How to become like Tony Stark? You need this kind of education!

Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Nuclear Engineering. Now going into specifics, here are the items that you see in the movies and how they are related:

Designing and building the arc reactor will take knowledge in plasma physics, magnet design, nuclear physics, electrical power extraction, and radiation shielding/reflector design. Also, since it is a power source for a flight vehicle (Iron Man’s suit) knowledge of aircraft design is also needed since it would help design the power demand curves from the reactor. Building this in a cave like Tony Stark does would also require good knowledge of chemistry and mechanics of materials as it would inform him how to fabricate the components and assemble them with the needed tolerances for making it work.

The designing and building the iron man suits is mostly aerospace and mechanical engineering, namely aircraft design. The suit control surface positioning and shaping requires knowledge of aerodynamics (from subsonic all the way to supersonic) and aircraft stability (since the suit cannot fly stably without computer control). The loads the suit has to take and route around the person, especially when doing maneuvers or taking fire is aircraft structural engineering, where knowledge of statics, mechanics of materials, and fracture mechanics is a must. Next, the suit has rocket thrusters as primary propulsion and maneuvering propulsion. Designing these would require knowledge in gas dynamics (specifically in designing nozzles), high voltage circuit design, magnet design, plasma physics (much like the Arc reactor since both would operate at similar temperatures and pressures), and structural design. The joints, and especially how the suit comes on and off is pure mechanical design, specifically mechanism design. Finally, like the Arc reactor, building this suit would require good knowledge of chemistry and mechanics of materials, especially metallurgy so that the elements of the suit are made as strong and tough as needed.

The heads up display and especially J.A.R.V.I.S. would require a lot of knowledge of computer science and electrical engineering, especially in dealing with noisy sensors. A lot of this is pure math, but to get started knowledge of Kalman filters, neural nets, and programming weak artificial intelligences would be needed, along with a good amount of knowledge in making holographic displays, low voltage circuit design, and projection systems.

Building this robot would take knowledge from computer science, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering as it would need design of mechanisms and structures (mechanical engineering), power circuits and motors (electrical engineering), sensors for knowing what its doing (electrical engineering), and software to help it interact with people (computer science).

That should give you a good overview of the various disciplines one needs to master to get onto Tony Stark’s level. Most people specialize in one area, but if you are dedicated, you too can reach Tony Stark like engineering ability. After all some of history’s most famous engineers were like this. You have probably heard of them, because they have names like Benjamin Franklin, Enrico Fermi, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Alexander Graham Bell, and George Washington Carver.

So in summary here is the list of skills/knowledge needed to be like Tony Stark (this isn’t EVERYTHING, but it will get you started)

1. Aerospace Engineering- Airframe Design
2. Aerospace Engineering- Aerodynamics (Subsonic to Supersonic)
3. Aerospace Engineering- Guidance, Navigation, and Controls
4. Aerospace Engineering- Propulsion System Design
5. Nuclear Engineering- Plasma Physics
6. Nuclear Engineering- Nuclear Physics
7. Nuclear Engineering- Interaction of Radiation With Matter
8. Mechanical Engineering- Mechanism Design
9. Mechanical Engineering- Cooling/Thermal Systems Design
10. Mechanical Engineering- Metallurgy
11. Mechanical Engineering- Manufacturing Systems
12. Electrical Engineering- Power Extraction System Design
13. Electrical Engineering- Plasma Control System Design
14. Electrical Engineering- Embedded Systems
15. Electrical Engineering- Signal Processing
16. Electrical Engineering- Power System Design
17. Electrical Engineering- Projection System Design
18. Computer Science- Artificial Intelligence Design
19. Computer Science- User Interface Design

BY: Sumontro Sinha

SOURCE: https://www.quora.com/What-kind-of-education-should-one-follow-to-be-like-Tony-Stark/answer/Sumontro-Sinha?share=7830c005&srid=hloYp