Had I known that there is a difference between engineering and science, I would probably have chosen the more theoretical career path. Instead, I became a mechanical engineer—later an automation engineer—and tried to make the best of it by extending the scientific aspects: staying in academia and working on my dissertation. Not quite what the eight-year-old me wanted to become, namely an inventor or a roboticist, because my inventions are now mainly virtual, and the robot is just a machine tool I use. But close enough.
Besides, the subject you study matters a lot less than where you end up working, and many things can be learned autodidactically if you are passionate about them. In my case, it is programming, which was required in many university classes, but none covered it as in-depth as I did in my own projects. Once I finished my dissertation, I am eager to find out whether programmers are really in such high demand as everybody makes me believe. Below, you can find some of the simulations I did for my studies or just for fun, along with a list of my publications.
As a bonus, I have also included some simple encryption methods I developed; however, do not expect these articles to be very scientific.