BS Mining Engineering: Course Description
It’s one thing to extract ore from the earth’s crust; it’s quite another thing to keep the mining operations running in tiptop shape and to analyze the excavated goods. What kind of person is up to the task? Enter the mining engineer.
Mining engineers don’t just become that way overnight, though. Have you ever wondered what sort of training a student had to go through to get to that point? Wonder no more.
The Well-Rounded Engineer
At first glance, the aspiring mining engineer’s curriculum looks like it’s saturated with the M word. You’ll find everything you’ll need to know about mining here—from location (under or above ground) to material (coal, rock, etc.) to design (plants, ventilation, etc.) to principles on safety and management.
Of course, expect other subjects as well for that pinch of well-rounded goodness. A student may encounter such complementary sub-courses as geology, physics and metallurgy. And since mining engineers deal with people as well as ore, expect such subjects under the social sciences and humanities as well.
The Numbers and Political Games, Revisited
Just about any kind of engineer out there needs to work with numbers—even someone who focuses on getting rocks out of the earth. Thus, you can look forward to a bit of basic statistics and computer programming on the side.
Interestingly enough, mining engineers also still call upon other disciplines for assistance. Don’t be surprised to see some electrical engineering there, or even political science. In the final analysis, the truly effective engineers are the ones who use the numbers, work the technology and get the rocks to meet the people’s needs.
