Does analytical thinking run in the family? - Brian Adams (Sophomore, Mechanical Engineering)

This question has me curious.  Does analytical thinking genetically get passed down from generation to generation?  My grandfather began his career parking cars in his parking lot in Rochester, NY.  If the car needed work done on it, my grandfather fixed whatever needed to be repaired on site in his repair shop.  He was very mechanically inclined and passed down this trait to three of his sons.

My two uncles and my dad, in my opinion, inherited analytical thinking from my grandfather.  Both of my uncles started off early in this field when they were kids.  My one uncle built himself a go cart from spare car parts, and the other built a motor bike with just a normal bike and a motor.  Later in life they both worked as mechanics and know how to fix pretty much anything.

My dad continues with this ingenuity.  He started out installing bar systems for local bars and pubs across New York State, with no engineering background.  After that, he owned and ran two gas stations, one of which had a repair shop.  My dad worked as the head mechanic for many years.  My dad, just like my uncles, has never needed directions to put something together and is my “go to” person when I don’t know how to do something.  This is even true for computers!  Computers didn’t even exist when my dad went to high school, yet he knows a heck of a lot more than I do about the subject and even built his own computer.

And I am currently majoring in Mechanical Engineering.  So...does analytical thinking run in the family?  I haven’t been able to find any medical evidence proving so, but I sure think it does!

Career Fair Experiences (Alfredo Ramirez, Junior, Engineering Science)

I'm sure you've heard it before: Penn State is the no. 1 most recruited school in the country. This is a great factoid that reinforces the pride I feel to be a part of Penn State. Nevertheless, it’s one thing to be told it and another altogether to experience it when you walk into the BJC and are confronted by hundreds of companies looking to recruit Penn State talent and Engineers in particular. This year was my first time participating in Fall Career Days; it was an exciting, exhausting, occasionally overwhelming, and wholly rewarding experience.

Fall Career Days  is a yearly event co-sponsored by Career Services and many other entities within Penn State that helps students connect with employers. The main attraction, if you will, is the career fair held at the BJC, which is broken into three events over three days: non-technical full-time, co-ops and internships, and technical full-time. This year, 515 organizations registered, a 9% increase over last year. Alongside the career fair, many organizations (SWE, NSBE & SHPE to name a few) within the College of Engineering host their own networking events, ranging from resume workshops to mock interview sessions and general info sessions.

In addition to meeting with recruiters during the fair itself or through one of the many networking events, companies hosted interviews on-site at the BJC, HUB or Career Services Center. If you were lucky (and talked to an oil company) you even had the chance to interview at The Tavern! Some companies made offers before the week was over; for others, second interviews are just being scheduled and for some companies, interviews won’t happen until October or later.

I’m incredibly glad to have attended the career fair. Aside from the awesome swag (be it a Northrop Grumman mousepad or a fancy CIA mug), I got valuable interview practice and the potential for some amazing internships this summer. Most importantly, I was struck by how in-demand Engineers are and the kind of impact they can have. I interviewed with five different companies in five very different industries and it just really drove home the fact that Engineers everywhere are tackling interesting and diverse problems that help shape the future!

We've Been Busy!

Welcome back! We're excited to get started with our 2012/2013 academic year, and hope you are to. To get things started, here's Matt Krott (Senior, Mechanical Engineering) telling us all about our recent Engineering Ambassador National Workshop.

From August 17-19, the Engineering Ambassadors program took a huge step in being recognized on a national level. Over that weekend, students from 18 universities (and 3 continents!) were our guests at the Nittany Lion Inn for the first ever Engineering Ambassadors National Workshop.

Students and faculty from these universities signed up for a workshop that was incredibly busy yet rewarding. While students in attendance received a crash course in building effective presentations, the faculty from their respective schools met with representatives from organizations like the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the National Science Foundation and laid the foundation for these Engineering Ambassador programs across the country to form a national network. Together, we hope to enhance the messages that we create and help each other to change the conversations that younger generations are having about engineering.

Ambassadors from Penn State, as well as students from our partner programs at WPI, RPI, UConn, and the Simula Research Lab (Norway), played a big role in the success of the workshop by serving as mentors to the students from the attending universities. It was incredibly rewarding to watch these groups’ presentations evolve into full-fledged, 15-minute talks that show how engineers make a difference and contribute to the health, happiness and safety of society. Many of us formed true friendships with our groups, and we cannot wait to see what these new Ambassador programs can come up with in the future!

Internship Experience- Straight Ahead! (Jacki Guillemette- Junior in Mechanical Engineering)

When I first came to college, I thought that my four years up at school were going to be the single main place where I had my experiences until I graduated. But once I arrived on the University Park campus, I quickly realized how valuable an internship experience could be to my engineering career and how much Penn State encourages you to partake in that opportunity.

I had my first internship the summer after my sophomore year of college. I worked at a company called Hamilton Sundstrand, which is a United Technologies Company, headquartered in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. Hamilton provides different systems for aircraft- both commercial and military- such as the air management system, engine systems, etc. They also are the main contractor for NASA’s space suit, which was a really neat thing to see up close. As an intern, I had the chance to do some manufacturing work within the mechanical engine systems department and helped expedite the assembly of jet fuel controls and starters for airplanes.

But this coming summer, now that I have finished my junior year of school, I will be working at a company called ConocoPhillips in Old Ocean, Texas! I am super excited for this opportunity because I have never lived in the south before and I also get to learn all about the oil industry. I have always wanted to go to Texas because I thought it would be a neat place to visit, especially since it is so different from my home- Pennsylvania.

ConocoPhillips is an oil company responsible for providing energy at an international level. I will be working at a refinery helping improve refining and production technologies and efficiencies and learning about the how the refining process works at ConocoPhillips. This will be neat experience and a lot different from my last internship at an aerospace company. It is such a great opportunity and I couldn't be more excited to start it! Being able to live in different locations for a few months and get real engineering experience is such a great way to enhance your learning and your character so I am very happy that I chose Penn State which gives me tons of opportunities like this to choose from. 

Summer Plans! (AJ Logan: Senior, Mechanical Engineering)

This summer I will be traveling to Nyeri, Kenya to manufacture and sell low cost solar dryers to small scale farmers. In Kenya, most people are living on about $2 per day, and 80% of the work force is comprised of farmers working on less than 5 acres of land. Unfortunately about 50% of the food that these farmers grow will spoil before it can be sold. Drying food is a great way to increase the shelf life of the product, and it can be sold for 3 times the price of fresh foods. Now, the common drying process is open air drying, which is slow going and leads to high amounts of contamination. Our solar dryers can dry more efficiently and block out most dirt and contaminants from the air. There are some dryers currently on the market in this area, but they typically cost between $500 and $2,000. Our dryers cost about $120. We are hoping to set up a sustainable business for entrepreneurs in Africa who are interested in learning how to build and maintain these dryers for the farmers. While I am over there I will be doing work building and marketing these dryers as well as research how well they work. The group going over also gets to have some fun. We will be going to national parks for Safari rides and we get to visit an African animals petting zoo! I'm very excited to have the opportunity to travel internationally to implement this project.

Penn State Engineering Meets The Happiest Place On Earth (Kylie Sheplock, Senior, Biological Engineering)

Over this past Spring Break I took a trip to the happiest place on earth, Disney World in Orlando, FL! It was my first time EVER going there and it was very overwhelming at first.  However, one reason I was excited about going to Disney was because of all the influence that Penn State engineers have had there.  If you have ever been to Disney I am sure that you have used the "fast past system."  This system made my life so much easier since I didn't have to wait in any long lines for the roller coasters!  What makes the fast pass even greater is that Penn State Industrial Engineers helped develop that process. Also, Penn State IE CO-OP's helped develop the "Magical Express Transportation" which transports your luggage from the airport to your hotel!  It is amazing how much Penn State Engineering students have influenced Disney World.  There are also numerous students from both mechanical and industrial engineering that have participated in both the College-program and professional program at Disney, so you are bound to run into at least one of them there. After all, it is where dreams come true.      

Succeeding in Math and Science (Shane Haydt, Junior, Mechanical Engineering)

Math and science are often mistakenly attributed as the bulk of engineering work.  Conventional wisdom states that if you are good at math and science, you will be good at engineering, but if you struggle with those classes, your dreams of being an engineer are hopeless.  This just isn’t true.  Above all else, engineers need to be able to think creatively and logically to solve all different kinds of problems.  Imagination is just as important, if not more important, than calculus.

That being said….you’re going to have to do some math and science.

Luckily at Penn State, there are a multitude of resources to help you out!  There are your professor’s office hours, your teaching assistant’s office hours, review sessions, math tutoring, and this blog post!  I’ve worked as a math tutor for the past two years, mainly tutoring calculus, and I’ve picked up on some tips to help freshman engineers succeed at math and science.

1. Browse through the book before or after class so you can pick out important formulas or concepts that your professor will cover in class.  This makes it easier to follow along with example problems.
2. Keep track of all of the equations that you learn on a special equation sheet.  This makes homework and studying so much easier!
3. When doing homework, try every single problem.  Even if you’re not grasping the over-arching concept for that assignment, you should still attempt each problem so that you have questions ready if you go to tutoring or office hours.
4.  Take a very regimented approach to your homework.  Do it step by step, write each step down, and do not skip any steps.  For example, if you’re trying to figure out an integral and think it’s impossible, try every single method of integration that you know.  It has to be one of them!
5. Something that helps a lot with homework is to space out your work and make it very legible.  The biggest mistake I made when I was a freshman was that I tried to fit my entire homework assignment on one piece of paper.   This just makes your work a jumbled, confusing mess, and neither you nor your teacher will be able to understand it.
6. Once you’ve tried everything on a problem and still can’t get it, go to one of the three math tutoring centers on campus (completely free for students!) and they can help you out.  Once you leave, try to do it again to see if you followed what the tutor did.
7. Study with a friend.  Explaining a concept to someone else helps exponentially in your understanding of it!
8. On exams and quizzes, take your time and avoid easy mistakes.  The most common problem that students have on calculus exams is mistakes in algebra!  You can prevent this by not skipping steps and writing down everything.
9. If an exam doesn’t go too well, that’s alright!  There are a lot of opportunities to bring up your grade in math and physics classes!  Make sure you come to a tutoring center or office hours right away when you get your test back so you can review it and see where you made mistakes.

The biggest thing to remember is that there is always help available!  Taking these classes with your friends or roommates makes it much easier and much more fun.  Also, definitely take advantage of the free tutoring offered on campus, as well as the exam reviews held by your professor.  If you put your mind to it, you can easily succeed in math and science at Penn State!!