Hapi Theme

so here is my video blog. I hope it works. To summarize: I choose history as my hapi theme because of the importance of knowing old technology in order to understand the technology of today and thus improve them.

p.s. you might need to raise the volume on some parts of the video. Hope you like it and Happy Holidays!

Here's the link, hope it works!

copy and paste this link

oh, and you might need to download it, since it doesn't seem to be working

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B6YJqVn_Ts8wYTc2MmNkODUtY2FlZC00ZWJhLTg3MmMtYjBlZGY4MDg1M2Q2&hl=en&authkey=CI2kyR8

Ethics

This weeks blogs is about Engineering ethics and how ethics apply to engineers in there every day life. So, ethics is a pretty hard subject to talk about because it really depends on the engineer and what they think is right and wrong and how they react to certain situations in which ethics is questioned. In class we looked over the different types of scenarios that engineers may come across and how ethics apply to engineers. There is the costume ethics, manufacture ethics, etc. Ethics encompasses many different subjects and how it effects engineers.
I guess the best way to approach this is to provide an example in which an engineer might be faced with and to tell how ethics applies.

So, say you are an engineer and you are working on a project for a company. The project you are working on is building a new facility for the company that hired your company to build it for them. You have scouted out various locations and the costumer and your company have agreed on one location. You are all set to build this new facility, the contract is signed and both sides are happy that this will be a successful venture. However, as you get ready to build, environmental engineers on your team come to you a tell you that the soil in which the company wants to build this new facility is unstable and could possible cause further problems for the costumer. The engineers do not know if indeed the building was built, if the unstable soil could cause problems, since they believe, that if they build a sturdy enough facility, the soil will not factor into problems for this new facility. However, you are unsure of this assessment. What should you do?

Should you tell the costumer about this soil defect and that it might cause problems for the costumer in the future, or should you keep quiet, since there is an uncertainty of the soil even making an impact on the facility. If you should tell them, there is a possibility that you will lose this consumer and the income that your company desperately needs to keep in business. What should you do?
This is an example of engineering ethics between the consumer and yourself. The ethics of it, is whether or not you should tell your costumer of problems that could impact them after the transaction between you is done. In this case it is a point about the soil and this causing future problems for the building (sink holes, mud slides, etc). At this point what you need to ask yourself is what is right and wrong. This is a difficult situation because if you do tell them and you lose this contract, you could lose your job, since the company needs the money that this contract will provide to keep afloat. If you don't you could end up with a guilty conscience if the soil in fact causes problems for the costumer. These are hard questions and ones that an engineer must ask, it is engineering ethics.

Another way you can approach this is if you don't tell, them and something happens, could you get sued and if you get sued is there a possibility that you can lose. This is a very harsh view, but it does get to the bottom of ethics. What is right and what is wrong. If you do get sued and lose, does this mean that your ethics are in question because you did not tell your costumer? It is a hard question to answer because ethics varies from person to person. It all depends on you and what you believe is right and wrong, and also if it is illegal or not.

moving sidewalk

Systems

The image below is the drawing I did of the Ifoundry system. I don't know much about all the other components of Ifoundry besides iefx. In the system I connected ifoundry with iefx which has two components, class and iteams. For class, which is ENG 198, this system split into two different components, lecture and labs. In lectures we learn about Goldberg's missing basics. In lab we do two projects. I noticed that we often give feedback and bring up topics from lectures into labs and vise verse. Lectures and labs, also help in our iteams. What we learn in class helps in what we do in our iteams. Feedback from lecture and labs help in developing what we want to accomplish in our iteams. There is also feedback from class that goes to ifoundry in order to make ifoundry better. This might have unintended consequences because what our class might think is bad/good, other students in the future might disagree with us. I also connected ifoundry with icommunity. Icommunity is what iefx goes to every Thursday in order to become more connected to the community. Icommunity gives visitor speakers that speak about various topics. I then connected the visitor speakers to building networks. Building networks is what connects most of the aspects of the ifoundry system. iteams help in building networks, conferences that ifoundry does help in building networks, and the visitor speakers at icommunity help in building network. This was a surprising revelation to me because I never thought of all the connections I was making while being in iefx. This is a good unintended consequence in that everything that happens in Ifoundry somehow connects to building networks or connections. Every action that happens in the iteams relates to how we view the class, for example if we have a great insight into a project we are doing and this insight is further helped in what we are learning in class, we might start paying more attention to what we are learning in class and view class in a new light. A light in which the class helps in the various projects we want to contribute. The system of ifoundry is complex, with conferences, iefx, icommunity, and other various connections and events connected to the system that is ifoundry. Ifoundry is a system in which everything feedbacks onto each other. Class in iefx feedback into iteams, conferences, icommunity, and to ifoundry again with the feedback forms of how to improve the class. Every aspect in the system of ifoundry helps in building connections, networks, and learning more about ourselves through the iteams, class, icommunity, and other events. Ifoundry feedbacks on itself and ultimately outputs good actions in the community that is iefx.

Labeling

Labeling is an important concept in life to understand. If an object is not labeled, then it is open to be labeled many different things from other people. Take the example of a street light intersection:

In a street intersection there are certain rules and regulations that are followed so that traffic runs smoothly. First and foremost is that the same labels apply nationwide. That for the traffic lights, green means go, red means stop, and yellow means slow down. This is an important label and distinction that needs to be made because if it is not made then some people might believe yellow is go(since everybody speeds up when the light is yellow anyway). This mislabel can cause big problems and the intersection might end up looking like this:

In this picture traffic is backed up all 4 ways and there seems to be no order or flow of traffic in this picture. Labeling which color we give significance is an important part of this system.

Another important part of labeling is that everybody (drivers) must know about the labels. If they do not know that green means go, then the label is ineffective. This ties in nicely with communication in that it is great to label a system, however, one must also communicate to other people the items that they labeled. Another aspect of this system is pedestrian cross walks. Pedestrians who want to cross the street have a certain system that they need to go through. Specifically pushing a button that tells the street light system that a pedestrian wants to cross the street. This brings up the system within a system. Specifically the street light system. This system consist of signals, cameras, patterns, that help in identifying which street or traffic way gets permission to go across the street. The system usually consist of whether or not it senses a car in the turn left lane or if a pedestrian wishes to go across the street. From there, the street light orientates itself a certain way, so that it can be the most effective. The label of whether or not car is trying to turn left or if a pedestrian wants to cross the street, or not definite labels in which there is one name for them, however they are indeed important for this system. Even if there is no word label, there is still a certain label applied to this situation. These labels are also important to the system, they are the labels without a name. These are the labels that are intuitive and are ones that most people know about, yet have no name. This doesn't matter though because everything in a system has one label or another. It is like in Back of the Napkin, in which pictures are drawn, yet some items are drawn more detailed than others, however the over all meaning of the picture is clear to all.

Labeling plays an important role in life and also engineering. In life, labels, like the example above, are important in order to keep a natural order in life, to create less chaos then necessary. In engineering it is important to label so that everybody knows how you came to this conclusion and may try to improve or solve the problem that occurred in the project. Since, the communication of what each label means is universal to a certain degree of engineering, everybody understands the project. That is the importance of labeling, not only understanding what is said, but also in other people understanding and acknowledging the label for what it is.

Communicating, Writing, Presentations in Engineering

Without communication, nothing will be accomplished. Machines can not be made, plans for activities can not be created, nothing will get accomplished because communication is the key to getting things done. In engineering communication is especially important. When you are trying to accomplish a project, everyone on the team needs to know what they need to do and how to accomplish the project. They need to be on the same communication level so that the project will successfully be achieved. There are two big key aspects of communication in engineering, writing and presentations.
Writing is a key aspect in engineering. Throughout the cycle of the project, who ever is the head of the project needs to be kept updated on the accomplishments of the team members on the project. To do this there are reports that are written to keep the head boss informed of what had occurred. This is essential to the development of the project because it makes sure that the boss, the person who organizes everything is on the same communication level as everybody else.
Presentations are also another key aspect of engineering. When trying to get funding for a new project the person must present what they want to make and how it will be good for this person or company to fund the project. The communication needs to be technical, but not too technical so that the fundy can follow what the project will do and if he/she can make money off it.
Communication is all around us, whether it is in everyday things, like where you are meeting your friends, to getting funding for a project that you want to do. Communication is important. Not only does it help get people to understand you it also helps you understand yourself. What I mean is that often times it is easier to communicate to either talking or writing things down. In certain situations, it helps to write what you mean down and in others communicating or talking helps in presenting the idea you have. Simply put it's whether you want to text someone or call them to communicate what you want to tell that person.
Communication is important because without it nothing would get done.

Networking

First of all, I'm a terrible networker. I often times am not very good at networking at all. So, this assignment was pretty difficult for me. The problem I have with networking is that I never know what to say to people. I am not a big talker. This leads to uncomfortable silence that are often times awkward. The best networkers are the people who can talk and ask questions without coming off as awkward. I can often times randomly meet people, but than I often lose touch and the only time I meet this person was the first time I introduced myself. To be a good networker (in my opinion) you need to meet the person or keep a friendly online contact at least more than once, and this more often than not does not work for me.
So, the week and half after I got the assignment to meet new people and network, I decided to go to the Career College Fair the Wednesday and Thursday after I received the assignment. This was my first step in trying to improve both my communication (missing basics) and my networking skills in the business world. I have never been to a Career Fair, so it was a very new experience for me. As I walked around the fair trying to get up the courage to go to talk to someone, I noticed, that some people did not have any reservations about talking to the recruiters. I decided if these people can do it, I can too. I walked up to a recruiter and asked them about the company. He explained in great detail many computer terms that I had no idea what they were. I just nodded my head. After I thanked him for his time I walked away. That did not go well at all. However, I am not a person who takes defeat bad. I shook off the failure and after another minute or so, went to another recruiter and started talking to them. The second try at networking went better than the first, but I wasn't really interested in the company and I don't think it went well at all. The second attempt did not go so well either, but I thought I was getting a little better.
Finally, I went to a third recruiter. He was a recruiter for a railroad company looking to hire all types of engineers. I was interested in the company and I think it went pretty well. I learned more about the company and was given a worksheet about the company if I was interested, however they were mainly looking for sophomores and juniors for their summer internship. Yet, the recruiter encouraged me to apply next year and even took my resume! I was happy, I had started networking. Maybe he was just being nice, but I was excited I had started to become more comfortable in trying to network. That didn't mean I was good at it, but I was getting better. I had found a network that if I wanted, I could pursue and have someone know who I was.
After that success, I went to one more booth before I had to leave, in hopes to achieve a network, I got a piece of paper instead. However, the piece of paper had all I needed to know about the company (Rosetta Stone) and talked about the different internships open to me. It was very informative and I found that I was very interested in one of the research opportunities. The career fair was a good experience for me. I didn't get any neat objects, all I got were papers, however, it was a very good experience and helped me in developing my networking and communication skills.
I can't wait until next week for the engineering expo, in which I will have another opportunity to improve my networking and communication (missing basics) skills.