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For engineering and physics majors
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For engineering and physics majors
by pumpkinpi » Thu Jul 25, 2013 5:25 am
Too bad ignorance isn't painful.
"Standing at the forefront of human ignorance." Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe
"Standing at the forefront of human ignorance." Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe
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pumpkinpi - Posts: 2034
- Joined: Mon May 27, 2013 12:56 pm
- Location: 100 meters closer to the north pole than the equator
Re: For engineering and physics majors
by FZR1KG » Thu Jul 25, 2013 12:38 pm
I resemble some of those remarks.
Some others not so much.
Some others not so much.
- FZR1KG
Re: For engineering and physics majors
by Swift » Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:33 pm
College is over 30 years ago for; some of those were like "yeah, that probably happened but I don't really remember".
When I did my post-doc in Paris, that was my landlady. She was constantly giving me things to fix (a lamp, the iron) - I'm a chemist, I should know how to fix an iron. One time she walked up to me holding a bug bomb that was already set off and spraying. With my bad French I finally figured out she wanted to know how to turn it off, and I finally explained to her that once you turned it on that there was no "off" until it was empty.
Our labs 3 hours = one credit. I always thought that unfair, and people were constantly trying to get it changed, but I knew if they succeeded, and changed it to 3 credits, that they would just raise the number of credits needed for graduation.
8. All of your family and friends suddenly require your advice on how to do anything remotely related to household repairs or math.
When I did my post-doc in Paris, that was my landlady. She was constantly giving me things to fix (a lamp, the iron) - I'm a chemist, I should know how to fix an iron. One time she walked up to me holding a bug bomb that was already set off and spraying. With my bad French I finally figured out she wanted to know how to turn it off, and I finally explained to her that once you turned it on that there was no "off" until it was empty.
25. A four-plus hour lab class is somehow worth one credit.
Our labs 3 hours = one credit. I always thought that unfair, and people were constantly trying to get it changed, but I knew if they succeeded, and changed it to 3 credits, that they would just raise the number of credits needed for graduation.
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In wilderness is the preservation of the world. - Henry David Thoreau
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead
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Swift - Posts: 2353
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Re: For engineering and physics majors
by pumpkinpi » Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:41 pm
Swift wrote:College is over 30 years ago for; some of those were like "yeah, that probably happened but I don't really remember".8. All of your family and friends suddenly require your advice on how to do anything remotely related to household repairs or math.
When I did my post-doc in Paris, that was my landlady. She was constantly giving me things to fix (a lamp, the iron) - I'm a chemist, I should know how to fix an iron. One time she walked up to me holding a bug bomb that was already set off and spraying. With my bad French I finally figured out she wanted to know how to turn it off, and I finally explained to her that once you turned it on that there was no "off" until it was empty.25. A four-plus hour lab class is somehow worth one credit.
Our labs 3 hours = one credit. I always thought that unfair, and people were constantly trying to get it changed, but I knew if they succeeded, and changed it to 3 credits, that they would just raise the number of credits needed for graduation.
I think we only had labs that were part of lecture classes. So we would have 4-5 hours in lecture and 3-4 hours in lab per week, for the same amount of credit you would get taking a 3 hour humanities class.
Chemistry wasn't required for my physics major, but my adviser always suggested I take it. I chose not to because it would be an additional 4 hour lab each week--most semesters I already had a 3 hour physics lab. Now I wish I had taken it!
Too bad ignorance isn't painful.
"Standing at the forefront of human ignorance." Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe
"Standing at the forefront of human ignorance." Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe
-
pumpkinpi - Posts: 2034
- Joined: Mon May 27, 2013 12:56 pm
- Location: 100 meters closer to the north pole than the equator
Re: For engineering and physics majors
by FZR1KG » Thu Jul 25, 2013 5:37 pm
Our labs were worth 25%, mid semester exam 25% and final exam 50% of the overall mark.
18 week semester one lab per week so it was a little over 1 credit each.
However, fail the labs and you fail no matter what the rest summed up to.
Then there was projects. They were either 18 weeks or 36 weeks in duration.
We were always doing at least one project, sometimes two concurrently.
A one year (36 semester) project I did was to design and build a talking scientific calculator.
That one hit the school paper, the local papers and got industry interest as well but never went anywhere.
Learned early about media ignorance as our next requested project was a talking thermometer.
Requested by the RVIB (Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind) and the reporter made a snide remark about, "who needs to know what the temperature feels like).
Yeah dickhead, because a blind parent wants to take their kid to a doctor every time they want to take their temperature.
Some others I did were:
State machine compiler. It designed hardware based on a pictorial state diagram and simulated the hardware at a reduced rate.
BiLine transceiver. Basically similar to an X10 device (data over mains power) mine was used to allow a computer to print to a remotely located printer via its parallel port so I also did the parallel to serial and back interface. That one was hilarious (from my POV) because I gave up helping (pretty much designing other students projects to fund my schooling at that point) and waited till the last week to design and build this. The lecturers found it very un-amusing however when one of my friends told them I hadn't started it yet and it was due in a fortnight.
One of the more interesting observations about my engineering experience was how the lecturers would assign projects to students.
Not all projects were complex, some were really basic.
They would give the basic students to those that would find them challenging and had a growing in complexity list of projects that they would assign to the more advanced students. Then they had the A-list as I call it, the ones that they wanted to do for themselves that they would give to the top students. In one case the Head of the Engineering intended to use a project as part of his research.
It was given to a guy who asked me to design it for him, he picked one of the high scoring students but who was very poor at design, which goes to show that top exam results don't mean you know design or implement. Design is also part art IMHO.
The head of dept was the guy who kicked me out of engineering (the degree course) because I designed the talking calculator when it I wasn't meant to be doing it. Long story.
Knowing all this through a lecturer that helped keep me in Engineering, my design was deliberately compromised. While fulfilling the design goals, it couldn't be used as part of his research. It wasn't 'elegant", which was a key at the higher levels, was complex and extremely difficult to expand. Set that fucker back six months along with some good quality embarrassment time. You'd think a guy researching neural nets would have the brains to keep track of a students progress. Apparently not.
Payback is a bitch.
yeah I had a lot of fun in engineering. Best years of my youth.
18 week semester one lab per week so it was a little over 1 credit each.
However, fail the labs and you fail no matter what the rest summed up to.
Then there was projects. They were either 18 weeks or 36 weeks in duration.
We were always doing at least one project, sometimes two concurrently.
A one year (36 semester) project I did was to design and build a talking scientific calculator.
That one hit the school paper, the local papers and got industry interest as well but never went anywhere.
Learned early about media ignorance as our next requested project was a talking thermometer.
Requested by the RVIB (Royal Victorian Institute for the Blind) and the reporter made a snide remark about, "who needs to know what the temperature feels like).
Yeah dickhead, because a blind parent wants to take their kid to a doctor every time they want to take their temperature.
Some others I did were:
State machine compiler. It designed hardware based on a pictorial state diagram and simulated the hardware at a reduced rate.
BiLine transceiver. Basically similar to an X10 device (data over mains power) mine was used to allow a computer to print to a remotely located printer via its parallel port so I also did the parallel to serial and back interface. That one was hilarious (from my POV) because I gave up helping (pretty much designing other students projects to fund my schooling at that point) and waited till the last week to design and build this. The lecturers found it very un-amusing however when one of my friends told them I hadn't started it yet and it was due in a fortnight.
One of the more interesting observations about my engineering experience was how the lecturers would assign projects to students.
Not all projects were complex, some were really basic.
They would give the basic students to those that would find them challenging and had a growing in complexity list of projects that they would assign to the more advanced students. Then they had the A-list as I call it, the ones that they wanted to do for themselves that they would give to the top students. In one case the Head of the Engineering intended to use a project as part of his research.
It was given to a guy who asked me to design it for him, he picked one of the high scoring students but who was very poor at design, which goes to show that top exam results don't mean you know design or implement. Design is also part art IMHO.
The head of dept was the guy who kicked me out of engineering (the degree course) because I designed the talking calculator when it I wasn't meant to be doing it. Long story.
Knowing all this through a lecturer that helped keep me in Engineering, my design was deliberately compromised. While fulfilling the design goals, it couldn't be used as part of his research. It wasn't 'elegant", which was a key at the higher levels, was complex and extremely difficult to expand. Set that fucker back six months along with some good quality embarrassment time. You'd think a guy researching neural nets would have the brains to keep track of a students progress. Apparently not.
Payback is a bitch.
yeah I had a lot of fun in engineering. Best years of my youth.
- FZR1KG
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