Senior Year

Maybe there is a light at the end of the education tunnel. The passing of this most recent semester represents my seventh of ten to complete at Mines, provided all things continue to go well.

Macroeconomics, Kulkarni, A: Compared to my other classes this semester, Macroeconomics had a surprisingly high level of Curtis. Before class we typically spent some time memorizing an arbitrary sheet of facts that I had laminated (mainly numerical facts). I’ve still got most of them lying around in my head. Also, before the break I printed out a second sheet with facts about states, presidents, primes, and squares. I don’t think I’ll be able to completely memorize this one as easily. Anyway, the class was pretty slow paced; oh, 300-levels… Each class covered one main topic to be known for one of the four exams throughout the semester. No single topic was particularly hard to grasp, but to perform well on the tests it definitely helped that I had simply memorized all of my notes since the last test. The jokes were corny and repetitive, but it didn’t really bother me.

Probability, Navidi, A: I believe that I was the only non-math major in the class. Unlike Macro, I believe the average grade in this class was significantly lower than my own. I definitely felt like a curve killer on all three of the tests, with a perfect score on the second one… Something about this kind of math, the way Dr. Navidi presented it, and my previous probability experience made the class meaningful and simple for me. I also found this class rather entertaining, while there were occasional corny jokes; I found the subtle, and not so subtle, nuances to be far more humorous. Should I ever find myself in the roll of an instructor, I will attempt to duplicate many of the structures Dr. Navidi used. Class always began exactly on time with, “Welcome to another exciting day of class, first are there any questions?” pause (silent class) “Ok, are there any comments?” pause “Is there anything anyone would like to say for the betterment of the class?” pause “Alright, I can see you’re all quite eager to get started, so here we go.” He also presented the material with a remarkable layout; all theorems began with an underlined “Thm:” proofs with “Proof:” remarks, corollaries, asides, equations, and notes were all introduced with their respective abbreviation and an oral overview of what was to be written before anything else was written on the board. Any one of these could occupy exactly one quarter of the board area, written in a perfect column from top to bottom, never squeezing information off to a side or jumping to another board location.

Senior Design, Turner, Zeles-Hahn, A: Eh, lecture was boring but required. Our team, among the busywork, analyzed a WaterPik flossing device. Paul, Helen, Diana, Ryan, and I received high scores on our reports and overall did a good job on the reverse-engineering project. Scores were publicly posted by Mines I.D. number, and I was quite shocked to learn that I had the second highest grade in the class (95%) of approximately 180 seniors. I would be willing to bet that the person with a higher grade was on my team. After the first twelve weeks or so, this two-semester class shifted to its main purpose, actual engineering design. Of note, this is the first semester senior design has had a reverse-engineering project before the actual design project. For the second phase of the class Helen, Paul, Jasmin, Caitlin, and I are designing a rail-wheel crane attachment for a very hard to contact client. Our group was assigned to the ever-judging Norm Hecht. Weekly meetings include the members of our team justifying their position on the team.

Advanced Mechanics of Materials, Ciobanu, B: Not the best professor and not the best class. I felt the class was just linear algebra applied to the most basic mechanics equations as opposed to advanced topics not covered in basic mechanics. Too many of the class periods were spent watching, very impressive, derivations of the complex equations necessary in the class. Many of the students made it clear on the evaluations that we trust what we see, and if we don’t need to know how to derive these equations, then it’s not necessary to derive all of them. There were remarkably few graded assignments in the class, which is partly where I place the blame for my poor performance. While grading the midterm, Ciobanu only checked for correct answers and did not award partial credit for procedure, which sounds like the whines from a student with a sore grade, which it just might be. However, the majority of the classes missed at least the same question on the midterm, so I believe that question, at least, should have the procedure graded.

Nuclear Physics, Cecil, A: I believe I was the only non-physics major in the class. While much of the quantum mechanics went right over my head, the methods Dr. Cecil chose to present the material made it very relevant. Often topics were rooted in simple well-known experiments, then built by relevant research papers, and concluded with a homework assignment not so different from an in-class example. One such homework assignment that sticks out in my mind, went as follows: Given a graph of the relative detection intensities at varying angles for different target materials of high energy alpha particles plotted against the particles deflected angle, show evidence that nucleons are incompressible. The solution to said, poorly-reworded, problem is as follows: Looking at the graph of intensity vs. angle we notice a generally decreasing function (as angle from the target increases it’s less likely for an alpha particle to be deflected in that direction) with a slight vertical oscillation as it decreases. So we think to ourselves… hum self, I’ve seen this kind of function before, why it looks like the intensity of a double slit experiment as one moves away from the center. All particles act as waves, so via the DeBrogle equation we then find the “wavelength” of an alpha particle. From an intensity graph we find the angle between relative maxima or minima and assert that this difference in angle represents a single wavelength of the alpha particle as it was bent around the target nuclei and constructively or destructively interfered with itself. Throw some trig at the problem and the diameter of the nuclei can be found. Repeat for different target nuclei and plot distance across nuclei verses the total number of nucleons. Apply a best fit function to the data and notice that the diameter of a nucleus is proportionate to the cube root of the total number of nucleons. Ah, that’s interesting we think… The diameter of a sphere (or other shape) is also proportionate to the cube root of that sphere’s volume. So, nucleons are probably incompressible. This effect is only observed at high alpha particle energy, as it is necessary for the particle to overcome the coulomb barrier (alpha and nucleus both being positively charged repel each other) and “hit” the nucleus to scatter. (Editing note: I don’t know why I left this example in)

Well, that about covers it for classes. These 15 credit hours at a 3.8 GPA bring the cumulative up to 3.717. In the spring I am registered for 15 hours with 6 of those double counted towards: Masters of Science (Nuclear Engineering), Non-thesis option. Program Requirements: 36 total credit hours, consisting of core coursework (21h), seminar in a participating department (2h), additional elective courses (9h) and Independent Study (4h) working on a research project with a faculty member working in nuclear science and engineering. Fun fun.

According to the intersphere I’ll graduate May 14, 2010 and May 13, 2011. This, if you ask me, is pretty far away.

What else… I’m one long chapter away from finishing the book I’ve chosen to read over break: Introduction to Nuclear Engineering, 3rd ed., J. Lamarsh, A. Baratta. One of the graduate classes I’m taking in the spring posted a partial syllabus with six textbooks on it. Huzza for reading the entire textbook in advance. I’m also halfway through two of the other four nuclear textbooks I have. So with any luck I’ll be able to finish one of those up before the semester starts. Unfortunately, neither of those two is on the syllabus; whereas, the two I haven’t started are. Oh well, good to get them off of the reading pile.

I should be finding out about a summer internship at Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant in the next couple days. Needless to say, it would be really sweet to land this gig and get some experience in the Nuclear Field.

Well, that’s probably enough of an academic update.

Hello 2010. How are you?
Peace -- Mike