Video Blog

Here is my blog in video form. I apologize for the poor sound quality.

Listening

I talked to my roommate at dinner about what she plans to do this weekend. I asked her what she was doing so I applied the "A" part of the four listening tools. She didn't hear me so I decided to use priming, one of the "P" of the listening tools. Once she started talking, I tried to listen emphatically. Since I was eating, I was distracted and I was not listening completely. I did not realize how distracting eating could be when trying to carry on a conversation. To compensate, I repeated what she said, the "M" part of the four listening tools. I learned that physically saying the words helped me remember what she had said. It also helped me fully comprehend the topic being discussed and the implications of the conversation. I chose not to "P" (Paraphrase) what she had said because I was afraid she would have thought I was mocking her. Since my roommate and I spend a lot of time together and we know each other really well, she could tell when I was getting ready to speak. She usually stops speaking and waits for my response before continuing. I would say that I need to improve on eliminating distractions so I can listen better to the conversation and understand what the speaker is saying.

Thinking in innovative ways

This week's assignment was to find an object that can be used in a way other than what its original purpose. I noticed tires have many different purposes. Their original design was to put on vehicles to make them mobile. These include, but are not limited to: bikes, buses, cars, trucks, air planes, skateboards, roller blades, roller skates, carts and many more. They can also be used as a cushioning floor on children's playgrounds. They are also used in landfills as covers. They cover the waste that is dumped there. Gardeners also use old tires for planters. To incorporate these new uses with the old, I would change the composition of the tires to be more biodegradable. This would allow for the tires to decompose into fertilizer. This would help the plants in the planters grow and be healthy. It would also help the waste in the landfills decompose faster. As cushioning material, if it decomposed, then it wouldn't be toxic or leave black marks on the children or their clothes (which frequently happens) and could be easily replaced.

Toulmin Model

I have discovered that Powerpoint is good for drawing boxes, lines and incorporating text into them. Thus, I have written my blog on a Powerpoint slide.

Why communication is important to Engineers

I made a PowerPoint presentation. I was unable to figure out how to upload the presentation so here are the individual slides:

Networking

I made a network connection with Mr. Matt Starr. He works for Navair. On Tuesday, September 14, 2010, I had dinner with him and we got to know each other and discussed his job. His job is working with the Navy and Marines. He is a civilian, but works closely with the military. Today, Wednesday, September 15, 2010, I talked to Mr. Starr at the career fair. We talked about what jobs an electrical engineer (my major) would be hired to do. He also told me Navair offers summer internships and told me that the interviews for the internships were not happening, but I should go online to their website and find the dates and other information. I found him on Facebook and I plan to use Facebook to keep in touch with him.

First Day of ENG 198

           Today was my first day of classes. I had ENG (engineering) 198. It is an introduction into engineering class. The class's goal is to teach engineering students some skills that will be basic skills in their career, but are neglected as classroom topics. Professor Goldberg thought this was a problem, so he set out to fix it by making this class. The basic skills include: asking good questions, labeling concepts and objects, modeling things well, breaking a big problem into many smaller, easier to handle, problems, physically taking measurements, visualizing in the mind, and communication.
            My reaction to these basics that are missing, also known as the missing basics, is it is a very good idea. Communication is a skill necessary skill for everyone, but especially engineers. Most people talk about objects around them, but engineers talk about things that aren't in existence yet. It only exist in their mind so they have to be able to effectively take the picture in their mind and put it into a form so other people can understand what they are envisioning, but if the engineer is not able to picture this new object or concept is their mind very well, then communicating that object or concept to someone else is going to very difficult or impossible. Going along this is being able to model things well. Drawing pictures or having 3-D models of what they are trying to tell someone is one of the best ways to communicate. They also need to be able to label all the parts and functions of their model so there is no confusion.
          As another engineer listening to these ideas, they need to be able to ask good questions so they fully understand and completely picture what someone is trying to tell them. If they feel overwhelmed by this concept, they should be able to take one step at a time and make the problem easier to handle. Understanding one thing at a time is much easier than trying to learn 20 new concepts at once. When building this object, the engineer needs to know how big every part is and how much space their object will take up. If they build something that is 3 feet long, but the space is only 2 feet long, then they have a problem.  If even one of these skills is missing, working can be very difficult; if all seven concepts are missing, it is almost impossible to do the job they have been hired to do.
          I feel I need to work on my ability to ask good questions. To improve this skill, I plan to find a structure or object everyday and think of 3 questions about why it works. I also need to work on my ability to measure objects. To fix this, I will measure 2 objects a week and then look up how big they really are and see how accurate my measurement was. Whenever I have an idea for an invention that I might wish to build, I will start drawing them out so I can improve my modeling skills.