Which engineering career will best integrate math and visual arts

Hello, Deone. Your interest in engineering AND the arts is somewhat unique. Most of us engineers like to get deeply into the details of a problem and are content leave the aesthetics to others. I suggest you consider a career as an Architect. An architect needs a strong practical background when approaching the design of a building. But architecture allows for (and requires) a strong aesthetic and artistic knack. As a Civil Engineer I've always envied the artistic creativity architects have on building projects that I have been involved in.

Hi Deonte:
With your interest in math and visual arts, I suggest you look into Architectural Engineering. Here is some information from Univ. of Colorado http://www.colorado.edu/engineering/academics/degree/architectural-engineering
If you click on the Sample Curriculum, you will see the types of courses you take. If it looks too math heavy, you might consider looking into drafting design school similar to this: https://www.itt-tech.edu/drafting-design.cfm.

Enjoy the Journey!
Troy

Not a specific engineering major, but data visualization can combine math and visual arts. Think: how do I display all this data I just got in an easy-to-understand way?

Some software engineers also make interfaces (web pages, apps) for people using computers. Well-done ones usually require some artistic skills during the development. Sometimes companies split these roles so someone is designing and someone is implementing, but not all companies do this.

The truth is, there are a lot of options, and companies are looking to hire well-rounded people, so your interest in both math and visual arts would work in different types of engineering!

Process Controls / Industrial Automation is a field where good visual design can make a huge difference. A plant integrator might make visual displays that represent data from car factories, chemical plants, power plants, skyscrapers etc. They also program and network the controls hardware that monitors and controls the data. I hope this helps, math and visual design are both a part of my job.

Here's a question for you. What do you see yourself as? a problem solver or a creative expressionist?

If you see yourself as primarily a problem solver, meaning the problem has to be solved before you worry about how it looks, then concentrate on engineering and learn visualizations, as was suggested in previous answers. (I too admire people with artistic ability that can make displays look really nice.)

If you see yourself as an artist (creative expressionist), and you have had success doing art that others enjoy, then be an artist with an engineering degree.

If you are making a piece of art, a sculpture perhaps, it has to withstand the forces placed on it, such as forces from gravity, wind, snow. If it is a dynamic piece of art, the pieces that move need to stand up to the forces they receive from their movement. A Mechanical Engineering degree will help you know how to analyze forces in structures, and help your choose material and shapes that will withstand those forces.

Some bridges are pieces of art, but they have to work as a bridge before they are built. that's civil engineering

One final thought. I have a Bachelor's In engineering and Master of Arts. The way I see things, the difference between art and engineering is this.

Art has to be created and used to determine if it "works".
Engineering has to be proven to work before it can be used.

Symphonies and TV shows are presented to the public first, before you know if they like them or not. However, you don't want to fly a plane or use a bridge before anyone knows if it works or not.

The way you prove that your piece of engineering works is by using mathematical models, testing scale models, building pieces and testing, and following known good processes that make things that work so you don't have to test them (welding for example, when the right technique is used in welding, it is known to produce a good weld.)

that, in my mind, is a lot of what engineers do . . . testing to show that their solution to the problem actually solves the problem.

So do you see yourself as a problem solver who wants to test something to show it works before you unveil it, or a creative expressionist who wants to try out your new creation to see if it works.

Deonte, I suggest optical engineering. Check it out!