So You’re Starting Grad School…
The new school year is rapidly approaching, or has perhaps already arrived for some. As one of the resident graduate students here at EngineerBlogs, I thought I’d offer some advice to anyone embarking on the quest that is the US doctoral degree. On my own blog, I’ve offered advice about questions to ask on visits. So now that you’ve matriculated, what’s next? Accept that everyone is going to have advice, and much of it may be completely irrelevant to your department and situation. Learning to parse large amounts of information to find something relevant is a critical skill in graduate school, so consider this practice. Make sure you have all of the requirements for candidacy/graduation written down in one place. What courses do you need to take? How are your qualifying exams structured? When are you expected to achieve candidacy? In the beginning, you’re still going to have courses, but you’ll want to…
Whose turn is it to fix stuff?
One of the problems luxuries of having a spouse who is also a mechanical engineer is that we are both completely capable of fixing stuff around the house. Moreover, DrWife and I both enjoy fixing stuff around the house, something that I don’t think should be taken for granted. Recently, we just bought a new house which has left us with numerous evening tasks and weekend fun like: re-tiling the bathroom, installing new outlets and lights, painting, re-screening screens, assembling furniture (see picture), and general unpacking. And now that we’ve established what we need to do, now all we need to figure out is who’s going to do it??!?! It turns out, answering this question isn’t always so simple. DrWife and I end up arguing more about this than just about anything else (I guess that’s a good thing?!??). For the small stuff, it tends to work (after arguing) by splitting the job. I’ll…
Gift-giving for engineers
A male engineer I once worked with told me that, when he got married, he told his wife that he didn’t pick up on hints. If she wanted something for her birthday, she would hand him a magazine, point to a picture, and say, “I want this for my birthday.” I’ve personally used a similar approach after a couple of events where my husband said, “I wanted to get you something, but I didn’t know what you wanted.” If I see something I like, I may send an email to him saying, “If you’re thinking about birthday gifts, you can put this on your list.” Sometimes I’m more subtle, like when we walk into Barnes and Noble and I make a comment about how it sure would be nice to have a Nook or Kindle…and then proceed to play with the demo model for a half-hour and ask the salesperson…
Dating advice for women engineers
My husband sent me a link to an EDN page featuring a video covering dating advice for engineers. I want to start by saying that the video was very amusing, so the following is in no way meant as disparaging. However, it was also very guy-centric, and I wondered what sort of dating advice might be useful for female engineers (which, the video says, are hypothetical…like Bigfoot). So my advice would be: Ignore any guy who says that female engineers are unattractive. He’s just bitter because he can’t find a date. It’s karma. He’s probably also an engineer. You’ll probably want to date another engineer, or maybe a scientist. Otherwise you won’t have anything to talk about. (Well, maybe if you have hobby in common. HAM radio, anyone?) And saying things like “Higgs Boson” will be just fine. You’ll probably want to date another engineer because, given your salary, you’re…
Weekend Journal — Dealing With Non-Optimized Solutions
I think most engineers are optimizers. Many times, this works to our advantage. In the case of a project, it means you might try and squeeze out the last bit of efficiency out of a part in your system. Or in the office, it might mean coding up a bit of software that will make your job a little easier and automate mundane tasks. But what about when it doesn’t work? What about when you have a non-optimal solution? I was dealing with this in my personal life this weekend, and I felt my engineering brain kicking into high gear. I’m going to try and replay the stream of consciousness for you below. I don’t think it will quite capture all of the thoughts that went through my head, but I think it will be enough to recognize the feelings if you have ever had them. The situation occured when…
Weekend Journal — An Ode To Power Tools
In honor of Father’s Day, I decided to try and find common ground with engineering. While not all fathers are engineers and not all engineers are fathers, they often have one thing in common: love of power tools! And so I thought I’d write an ode to those wonderful things that allow us to be the heroes we need to be (but not the heroes others deserve 😉 ). This poem is an Horatian Ode in the style of Percy Bysshe Shelley. O power tools, great utility! We salute you For in our haste we need provided brunt To drill a hole or secure a loose screw prevent our everlasting, straining grunts That is, of course, if our blades be not blunt. When questioning the project we must finish our power tools are the “how” to our “what” Though our abilities they shan’t ever diminish They ensure the…
Outreach Beyond K-12
Chris posted this weekend about his experiences at Maker Faire, and the idea of STEAM instead of STEM. On my own blog, I’ve talked a bit about my involvement in the steampunk community. (No idea what steampunk is? Check out Girl Genius for an example) Generally, at least in my region, it’s a group with backgrounds predominantly in visual art, music, theatre and literature, but with a strong interest in science and engineering. However, in many cases, they never got into science in school. So why do I care about outreach to the arts? Well, I find it hard to resist an interested audience that will let me lecture at length and asks great questions. I also care because science literacy is important for everyone, and if it’s in the context of dirigibles and boiler engines, so be it. By being able to put information in context, it becomes more interesting to your…
Finishing Projects
As a naturally curious person, I find I’m often researching new subjects, learning new skills, and trying new things. (I’m sure you can relate, but Wikipedia is like a big giant black hole of time.) This typically means I have a lot of half-developed talents and unfinished projects. I actually did finish a (small) project lately, and it got me thinking about what the difference in motivation is between projects I start and finish and those I abandon. In this instance, the small project happened to be an engagement website (for myself and my new fiance! I guess this is what happens when engineers get married…) Now I wrote an article a while ago about the difference between academic vs. “real” programming, and I’d been meaning to learn some web development lately. Learning to program “real code” was sort of a vague, ephemeral goal, but the engagement website and server was a tangible, defined thing,…
Weekend Journal — You Don’t Need Permission
Though I’m an engineer, I don’t necessarily consider myself a natural tinkerer. Sure, I started out that way, as most kids do. My childhood inspirations included Legos, Lincoln Logs, Erector Sets and lots of toys that are precursors to engineering. But as I got older, I didn’t step into many of the other stereotypical “future engineer” activities. I never learned how to change a car’s oil or do regular maintenance. I never framed a house or similar structures. I never built a computer from components at the store (though this is obviously more relevant around the time I grew up vs 20 years prior). I never got a ham license or had a 200 in 1 electronics kit, two things that almost guarantee a future as an electrical engineer. So what gives? My parents were both very supporting and continue to be to this day. And I regularly worked on…