Blog Synthesis

By Ryan Loveland, Ryan Ellis and Dalano Bass

Over the past few months, blogging has been a very good experience for us. We have learned new ways that our field has affected the world. Researching on the internet has given us new ways to look at our field, and explore the different sources we have. Mechanical engineering is a very broad field, and it is because of this fact that there are so many people in the field that share their knowledge on the internet and other mediums.

Engineering is one of the toughest college majors that one could take. Requiring some of the more extraneous courses offered by the college. Our assignment has been to do research within in our own fields and create a blog posts. Since the start of our blogs, we’ve learned what it means to be an engineer. Being an engineer means a lot more than doing well in college technical courses, see: Requirements of a Mechanical Engineer. To be a successful engineer, one should be involved in different organizations within the field. Start early when trying to get an internship or co-op program to succeed after completing your education.

            As an engineering student it is important to begin networking as soon as possible. Don't be discouraged as a freshman to go to career fairs, and get your resume out. Companies like Ford and General Motors won’t hire anyone under junior level, but there are other companies out there looking for freshman engineers. Obtaining an internship after your freshman year can be a great opportunity. Not only are you networking within the company you’re working at, you are getting real world job experience. Some companies won’t hire a person without any prior working experience within the field, but when they see the internships you have acquired over your years as a student, they will be sure to keep your resume at the top.

            With engineering being one of the hardest majors in college, developing successful strategies is a must. In one of our recent posts, we discussed a textbook in which entails multiple strategies to succeed. That post can be viewed here:Asking questions and breaking assumptions.The title of this book is called “Studying Engineering, A Roadmap to a Rewarding Career”. This textbook is actually a resource within itself, and describes multiples methods in order to help engineering students. Many students fall prey to introductory level classes that specifically weed out students, as mentioned in the post. A constant flow of challenging courses means that being well planted in the beginning of your engineering career is mandatory. Being well planted meaning, getting the most out of every resource available for you at your university.

Engineering and communications Prompt #3

By Ryan Ellis

The importance of getting involved in programs related engineering can't be expressed enough. It is said that if you are an engineering major and your university has a formula one racing team, it would be in your best interest to join it. An engineer is all but guaranteed a job out college if they were on the school Formula One or Baja racing team.

A major component of being involved in a school team like Formula One is effective communication with your peers/group members. Communication varies in different areas in the world of engineering. I decided to interview my Father, an Assistant Manager in body weld operations for the Toyota Motor Company in Plymouth, Michigan. According to my father, Jeffery Ellis, writing and communication at Toyota other than non formal emails is done in reports called A3/A4 reports. These reports a formal presentation documents that present an issue, what the issue is causing in the company, and what can be done to solve it.

According to Jeffery, the key to A3 and A4 reports is "Not so many words - to be as visual as possible." Commenting on the structure of the reports, Jeffery also said that "(It) can be difficult to simplify complex problems or engineering proposals into high level single page format using as little verbiage as possible."

The main idea here is that communication is of upmost importance. Wether its in the form of written reports or oral presentations, commutation is the key to being a successful engineer.

Prompt#10 Recognizing truth

By Dalano Bass

Nowadays no one uses their common sense. Or as I’ve heard it before, “sense just aint common these days.” With the world being so social media driven, it is so easy for false information to be placed in our heads. Apps like Twitter and Instagram, harbor all types of lies, rumors, and just complete utter nonsense. It works even better because the less we know about a specific topic, the more likely we are to believe any rumors that have been created. So how does this affect engineers?  As of now, the most popular misconception that is most common around engineers is about how hard the actual major is. Many high school students already have no real idea of where they want to go with their lives. Since engineering is already being depicted as a hard major, many students may be scared to commit. As a result, most people tend to stay away from the mechanical engineering aspect of college. Even though, Truth be told, engineering is one the hardest college majors to take. Yet engineering is not like any other regular major, there are numerous benefits from acquiring a degree which include: an amazingly high entry level salary, plenty of career openings, and long lasting careers.

Prompt #4 Considering Delivery and style

By Ryan Loveland

When obtaining information about your field you should be careful of the source it came from. Whether you are researching the field of mechanical engineering or anything the source can tell you a lot about if the information is credible or not. If are reading an online post from a blog like this you can expect the author to try to appeal to more towards the masses, giving you you a brief over view of the topic and their own personal opinion. Also the author of the blog could be someone with no experience in the field they are talking about. In this case of “Renewable Fossils Fuels” the author tells you about a new mechanism that converts ethanol into hydrocarbon, that can potentially be used as an alternative to fossil fuels. Then they tell you the possible outcomes and challenges of using this mechanism giving less technical details about the process. Although, if you are looking for a personal opinion on a topic, a blog would be a good place to go.

On the other hand, if you are looking for credible information with more technical information about a topic, scholarly articles are a great place to start. In this article of “The Analysis of Heat Transfer in Automotive Turbochargers” the author gives accurate information about different temperature measurements of the turbocharger at different fuel ratios and ventilation. Scholarly articles are written by scholars or professionals who are experts in their fields, so the information they publish is always credible.

Overall you should trust a scholarly article when looking for information about a field and be skeptical of any facts or “truths” that blogs host, because anyone can write a blog, even if they don’t know what they are talking about.

Baines, Nick, Karl D. Wygant, and Antonis Dris. "The Analysis of Heat Transfer in Automotive Turbochargers." ASME DC. ASME, 25 Jan. 2010. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.

"Renewable Fossil Fuels." PEACE LOVE ENGINEERING. Mixed Engineering Team, 8 Nov. 2015. Web. 13 Nov. 2015.