One Month Reflection

Whew!!!! One month of college down...and only...well pretty much 4 years left! And how was it? Everything I expected and more?? Exactly!! There are just SO MANY opportunities on campus, and I feel like I taken advantage of everything I can. My schedule has been consistently filled for all hours of the day (and many of the night), but I love it. I've made a ton of friends so far and am excited about how many people are interested in the same things as I am! I'm also making some great connections with professors, and I can't wait to develop those relationships and possibly join them in research at some point. Classes, however, have been okay so far. Statistics seems to be just a bunch of formulas, E&M is just too abstract, and Engineering Graphics is...well let's just say we're working on drawing boxes right now.

The Cross Country Club is awesome! There are a ton of great guys on the team and it's a great time, even though I've missed a lot of practice lately because I was so busy. Daily runs still resemble a quest to find soft surfaces, but overall I'm not minding the C-U running atmosphere too much yet. Training is going pretty well, and I'm looking forward to proving myself in the races coming up.

iFoundry is...oh iFoundry is so many things! Eng 198 has provided a few good insights, and the design project is very fun, but overall, the lectures are....well let me put it this way: I've been thinking a lot about a paradox that I am starting to see in the program. This is that it seems to me that the students who applied for iFoundry, already have the soft skills that are being taught in class; it's the rest of the engineers that don't. Now, at the same time I understand that there is really no way to prevent this right now, and that the overall mission of iFoundry is to eventually expand this curriculum to ALL engineering students. So, even though it may be a little rough right now, I think it will be well worth it once the results reach fruition in the future.

On the iTeam front, this week will be a big week. ESS WILL finally be deciding on a project (I hope). It's easy to see that many members are getting itchy to actually do something and stop just talking about it. I am also looking forward to working with everyone on something meaningful, but I have also been thinking a lot lately about the future of ESS and our iFoundry class in general. The overarching and long-term iFoundry mission is clear and legitimate. But the vision of OUR future in the program and the logistics of the next semester, let alone the next few years, is almost completely absent. I am very worried about this, as it will have a crucial impact on many of the decisions we make.

So overall this first month has just been amazing. I'm thriving in the independence and just love the college atmosphere. Nevertheless, I am definitely starting to things from home: family, friends, my dog, the forest preserves, food, ice buckets, my bed....

Biomimicry

Biomimicry is: "learning from and then emulating natural forms, processes, and ecosystems to create more sustainable and healthier human technologies and designs."

This is what modern engineers NEED to do!

Check out these websites for some great information and examples:

The Biomimicry Institute

Ask Nature

15 Coolest Cases of Biomimicry

Here's another way I have thought about it:

On the Origin of Species, written in 1859 by Charles Darwin, shook the very foundations of human thought across the world. The book presents the unparalleled theory of natural selection. This scientific theory explains the mechanism by which life adapts to its surroundings. In other words, the fittest individuals survive to carry on their knowledge and skills.

As I examine the world through Darwin’s theory, I see an especially stubborn and overconfident species that is terribly unfit to survive in the world that it is creating. As humans continue to pollute the air, water, and land, as well as crank up the global average temperature, the species’ supposed superior intelligence is quite hard to pick out.

This is where I see myself fitting into the picture. I believe that the best way to live in harmony with the natural is to emulate the natural world itself. Rather than running out of time as humans try to devise every environmental solution themselves, I propose that each of these ideas can already be found in the many natural systems and complex organisms found around the world. Plants, for example, have been evolving through Darwin’s mechanism for over 600 million years. Humans, on the other hand, have been learning for barely 6 million. Plants know how to remove carbon dioxide from the air. Humans don’t. Plants know how to store energy directly from the sun with amazing efficiency. Humans don’t. I see my role as examining the secrets of the natural world for ideas and then adapting these ideas to solve our problems. Darwin’s theory of natural selection proves that by looking to and mimicking our world’s natural engineers, the environment and all of its inhabitants can be saved.

ESS and the iFoundry Purpose

ESS is really starting to come together as a group after our first few meetings. We have laid some groundwork, elected leaders, and brainstormed ideas for future projects. Plans are in progress to attend some educational conferences and bring in some speakers.

As everything is moving so fast and becoming so productive, I have thought a lot about how iFoundry is affecting me in ways much beyond my academic curriculum.....a more complete engineer is surely being made.

That said, I wanted to share some of my previous words in response to the question:

“What would you say to someone who thinks education doesn't matter, or that college is a waste of time and money?”

"Education is so much more than just the forced memorization of random facts, formulas, and categorized lists. Education fosters the development of morals, habits, personalities, and life skills. When placing a value on education, you cannot solely consider the trigonometry that has never come to your aid or the history lectures that you can’t even remember anyway. Instead, you must consider the organizational habits and strategic problem solving abilities that you gained while studying for chemistry. You must consider how much easier it became to analyze and comprehend a new idea after that thought provoking English class. You must consider the new morals and ethics that were fostered by those psychology and philosophy classes. You must consider the practical skills you developed while living on your own at college or dealing with that impenetrable roommate. You must consider who you are now and ask not what you remember from college, but whether or not you are a different person than when you went in. Your education was not intended to teach you everything you need to know about life; your education was intended to teach you how to deal with life and how to build upon yourself for years to come."

I think iFoundry is setting us all up for a future and career that encompasses these very ideas.