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Ask The Readers: What If Sports Programs Were Replaced By Engineering Programs?

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 02:55:43 +0100

One side effect of coming up with my ideas while running is that I’m influenced by the things I see and hear while I’m running. Normally, it’s no problem. I go to a gym where I can run on the inside track and either ponder the engineering problem of the day or let my mind drift. But the other day, I had an issue where I couldn’t recall any problems I had been having. Instead, my mind turned to people watching and observing the activities around me. And being a suburb dweller, the primary activity was kids playing sports, namely basketball. 6 courts full of children competing against one another, working with their parents, working with their coaches and striving to be the best basketball players they can be.

So what’s the payoff? What do these children expect? I’m sure some of them are just there to have fun. They’ll bounce the ball and shoot some hoops and go home happy. But I noticed instead the children that were really competing and striving to be the best. It was most of them. And throughout my run, I watched these kids thinking: why do they bother?

Wow. That sounds like a horribly defeatist attitude, doesn’t it? I prefer the term: “realism”. Everyone likes the story of the underdog, but if these kids are to make it to the NBA (the final goal, right?) they need to be one of 7 players out of 540,000 of a real real real good 14-year old basketball players on a high school team. And that’s per year. Yikes. (Of course, perhaps we should compare it to the statistics of getting to be writer at Engineer Blogs! 5 writers currently out of 6,971,827,623 people worldwide by an estimated by the US census means you only have a 1 in 1.39 Billion of being a writer here. Perhaps you should try for the NBA position after all…).

Anyway, I’m sure you understand my point here. It’s not that being the top of your field is a difficult and unlikely thing; that’s true in any field as there can only be so many at the top. What I’m trying to point out is the extreme effort and focus put into sports in childrens’ lives (my own childhood included) are ultimately a waste and one that doesn’t benefit the world in any way (save for the “teamwork” aspect, perhaps). If a student stops playing basketball after years of hard work, what does the world gain? Perhaps another fan of the sport that can help buoy the sports viewing industry?

So now the questions for you, dear reader: What does the world lose if we transition from sports-based recreation to engineering-based hobby and recreation? What happens if instead of each high school not having a basketball or football team (and the gobs of funding that often accompanies it) but instead has one or many FIRST robotics teams? What if the focus was not on the best crossover dribble or fade-away jump shot, but instead the most structurally sound 3D printed component of a robot or quadcopter that needs to complete a particular task? What if our college athletes got in trouble with the NCEA (National Collegiate Engineering Association?) not for skipping classes in order to be on the football team, but instead because they needed to finish their 60 foot robot? (akin to the violations often seen by the NCAA)

Maybe I’m being ridiculous. Perhaps I didn’t understand the true value in sports in high school (which I should mention I played throughout high school) and I’m missing the point behind those kids at my gym competing. Maybe the interest would never be there and the students would not participate. Regardless of what I think, I want to hear what you have to say. Would engineering-based “sports” be a viable alternative to the focus put on athletics these days? What would we lose or gain in the event the world suddenly switched? Please let us know in the comments.

Losing your voice

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 02:01:30 +0100

In a couple weeks, I plan to spend some time with my students on writing lab reports. Both in science and engineering, students spend a pretty significant amount of time writing reports (or they should!).

I decided this would be a part of my curriculum after remembering my experience teaching circuits labs the first time. I was amazed at how many students had made it that far without having a good understanding of how to write a lab report. I ended up spending a good chunk of lab time trying to teach this particular skill.

The reason I think this is important is not only for academic success but for success in a job. As an engineer, you have to write a lot of reports. Your superiors have to explain why they’re paying you, so you need to be able to justify your existence.

Education in this realm, however, has not really kept pace with how writing works in technical fields.

I remember writing up my first resume. I wrote down the jobs I worked at and job duties. For instance, as a secretary, I wrote that I was “familiar with MSDS“. A few years later, I was hearing things like, “Use activity words,” and, “Let them know what you DID.” I had to revise my resume to say, “Developed and maintained an MSDS system to bring facility into compliance with state and federal regulations.” (I wasn’t sure how it would go over if I added the bit about, “Helped supervisor to procure annoying miniature floofy dog for his mistress,” but I figured that wasn’t critical as it happened about the time I quit. And you may have an inkling of why I quit…)

A few days ago, a coworker and I were discussing posters for a conference that we were writing up. I made the comment that, in most of his writing, he used the passive voice (e.g. “A model was developed for the widget that can be varied 1.5 billion ways and run in 15 nanoseconds,” rather than, “Using our awesome skillz, we developed our own customizable model of the widget which has 1.5 billion variations and requires only nanoseconds to run.”). He responded that he was taught to write technical work passively, so that it would sound like the first example. I thought it might be discipline specific, but my other coworker in the same field as the first said he stopped doing it a long ago simply because it was so boring to read.

The first coworker is a decade younger than I am…and they’re still teaching this.

This reminded me of a discussion a couple years ago (forever in the blogosphere, I know) about use of first/third person and passive voice in academic writing. The comments were great, especially coming from a variety of different fields. I learned not only that I didn’t have to use passive voice and that first person pronouns were acceptable, but that there may also be good reason for using passive voice at other times, as well. This is one of those times that reading blogs really opened my eyes to the diversity of approach and opinion out there. And yes, a lot of people do think it’s more proper to use passive voice.

Rereading this commentary after my discussion with my coworker made me think heavily about teaching lab report writing to my engineering students. One of the things I plan to discuss in detail is use of voice. I really prefer active voice because, frankly, passive writing often equates to dry and boring reading. However, I am also going to discuss that the use of passive voice may sometimes be necessary and appropriate: the key is knowing when you’ve hit one of those circumstances.

In other words, I want my students to learn to take credit for their work and show that they did something. Just like writing a resume, writing reports, whether they are lab reports for school or technical reports for your supervisor, should also convey one’s role in an effort, i.e., it should be clear who got the job done. Unless, of course, it went badly, in which case even the best of us would hide behind passive constructions by saying, “Mistakes were made.”

Which voice were you taught to use? Did you rebel against it? And how do you feel when you see someone utilizing your non-preferred style/voice?

One Dark Road

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 02:03:26 +0100

I'd rather walk in a dark scary road alone

and without nothing to think about

other than to be able to pass

as compared

to walk a well lighted path

of which I can see your smile clearly.

Why?

Simply because your

smile is more dangerous

compared to anything

I'll see in darkness.

Like a theft that never

looks back.

Like a cold blooded-murderer

who doesn't repent.

Taking hearts and breaking

it as if no one has

to feel the pain of losing.

April Winter

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 02:06:00 +0100

Meeting someone like you is a destiny.

I became fool to what I feel and gets stupid,

Because with you around makes me act foolishly;

To see you around makes my life so perfect and vivid.

Please let me know if we feel the same,

For I am so lonely and can't help but wait.

For our love to become serious and not a game,

To tell the whole world that you're my soulmate.

Don't get me wrong to this words that I am saying,

I know what I am saying is corny and a little bit crazy.

But I am saying this because I am not lying lying,

and let this feeling become part of my entity.

I dont't want to be lonely no more,

For I know that your existence will haunt my core.

Please love me like I love you,

So that my only wish to be with you will come true.

What is Engineering?

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 03:09:13 +0100

Engineering

is a term applied to the profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences, gained by study, experience, and practice, is applied to the efficient use of the materials and forces of nature. Engineers are the ones who have received professional training in pure and applied science.Before the middle of the 18th century, large-scale construction work was usually placed in the hands of military engineers. Military engineering involved such work as the preparation of topographical maps, the location, design, and construction of roads and bridges; and the building of forts and docks; see Military Engineering below. In the 18th century, however, the term civil engineering came into use to describe engineering work that was performed by civilians for nonmilitary purposes.

Civil engineering

is the broadest of the engineering fields. Civil engineering focuses on the infrastructure of the world which include Water works, Sewers, Dams, Power Plants, Transmission Towers/Lines, Railroads, Highways, Bridges, Tunnels, Irrigation Canals, River Navigation, Shipping Canals, Traffic Control, Mass Transit, Airport Runways, Terminals, Industrial Plant Buildings, Skyscrapers, etc. Among the important subdivisions of the field areconstruction engineering, irrigation engineering, transportation engineering, soils and foundation engineering, geodetic engineering, hydraulic engineering, and coastal and ocean engineering.