are there too little people going for PhD in core engineering topics these days?
Maybe a controversial observation, but it genuinely feels like the people still seriously pursuing research/PhDs are concentrated in:
- biotech/biomed/bioinformatics,
- materials science/nanotech,
- chemistry/physics/math,
- and AI/ML/computer science.
Meanwhile, a lot of traditional/core engineering fields seem to have a shrinking research crowd among students.
I rarely see people excited about long-term research careers in engineering. Most people seem to pivot toward consulting, software, analytics, management, or government jobs instead.
It's true that “old” engineering fields are still massively important in the real world, right?
So why does research interest feel disproportionately low there compared to biotech/materials/AI?
Is it mainly:
- lower funding?
- fewer visible breakthroughs?
- slower publication cycles?
- weaker salaries?
- less hype?
- or because the problems are now seen as “solved” even though they clearly aren’t?
Curious whether other people here have noticed the same trend.