Dear all,

Which professional body do you consider most suitable for CFD practitioners and why?

I am considering joining the "Institute of Mathematics and its Applications" because my first degree was in Mathematics.

Your thoughts are most welcome,

James

James

None.

I've been in the CFD game for over 15 years, and worked as a consultant engineer, for a large automotive OEM and for a large CFD vendor. During that time I've run into very few practicing CFD engineers that are even members of a professional institution, and even fewer that have any sort of chartership.

If you think that you'll get enough in return for your membership fees (or better still if you can get someone to pay for you) then join. However, I seriously doubt that it will have any influence on your future employability or on the extent of your career progression.

CFD is one of the few careers in which you get rewarded for how clever you are, rather than which club you belong to.

I'd also point out that (in the UK at least) the IMechE has done very little to uphold the status of Professional Engineers and so are also probably not worthy of your endorsement.

My advice would be to save the money and use it to pay for an MBA when you've gone as far as you can in engineering.

S.

I have to disagree, at least in part, with the first reply. It really depends on your job. If you are in industry a professional society is probably not important. If you are in research (academia or a govt. lab) then a professional society is very important. For the latter case, publishing, presenting papers and professional recognition is how you advance in your career and a professional society is the best way to do it. In aerospace the AIAA is a good one (if you are US based or maybe even if you are not). At any rate, if you join a society, don't just pay your dues and sit back. That won't do you any good. If you bother to join, then get involved, it will pay dividends in terms of opportunities to advance your career.

But you don't need to join AIAA, ASME, IMechE etc to present papers at their conferences, or to publish in their journals. Even if you were a member of those institutions, it is doubtful you could afford to subscribe to all their journals. You would just read them in the library like everyone else. So, even for academics, I agree with Steve - why bother?

I agree with some of the opinions posted by previous responders - you get out of an organization exactly what you put into it.

In the US, AIAA (www.aiaa.org) offers a great deal for the CFD practitioner. The most important of which is the opportunity to participate on technical committees that are focused on various aspects of CFD (applications, development, meshing, etc.). You get to develop relationships with others in the field and collaborate on projects that try to advance the state of the art.

Could you do all this on your own without joining? Certainly. But membership does facilitate it.

When I say get in involved in a professional society, I don't just mean present papers and publish journal articles. I'm talking about chairing sessions, organizing sessions and conferences, developing workshops and short courses etc. etc. If you get involved at that sort of level you will make valuable contacts, gain a reputation and get recognized. That recognition could be in the form of a good reputation, an invited paper, a position of responsibility in the organization or awards.

And consulting gigs if your employer allows that.