190W Writing Sample
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School
University of California, Irvine *
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Course
190W
Subject
Industrial Engineering
Date
Jan 9, 2024
Type
docx
Pages
2
Uploaded by musabalkindy
3. You are, by now, a third or fourth-year engineering student. Write an essay with some advice for
your younger self. You may want to identify the specific skills, activities, tools, or projects you have
found useful. What do you wish you had known when you first started the program? Your advice
might include information that would have better prepared you or made your burdens a bit lighter.
Include an action plan to implement the advice you identify. You will want to provide concrete
examples that illustrate your recommendations.
My name is Musab Al Kindy and I am a double major in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
graduating this quarter. I chose this question because it is something I regularly think about. I tend to
travel between the past, present, and future to not only reflect on the lessons learned but to push
myself further into improvement and becoming the best version of myself.
Undeniably, experience will always be the best teacher. Reflecting on my four years of college, I admire
how far I have come and the hurdles I pushed through. There were times when the whole world paused
under crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, learning was ongoing as we still engaged in classes.
Although university lectures have their place and benefits – such as providing engineering context by
highlighting key concepts and offering adequate foundation or starting point. As mentioned, experience
will always be the best teacher. In order to learn the most and best, the best advice I can offer would be
to envision yourself in the engineering world. What kind of problems are you tackling? How often are
you using your lecture notes when you are innovating a solution to a deep-level problem? The best way
to learn is by doing. Working on problems and engineering solutions will make you a better problem
solver and engineer.
University lectures do open your eyes up to what is out there to solve and this does hold value. By
focusing on the ideas of lectures, one can capture physical problems and paint practical solutions to
those problems. I recall my ENGRMAE 150 Structures class and how it helped with understanding
bending stresses and moments which is common in every structure. Additionally, ENGRMAE 30 Statics
classes conveyed how trusses work to build bridges and why things do not fall or apart. Thus, lectures
should still be part of your journey, but the key is to view them mostly as solidifying your foundation in
key ideas and aiding your hand calculation solving strategies.
On the other hand, where most learning value and potential is held, is within taking an idea or product
and trying to bring it to life. Where I learned most was in university projects. We often forget that part of
being within an astounding institution is to utilize all its resources – I would argue that it is this you pay
for and not really the professor credentials. Once COVID “ended” and we came back to school, I made it
my mission to work on team projects. For example, I joined BAJA racing and, in this project, we had to
transform our vision for an all-wheel drive vehicle, under strict rules and regulations, into a competing
vehicle facing off other universities in Oregon. In order to come up with the car, we had to learn as we
went. Nothing was remotely as organized as a typical class would be for a quarter. To combat this,
effective team communication and roadmap planning was necessary to ensure a formula for success.
Planning and figuring out all the details as we went, like how to select parts, manufacture your own,
make orders and speak to vendors, while remaining under a budget and meeting a tight deadline is the
closest thing to the real-world engineering experience.
In conclusion, university resources and team projects are not to be overlooked. Putting the time outside
of class to pursue competitions where there is a standard to be met and pressure on teams to perform
will bring out the best in you. Pressure can either create diamonds or break pipelines. However, it is
pressure you need because it is pressure you face in the outside world. There is not enough pressure in
lecture halls. There are one too many safety nets, if I do not get an A, a B or C is not too bad.” The real
world, where you must face your investors or clients, is quite binary with no safety net. Will you deliver
an effective product or not? Will your vehicle compete or not? In BAJA, if we did not meet a single rule in
technical inspection, we would not race. The engineering world where you are solving genuinely
complicated problems is that harsh. The best plan of action is to look for these opportunities to perform.
Trust your ability to learn as you go. Work relentlessly to learn how to transform an idea, to a concept
and eventually a physical product. Thus, embrace your engineering foundation in lectures, but face
cruelty and high pressure in competitive experiences that resemble the world you will step in after
college.
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