In this semester, I wrote 2 essays and I fing that essay-writing is rather difficult for college students. Especially if you want to write good essay, certain errors have to be avoided. Here I listed some errors I had in my writing assignment one and writing assignment two. I hope that by writing this essay I will be aware of the mistakes and can avoid them in my future writing.
Sometimes I fail to answer the question or neglect part of the question. Usually every fact given in the question will be relevant so considering each in turn and looking at whether they give rise to any particular issues is a wise decision.
Sometimes I fail to address what is being asked of me – for example, when the question asked to ‘discuss’ an issue but I only present a one-sided-argument. Just like in WA2, besides my point of view, I have the give the opposing side to make my essay completed.
The essay is poorly structured, perhaps missing an introduction or failing to reach a conclusion based on the evidence presented. In my WA1, many paragraphs in my essay do not have clear topic sentences. This is really bad because it makes my points not consistant with each other.
Some of my arguments are weak, not supported by evidence or reason or authority, or are non existent. This is a big problem for my WA2, because I always talk about things in distinct future. Human cloning is something not related to our real life and all my evidences are rather weak. Thus, the content for my eaasy 2 is not as good as what I have expected.
Some materials that I used are not properly referenced or no supporting material is cited. For my WA2 draft 2, no reference was made! I must be mad at that time. Academic writing is not like writing journals because we have to give concrete evidences for our arguments. Being objective and accurate is crucial, so we have to read and research a lot before writing and show them in our essays.
Above are the problems that often occur in my essays. In the following semesters I will take modules like critical thinking and writing and Singapore Study. In these modules, essay writing is almost the most important part. I will pay attention to the problems mentioned above and try to avoid them in future days.
2009年4月12日星期日
2009年4月4日星期六
Portfolio 6
The semester is coming to an end and from all the grammar exercises, I find that there are several grammar mistakes that I always make. Here I will list three of them
Firstly, the wrong use of "the" always appear in my essay. The definite article is used before singular and plural nouns when the noun is particular or specific. "The" signals that the noun is definite, that it refers to a particular member of a group. "The" is not used with noncountable nouns referring to something in a general sense. And I always make mistake here. For example, "Intelligence is difficult to quantify." , intelligence here is a general word and "the " shouldn't be used here. The is used with noncountable nouns that are made more specific by a limiting modifying phrase or clause, and it is also used when a noun refers to something unique, eg "the White House".
Secondly, I'm quite confused about the use of preposition. Prepostion is quite different from others words because most of its use is fixed, and we have to memorize it. For one point in time, on is used with days; at is used with noon, night, midnight, and with the time of day and in is used with other parts of the day, with months, with years, with seasons. To express notions of place, English uses the following prepositions: to talk about the point itself: in, to express something contained: inside, to talk about the surface: on, to talk about a general vicinity, at. The use of preporstion is very complex and in order to have a better understanding of it, I think I need to have more practice.
Lastly, the problem exists on the use of countable and uncountable nouns. In English, there is a kind of collective nouns, and their singular and plural forms are the same. Here, the choice of verb form is very important. The rule of pluralizing is that most count nouns pluralize with -s and noncount nouns don't pluralize at all. For a number of nouns, the rule needs slight revision. Certain nouns in English belong to both classes: they have both a noncount and a count meaning. Normally the noncount meaning is abstract and general and the count meaning concrete and specific. For example, I've had some difficulties finding a job. (refers to a number of specific problems) and She succeeded in school with little difficulty. (refers to the general idea of school being difficult).
The errors listed above always appear in my essays and in the future days I'll pay more attention to them.
Firstly, the wrong use of "the" always appear in my essay. The definite article is used before singular and plural nouns when the noun is particular or specific. "The" signals that the noun is definite, that it refers to a particular member of a group. "The" is not used with noncountable nouns referring to something in a general sense. And I always make mistake here. For example, "Intelligence is difficult to quantify." , intelligence here is a general word and "the " shouldn't be used here. The is used with noncountable nouns that are made more specific by a limiting modifying phrase or clause, and it is also used when a noun refers to something unique, eg "the White House".
Secondly, I'm quite confused about the use of preposition. Prepostion is quite different from others words because most of its use is fixed, and we have to memorize it. For one point in time, on is used with days; at is used with noon, night, midnight, and with the time of day and in is used with other parts of the day, with months, with years, with seasons. To express notions of place, English uses the following prepositions: to talk about the point itself: in, to express something contained: inside, to talk about the surface: on, to talk about a general vicinity, at. The use of preporstion is very complex and in order to have a better understanding of it, I think I need to have more practice.
Lastly, the problem exists on the use of countable and uncountable nouns. In English, there is a kind of collective nouns, and their singular and plural forms are the same. Here, the choice of verb form is very important. The rule of pluralizing is that most count nouns pluralize with -s and noncount nouns don't pluralize at all. For a number of nouns, the rule needs slight revision. Certain nouns in English belong to both classes: they have both a noncount and a count meaning. Normally the noncount meaning is abstract and general and the count meaning concrete and specific. For example, I've had some difficulties finding a job. (refers to a number of specific problems) and She succeeded in school with little difficulty. (refers to the general idea of school being difficult).
The errors listed above always appear in my essays and in the future days I'll pay more attention to them.
2009年3月22日星期日
Portfolio 5
The group's roundtable discussion topic is to choose a certain technology that can mitigate climate change and discuss why citizen groups should accept , promote or oppose it. Our group has 4 members. I'm the moderator. Dawn and tha are on the supporting side while Jim is on the opposing side.
The specific technology we choose is carbon capture and storage. CO2 capture and storage is a process consisting of seperation of CO2 from industrial and energy-related sources, transport to a storage location and long-term isolation from atmosphere.
The supporting side thinks that citizen groups should accept this technology because of three reasons. First and the most important, this technology is beneficial to the environment. CO2 capture and storage(CCS) is an efficient way to reduce CO2 emission without comprising industrial development. Available evidences suggests that, worldwide, it is likely that there is a technical potentail of at least about 2,000 Gt CO2 of storage capacity in geological formations. Second, this technology does not cost a lot. Many people have the misunderstanding that all those cut-edge environmental protection technologies cost a lot. Actually, this is not the case. CCS requires neither expensive materials nor flue gas compression. Moreover, it does not need a lot of continuous investments. Last, by adopting this technology, firms can show their concerns towards climate change and gain a good reputation from this action.
After supporting side states their points, the opposing side gives his opinion and rebutal. It is true that CCS is useful and will not cost a lot, but why has it not been widely used? Jim says that the supporting side forgets the huge gap between experiment and industrial use. Everyday, there are millions of tons of CO2 emission but the amount people can capture and store is very small. From this point of view, this technology is not good enough to put into practice because it is not effective at all. In addition, the opposing side thinks that this technology won't gain the company a good image. In fact, if the industry wants to show a positive image, they can make many advertisements instead of to do such little things that haven't been proven efficient. In conclusion, the opposing side thinks that this technology is not worthwhile for citizen group to support.
Generally speaking, I think our roundtable discussion is qiute successful. Although we don't have enough time, each of our group members present his or her idea clearly. I think this roundtable discussion is a good practice for our oral English and is quite an experience.
The specific technology we choose is carbon capture and storage. CO2 capture and storage is a process consisting of seperation of CO2 from industrial and energy-related sources, transport to a storage location and long-term isolation from atmosphere.
The supporting side thinks that citizen groups should accept this technology because of three reasons. First and the most important, this technology is beneficial to the environment. CO2 capture and storage(CCS) is an efficient way to reduce CO2 emission without comprising industrial development. Available evidences suggests that, worldwide, it is likely that there is a technical potentail of at least about 2,000 Gt CO2 of storage capacity in geological formations. Second, this technology does not cost a lot. Many people have the misunderstanding that all those cut-edge environmental protection technologies cost a lot. Actually, this is not the case. CCS requires neither expensive materials nor flue gas compression. Moreover, it does not need a lot of continuous investments. Last, by adopting this technology, firms can show their concerns towards climate change and gain a good reputation from this action.
After supporting side states their points, the opposing side gives his opinion and rebutal. It is true that CCS is useful and will not cost a lot, but why has it not been widely used? Jim says that the supporting side forgets the huge gap between experiment and industrial use. Everyday, there are millions of tons of CO2 emission but the amount people can capture and store is very small. From this point of view, this technology is not good enough to put into practice because it is not effective at all. In addition, the opposing side thinks that this technology won't gain the company a good image. In fact, if the industry wants to show a positive image, they can make many advertisements instead of to do such little things that haven't been proven efficient. In conclusion, the opposing side thinks that this technology is not worthwhile for citizen group to support.
Generally speaking, I think our roundtable discussion is qiute successful. Although we don't have enough time, each of our group members present his or her idea clearly. I think this roundtable discussion is a good practice for our oral English and is quite an experience.
2009年2月28日星期六
Portfolio 4
Our group's topic for round table discussion is to investigate one or more technologies to mitigate climate change and give the reason why certain citizen groups should support, promote or oppose the technologies. For this topic, I read several relavant articles on the web page and found two of them especially helpful for writing assignment two.
The first passage is called: Innovative technologies to mitigate climate change.In this passage, its author, Dr Ulrich Eberl , gives Siemens as an example and shows how companies can help to mitigate climate. According to him, the most efficient way to combat climate change is to employ innovative technologies that increase the efficiency of power generation, transmission and utilisation in industry, buildings and transportation. From his statements, the technologies he mentioned can roughly be classified into two groups. One is how to improve the current manufacturing faciliyies and the other is finding new energy sources. The parts I am interested in are NANO TECHNOLOGY FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE GAS TURBINES and VIRTUAL RENEWABLE ENERGY NETWORKS.
Nano technology for high performance gas turbines is a great way to improve power plant efficiency. The materials in a gas turbine, for example, have to withstand very high temperatures of up to 1,500ºC. The combustion chamber is also subjected to high pressure and a glowing hot tornado of gas that passes through at a speed of 100 metres per second. Finally, the turbine blades are exposed to centrifugal forces equivalent to 10,000 times the acceleration due to the Earth’s gravity. If Siemens can successfully put this technology into practice, a facility of this kind will achieve an efficiency rating of 60 per cent (by comparison, the best coal-fired plants reach 46 per cent). This will definitely reduce CO2 emmision by a huge amount and can earn the company a great profit.
Virtual renewable energy networks, also known as smart grids is a process where small, distributed plants that use biomass or geothermal sources, combined heat and power plants, and plants with fluctuating outputs (wind, solar) are to be integrated into the existing network hierarchy without disturbances. Siemens developers are working on smart grid systems that bring together the most diverse electricity sources to form ‘virtual power plants’. Smart grids can turn specific consumers on and off in order to balance out peak loads, thereby creating a dynamic balance in the power network rather than the static one that exists today. By doing this , the company can earn as much as €2 billion per year. For me, this huge profit is a good reason why Siemens should focus on this technology.
The second article I found interesting is quite different from the first one. It is called Climate Change Debate Hinges On Economics. In this article, the auther did not mention specific technology. Instead, he talked about whether the public are able to accept the technology which costs us a lot. Although energy and climate experts say the world already possesses the technological know-how for trimming greenhouse gas emissions enough to slow the perilous rise in the Earth's temperatures, the energy legislation considered by US Congress so far will make barely a dent in the problem, while farther-reaching climate proposals stand a remote chance of passage. Ways to mitigate climate change are there: in the rescearchers' labs and on our books but not in our real life.
This passage is very easy to read and do not have any technical terms. I chose it as my WA2 resource because it gives rise to another consideration of the climate change problem. It is true that everyone wants to protect the environment but what if the price for that is too high? Technology is useless if the public does not accept it. Every coin has two sides. Maybe next time when we face environmental problem, we should view it in a different manner.
Eberl, U. (2007). Innovative technologies to mitigate climate change. Climate Action Programme. Retrieved on Feb 28th 2009 from http://www.climateactionprogramme.org/insights/article/.
Mufson, S.(2007). Climate Change Debate Hinges On Economics. Washington Post Sunday, July 15, 2007; Page A01. Retrieved on Feb 28th 2009 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/14/AR2007071401246.html.
The first passage is called: Innovative technologies to mitigate climate change.In this passage, its author, Dr Ulrich Eberl , gives Siemens as an example and shows how companies can help to mitigate climate. According to him, the most efficient way to combat climate change is to employ innovative technologies that increase the efficiency of power generation, transmission and utilisation in industry, buildings and transportation. From his statements, the technologies he mentioned can roughly be classified into two groups. One is how to improve the current manufacturing faciliyies and the other is finding new energy sources. The parts I am interested in are NANO TECHNOLOGY FOR HIGH PERFORMANCE GAS TURBINES and VIRTUAL RENEWABLE ENERGY NETWORKS.
Nano technology for high performance gas turbines is a great way to improve power plant efficiency. The materials in a gas turbine, for example, have to withstand very high temperatures of up to 1,500ºC. The combustion chamber is also subjected to high pressure and a glowing hot tornado of gas that passes through at a speed of 100 metres per second. Finally, the turbine blades are exposed to centrifugal forces equivalent to 10,000 times the acceleration due to the Earth’s gravity. If Siemens can successfully put this technology into practice, a facility of this kind will achieve an efficiency rating of 60 per cent (by comparison, the best coal-fired plants reach 46 per cent). This will definitely reduce CO2 emmision by a huge amount and can earn the company a great profit.
Virtual renewable energy networks, also known as smart grids is a process where small, distributed plants that use biomass or geothermal sources, combined heat and power plants, and plants with fluctuating outputs (wind, solar) are to be integrated into the existing network hierarchy without disturbances. Siemens developers are working on smart grid systems that bring together the most diverse electricity sources to form ‘virtual power plants’. Smart grids can turn specific consumers on and off in order to balance out peak loads, thereby creating a dynamic balance in the power network rather than the static one that exists today. By doing this , the company can earn as much as €2 billion per year. For me, this huge profit is a good reason why Siemens should focus on this technology.
The second article I found interesting is quite different from the first one. It is called Climate Change Debate Hinges On Economics. In this article, the auther did not mention specific technology. Instead, he talked about whether the public are able to accept the technology which costs us a lot. Although energy and climate experts say the world already possesses the technological know-how for trimming greenhouse gas emissions enough to slow the perilous rise in the Earth's temperatures, the energy legislation considered by US Congress so far will make barely a dent in the problem, while farther-reaching climate proposals stand a remote chance of passage. Ways to mitigate climate change are there: in the rescearchers' labs and on our books but not in our real life.
This passage is very easy to read and do not have any technical terms. I chose it as my WA2 resource because it gives rise to another consideration of the climate change problem. It is true that everyone wants to protect the environment but what if the price for that is too high? Technology is useless if the public does not accept it. Every coin has two sides. Maybe next time when we face environmental problem, we should view it in a different manner.
Eberl, U. (2007). Innovative technologies to mitigate climate change. Climate Action Programme. Retrieved on Feb 28th 2009 from http://www.climateactionprogramme.org/insights/article/.
Mufson, S.(2007). Climate Change Debate Hinges On Economics. Washington Post Sunday, July 15, 2007; Page A01. Retrieved on Feb 28th 2009 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/14/AR2007071401246.html.
2009年2月1日星期日
Portfolio 3
This Friday we heard three preentations on climate change and global warming.
The first lecture was Andrew Palmer. In his presentation he first summarised all the crisis we face today's world. Then, among them, he talked about frontier technologies which can mitigate climate change. The two methods he mentioned were carbon dioxide capture and storage and put articles into atmosphere. Unfortunately, these two methods are difficult to implement. For the first one, carbon dioxide capture and storage, the idea is quite simple but joint effort from all countries is needed. For the second one, it requires advanced space technology and most countries in the world cannot afford this. Besides technologies, Prof. Palmer also talked about politics. He mentioned that politicians always prefer short-term interest to long-term ones. They do not recognize envoronmental problems as of the greatest priority. Thus, fund and effort that ought to put into it are reduced. " If unchecked global warming is the greatest trouble in 100 years, then we are lucky indeed.", he ended his presentation.
After Prof. Palmer it was Dr. Sovacool who gave us another presentation. He analyzed environmental problems in a systemetic approach and brought about quite different ideas. Comparing with Prof. Palmer, Dr Sovacool stressed not only technology but also our social considerations. He gave us two case studies: renewable energy and electrical cars. Both of them showed that technology can succeed technically, but fail socially. Market failures and barriers, political and regulatory obstacles, cultural and behavioral challenges are things we cannot ignore. Finally, he concluded that technology is part of social system. The failure and acceptance of certain tachnologies can sometimes have nothing to do with technical feasibility, and instead relates to contests over power and interest.
The last presentation was made by A/P Bala and talked about something very conventional. The topic was : climate change : assessment and mitigation. He gave quite a lot of convincing data which shows temperature on earth is indeed increasing, and predicted the potential consequences of enhanced global warming. After that, he mentioned several factors affecting the earth's temperature and what a warmer earth can bring to all creatures. Lastly, he gave suggestions on what individuals and governments should do to mitigate climate change.
This lecture on environmental issue is very interesting and informative. The part that interests me most is Dr. Sovacool's STS method of evaluating technologies. After his presentation, I realised that being engineers, we should have a good understanding of social and political issues as well as technologies.
The first lecture was Andrew Palmer. In his presentation he first summarised all the crisis we face today's world. Then, among them, he talked about frontier technologies which can mitigate climate change. The two methods he mentioned were carbon dioxide capture and storage and put articles into atmosphere. Unfortunately, these two methods are difficult to implement. For the first one, carbon dioxide capture and storage, the idea is quite simple but joint effort from all countries is needed. For the second one, it requires advanced space technology and most countries in the world cannot afford this. Besides technologies, Prof. Palmer also talked about politics. He mentioned that politicians always prefer short-term interest to long-term ones. They do not recognize envoronmental problems as of the greatest priority. Thus, fund and effort that ought to put into it are reduced. " If unchecked global warming is the greatest trouble in 100 years, then we are lucky indeed.", he ended his presentation.
After Prof. Palmer it was Dr. Sovacool who gave us another presentation. He analyzed environmental problems in a systemetic approach and brought about quite different ideas. Comparing with Prof. Palmer, Dr Sovacool stressed not only technology but also our social considerations. He gave us two case studies: renewable energy and electrical cars. Both of them showed that technology can succeed technically, but fail socially. Market failures and barriers, political and regulatory obstacles, cultural and behavioral challenges are things we cannot ignore. Finally, he concluded that technology is part of social system. The failure and acceptance of certain tachnologies can sometimes have nothing to do with technical feasibility, and instead relates to contests over power and interest.
The last presentation was made by A/P Bala and talked about something very conventional. The topic was : climate change : assessment and mitigation. He gave quite a lot of convincing data which shows temperature on earth is indeed increasing, and predicted the potential consequences of enhanced global warming. After that, he mentioned several factors affecting the earth's temperature and what a warmer earth can bring to all creatures. Lastly, he gave suggestions on what individuals and governments should do to mitigate climate change.
This lecture on environmental issue is very interesting and informative. The part that interests me most is Dr. Sovacool's STS method of evaluating technologies. After his presentation, I realised that being engineers, we should have a good understanding of social and political issues as well as technologies.
Portfolio 2
Global warming is now a topic that we can talk about during our tea time. To the majority, it is nothing more than affairs and anecdotes which we are quite familiar with. In 2007, this topic was brought up again because of a well-known documentary video: an inconvenient truth.
This video first interests me because of its starring - Al Gore, the former US Vice President. It is hard to imagine a politician busy giving speeches but not for election. Al Gore is definitely a strong speaker. Watching his presentation, I cannot help thinking: what does global warming mean to all of us?
Well, to the public, we have to admit that global warming is just a phrase to us. It has no practical meaning. Yes, we know that after industrialization, our world's temperature increases dramatically. However, this fact up to now still has not make any striking influence on people's daily life. When summer time is extremely hot, people rush to places with air-conditioning. When sand storm is comming, people stay in big shopping malls for the whole day, swearing at the terrible weather. It is a pity that public pay little attention on climate change, but we cannot blame them. Ignorance leads to adaptation and this is not somebody's fault.
Then, what can governments do to resolve this problem? The answer is qiute clear-- make policies to guide people to do things in a correct way. This is quite a useful method. For example in China since last year, free plastic bags in shopping malls and supermarkets have been abandoned. By making such a small change, the usage of plastic bags falls incredibly and this is the power for politics. However, this power may have side effects. A good example is that US and China still refuse to accept Kyoto. Perhaps it is not our duty to comment on such sensitive environmental and political issue.
Besides governments, there is a group of people who play important role on environmental issues. They are environmentalists like Gore and thousands of scientists who work on this problem. By now, there are still many people who believe that greenhouse gases are not caused by mankind but by natural effect. They need to be convinced by scientific proof. Meanwhile, environmentalists, by many ways, are trying to tell the public that our mother earth is bearing a hot weather and now it is time to do something.
Although president Bush did not like the movie and doubted its reliability, An Inconvenient truth is a sucess for sure. It marks that movie can go beyond entertainment.
This video first interests me because of its starring - Al Gore, the former US Vice President. It is hard to imagine a politician busy giving speeches but not for election. Al Gore is definitely a strong speaker. Watching his presentation, I cannot help thinking: what does global warming mean to all of us?
Well, to the public, we have to admit that global warming is just a phrase to us. It has no practical meaning. Yes, we know that after industrialization, our world's temperature increases dramatically. However, this fact up to now still has not make any striking influence on people's daily life. When summer time is extremely hot, people rush to places with air-conditioning. When sand storm is comming, people stay in big shopping malls for the whole day, swearing at the terrible weather. It is a pity that public pay little attention on climate change, but we cannot blame them. Ignorance leads to adaptation and this is not somebody's fault.
Then, what can governments do to resolve this problem? The answer is qiute clear-- make policies to guide people to do things in a correct way. This is quite a useful method. For example in China since last year, free plastic bags in shopping malls and supermarkets have been abandoned. By making such a small change, the usage of plastic bags falls incredibly and this is the power for politics. However, this power may have side effects. A good example is that US and China still refuse to accept Kyoto. Perhaps it is not our duty to comment on such sensitive environmental and political issue.
Besides governments, there is a group of people who play important role on environmental issues. They are environmentalists like Gore and thousands of scientists who work on this problem. By now, there are still many people who believe that greenhouse gases are not caused by mankind but by natural effect. They need to be convinced by scientific proof. Meanwhile, environmentalists, by many ways, are trying to tell the public that our mother earth is bearing a hot weather and now it is time to do something.
Although president Bush did not like the movie and doubted its reliability, An Inconvenient truth is a sucess for sure. It marks that movie can go beyond entertainment.
2009年1月20日星期二
Portfolio 1
Nowadays, we see engineers everywhere. They are building skyscrapers on the construction sites; they are manufacturing cars and computers in the factories; they are doing experiments for newly invented drugs in the labs; further more they are making significant management decisions behind directng boards. Engineers are so important that we can say for sure that without them, our society will not operate well. Concerning this , people may ask: how can we become qualified engineers?
Accordng to Professor Ramakrishna, an engineer is able to systemetically analyze complex information and apply a holistic approach in designing solutions. To accomplish this goal, I think engineers should have enough technical knowledge, experience and practical skills as well as a good understanding of what is going on in the outside world.
Firstly, technical knowledge and professional training are essential for engineers. Engineering is a profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences is applied to solve problems. Therefore, fundermental subjects like maths and physics are especially important for engineering students. Besides the baisic ones, higher level courses enable engineers to develop their ideas. There is no doubt that specialist knowledge is the base for analyzing problems and providing solutions.
Secondly, action speaks louder than one thousand words. Knowledge is useless unless people put it into practice. Thus, qualified engineers recquire real world experience and practical skills. Engineers are not scientists who devote all their lives to researches and labs. They have to deal with money and people. They have to consider how things can be done in the most effective way. They have to solve very complex problems logically and systemetcally. All these skills cannot be gained in one semester. Neither can we learn these from our lecturors or books. As for engineers, maybe the best lesson we can get is from the real world.
Lastly, engineers should keep pace with outside world. With enough domain knowledge and practical skills, engineers' work can also out of date. To analyze complex information and apply a holistic approach in designing solutions, engineers need to broaden their horizons and concide their work with the leading trend of the society. One century ago, engineers mainly refered to civil engineers are busy building bridges and railways. Five decades ago, computer engineering is still new to most people. Nowadays, biomedicine, quality engineering and etc. are all frontier fields where engineers work on. To be a good engineer, it is necessary to keep yourselve up to date, especially in the times when the world is changing so rapidly like now.
Being engineering students, we should cherish the time we spend in university and learn enough knowledge to prepare ourselves for future career. Further more, we should grab every chance in which we can put what we have learnt into practice. Today's expanding world brings engineers more oppprtunities as well as challenges and we are ready!
Accordng to Professor Ramakrishna, an engineer is able to systemetically analyze complex information and apply a holistic approach in designing solutions. To accomplish this goal, I think engineers should have enough technical knowledge, experience and practical skills as well as a good understanding of what is going on in the outside world.
Firstly, technical knowledge and professional training are essential for engineers. Engineering is a profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences is applied to solve problems. Therefore, fundermental subjects like maths and physics are especially important for engineering students. Besides the baisic ones, higher level courses enable engineers to develop their ideas. There is no doubt that specialist knowledge is the base for analyzing problems and providing solutions.
Secondly, action speaks louder than one thousand words. Knowledge is useless unless people put it into practice. Thus, qualified engineers recquire real world experience and practical skills. Engineers are not scientists who devote all their lives to researches and labs. They have to deal with money and people. They have to consider how things can be done in the most effective way. They have to solve very complex problems logically and systemetcally. All these skills cannot be gained in one semester. Neither can we learn these from our lecturors or books. As for engineers, maybe the best lesson we can get is from the real world.
Lastly, engineers should keep pace with outside world. With enough domain knowledge and practical skills, engineers' work can also out of date. To analyze complex information and apply a holistic approach in designing solutions, engineers need to broaden their horizons and concide their work with the leading trend of the society. One century ago, engineers mainly refered to civil engineers are busy building bridges and railways. Five decades ago, computer engineering is still new to most people. Nowadays, biomedicine, quality engineering and etc. are all frontier fields where engineers work on. To be a good engineer, it is necessary to keep yourselve up to date, especially in the times when the world is changing so rapidly like now.
Being engineering students, we should cherish the time we spend in university and learn enough knowledge to prepare ourselves for future career. Further more, we should grab every chance in which we can put what we have learnt into practice. Today's expanding world brings engineers more oppprtunities as well as challenges and we are ready!
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