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Post by azvb on May 17, 2019 17:35:02 GMT -5
My knowledge-base on this issue is far more limited than the others contributing to the conversation. But, I recently learned that Purdue's Honors College has a "house" system (think Harry Potter and Gryffindor, Slytherin, etc.) and the five houses are named after forgeable metals. That's pretty nerdy. I told my daughter that this provides some insight into what she's getting herself into. Caltech has a house system. Freshmen go through something akin to fraternity rush at other colleges and pick from among a number of houses. They make a list of their top choices. Then, the houses select who they want. When all agree, you move in. I didn't really like it. Though you make friends, there's just too many opportunities to waste time and slack off. No matter how smart my housemates were, they were still 17-18 year olds and basically immature jerkoffs like all the boys at all other colleges. Damn social misfits. I couldn't do that. I moved out in my second year and lived off campus in San Marino. (That's a whole separate story right there re. where I lived, who I lived with, etc.) I also quit membership after my second year, total excommunication. I was forever branded an outcast, but my GPA was better than theirs so no biggie. And I got a lot done. Had I stayed with my house, my GPA would've suffered and I probably would've gone insane and perhaps transferred out to some lesser school like MIT, Stanford, or UC Berkeley. When did you meet the Mormon girl?
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Post by Wolfgang on May 17, 2019 18:38:30 GMT -5
Caltech has a house system. Freshmen go through something akin to fraternity rush at other colleges and pick from among a number of houses. They make a list of their top choices. Then, the houses select who they want. When all agree, you move in. I didn't really like it. Though you make friends, there's just too many opportunities to waste time and slack off. No matter how smart my housemates were, they were still 17-18 year olds and basically immature jerkoffs like all the boys at all other colleges. Damn social misfits. I couldn't do that. I moved out in my second year and lived off campus in San Marino. (That's a whole separate story right there re. where I lived, who I lived with, etc.) I also quit membership after my second year, total excommunication. I was forever branded an outcast, but my GPA was better than theirs so no biggie. And I got a lot done. Had I stayed with my house, my GPA would've suffered and I probably would've gone insane and perhaps transferred out to some lesser school like MIT, Stanford, or UC Berkeley. When did you meet the Mormon girl? High school.
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Post by Wolfgang on May 17, 2019 18:50:51 GMT -5
As an engineer, I was involved in many projects where I'd look over a peer's design and, based on my own hands-on experience with different machines, I'd say to them, "No, that won't work." And they wouldn't believe me so we'd test it out in a simulator or, sometimes, emulator. Or, we'd actually build a prototype. Or, I'd design something and I'd take it down to the lab where the technicians put components together and we'd build a raw working model together based on my design and determine whether it worked or not and if it worked, we'd put it through its paces to uncover hidden problems. All this stemmed from the "maker culture." My experience was that when I met engineers who obviously never built anything in their entire lives, they had difficulty keeping up with things. Some transferred to another department, went into management, went into sales, or just quit or got fired. They could still be a good engineer but they just had to do some other kind of engineering. But as I said, there are all kinds of "professional engineers." ... But "making" mostly ignores stuff like rigorous analysis of the part -- how easy would it be to build tooling and mass produce it, how long will it last in service, what parts of it should be built in house and what parts sub-contracted out, how to make it lighter or cost less, project management for testing it, certifying it, integrating it into a larger project, etc. And yes, sales and marketing too. ... Not ALL engineers do ALL of this. Some small subset of ALL engineers may do ALL of this. But most engineers only do some of this. You’re equating what you do, perhaps (I don’t know what you do), with what you think all “professional engineers” do. Again, there are lots of different types of “professional engineers” who all do different types of work. Now, if you work in a smaller company/firm or a smaller department within a bigger company, you may have to wear more hats and do more. But the bigger firms, they may employ separate engineers to do each of the things you listed. If you take the example of a cellular telephone engineer who designed and developed an entire cellular telephone network, he’s not worried about tooling anything or mass producing anything or how to make anything lighter or stronger. He often relies on the operational specs provided for him by radio equipment manufacturers. He merely designs the coverage area, puts everything together, and makes sure things like handoff works properly.
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Post by Phaedrus on May 17, 2019 19:11:59 GMT -5
I was in R&D doi I didn't fi a lot of hands in design but I kluged a lot fir testing and building prototypes. Wolfgang you may know my best friend in HS. He was in physics and got in a bit of a drug issues because of the houses. He ended up getting the bachelor's but getting the masters in one of the U Cals. He's a high muckety muck at a motor manufacturing company. Kind of bizarre how we ended up in the same business.
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Post by Wolfgang on May 17, 2019 19:34:15 GMT -5
I was in R&D doi I didn't fi a lot of hands in design but I kluged a lot fir testing and building prototypes. Wolfgang you may know my best friend in HS. He was in physics and got in a bit of a drug issues because of the houses. He ended up getting the bachelor's but getting the masters in one of the U Cals. He's a high muckety muck at a motor manufacturing company. Kind of bizarre how we ended up in the same business. I don't know who that is. I had tunnel vision the whole time because of the work and was oblivious to many things around me. When I was there, Caltech had a fair number of frosh who transferred out. It's not a mass exodus but it wasn't rare. It was usually at the end of the first year. It was quite noticeable. I don't think it's because the work was tough (it was actually quite tough) but just lack of discipline, time management skills, and the bombardment of stimuli. When you're a 17-18 year old with those issues at many other schools, you may suffer through first year with a C or D average (maybe GPA 1.8-2.4?) and then you eventually wise up. But at Caltech, it won't work. You will just fail the class. Also, first year (or first two terms) at Caltech is all Pass/Fail and you might think it's impossible to fail, but the truth is, it's very easy to fail if you don't adapt quickly. From the first day, we were all told that at Caltech, you could only pick 2 of the following 3: School (grades), Sleep, or Social Life. (I picked School and Sleep.) This may actually be something that's so universal that maybe it's repeated at other "tough" schools like MIT or some of the tougher programs at Harvard. I don't know.
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Post by pepperbrooks on May 17, 2019 19:44:07 GMT -5
Should we rename this thread to whatever you guys are doing and move it?
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Post by Wolfgang on May 17, 2019 19:55:34 GMT -5
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Post by Wolfgang on May 17, 2019 19:56:43 GMT -5
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Post by Wolfgang on May 17, 2019 19:58:58 GMT -5
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Post by pepperbrooks on May 17, 2019 20:48:01 GMT -5
But that would get in the way of all the trips down memory lane.
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Post by Wolfgang on May 17, 2019 20:49:55 GMT -5
But that would get in the way of all the trips down memory lane. Ehh...go for it. Do it violently, too while you’re at it.
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Post by XAsstCoach on May 17, 2019 23:36:46 GMT -5
Ehh...go for it. Do it violently, too while you’re at it. And you laughed at our 面子 conversation. 🤣
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Post by Wolfgang on May 18, 2019 1:11:18 GMT -5
Ehh...go for it. Do it violently, too while you’re at it. And you laughed at our 面子 conversation. 🤣 Well, THAT was funny!
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Post by kaygirl97 on May 18, 2019 21:44:06 GMT -5
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Post by azvb on May 18, 2019 22:22:02 GMT -5
All they would have to say is they “identified” as black, or Hispanic. Easy peasy.
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