#7 Divergent Thinking

For the in-class activity, I was in a group of three, and we wanted to try to incorporate one of each of our interests into one idea. Our signature idea was playing piano backwards while riding a bike as a theater show. The way we described it, however, is very vague because for it to be feasible, either the bike or the piano would have to be replaced with a similar counterpart since a true piano is stationary and a bike is supposed to move. Either the bike would have to be a stationary exercise bike, or the piano would have to be a portable keyboard that can be attached to the back of a bike.

I believe we wanted a moving bike with a keyboard attached to the back of it, but that idea seems very impractical because there would be issues of balance and safety if we wanted a standard five-octave keyboard (61 keys) in the design. We wanted the piano to be played backwards because one of my interests is playing the piano in unique, non-traditional ways like playing blindfolded, playing with my arms crossed, playing backwards (with my hands behind my back), or playing with my back on the piano bench and my head underneath the piano. However, it just doesn't seem feasible or safe for the keyboard to be played in any of these ways while riding a bike. On the other hand, if the keyboard were placed on the front of the bike, it would be much more safe and balanced as well as feasible. Surprisingly, I've found out that someone actually makes a living off this idea: http://www.pianopeddler.com/

#6 Listening

For this assignment I decided to call my friend, whom I haven't talked to in over two months. He is a very talkative person, so with just a simple "How is everything?" my friend immediately talked about pretty much everything concerning his current classes, dorm, and situation. Throughout the conversation, I noticed that I tended to mirror and ask questions, but I didn't prime or paraphrase his thoughts at all. Because he is such a talkative person, there simply was no need to prime, and because I generally soak in everything I hear, I really didn't need to paraphrase his thoughts to confirm them. I instead showed that I understood what he was saying by mirroring him and asking him questions to expand on the subject. As a result, I also used the ABC's of responding well throughout the conversation. The necessity of each learning tool depends on both the talker and the listener. In this case, my friend's clarity restricted the usefullness of the prime and paraphrase tools.

In terms of listening, I don't think I need to improve anything because I've found that the only major difference between this conversation and previous conversations I've had with my friend is that in this one, I didn't really talk about myself. By nature, I like to expand my understanding of other people through active listening. Even if they were to talk about a subject in which I have no interest, I would still attentively listen for at least ten minutes, though how long I would remember certain parts of what was said would be compromised. Perhaps what I need to work on is not listening, but sharing. The limitations of this assignment prevented me from actively sharing my own experiences, but even without those limitations, I don't think I would have shared nearly as much information as what my friend shared.

#5 Innovation

#4 Toulmin

Problem: I feel I do not get enough sleep.

Claim: I should get nine hours of sleep each night.

Grounds: I currently get seven hours of sleep each night, but I still have trouble waking up early.

Warrant: Since seven hours of sleep is not enough, two more hours will likely do me justice.

Backing: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/teens-health/CC00019

Qualifications: There should be no breaks in those nine hours.

#3 Free-writing Vs. Directed Writing

Free-writing:

What am I doing? I'm posting on my blog on a thursday night and I have nine hours of classes tomorrow. I wish it were physically possible to build a time machine that can go backwards in time so that I can convince my former self to NOT stack my classes on a friday. What was I thinking? Yeah the rest of my week looks nice, but my fridays are absoultely terrible! I'm craving an energy drink, but I don't want to get up and walk downstairs all the way to late night, and late night is closing anyways. I'm two blinks away from falling asleep! Grrr, this is bad... My mind is blanking out, but I must continue thinking of whatever thoughts come into my head for this free-writing. I have 100 pages of reading to do and a ridiculous amount of studying as well. I crave sleep. There are people talking really loudly on the floor below me and I can hear them! Why is my mind blanking out when it normally bounces from one thought to another? Bleh... I should really get to sleep, but I can't because my grade depends me typing this out. Well I'm glad I remembered to do this before it was too late. Oh wait, it's past midnight. Oh well, partial credit is better than no credit. At least I remembered to do it...


Directed Writing:

Believe it or not, I have revised this portion of this post 36 times! I didn't revise any part of the free-writing except to correct a few typos and spelling errors, but I believe I pressed the "Backspace" key literally over a thousand times for this directed writing example. Anyways, this type of writing obviously differs greatly from free-writing because it has direction. Rather than just writing (typing) whatever pops into my head like with the free-writing example, I am instead directing this writing example on the subject of direct writing versus free-writing. Though the two are obviously very different, all directed writing comes from (mental) free-writing. All of the words that appear in this part of the post were first thought of in my head as thoughts that, though directed to reflect this, did not necessarily have anything to do with this subject. In that sense, they were first free-writing ideas that weren't put on page, but were filtered so that only the ideas related to this subject actually appear on the screen in front of you. Though this type of writing has more applications, free-writing is very important for engineers to do because it forces us to jot every idea that comes to our minds and can thus be a valuable asset for brainstorming solutions to a specific problem in engineering.

#2 Networking

Over labor day weekend, I rode the Suburban Express home to visit my family. Naturally, since it's a holiday weekend, the bus was crowded, and I had to share a seat with someone I didn't know. At first, we didn't speak at all to each other, but it would've been otherwise an awkward three hour ride, so after 15 minutes, I decided to take the initiative and introduce myself to him...

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, the providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way." -William Hutchinson Murray

I am glad that I decided to commit myself into making conversation with my neighbor. That one decision has granted me a new friend, a potential business acquaintance, and a skilled opponent. It turns out that we have a lot in common; we are both studying undergrad engineering, we enjoy playing chess, and we live in the same dorm. Since that chance encounter on the bus, we have frequently got together to play chess and discuss about miscellaneous subjects.

Networking is a process of building up and maintaining informal relationships, and this process is first commenced by one taking the initiative to get acquainted with others. It is an essential skill to have in today's society that, to be honest, I myself need to greatly improve. As Murray said, "a whole stream of events issues from [one] decision," one act of initiative, and one simply has to find the courage to create that act. Such is an extension to the realm of possibilities.

#1 Revision

Forgive me, I watched the wrong "Missing Basics" video! I thought I copied the url for the video at lecture correctly, and I didn't notice that there is a link on Compass. Please accept this new post as a revision of my last one.

Goldberg addresses several "missing basics" that new engineers lack when they enter the real world. Overall, I find his points to be interesting, but he lacked clarification on some of them, and I overall disagree with some of the concepts he points out.

The first missing basic he addresses is an inability to "ask good questions." I think that is a poor description of the concept that he's trying to address. He doesn't define what a good question is, but gives examples of questions he would have expected them to ask, such as "What worked?" "What hasn't worked?" and "What has been tried before?" What he is trying to say is that because the student's didn't ask those questions, they are at risk of working in vain. If they were to plan a design, and it turns out that that design has already been tried before, their efforts would be in vain because that design has already been proven to fail or succeed. Basically, because they didn't ask those questions, they really haven't helped the company advance. Goldberg says that new engineers don't "ask good questions," but he should have said that new engineers don't "acquire the necessary information for their work," or for a shorter label, they don't "request vital info." The definition of "good" is different for everyone and is too general for what he's addressing.

Ironically, the second missing basic he addresses is the "inability to label." By this he means that new engineers don't know the names of certain "pieces of technology" nor how to "label patterns in the data that will help them to solve the problems at hand." This sounds like a good point, but he didn't go into further detail. Of what pieces of technology don't we know the names and what does he mean by labelling patterns in the data? Some examples would have been nice.

Next he addresses the "inability to model." Basically, new engineers need to address problems in detail in words or diagrams. Well if that's the case, Goldberg himself needs to work on this. He has given lists of key points when addressing the missing basics we lack, but he has failed to elaborate in detail through examples, giving little clarification of what he means by these concepts.

Then he talks about the "inability to decompose." I very much disagree with this "missing basic." If anything, we as engineers decompose problems more than anyone else through math problems and science experiments. Math is generally something that needs to be broken up in steps, like when using the order of operations to simplify a problem. Let's say we need to evaluate (9+4)^2 - 8 / 2. We have to break this up into steps. First we simplify the expression in the parenthesis, (9+4) to 13; then we apply the square function to it to get 169. Next we divide the appropriate numbers 8 / 2 into 4, and finally we subtract 4 from 169 to get 165. So naturally we would do the same for solving real world problems.

The fifth concept is the "inability to measure." Here he demonstrates the inability to label things correctly. He doesn't say that we "can't" measure things correctly, but rather we "refuse to measure things unless forced to." He's not saying that we are unable to measure things correctly, he's saying we're lazy, I'm not going to comment about that...

His penultimate point is the "inability to visualize/ideate." Basically, we have trouble envisioning solutions to real world problems. That should be the last thing in which we would have trouble. If you can't visualize a solution, how can you call yourself an engineer? This makes me wonder what those seniors were doing in high school and college. He says that this important concept has almost been entirely removed from the engineering curriculum. Granted that's true, U of I still has many opportunities for practicing this concept, like Engineers Without Borders or internships. Those seniors must not have taken advantage of these opportunities.

Finally he addresses the "inability to communicate." Now I completely agree with this one. The university doesn't directly teach engineering majors how to present in front of people. Though I must say, those seniors must not have known the basic principles of engineering. If you can't visualize a solution or communicate your ideas to people, then why would you major in engineering? It makes no sense.

Now with those concepts in mind, these are the skills I want to improve:

1.) The ability to acquire vital information. I must remember to ask for information that can benefit me. To do this, I need to first be able to address what I deem as vital information. Perhaps I should first participate more in lectures/discussions. Once I get used to expressing my thoughts and opinions to a large group of people, I would be able to throw away my pride and ask questions when I should. I expect to have this ability greatly improved by the end of sophomore year.

2.) The ability to present in front of a large group of people. Frankly I'm satisfied with my presentation skills, but it never hurts to improve them. I can start by participating more in lectures and discussions for this as well. Naturally, if I talk more to people, I can also improve this skill as well. I shall have this improved by the end of the semester.

3.) The ability to formulate solutions to real world problems. This isn't something I need to drastically improve either, but it's definitely something that should be eternally improved. Since this is an ability that must be eternally strengthened, I don't have absolute deadlines for this, but by participating in activities beneficial for engineering, I can greatly improve this ability. I expect to be actively involved in an engineering-related activity by the end of september.