You Can Be Anything › All careers › Engineering & Technology
Reliability Engineer
Ensures systems and products perform consistently over time without failure.
Did you know?
In 2024, engineers on Earth fixed Voyager 1's computer by moving code away from a broken memory chip. The probe, launched in 1977, is over 24 billion km away.
How subjects help
- Mathematics: Predict how long a machine will run before a part is likely to wear out.
- Physics: Study how heat, vibration and repeated stress slowly crack metal parts over time.
- Statistics: Analyse failure records to spot which parts break most often and why.
- Engineering: Plan maintenance and spare parts so equipment rarely stops without warning.
A famous name
Waloddi Weibull: Swedish engineer whose Weibull distribution (1951) is used to predict when parts will fail.
Try it yourself: Package one crisp so it survives
- Design a package that fits inside the envelope and protects one crisp. Use only soft or paper materials: no wood, metal, glass or hard plastic.
- Build it and seal the crisp inside, tearing rather than cutting. Weigh it if you can: a lighter, smaller package scores better.
- Test it the way the post might: drop it from table height a few times and shake it.
- Open it and score the crisp: whole, cracked or broken. Improve the design and test again, or post it to a relative and ask them to report back.
Packaging engineers design boxes and padding that protect products in transport with as little material as possible, and quality engineers drop-test packages to check them.
Adapted from Montana State University: Pringles Potato Chip Mailing Challenge.
Also try: Test surfaces on a sliding ramp.
Known for it in
USA, Germany, Japan, UK, France