Although at points rather dry and repetitive, David Goldberg’s PowerPoint presentation and research brought about some valid and thought provoking problems in engineering education that need to be addressed. One problem that graduate engineers have when entering the work force is the inability to ask good questions. I actually had experience working as an intern for an engineering company last summer at Packer Engineering and can personally identify with this difficulty. One of the things I learned from that experience is that many times, asking good questions is a confidence issue. Maybe this not true for other people, but I usually have questions in my head that are relatively logical, but when I ask them, they don’t come out in the way I want them to. I could improve my question asking by practicing in class. This would give me more confidence in the future so my questions aren’t jumbled. Asking well thought out questions in class is not the only way to improve. If there was some way to create mock situations in iEFX where one would need to ask good questions in order to probe the problem at hand, that would be great practice for the real world. This would be similar to someone in the real world asking a client good questions to fully understand the problem at hand.
Another interesting point that Goldberg made that I myself need to improve on is the labeling of common systems, assemblies, and components of technology in industry. Again, in Packer, I had this same problem. Over the course of the six week internship, I gradually learned the lingo of the company pretty well, but when I get a job out of college, six weeks will be too long. I think that the solution to this would be to get more hands on experience in industry before I start my first real job out of college. This could be done through joining various engineering clubs that build hands on things using equipment which would be good to learn or by strongly pursuing internships in the summer to get hands on experience. Either way, it seems like reading from a book about the various tools and systems in the real world will not cut it and it is up to me to gain outside experience.
The last intriguing point I will write about is the inability to visualize. I find this to be an interesting problem because all my life I have enjoyed math and geometry and building things. I have not however, focused on recording those geometric shapes or buildings in sketches and this is an area that I don’t really know where my skill level is at. This, like the other areas that need improvement, is something that needs practice. This is something that I could actually practice on my own. I could take random complex objects and practice sketching them on paper with dimensions. At Packer, I saw this skill put to use when Jerry, a college intern I worked with, had to sketch the A-frame apparatus we were using to test concrete structures. I did not get the opportunity to do the sketches, but I can see how it is an important skill. Overall, all of these problems with engineers seem to have to do with being too book smart and not having as much hands on experience or not taking the extra steps personally to become a better engineer. It is good that I can realize these problems early on in my education so I can focus on strengthening these potential weaknesses at an early stage.
Mini-action Plan:
Asking Good Questions: 1. Continually ask good questions in class. 2. With a partner create a mock business situation in which I am the main interviewer and my partner is the client. I would need to ask good questions to find out what needs to be done to solve the problem. Due date: September 27th
Effective Labeling: 1. Join an engineering organization on campus. Due date: September 6th. 2. Update my resume to be ready for any internships that come up. Due date: August 30th
Visualization: Draw 5 random machines on campus to get better at sketching. Due date: September 27th
Reflection on Mechanical Engineering Curriculum:
When looking at the Mechanical Engineering curriculum flowchart, it is crazy how much math and science us engineers will get vs. the non-math or science exposure. Almost all of the engineers education is technical as opposed to learning the skills that also compose many times 50% of an engineer’s career – that is the “missing basics”. It is great that we have the opportunity in iEFX to get exposure to these “missing basics” but it will be up to us to continue to learn from this class in future years as it is not the focus of the curriculum.
