Best Engineering Blogs –
I am not an Engineer, although I spend most of my waking hours with them or talking to them (it is my job and my husband is an Engineer from Tufts as well). I know how to help with resumes, cover letters, networking and interviewing (I spent much of my career hiring engineers and giving advice). When looking for blogs about what it is like to be an engineer or what to think about when you become one, I came across this great list of 10 Best Engineering Blogs for University Students written by Barry Franklyn. For the full article and methodology see https://www.onlineengineeringprograms.com/features/10-great-engineering-blogs-for-students.
URBANWORKBENCH
UrbanWorkbench is, perhaps, one of the most engaging and appealing engineering blogs in existence today. This blog, according to the site, “represents the intersection between civil engineering, urban planning, and design,” and “is intended to act as a workbench, and area where ideas are hammered out, concepts are tried, discussed and debated, and new engineering, planning, environmental and urban technologies are reported on and reviewed.” This blog is actively maintained, and contains recent posts on sustainable civil engineering, employee engagement, information on how to ensure a sanitary system and treatment plant operates correctly, and more, all of which are written in an easily readable yet educational format.
CURIOUS CAT SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING BLOG
The Science and Engineering Blog is one of several blogs operated by Curious Cat; indeed, this organization, which is run by John Hunter, maintains blogs on a variety of different topics, including management, investment and economics, and more. That being said, the science and engineering page holds posts covering topics from sustainable ocean farming to medicinal plants, all of which are neatly organized in searchable categories. Students may use this blog to learn about recent developments in various fields of engineering, and will likely benefit from the many videos accompanying the articles.
SCREAMING CIRCUITS
In pursuit of an engineering degree, a student will inevitably find themselves learning about and perhaps even building their own circuit board. And, in this process, they may find a trove of valuable information on the blog maintained by Screaming Circuits, which contains a compilation of posts solely focused on circuit boards and their assembly. Students may read this blog to learn about newly developed technology, circuit board trivia, and more on related topics.
ENGINEERING ETHICS
Engineering Ethics focuses on a slightly different concept than the rest within the field of engineering; namely, that of ethics and morality. Indeed, as the author describes, the blog is less concerned with “doing things right,” and instead with “doing the right thing.” This blog examines various moral and ethical questions related to engineering and technology; while the situations may not be applicable to everyone, they can help engineering students maintain an ethical perspective when facing issues in their own professional lives.
TOPTAL ENGINEERING BLOG
Both visually appealing and informative, the Toptal Engineering Blog stands out as one of the best online resources for current students. This space is, as described on the site, “a hub for in-depth development tutorials and new technology announcements created by professional freelance software engineers in the Toptal network.” Here, a university student may find tips on how to get started on the Elixir programming language, or discover a fresh perspective on authentication and biometric security. Overall, this site is mainly geared towards software engineers and contains numerous posts on related subjects.
THE SAFETY ZONE BY CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING NEWS (C&EN)
The Safety Zone is a project run by Chemical & Engineering News that is solely focused on safety in the workplace for chemists and engineers. This blog contains news stories depicting recent instances of safety issues or violations, as well as a number of safety resources that browsers can use as informational guides. Because safety is such an important topic in the engineering workspace, current engineering students may use this online resource as they pursue their degree and eventual merge into the workforce.
ZENEFITS ENGINEERING BLOG
The blog provided by Zenefits may be somewhat of an outlier on this list, given that it has only been around for less than a year as of this writing. That being said, in its current 10 months of existence it has displayed a wide array of useful blog posts focusing on the topic of software engineering, and may be useful for any software or computer engineering student as they pursue a degree. And best of all, the authors of these blog posts often pepper in humor within the writing, helping to add life to these topics and to help the articles remain more approachable.
NEXTDOOR ENGINEERING BLOG
Nextdoor has emerged as an incredibly popular private social network for users and their neighbors, one that allows for communication and discussion about neighborhood issues. And, in maintaining this application, the company’s software engineers keep a blog where they post articles on various topics related to engineering and their company. Recent posts have focused on building VPCs with CloudFormation templates, and discussions with various company engineers.
HACKADAY
Designed for the everyday hacker with a keen interest in electronics and hardware, Hackaday, international in scope and maintained by a loose but dedicated collective of individuals, is mostly dedicated to engineering DIY solutions built around custom hardware and affordable computer brains such as the Raspberry PI. But not all of this blog’s posts tackle specific, small-scale problems. Some focus on “materials to know” and their sometimes surprising applications, others on how to get the most from technical manuals and datasheets, and still others on coming together for regional meetups such as the recent World Create Day in order to collectively brainstorm solutions to pressing problems like the reliability of the electrical grid in Nigeria, and how to extend it to reach more remote communities.
PACKAGING MATTERS
The last blog on this list, Packaging Matters, is part of a relatively small niche focused on general packaging topics and developed by packaging engineers, and provides a fascinating look at packaging engineering problems and solutions. Some posts, for instance, focus on improved pallet cube efficiency as it relates to shipping, others on packaging efficiencies that may prove interesting to any student of engineering.
Enjoy. If there are other engineering blogs you enjoy reading and you want to tell the other Tufts Engineers about them, feel free to write me at robin.kahan@tufts.edu and I will help you share. (I am also accepting ideas for blog posts 🙂)
