Top 50 Engineering Blogs
There is something satisfying about making something, and something even more satisfying about designing something. Engineering is the discipline devoted to designing and making -- engineering -- everything from cars and MP3 players to bridges and energy sources. As a career, its often satisfying and well paying. Here we list our favorite 50 blogs about engineering and engineers, with something for everyone interested in the subject.
Top Five
- Engineer Blogs: Engineerblogs is a multi-author blog about various aspects of engineering, including engineering in academia and the workplace environment of engineering jobs, as well as the details of engineering.
- Why We Love It: We love the diversity of topics of this blog, and also that the entries are well written and fairly jargon-free, as well as the diversions into the social aspects of working as an engineer.
- Favorite Post: (In)Flexible Scheduling
- The Auto Prophet: How high can we reasonably increase MPG? Is ethanol from corn a good car fuel? All these questions and more are analyzed by The Auto Prophet, a blog about auto engineering from an engineer's perspective.
- Why We Love It: We love the Auto Prophet's clearly written, well-supported, opinionated blog posts about a topic near and dear to many of our hears: our cars.
- Favorite Post: CAFE May Cramp High End Luxury Market
- Infrastructurist: The Infrastructurist is a blog devoted to the state of and attempts to improve the infrastructure of the United States. It covers everything from what we can do with cigarette butts to what social structures really influence greenhouse emissions.
- Why We Love It: We live in houses, drive on roads and take public transport, and we want to know what engineers can do to make the infrastructure our lives depend on more efficient, green, and safe.
- Favorite Post: New Study: Should Emissions Debate Be Rich v. Poor Instead of City v. Suburb?
- Engineering Expert Witness Blog: Engineering Expert Witness Blog describes the engineering details and history behind everyday appliances, like microwaves, as well as specialty equipment, like green screens. It is run by Philip J. O'Keefe, who runs a service providing expert witnesses in court trials.
- Why We Love It: EEWB answers questions that we didn't even know we had, and in an entertaining, comprehensible way.
- Favorite Post: The Origins of the Microwave OVen
- Nanotechnology Development Blog: Nanotechnology Development Blog posts details on developments in one of the newest and most exciting engineering avenues.
- Why We Love It: We, like nearly everyone else, are fascinated by the potential for nanotechnology, and we love this blog for its clear explanations about what's new and possible in nanotechnology.
- Favorite Post: Nanoparticles and Nanotoxicology
The Rest of the Best
- Autoblog Green: People need to get from place to place, but how can we do that cleanly? Autoblog Green looks at the engineering behind the next generation of Earth-friendly cars.
- Automaton: Robotics is one of the new frontiers in engineering: designing a machine that can act autonomously. Automaton is a blog about that process, with a focus on news.
- Autopia: Autopia is a blog about cars: how fast can they go, how green they can be, and how to get them there. It discusses not only the engineering behind cars but also the economics and social climate that effects what cars drive on the road.
- Bot Thoughts: Bot Thoughts is a robotics blog, only instead of finding robotics news, this blog has posts on one blogger's attempts at making robots at home. It has information on techniques, supplies, and suppliers.
- Chemical Engineering Blog: This generically named blog posts about working in a chemical engineering lab, particularly about dealing with the equipment.
- Cleantech Chemistry: This blog deals with the chemistry behind engineering environmentally friendly products, like ethanol from sources other than corn. It is hosted by C & EN.
- Department of Crappy Engineering: The blog is for making fun of facts of life as an engineer who works in industry, like rank inflation and sick days.
- Design. Build. Play: Engineering is not the most gender-equal career, although that is changing. FrauTech writes on this blog about being a female engineer, as well as engineering in general, and is something any prospective engineer should check out, whatever their sex.
- Earth2Tech: Clean Tech is all about how to engineer technology to be more environmentally friendly, and it includes opinion and analysis as well as news.
- EcoGeek: EcoGeek posts news on developments in green engineering and technology, like new wind turbines that would allow wind farmers to produce much more energy per square mile of land.
- Electronics Engineering Video Blog: For those tired of reading or looking for a live-action presentation of engineering, EEV blog is the place to be, with videos on subjects like electronics hardware.
- Energywise: Energywise is a blog about how to have wise (environmentally friendly and renewable) energy sources, and the engineering that goes into finding new sources of energy.
- Engineering Ethics Blog: The Engineering Ethics Blog analyzes current news, like the space shuttle and popular toy lines, from the perspective of engineering ethics -- an important part of engineering anything.
- Flying Flux: Flying Flux is a blog about life as a software engineer working in industry, like the meaningless forms and other irritations. It's quite entertaining, and recommended for anyone with a job.
- Gadget Lab: The endpoint of engineering is, well, some thing -- whether that thing is a bridge, an iPod, or a heart monitor depends on the type of engineering that went into it. Gadget Lab is a blog that goes into the engineering behind new products.
- GEARS: GEARS stands for grads, engineering, academia, research, and students, which are the basic topics for this blog about life as a professor of engineering.
- Gizmodo: Gizmodo is a blog all about gizmos and doohickeys -- and the engineering behind them. It's a breezy, entertaining read for anyone interested in the process of making stuff.
- Good Clean Tech: Good Clean Tech posts news on making technology, like cars, more green -- and in ways other than just energy efficiency. It also covers waste management.
- I Think Mining: Before any material can be used in engineering a plane, a phone, or a barbecue, it needs to be created or found, and for metals and many other products, this is done by mining. This blog is all about how mining is done.
- iCalvyn.com: Written by Calvyn, a Malaysian IT expert, this blog covers computer engineering, like wireless networks and how Google works.
- iMechanica: Billing itself as the "web of mechanics and mechanicians", iMechanica posts on the academic world of mechanics. While not necessarily written for laypeople, this site should be of interest to anyone involved in this world.
- Johnathan Howells: Johnathan Howells writes about communicating engineering -- something every engineer has to do, for experts and laypeople alike.
- Life as an Outlier: Written by a blogger who goes by the name Miss Outlier, Life as an Outlier is the personal blog of an engineer, and so covers both personal aspects of engineering life as well as why the blogger loves engineering.
- Metaefficient: Metaefficient is a blog devoted to the most efficient, biggest things out their, like giant solar farms and eco-friendly office buildings.
- Military Tech: The military is one of the biggest funders of new technological research; it's how they get all their powerful weapons. Military Tech follows the latest news in military technology, especially that relating to computers -- at least, the latest military technology they tell us about.
- Nanoclast: Nanoclast is a blog about nanotechnology news, particularly about the economics of nanotechnology research. It does have posts on the details of nanotechnology engineering, however.
- NorthStarNerd: Written by Rich Hoeg, the NorthStarNerd covers software designed to share information, like one that tells you the Wikipedia entries on the area you are visiting. On a more personal note, Hoeg also covers outdoor activities like biking.
- One Per Cent: One Per Cent posts on new developments in engineering, with a focus on personal gadgets, like the tangle-prone wires inside headphones.
- Paving the Way: Paving the Way is a blog about tips for using AutoCAD Civil 3D, a big piece of software for civil engineering. It is very useful for any engineers or students who use the software.
- Robot Grrl: Robot Grrl follows the blogger's various engineering projects, including robotics and computer applications. Her focus of robotics is on the social aspects of robots.
- Robots Dreams: Robots Dreams is another blog with the primary focus on building robots. It posts tips on supplies and ideas for anyone interested in engineering robots.
- Robots.net: Robots.net is a news blog about robots news, posting everything from the latest research to robots you can make at home.
- Softmachines: Softmachines is a blog about the intersection of nanotechnology -- a type of engineered technology -- and biology. The blogger, Richard Jones, has written a book on the subject with the same title
- Tech Talk: Tech Talk is a blog about the engineering industry: where the engineers are, what companies, are doing, etc.
- The Curious Cat Science and Engineering Blog: The Curious Cat covers many topics in science and engineering, with a focus on creating and on education. For engineers and others interested in the state of education, this is a very interesting blog.
- The Green Technology Weblog: The Green Technology Weblog posts on news in making technology more environmentally friendly, from better solar panels to what companies are doing or promising to do.
- The Haystack: A multi-author blog hosted by C&EN, The Haystack is a blog about engineering drugs using organic chemistry. It includes analysis of why drugs work with structures.
- The Landslide Blog: Hosted by the American Geophysical Union, as the title indicates, this blog is about landslides and the technologies we can use to moderate their effect.
- The Next American City: This is the blog of the eponymous magazine, and its all about urban planning and engineering, including issue of broadband Internet.
- The Patent Librarian's Notebook: Once you engineer an invention, the next step is to patent it -- and this is where Michael White's blog comes in. It posts information on the patent process and news of new patents and patent suits.
- The Unwanted Blog: How many of us dreamed of becoming an astronaut when we were young? Well, learn about the details of the engineering behind space exploration in this blog.
- This Day in Tech: While many blogs cover the latest news in engineering breakthroughs, This Day in Tech takes the opposite approach. It profiles historical inventions and their engineers.
- Thought Clusters: Thought Clusters is about software engineering: the programs that are out there, how to go about managing people while developing software, etc.
- Thoughts on Business, Engineering, and Higher Education: While this blog is not always about engineering, when it is, the posts provide excellent engineering analyses -- especially of the social components behind engineering and what gets popularized. The blog topics also tend to lean toward medicine.
- Urban Workbench: The focus on Urban Workbench is engineering housing and urban developments to be environmentally friendly.
