It's friday night. Can anyone tell me a better way to spend my time than writing a blog?!? Just kidding, I chose not to go out and enjoy the snow because I didn't want to be up too late because I would then sleep late tomorrow and miss valuable studying time. Anyways, I'm blogin' about this whole "themes" thing that iFoundry so politely offers us. I'll start off by saying that legitimately every single one interests me. I love the idea of getting a broad knowledge base (maybe I should have studied liberal arts...just kidding, I actually want to get a job after college...ZING). Okay so yeah, a broad knowledge base is benefitial, in my opinion, in that it allows you to connect with so many different people. No one (okay, not NO one) wants to hear about engineering during a date or just having a general conversation. If I could go from engineering to philosophy to sports to psychology to cooking to biology...that would be awesome. I've even considered doing summer school and taking cool gen eds just for the hell of it. I also could save money and just read alot of books...hmmm.
Okay back to this theme thing. At first glance, the ones that interest me the most are the economics theme, the environmental theme, the forein affairs theme, the philosophy theme, and the "understanding people" theme. If we're talking practicality, the econ, environmental (for me being a CEE), foreign affairs, and the law/policy themes, in my opinion, seem the best. I figure that I can do my own leisure reading about philosophy and possibly the psychology one, so I'll cross those off the list. I'm gonna go ahead and put econ, enviro, and foreign affairs at the top of my list for this reason: they all deal with broad, relatively global topics that will come in handy in the increasingly globalized job of engineering. Econ would certainly give you an idea of how markets and businesses work. The enviro one gives you some environmental science then throws in some environmental economics, which is nice. And the foreign affairs one covers globalization and international relations, which would come in handy if you work internationally. Of course, I'm just a freshman so I have no idea which theme would benefit me in the long run. I guess for now I'll just stick to reading books over winter and summer break. So yeah, that's all folks. Stay classy, adios, goodbye, smell ya later, in a while crocodile, peace out, go well, live long and prosper. (just kidding, I'm sure I'll see you (whoever actually reads this at this point) around).
Andrew
Friday, December 3, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Ideas
So... totally forgot to do this. I had a calc midterm last night so I checked out mentally after that and forgot about this. But anyways, here are my ideas:
1) So I have the passion of helping those in need, so an idea that comes to mind is employing people in developing countries while giving them either water or shelter. I don;t know exactly, but even setting up small scale dams or wind turbines (anything that can employ a small number of people) as well as building electricity powered shelters (get the electricity from the dam or turbnines). Even 1 shelter for a community could help alot of people who struggle to have a warm place to sleep or anything.
There you go. That was on the fly. Peace.
Andrew
1) So I have the passion of helping those in need, so an idea that comes to mind is employing people in developing countries while giving them either water or shelter. I don;t know exactly, but even setting up small scale dams or wind turbines (anything that can employ a small number of people) as well as building electricity powered shelters (get the electricity from the dam or turbnines). Even 1 shelter for a community could help alot of people who struggle to have a warm place to sleep or anything.
There you go. That was on the fly. Peace.
Andrew
Friday, November 5, 2010
iEFX System
http://www.scribd.com/doc/41213020
Alright so first off, I feel like I haven't written a blog in ages. Either that's true, or I have become addicted and am on withdrawal. Okay so there's my little iEFX system that I drew and scanned in and all that. One thing about systems is that they can either be very objective and numerical or very subjective and descriptive. In my opinion, the iEFX system is subjective (for the most part) and can be looked at from various angles. Basically, I'm justifying any possible errors that my drawing and analysis has (but I didn't just tell you that).
Okay so inputs: obviously we (engineering freshman) are the main inputs into iEFX. Another way you could look at it is engineering freshman, iCOAs, and all the leaders are the inputs. In my opinion, the iCOAs and leaders are already a part of iEFX and so are not an input.
Process: So the process is probably the most complex part of the iEFX system. There are tiny processes that go on behind the scenes and there are the main stream processes that we participate in every day. Technically, the list could be endless; I only put 7 that first came to mind and that could reasonably fit in my little box. Some of the mainstream ones, obviously, are the classes that we are introduced to (Eng 198 and all those other Eng ones that we were told during our lab the other day), our iTeams and all the activities we do with them, and the seminars and workshops that we are invited to. In a very general sense, the process of iEFX is the learning and growing that we all do throughout our time in iEFX.
As for the outputs, they're the the actions that us engineers take. One big one is the iEXPO. There, we see all the smaller activities that the iTeams did throughout the year. Some smaller things that come out of the system are the friendships and, although a non-concrete thing, the knowledge and understanding that us engineers gain. Obviously, there are endless things that could come out of iEFX, but those are the typical ones.
Last, but not least, is the feedback. Feedback is an extremely important part of a system in that it makes it more efficient as time goes on. With iEFX only being in it's second year, it (clearly) has a lot of kinks to remove from and add to the system. The day to day complaints from the students are some of the feedback iEFX will get. More formally, end-of-the-year surveys will provide a solid form of feedback. Non-written forms of feedback include grades (if you compare those of iEFX students to those of regular engineering students). Comparing grades could theoretically show if iEFX students are learning at a higher level or if the ideas taught to them are making any impact on them. Another non-numerical thing could be whether or not the iTeams stay together or if friendships last. Once again, feedback can come in many forms, but all feedback, whether positive or negative, will help the iEFX system adapt to make the outputs of the system become better and last longer.
I'm blogged out. I was too lazy to make a video for this one, so look for that next week. Anyways, time to go.
Stay Classy,
Andrew
Alright so first off, I feel like I haven't written a blog in ages. Either that's true, or I have become addicted and am on withdrawal. Okay so there's my little iEFX system that I drew and scanned in and all that. One thing about systems is that they can either be very objective and numerical or very subjective and descriptive. In my opinion, the iEFX system is subjective (for the most part) and can be looked at from various angles. Basically, I'm justifying any possible errors that my drawing and analysis has (but I didn't just tell you that).
Okay so inputs: obviously we (engineering freshman) are the main inputs into iEFX. Another way you could look at it is engineering freshman, iCOAs, and all the leaders are the inputs. In my opinion, the iCOAs and leaders are already a part of iEFX and so are not an input.
Process: So the process is probably the most complex part of the iEFX system. There are tiny processes that go on behind the scenes and there are the main stream processes that we participate in every day. Technically, the list could be endless; I only put 7 that first came to mind and that could reasonably fit in my little box. Some of the mainstream ones, obviously, are the classes that we are introduced to (Eng 198 and all those other Eng ones that we were told during our lab the other day), our iTeams and all the activities we do with them, and the seminars and workshops that we are invited to. In a very general sense, the process of iEFX is the learning and growing that we all do throughout our time in iEFX.
As for the outputs, they're the the actions that us engineers take. One big one is the iEXPO. There, we see all the smaller activities that the iTeams did throughout the year. Some smaller things that come out of the system are the friendships and, although a non-concrete thing, the knowledge and understanding that us engineers gain. Obviously, there are endless things that could come out of iEFX, but those are the typical ones.
Last, but not least, is the feedback. Feedback is an extremely important part of a system in that it makes it more efficient as time goes on. With iEFX only being in it's second year, it (clearly) has a lot of kinks to remove from and add to the system. The day to day complaints from the students are some of the feedback iEFX will get. More formally, end-of-the-year surveys will provide a solid form of feedback. Non-written forms of feedback include grades (if you compare those of iEFX students to those of regular engineering students). Comparing grades could theoretically show if iEFX students are learning at a higher level or if the ideas taught to them are making any impact on them. Another non-numerical thing could be whether or not the iTeams stay together or if friendships last. Once again, feedback can come in many forms, but all feedback, whether positive or negative, will help the iEFX system adapt to make the outputs of the system become better and last longer.
I'm blogged out. I was too lazy to make a video for this one, so look for that next week. Anyways, time to go.
Stay Classy,
Andrew
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Labeling
Greetings friends. My goal for this blog is to not write as much and get it done before 11 so I can sleep. I'll rant quickly by saying fraternity stuff started and I am so unbelievably busy all the time; it sucks. I will say though, they make us go to mandatory 2 hour study sessions 4/5 nights of the week so I'm getting some quality work done. Okay so let's tackle this whole labeling and organizing thing.
Alright so we all know engineering is super difficult and uses complex terms and equations. I thought that about my high school calculus class. I'm a freshman in engineering. It's only going to get worse. However, thanks to the brilliantly interesting insight from the video lectures, I now know how to combat the confusion and help prevent others from being confused too.
Once again, the whole idea of labeling and being organized is super obvious (I guess it makes sense that they're called the "missing basics"). Being a self-titled man of organization, adhering to the concept of labeling should be easy (for the most part, or else they wouldn't be teaching us this). A simple example could be drawing diagrams for everything. Math, physics (next semester), and geography (maps? maybe? give me a break, I'm trying) can all use diagrams either in complex problems or on maps. Personally, I find what the Back of the Napkin emphasizes to be extremely true. How much easier is it to understand a math problem if someone hand draws a diagram or even just hand writes a solution? Alot. Yeah, it works. I'm excited to see how using diagrams and such in a more technical/advanced way works out. As we get deeper into engineering, we're going to need to work harder to keep things at a manageable level of confusion.
Hmmm what else. Oh yes, organizing. It's one thing to label a diagram. It's a whole other thing to label it in coherent fashion that doesn't overwhelm the viewer. It's true that labels help clear things up, but when there are "too many" labels or if they're mashed together, they can ultimately demoralize the viewer. I guess it's kinda like looking at a poster or a piece of paper that has too much info on it. So yeah, label, be organized, simplify things. If we, as engineers, ever expect our work to be understood by the general public (who are our customers, by the way), we need to make engineering as "kid friendly" as possible. Part of labeling and clarifying is asking questions, though. We have to ask questions and then we need to ask ourselves, "if they're asking questions, how can I make it so that that question isn't asked again." Questions not only help clarify things, they show where weaknesses are in presentations.
I'm super tired and hope I didn't forget anything.
Stay classy my friends,
Andrew
Alright so we all know engineering is super difficult and uses complex terms and equations. I thought that about my high school calculus class. I'm a freshman in engineering. It's only going to get worse. However, thanks to the brilliantly interesting insight from the video lectures, I now know how to combat the confusion and help prevent others from being confused too.
Once again, the whole idea of labeling and being organized is super obvious (I guess it makes sense that they're called the "missing basics"). Being a self-titled man of organization, adhering to the concept of labeling should be easy (for the most part, or else they wouldn't be teaching us this). A simple example could be drawing diagrams for everything. Math, physics (next semester), and geography (maps? maybe? give me a break, I'm trying) can all use diagrams either in complex problems or on maps. Personally, I find what the Back of the Napkin emphasizes to be extremely true. How much easier is it to understand a math problem if someone hand draws a diagram or even just hand writes a solution? Alot. Yeah, it works. I'm excited to see how using diagrams and such in a more technical/advanced way works out. As we get deeper into engineering, we're going to need to work harder to keep things at a manageable level of confusion.
Hmmm what else. Oh yes, organizing. It's one thing to label a diagram. It's a whole other thing to label it in coherent fashion that doesn't overwhelm the viewer. It's true that labels help clear things up, but when there are "too many" labels or if they're mashed together, they can ultimately demoralize the viewer. I guess it's kinda like looking at a poster or a piece of paper that has too much info on it. So yeah, label, be organized, simplify things. If we, as engineers, ever expect our work to be understood by the general public (who are our customers, by the way), we need to make engineering as "kid friendly" as possible. Part of labeling and clarifying is asking questions, though. We have to ask questions and then we need to ask ourselves, "if they're asking questions, how can I make it so that that question isn't asked again." Questions not only help clarify things, they show where weaknesses are in presentations.
I'm super tired and hope I didn't forget anything.
Stay classy my friends,
Andrew
Friday, September 24, 2010
Blog #3: Communication and such
It's funny how we've been communicating through this blog for like 4 weeks and now we're blogging about it! (that was dumb,sorry) Okay so I kinda have a nice big story that sums up alot of which this blog is covering so I'm gonna throw it out there and hopefully it all makes sense in the end.
So, one day there was a young man named Andrew Christian Farver. Just kidding. Okay so the other day this girl came into my CEE class and was like "hey, if you're interested in doing a leadership internship and making lots of money, put your name down." So I was like "Am I a leader? Check. Do I like money? Check." So i signed up. They called me at like 9pm 2 nights later from a cell phone and we're like "bla bla bla come to an informal interview at this date and time." It turns out that it's a business-esque internship in which you basically own your own small painting company. You do everything from hire workers to buy supplies (basically everything). It also happens that it gets a ton of bad reviews and it's a whole lot of work (like 40-70 hours/week during the summer). It's called College Works Painting, look it up.
Okay so I show up, it goes well, the girl is like "I'd like to set you up with a more formal meeting with our vice president" (who happens to be this huge ex-football player, by the way). Okay, fine by me, it all seemed kinda interesting, so why not? Show up (it's business professional attire btw which isn't fun when you have to wear a shirt and tie ALL DAY for one little interview), and start talking with this guy. I won't go into the nitty-gritty details, but I'll highlight the things that pertain to this. Basically this guy was super successful and bought the company out of college and now it's worth millions and he's pretty much set.
So he was asking questions about why I would be good for the internship while telling me important things that helped him succeed along the way. What he said was that in order to be successful in any business type of job, it took much more than good grades. He asserted that personality is the number one thing because you have to be able to PRESENT (didn't think I would make sense out of this did you?) yourself and your company. Being bold, outgoing, decisive, and friendly (to name a few) can turn (almost) any person into a successful worker. Although he didn't specifically talk about this, he did stress the importance of talking (aka COMMUNICATING) with your workers everyday. Communicating with workers both above and below you in command is an absolute necessity when it comes to planning. If you can't tell your workers what to do or even if you can't tell your boss what you're doing, things will almost never go as planned. He didn't talk about writing, but we all know that if writing is anything like talking (which it is), you need to be able to get to the point and be as clear as possible. How annoying would it be if you were trying to get info out of a worker when they kept ranting about their weekend and the news. Writing needs to have a purpose and should be straight forward. Scratch that, in order to not be a hypocrite because I rant on here like an old lady, when I say writing, I mean technical writing(to copy what Kevin used because I can't think of a better word). So yeah, that's what I learned about communicating, presenting, and writing during an interview.
BTW I chose not to continue with the interview process (therefore ending my chance at the internship) because A) too much uncertainty with the company getting bad reviews and B) It's way too early to give away my entire summer to something like that. I plan on trying to find an engineering internship or doing something cool/interesting.
Off to the girls volleyball game (Penn State vs. Illinois),
Andrew
PS- Sorry I write so much
So, one day there was a young man named Andrew Christian Farver. Just kidding. Okay so the other day this girl came into my CEE class and was like "hey, if you're interested in doing a leadership internship and making lots of money, put your name down." So I was like "Am I a leader? Check. Do I like money? Check." So i signed up. They called me at like 9pm 2 nights later from a cell phone and we're like "bla bla bla come to an informal interview at this date and time." It turns out that it's a business-esque internship in which you basically own your own small painting company. You do everything from hire workers to buy supplies (basically everything). It also happens that it gets a ton of bad reviews and it's a whole lot of work (like 40-70 hours/week during the summer). It's called College Works Painting, look it up.
Okay so I show up, it goes well, the girl is like "I'd like to set you up with a more formal meeting with our vice president" (who happens to be this huge ex-football player, by the way). Okay, fine by me, it all seemed kinda interesting, so why not? Show up (it's business professional attire btw which isn't fun when you have to wear a shirt and tie ALL DAY for one little interview), and start talking with this guy. I won't go into the nitty-gritty details, but I'll highlight the things that pertain to this. Basically this guy was super successful and bought the company out of college and now it's worth millions and he's pretty much set.
So he was asking questions about why I would be good for the internship while telling me important things that helped him succeed along the way. What he said was that in order to be successful in any business type of job, it took much more than good grades. He asserted that personality is the number one thing because you have to be able to PRESENT (didn't think I would make sense out of this did you?) yourself and your company. Being bold, outgoing, decisive, and friendly (to name a few) can turn (almost) any person into a successful worker. Although he didn't specifically talk about this, he did stress the importance of talking (aka COMMUNICATING) with your workers everyday. Communicating with workers both above and below you in command is an absolute necessity when it comes to planning. If you can't tell your workers what to do or even if you can't tell your boss what you're doing, things will almost never go as planned. He didn't talk about writing, but we all know that if writing is anything like talking (which it is), you need to be able to get to the point and be as clear as possible. How annoying would it be if you were trying to get info out of a worker when they kept ranting about their weekend and the news. Writing needs to have a purpose and should be straight forward. Scratch that, in order to not be a hypocrite because I rant on here like an old lady, when I say writing, I mean technical writing(to copy what Kevin used because I can't think of a better word). So yeah, that's what I learned about communicating, presenting, and writing during an interview.
BTW I chose not to continue with the interview process (therefore ending my chance at the internship) because A) too much uncertainty with the company getting bad reviews and B) It's way too early to give away my entire summer to something like that. I plan on trying to find an engineering internship or doing something cool/interesting.
Off to the girls volleyball game (Penn State vs. Illinois),
Andrew
PS- Sorry I write so much
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Networking
Well... here we go again. This has been a weird week for me. I had my first big test, pledged a fraternity, bought a new hat, started (kinda) journaling, been sick, and am already questioning what my true passions are. Needless to say, it's been a rough one (but this is what college is all about right? right?!?). Okay so I'm gonna touch on alot of things and get to the whole networking thing and hopefully this will all make sense in the end. So, let's go.
I'll start with the networking assignment. So I came into college anti-fraternity. I wanted to 100% focus on my school work and I had visions of not going out and I was like "hey, I can handle sacrificing my social life." So push came to shove and I started talking to fraternity guys and hanging out with my friends and I realized that the social aspect (for me) is an important aspect of college that I want to experience. Basically my debate was this: add a huge time commitment to my schedule which potentially risks wounding my GPA BUT get life long connections (you didn't think I was gonna make a networking connection, did you?) or get a solid GPA and potentially go crazy. What it boiled down to was the fact that I ultimately control my GPA and I know if I'm smart, I can keep a good GPA and enjoy the benefits of a fraternity. Pledging starts Monday so keep my well-being in your thoughts.
Aside from my fraternity, I did (kinda) do/think of some networking plans. Ultimately, the best way to network at this point is to simply be social and make friends. Because we're all pretty much in the same freshman boat, there aren't too many things I can look for in a person now; I can just make friends and hope one of them becomes president so I can be VP (just kidding, but you get the idea). A more solid thing that I've been a part of is that in my iEFX group, we created a facebook discussion where we all post our schedules in hopes of forming study groups. Hopefully that works out well.
The last action I'm taking is going to see my faculty advisor. I really have no clue what to expect or what I plan on talking about (or who my FA is, for that matter), but I wrote down where I can set up an appointment on a sticky note and it's about 20 inches in front of my face right now. So yeah, that's where I'm at right now and although it's nothing huge, it's something.
And now time to rant!
So I actually took some Goldberg to heart (shocking, I know) and I bought a little notebook in which I plan on quasi-journaling. I don't want to be like (insert famous person who journals/journaled too much) and journal everyday, but I've found that during times of stress (like... say... now), it really helps to sit back, relax, contemplate, and get all my thoughts out on paper. So, yeah, hopefully that helps improve my writing a little bit.
Next topic: being sick.
Synopsis: It sucks. But Advil PM makes me sleep so well. Thank God I'm almost out or I'd probably be snorting it within a couple months.
Lastly: It takes some balls to write about this on my engineering blog, but I'm semi-questioning my future as an engineer. All this talk about doing something I'm "passionate" about and how "if I love what I do, I won't work a day in my life," has got me a little scared. It's way (like super way) too early to make a decision on this, but I'm not really sure what I'm passionate about, in all honesty. I've always loved helping out those who are in need (and that's the main reason why I wanted to become a civil engineer), but I kinda re-found my passion for the outdoors and wildlife. As a kid, I loved Steve Erwin and everything he did. I eventually grew out of it, but my liking for animals and nature stayed. I think if I had to choose one passion, it would be the latter of the two (outdoors/wildlife), but I don't really see a career in that. If I could be Steve Erwin tomorrow (minus that whole dying thing), I would 100% abandon ship for it, but really how many Steve Erwins are there? I've got time and maybe my FA can help me out a little. I'm also going back to home base this weekend so maybe my parents can provide some wisdom.
PS- damn this whole blogging thing and making me spew my feelings. I gotta go do something manly.
Cheers to uncertainty,
Andrew
I'll start with the networking assignment. So I came into college anti-fraternity. I wanted to 100% focus on my school work and I had visions of not going out and I was like "hey, I can handle sacrificing my social life." So push came to shove and I started talking to fraternity guys and hanging out with my friends and I realized that the social aspect (for me) is an important aspect of college that I want to experience. Basically my debate was this: add a huge time commitment to my schedule which potentially risks wounding my GPA BUT get life long connections (you didn't think I was gonna make a networking connection, did you?) or get a solid GPA and potentially go crazy. What it boiled down to was the fact that I ultimately control my GPA and I know if I'm smart, I can keep a good GPA and enjoy the benefits of a fraternity. Pledging starts Monday so keep my well-being in your thoughts.
Aside from my fraternity, I did (kinda) do/think of some networking plans. Ultimately, the best way to network at this point is to simply be social and make friends. Because we're all pretty much in the same freshman boat, there aren't too many things I can look for in a person now; I can just make friends and hope one of them becomes president so I can be VP (just kidding, but you get the idea). A more solid thing that I've been a part of is that in my iEFX group, we created a facebook discussion where we all post our schedules in hopes of forming study groups. Hopefully that works out well.
The last action I'm taking is going to see my faculty advisor. I really have no clue what to expect or what I plan on talking about (or who my FA is, for that matter), but I wrote down where I can set up an appointment on a sticky note and it's about 20 inches in front of my face right now. So yeah, that's where I'm at right now and although it's nothing huge, it's something.
And now time to rant!
So I actually took some Goldberg to heart (shocking, I know) and I bought a little notebook in which I plan on quasi-journaling. I don't want to be like (insert famous person who journals/journaled too much) and journal everyday, but I've found that during times of stress (like... say... now), it really helps to sit back, relax, contemplate, and get all my thoughts out on paper. So, yeah, hopefully that helps improve my writing a little bit.
Next topic: being sick.
Synopsis: It sucks. But Advil PM makes me sleep so well. Thank God I'm almost out or I'd probably be snorting it within a couple months.
Lastly: It takes some balls to write about this on my engineering blog, but I'm semi-questioning my future as an engineer. All this talk about doing something I'm "passionate" about and how "if I love what I do, I won't work a day in my life," has got me a little scared. It's way (like super way) too early to make a decision on this, but I'm not really sure what I'm passionate about, in all honesty. I've always loved helping out those who are in need (and that's the main reason why I wanted to become a civil engineer), but I kinda re-found my passion for the outdoors and wildlife. As a kid, I loved Steve Erwin and everything he did. I eventually grew out of it, but my liking for animals and nature stayed. I think if I had to choose one passion, it would be the latter of the two (outdoors/wildlife), but I don't really see a career in that. If I could be Steve Erwin tomorrow (minus that whole dying thing), I would 100% abandon ship for it, but really how many Steve Erwins are there? I've got time and maybe my FA can help me out a little. I'm also going back to home base this weekend so maybe my parents can provide some wisdom.
PS- damn this whole blogging thing and making me spew my feelings. I gotta go do something manly.
Cheers to uncertainty,
Andrew
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