2025-04-20
A self-study attempt, combined with learning-in-public, inspired by Scott Young's MIT challenge.
This will be a fixed-schedule challenge, I can neither work on this full-time, nor guarantee a certain number of hours per week/month.
I normally wake up at 05:30 and study for 90 minutes before getting ready to go to work. Meaning:
* I can dedicate 7.5 hours per week * 30 hours per month * 360 hours per year
There will be time taken off for long weekends, hiking, vacations, laziness, sickness, procrastination etc.
But some time will also be added on for long weekends where it is raining, or when I have a hour free in the office etc.
Overall, I estimate that the target of 30 hours per month is a reasonable goal.
The learning is divided into five largely-distinct phases.
Phase 0: Prepartion
Learning how to learn, gathering materials, textbooks, curriculi and syllabi (I debated a long time on how to pluralise them, but ended up defeated).
Phase 1: Pre-requisites
Maths and Physics.
Calculus 1, 2 and 3, Differential Equations, Vector Calculus, Linear Algebra, Numerical Methods. Classical Mechanics. Forces, work, energy, solid mechanics, electromagnetism, optics etc.
What I won't do is study advanced Physics. No quantum physics, or relativity. No Chemistry and Biology either, since I have neither the time nor the interest. Also, most universities will have you take non-technical courses in humanities. I will skip these also.
On the other hand, both Electrical Engineering and Electronic Engineering are important subjects, so I will be taking some lessons in them.
Phase 2: Mechanical Engineering
Roughly the second and third year of ME courses. Meat and potatoes of a mechanical engineering education: design, mechanics, manufacturing techniques, material engineering, strength of materials, drawing, dimensioning, metrology, instrumentation etc.
Phase 3: Thermal-Fluid specialisation
Thermodynamics, Equations of State, Fluid Dynamics, Heat Transfer, Transport Phenomena, Two-Phase Flow. I have simply endless material on these subjects, so half the challenge will be sifting through them to find the wheat from the chaff. I expect to spend 2028 doing this.
Phase-4: Programming and 'rounding off'
Everything that couldn't get done in the previous phases, but is worth my time. Electrical engineering, electronics and more programming.