Grad School

Jstas

Doesn't your school have a guidance counselor or faculty mentor type program for you? Those are the people you should be asking because they have your school's resources available to them and they can get you the info you need to do what you have to do easily.

Eric W

appadv wrote: »

Was looking back at this thread -

If one wanted to work at a speaker company designing new products - Polk, for example - what kind of degree would be necessary? And if I wanted to get into the custom install business (Crestron, AMX, Russound, etc.) would grad school be of ANY help?

BTW, I can't seem to find a school that offers "Acoustic Engineering" or "Sound Engineering" around here....

There's a few- University of Hartford in Connecticuit has a ME and Acoustics Concentration Program.

Penn State has a graduate program in Acoustics.

University of Miami (Hurricanes) has an Audio Engineering program (it's more digital circuitry based)

There's also audio production (like editing and mastering sound tracks and recordings) and acoustic design for concert halls etc. Depends on what you want to do.

If you want to get into custom installation, hands on experience is key here. You're probably better off taking some industry specific courses such as those offered by CEDIA.

Our engineers here have degrees from U. of Miami, Johns Hopkins, M.I.T., Virginia Tech, to name a few.

Serendipity

Oops...

I was going to say that I was interested in engineering custom installation products, instead of just working in the field of custom installation.

And - what would I need to get a job, say, at Polk Audio?

haimoc

markmarc wrote: »

I did my Masters online while teaching full-time. I would tell you to get out and work a few years before starting a program. It's important to have some real world experience and perspective.

This is a good idea, too... In addition, if you plan to work for federal goverment, a graduated degree will help....

Eric W

appadv wrote: »

Oops...

I was going to say that I was interested in engineering custom installation products, instead of just working in the field of custom installation.

And - what would I need to get a job, say, at Polk Audio?

An engineering degree! and some real world experience (just like any other job application) helps. Several of our engineers here started out as interns.

I know you said you want to get into designing custom install products but even then several types of engineers are involved. Here at Polk we have:
-Analog Electrical Engineers - mainly dealing with amplification circuits/crossovers as well as research projects
-Digital Electrical Engineers - mainly dealing with DSP circuits and other research projects
-System/Acoustical Engineers - responsible for the overall acoustics of the product
-Project Engineers - responsible for making sure the project gets executed correctly
-Mechanical Engineers - responsible for the construction and fit of the products
-Industrial Engineers - responsible for creating the ID/look of the products
-Test and Measurement Engineers - responsible for making sure the products meet specification and safety/regulatory requirements
-Prototyping Engineer- responsible for building samples for cosmetics and measurement
-Transducer Engineer- designing the actual components like tweeters and drivers

Hope this helps some.

BAD ASP

nmnm

BAD ASP

I might add that a number of employers provide for your continuing education as long as it is job specific. The employer may even pick up the entire cost with a time commitment from you.

Serendipity

Well, the EE program offered at my school focuses on analog/digital electronics with a bit of microelectronics. Although I previously wanted to go into robotics, I'm now more interested in stuff like designing speakers, projectors, home automation products, etc.

Eric W

appadv wrote: »

Well, the EE program offered at my school focuses on analog/digital electronics with a bit of microelectronics. Although I previously wanted to go into robotics, I'm now more interested in stuff like designing speakers, projectors, home automation products, etc.

Well then, sounds like you're off to a good start!

I-SIG

I know at Georgia Tech the acoustics classes fell in the ME realm and were reportedly brutally tough, even by Tech's standards.

From what I know about GaTech's curriculum and what's been said here, for something like what you want to do, it's either an EE with ME electives or ME with EE electives.

Wes