I have to take two senior design classes while at my school but the problem is they aren't worth E36 M3. The teacher basically goes over a bunch of stuff from NASA (as if they have designed anything worth a E36 M3 in the last 30 years). Then we get a project to work on. The only problem with this is that she expects students who know what they are doing (aka she knows have worked on projects outside of class) to do this great work to get an A. (I have no problem working hard to get an A). But she gives an A to students who act like berkeleying retards because "They tried their best". And they get passed thru engineering school. Also there are 2 test worth 15% of our grade but we get 1% extra credit for each ASME meeting we go to. So if I get 50% on the tests and go to 7 ASME meetings I get a 100%. So I have no motivation to study at all.
It would be bad for their self esteem not to get an A
I really wish they put labels on aircraft saying this plane was designed by ... I wouldn't get on a plane designed by a bunch of future engineers I know.
The vast majority of degreed mechanical engineers with whom I work cannot design even the simplest bracket with any eye toward manufacturability.
Meanwhile, with my art school background and having made stuff my whole life - I'm senior product design manager and responsible concept-to-manufacture of giga-zillion dollar runs of products. Mostly I did miserably in school while I was "supposed to be there". When I went back to finish up on my time, my dime - I repeated everything I'd berkelyed and aced all of it - and aced everything else.
How I wish I had time to go back to school to get an engineering degree...
RossD wrote:
'C's get degrees.
That is how I got through 5 years of college to get my Bachelor's degree.
My son however will get scholarship and "RA" money this year exceeding what I was paid my first year out of college. That is a reason to get good grades.
No like if you consider the 15% as 15 points, I get a point per ASME meeting.
96DXCivic wrote: The teacher basically goes over a bunch of stuff from NASA (as if they have designed anything worth a E36 M3 in the last 30 years).
Yeah, landing those rovers on Mars a few years ago was so simple, a caveman could have done it. I spent five years working as a engineering subcontractor to NASA, and met some of the most brilliant people I've ever known there.
cwh
SuperDork
9/23/10 6:42 p.m.
What do they call the guy who finished last in med school? Doctor.
96DXCivic wrote:
So if I get 50% on the tests and go to 7 ASME meetings I get a 100%.
I wish my Differential Equations professor had that deal when I was in college... would have kept me from taking it a second time!
one of the first lessons of college, is, of course, GIVE THE PROFESSOR WHAT THEY WANT. You may disagree, pisses you off, may be ridiculous to you, but to get the good grade from the 'proff, give them what they want.
Sort of like giving your boss what they want from you........
At my Univ. they have a pretty sweet engineering senior design. You have to design and build a robot to complete a task (changed every semester) and do a full design report. At the end of the semester all the groups bring their robots to a big auditorium and see who's preforms the best as part of the grade.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnUbmO3PiA0
MEs can get professors approval to do other projects instead too. This works really well for the Formula SAE team :D The exhaust last year, the cooling system and pneumatic shifter this year will all be designed, tested, and documented as a senior thesis. Unfortunately there is something to do with the way the EE program got it's accreditation that prevents us from doing our own senior project :(
On the up side I got approval to use megasquirt for a microcontroller class final project (same family micro as the dev. kit for the class)
Really it doesn't matter how the senior design project gets graded, it's what you can take from it to an interview.
NOBODY WILL CARE WHAT GRADES YOU GET!
Figure that out first.
That being said, I did my senior design project with a different prof that I really liked, I installed a chassis dyno in the basement.
Figure out who you like - talk to them. Forget grades, nobody cares anyway.
tuna55 wrote:
NOBODY WILL CARE WHAT GRADES YOU GET!
Figure that out first.
That being said, I did my senior design project with a different prof that I really liked, I installed a chassis dyno in the basement.
Figure out who you like - talk to them. Forget grades, nobody cares anyway.
That's not 100% accurate. My company won't hire anyone who can't maintain a 3.0 GPA
That being said your senior design class should not be about tests really... Mine had a token final, we did have 3 design reviews during the semester we had present to the teacher and the class. Our grade was primarily based on the design reviews, and the success of the project.
If you didn't get complete your project you didn't pass the class...
tuna55 wrote:
Figure out who you like - talk to them. Forget grades, nobody cares anyway.
You are correct, for joe-schmo company. You want to get on with the truly unique companies? Better flash those grades. A 4.0 does wonders for finding an amazing job.
Because McDonalds hires anyone, but Wendys only hires the BEST!
This is all moot. Don't you realize the world ends in 2012?
96DXCivic wrote:
I really wish they put labels on aircraft saying this plane was designed by ... I wouldn't get on a plane designed by a bunch of future engineers I know.
Remember: The lowest bidder's parts were used to assemble that aircraft.
At least the civil engineer who signed off on this has great self esteem.
Appleseed wrote:
96DXCivic wrote:
I really wish they put labels on aircraft saying this plane was designed by ... I wouldn't get on a plane designed by a bunch of future engineers I know.
Remember: The lowest bidder's parts were used to assemble that aircraft.
At least the civil engineer who signed off on this has great self esteem.
He definitely has a lot of ground clearance on what ever he drives.
96DXCivic wrote:
So if I get 50% on the tests and go to 7 ASME meetings I get a 100%.
An easy fluff course that boosts your GPA and looks good on your CV. Lucky you!
I think giving you extra credit for attending ASME meetings can be a good idea. I used to go to quite a few ASME/SAE meetings after I graduated and they usually had interesting speakers who gave talks about a challenging, unique project they had just completed. They would go over difficult problems they faced, the techniques they used to solve the problems, why they designed things the way they did, etc.. It gave good insight into things I had never been exposed to before. That could be useful for students who have not worked on design projects outside of the class. It was also a good place for students to network with engineers in industry and learn about job possibilities.
The caveat though, is that those were ASME meetings that had nothing to do with my school. The ASME and SAE meetings at school typically involved a quick update from the Baja or Formula SAE team and then a half hour discussion about possibly assigning someone to look at getting a guest speaker some time this semester. They weren't very useful. I guess I could have volunteered to be the one to get a guest speaker and helped improve the club, but I was just there for the free lunch. I admit it, I'm a leach. If your prof is asking you to go to those types of meetings, I agree it's kind of useless. Does she run the club?
All through your career people will be getting a lot of credit for doing very little work, while others will bust their butts doing a great job and not get any credit for it. It's sucks, but it's true, so you'll have to get used to it. This could be a good chance to practice your self promotion skills, so that you're sure the prof knows how much work you put into your projects to make sure that you get an A. Often it's not how good of a job you do, but how well you keep informed about how much work you're doing that gets you a raise.
Bob
The only real problem I have with the class is the fact that everyone gets an A and well some people just get passed thru. I learned after the first class so I decided to double dip and use the construction of the Formula SAE chassis as my second senior design project since I had to do that anyway. I have over a 3.0 GPA and I am team lead of the Formula SAE team this year, I was assistant team lead of the NASA Great Moonbuggy Race team last year (where we won best design and the safety award) and I have worked with Baja and ASCE steel bridge and an officer in ASME. So my resume isn't horrible. It just bothers me that a lot of engineers leave school without having a clue what is required to manufacture anything.
stuart in mn wrote:
96DXCivic wrote: The teacher basically goes over a bunch of stuff from NASA (as if they have designed anything worth a E36 M3 in the last 30 years).
Yeah, landing those rovers on Mars a few years ago was so simple, a caveman could have done it. I spent five years working as a engineering subcontractor to NASA, and met some of the most brilliant people I've ever known there.
That wasn't quite fair of me. I more meant that she treats NASA as if they are the end all be all of engineering and anything they do is perfect.
