The Girl, the Internet, and the Pontiac Fiero

Braddog said:

............ But I've known some engineering types who are quite bright and creative who wouldn't know how to adjust a crescent wrench. I've also know some that could literally build and/or fix anything. Those are the truly gifted.

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That is because engineering covers such a wide field, yes if trying to figure out how long you need to fire a booster rocket to aim that probe to hit Jupiter in 6 years, knowing how to adjust a crescent wrench isn't a skill you need, but work in most industry's, mechanical skills are widely used.

I hired several Engineers and Engineering co-ops over the years and one of the most important questions I asked in interviews was do you do your own auto maintenance, or did you fix your own bicycle, or get yelled at for taking apart something as a kid, just to see how it worked.

Surprisingly I had a conversation with a retired Engineering manager from Kodak, and he used the same line of questioning, to weed out applicants.

Curiosity and the desire to understand how thing work is a great motivator.

I went to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Our motto was Learn By Doing. Engineering students had to build things on a regular basis. Comparing recent grads from Cal Berkely to Cal Poly, you can see a huge difference in how they were taught. Poly students have a more physical grasp on what is going on, Berkely grads seem to know the theoretical, but take more time to grasp the physical reality.

I just saw the fiero on the CNN website, and have been reading the thread. Nice to see its made its way over here. I remember an old girlfriend had a fiero. I always wanted to find a nice gt.

36654 said:

Associate professors become full professors by publishing in journals. Once the associate prof becomes a full prof, they need to maintain a constant stream of grad students and proposals (which fund the grad students). In most cases, that requires low risk research.....computational models in the engineering world.

Undergraduates with high GPA's are recruited for the graduate work and enter system. In many cases, the students on this track and their professors have never been to, or even know the location of, the career placement office at their colleges/universities. Their careers have little to do with the market economy, they are focused on the lucrative education industry.

It's a strange world. But, always "World Class". At each and every school!

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Reminds me of a signature file I read while a member of the Minnesota Aquarium Society... complete details elude me today, but it was along the lines of a certain sea anenome and how it floats around the oceans until it settles on a coral reef. While it it establishing itself on the reef, the anenomoe is unable to hunt for food so it begins to eat its brain as it settles into its new home -- very much like tenure.

walterK75 said:

This thread reminds me of an interesting book some of you may want to read. Shop class as soulcraft : an inquiry into the value of work by Matthew B. Crawford

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Similar to "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance?"