Passion & IE

I talked to my friend Sam this afternoon. He's working at PCC Structurals, a place that makes components for jet engines among other things. He's a classmate of mine, and we were talking about school and work and the local chapter of the Institute for Industrial Engineers.

I'm the vice-president of IIE here at OSU, and Sam is the last vice-president. I admire him because he has a drive and vision for this student group as well as another that he's president of.

I've thought quite a bit about me and Industrial Engineering. It sounded ... I'm searching for a word here ... um ... sad, a little bit sad when I sat there and verbalized that IE is not something I have a lot of passion about.

My experience in Engineering and IE in particular hasn't been a drudgery however. Far from it. I love it, I really like school. There are particular classes I've not enjoyed particularly much, and sometime school burdens down a person with the sheer weight of its load, but school is good and I've found my academic career so far challenging and rewarding.

See, I have passion about school, but not about the discipline I chose, if that makes any sense.

There are some parts of the IE curriculum and discipline that I love. I love the statistics, first of all, which is why I may be pursuing them much more thoroughly in the future. Stats is something I get excited about. I like the logical programming, I like databases. I'm pretty sure I'm going to like the simulation and optimization classes. I like the research. Get me into the technical end of IE and I'm down with it. I just don't get that vibe from industry though, that there's a whole lot of technical acuity required, other than "it's nice to have as background so you can relate to other engineers." More often than no, you're managing. I don't want to manage. At least not until I've had my fill of beautiful technicality.

But I got to thinking about IE and what I would say if I were trying to sell the discipline to someone else.

IE is sort of like an estuary. It can serve as an interface. You can go a whole lot of different directions with it.

If you want to get into computer-related systems, but you want to have a larger view of what the technology means to the company and how it can make it successful, you could choose the Information Systems option in IE.

If you're interested in the more physical side of engineering, there's the Manufacturing Engineering degree.

Then if you're like I was and not completely clear on the direction you wanted to go when you entered school, IE has a flexible enough program to allow you to take math or engineering or stats courses outside of strict IE boundaries. That allows you to go on to graduate school, if you like, in most any technical discipline.

There's a lot to like about IE and I sorta think God has His hand in my life guiding me this direction.

My cap is gone forever. Tragically, my pencil was used by another and in the transaction or the action it flew away and hid, never to be seen by me again.

Ivy League schools are old and prestigious. But here's something you probably didn't know. To be awarded a Ph.D at Cornell or Harvard, you have to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language! Even if you're getting a degree in, say, electrical engineering. One cool possible exception is that Harvard may let you substitute a programming language for a foreign language. Boy, the prospect of trying to master a foreign language so does not appeal to me. Like slogging up the South Sister. Not my cup 'o tea, or maybe it's just my attitude.

I'm checking out grad schools online, trying to whittle down a list to five or so that I'll apply to. I'm looking at the best too, I figure I need to try for the best. I found at least one ranking of stats graduate schools on-line, and off I go. Cal-Berkeley, MIT (Operations Research), Cornell, Harvard, North Carolina, Purdue.

Not looking at Stanford, they don't offer any full-time support. There is a problem, though. If a grad student doesn't want to commit to a Ph.D program, there is often not great funding at these elite schools. In a way, a doctoral program looks mighty inviting, if not a little daunting. But it's 4-5 more years! If I think of time frames, a 1-2 year Master's degree, getting a "real" job for several years, then deciding whether to go back to school. That sounds good.

But I can't be paying much for grad school. That might mean not going to a top-tier program.

Soon, it'll be time to preview my fall classes. I'm rather excited about two of the four. That would be Intro to Mathematical Statistics and Simulation. Also taking a senior project class, which could be cool, probably depending on what kind of project we get. I don't really have too high of expectations. The last one is Engineering Materials, which doesn't excite me, actually if I'd get scared of any class this would be it. Here's where we have to use chemistry (a perceived weakness of mine--we'll see) as well as math (cool!) and physics (yeah!). But it's a decently hard class, it'll be interesting to see how it goes.

Be strong in God's grace, the Bible says in 2 Tim. 2. Had to think on that one a little bit. See if you can make a connection between that thought and the controversial statement, "If the heart's right, everything's right."

I'm being taught these days, by God and by others.

Selfishness. I'm thinking primarily of how I use my time and how this relates to the relationships in my life. In some ways, I'm a real low-maintenance person. I don't need to "be with friends" all the time. I can derive satisfaction from my work, my family, and hanging with e-mail and the web. Because of that, my time is mostly very self-centered. I don't very often make time to spend on relationships with my friends. Incidental contact is good enough for me often.

Or maybe it's not, maybe it's just what I'm used to. I don't know. But I do know that relationships are where it's at, and God is working on me in the area.

In the graduate school application process, a person must secure several letters of recommendation, mostly from professors that can attest to your prowess/character/reasearch potential etc.

One of the graduate schools I'm looking into had a form the recommender is supposed to fill out and one of the statements goes something like this: "This student is the best you have have in __ years" and there are options for like 1, 5, 10, and 20. Imagine the student that would be the best a professor has seen in 20 years! That's highly improbable. Even "the best student this year" would be tough. And imagine if the professor gets 5 of these recommendation requests a year. He can only put anything down for one of the people!

Another thing you have to send in is a statement of purpose, including research interests. Uh, I have no idea sirs and ladies.

In other HUGE news, my pencil cap was lost, but now 'tis found!

It's back in my possession and will soon find itself capping my pencil once again.

Thanks to Brandon on that.

Leaving

Sigh.

I have this issue with leaving social events. Two cases in point.

Last Sunday was the big 50th wedding anniversary for my grandparent from 2-6 in the afternoon. Tons of people, overcrowded facility, but it was fun because there was lots of family and other people that I knew. Not THAT fun, though. The temptation to leave with Randy at about 5:00 was too much for me. But when I left I felt bad for leaving all my family and the big celebration. It sounded like they had a grand ol' time after I left, too.

And tonight we had another family thing on my dad's side because my cousin's girlfriend is here and we got together to meet her. I hung out there awhile (got to talk to Rosie a little bit, which was wonderful), but there was something going on with the youth group that my sister was going to. I ended up leaving with her and I had the same twinges.

Hmm... It's probably my heart telling me I shouldn't have left. But my heart wanted to leave...

So I'm confused. What's "gnu"?

What do you call a Mennonite detective? James Bondtrager.

Get it?

I'm joyful. God is good, Christian fellowship is wonderful, and life is as it should be.

Well, I don't know if life is as it should be. It should be more fruitful and productive, in the spiritual sense, than it is. But it's still great.