Balancing Theory and Practice
As an engineer and mathematics student, I have come to the realization that an important thing is not how thorough we can make our models for a given system, but rather capturing the necessary elements of the given system sufficient enough to describe the problem in a given set of constraints and conditions (time, budget, resources available, labor).
As an example, I am an engineering graduate student, I am learning the point-wise description of elasticity for solid mechanics. But in my liquid rocket organization where we are engineering prototype liquid rockets, our engineering discussions primarily revolve around 1D, simplified down to the bone calculations.
This makes me question whether it is even worth learning a very in-depth, depth-first approach to solid mechanics, or if I should invest more time into problem solving with 1D hand calcs. As a first semester grad student, I will be continuing the point-wise elasticity description for the next two-semester, adjoining this with taking finite-element courses and wave-propagation courses, alongside with heat transfer and fatigue courses.
How can I navigate my grad school courses with my liquid rocket organization, knowing that I may not use the depth-first approach in my coursework directly in my applied engineering work?