Junior Year

I’ve recently thought about blogging a lot. I wrote a few rough drafts and never finished them... So I now I’m thinking that I’m going to just copy and old post and call it a new one. It’s called recycling, and it’s good for the environment...

The big news this week being that I’ve been offered, and accepted, admittance to the Nuclear Engineering (Master of Science (Non-Thesis)) combined MS-BS program at the Colorado School of Mines, beginning Fall 2010. So it looks like I’ve got another two years at the school and probably in this house. This semester I routinely entered some rooms on campus in which, to my surprise, one person was always talking to many people, typically about:

Introduction to Feedback Control Systems, A: With Norm K. Hecht... It seems unlikely that many people come out of this class with something they’ll use one day... but if you ever give me the exact transfer function for a closed or open loop system I could tell you so many things about it that you probably already had to know to get to the transfer function. Like Info-Systems I went into this class with no hope of being able to apply the things I would learn and turned out being right for the most part. It was a nice refresher on solving second order differential equations with Laplace transformations. Also like Info-Systems, I acknowledged that I would gain nothing from the class, but would still learn what was taught, do the work, and get an A. Also of interest, Norm showed up half an hour late to the final without enough tests, made worse by the immediately following Fluid Dynamics test, in the same room, for the majority of the Mechanical Engineers in the room. There were also some humorous moments when he attempted to operate a computer.

Machine Design, A: With Cara Coad and Kelly... I’m not sure how I approached this class initially. However, a month into the class, it became obvious that this class should be called: “How to be a Mechanical Engineer,” and I began learning everything I could from it. The labs were worthwhile and educational, although my lab partner could have been more punctual; he often waited until the hours before class to write his parts of the reports. This was quite unnerving for me. I finished and sent him my parts of the reports the day it was assigned and made him swear to finish his parts before the day it was due. Also of interest, I got a 66% on the first test, which greatly upset me. However, very strong performances on the homework, labs, and other tests seem to have made up for it. I went into Cara’s office many times to talk about my academic plan and a letter of recommendation she wrote for my graduate application. I really like her as an instructor and person. Also, I’m currently undecided how to thank her, Roz Yocom, and Geri Boone for their letters of recommendation, but I need to do it soon.

Multidisciplinary Engineering Laboratory III, A: With Tom Grover, Ryan, and Colby... Ryan and I took names and kicked ass, respectively. It’s not that Colby did nothing, it’s just that Ryan and I did everything. But because Colby seemed willing to do his share there is no animosity. I think this is how I see teamwork: Not necessarily that the work is evenly distributed but that every member on the team would do everything for the team, giving credit to the team because they believe the other members would do the same. The first third of the class analyzed the efficiency of a refrigeration system relying on fundamentals learned in Thermodynamics. Our report received a 93%, mainly because our data was significantly off and in places incorrectly analyzed. The second third dealt with LabVIEW controlling the Tinius Olsen Machine, relying on fundamentals learned in Feedback Control and Field Session. Unfortunately, only Colby had taken Field Session so our LabVIEW controller was built very slowly. Fresh out of the LabVIEW week of Field Session, I could program a far superior controller in under an hour. We received a perfect 100% and a personally delivered compliment form Tom regarding our report. Our team thoroughly understood every aspect of that lab (with the exception of the LabVIEW controller, which I now realize worked differently than we thought it did making our data appear to be three to five times faster than it was). The course concluded with the analysis of a bicycle’s front suspension through an onboard data acquisition system alongside Working Model, an engineering simulator (similar to IncrediBots (which I thank Jeff for introducing me to), if one were to add a graph). This experiment went pretty well. Even after applying a correction to the GPS, it still said Colby rode through the Green Center, in a way that walls typically prohibit, on his way around campus.

Heat Transfer, B: With Richard Passamaneck... The average on the second test was a 54% (This professor is very well known around campus for his exams). I did unacceptably on every exam with exception to the final. I believe that the two hours I answered those five questions taught me a great deal about heat transfer. I believe, given the opportunity, I could score higher on every exam throughout the year because of this. Throughout the year I had put my faith in my homework and notes to guide me through an exam and during the final I turned to the book for guidance.

Introduction to Logic, B: With Monika von Glinski... I didn’t enjoy the first half of this class dealing with sentential logic. This instructor was a very nit-picky grader. Although, understandably on the homework something is either correct or incorrect and there are very many ways something can be incorrect. I believe this class re-unearthed my problem with authority that I don’t respect. In the first months of the class I was very uninterested in a low-level (in a derogatory / underclassman way not a foundational way) English class. This combined with, what I saw as, small errors on graded work resulting in poor recorded grades caused me to not respect the class.

I took relatively few credits this semester partly because Christmas breaks have been my only breaks since August of 2007 and partly because I thought I would focus and do better taking fewer credits, which I guess is not the case. This semester lowers my GPA to 3.697. Normally I would talk about next semester at this point, but after being accepted into grad school I will likely change my schedule soon.

Well, I’m going to try and write a real blog post soon... I’m currently thinking of writing about: pot, insults, kids in the casa, hypocrisy, grad school, or some combination as hypocrisy applies to many things and many people.

Peace -- Michael