechatronics is a field that was carved out of Mechanical Engineering.
In essence, Mechatronics engineering is an interdisciplinary field that combines the fundamental ideas of Mechanics, Electronics, and Electrical Engineering.
Over the years, Mechatronics has evolved, and what started off as a combination of Electronics, mechanics, and electrical engineering is now a field that has incorporated more fields like Robotics, systems, and control engineering.
So, in a sense, we can say that Mechatronics engineers are the "jack of all trades, master of all" of the engineering profession.
Why Mechatronics?
Mechatronics is a pretty new field, as I mentioned earlier. Even the majority of Westerners are unaware of its existence, let alone people in other parts of the world that are still attempting to catch up with the rate at which technology is developing.
Although I had originally intended to pursue a career in mechanical engineering, I became interested in Mechatronics after coming across it one day while browsing the internet.
I read more about it out of curiosity, and what I saw there greatly impressed me.
Relevance in the Modern day world.
Since the need for technology products (both hardware and software) is increasing and virtually everything we do now depends on them, it is essential to have people who are committed to improving already existing products while also developing new ones that solve pressing issues. This here, is why the world needs Mechatronics engineering.
A Mechatronics engineer's primary responsibility is to design and create wonderful products that make life easier for everyone while utilizing the information gained from a variety of engineering specialties.
Almost any problem you can think of can be solved using the basic principles of mechatronics.
However, the following are some of the fields where mechatronics is most useful:
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Biomedical tech
- Automation
- Smart systems
- Machine Vision
- Bionics
- Autotronics
- Robotics
- Avionics (and almost all the "..nics" you can think of)
Mechatronics is a field that will undoubtedly play a significant role in the future, despite the fact that it is still in its infancy. And fortunately for us all, the future is now!
Thank you very much for stopping by. Do have a nice day.