Another update...

So again there are plenty of things that need to be updated... so I shall do my best.

First... the CO-OP: So as things turn out, I'm absolutely LOVING my job! I have so much responsibility and my supervisors put so much trust in me, that I feel like I'm already working. I am getting to make big time decisions (and thus, big time consequences) and it feels great. In fact, because I've done so well, and I enjoy it so much... they have offered me a part-time position while I continue through school. This will be based on a semester-to-semester analysis of what they need... but it's still awesome. I will be able to go to work Mon, Wed, Fri, and school on Tues, Thurs. It's going to be a pretty rough semester, but I'm looking forward to it!

The reason I am staying is that we are launching a brand new product (The "C-Valve"). I am involved in 3 major processes of it, two of which I am the lead engineer. I am also working directly with the Vice President of our company on a project that allows me to report directly to the President on a bi-weekly basis. Now that's experience!!! Never would I have dreamed that a job would fit me as well as this does. All of those "people" skill I learned at IC are coming in handy...

And speaking of IC, it brings me to the next point:

Physics. Many people will ask you (if you attend IC's program) what's the importance of the Physics degree... and to be honest, I always came up with some answer. Yes, it's pretty cool to call yourself a physicist... and it brings on that "wow" look... and that's almost worth it's weight in gold. But surely there is something more. Fret not... there is:

As I have learned it, most of the engineers that I work with don't like to be known as "scientists". They say, "Scientists work in the lab... I work in the real world." A little harsh, but it seems to makes sense. Engineers aren't concerned, necessarily, with "ideal" answers, they need "real" answers. But as I started to distance myself from the scientist... an event brought me right back to the middle.

My direct supervisor, Evren, is a huge advocate for "real world" stuff. He is a young, very smart engineer, and is always quick to say, "This is the real world... this is how the real world works... ". Well, one day we were working on a marking project. We were working to directly mark our brass parts, and then read them with special scanners. The issue was how we could place this scanner to automatically read the part while it was inside of a vacuum chamber. As I listened to Evren, and my indirect supervisor, Matias, talk about a solution, I mentioned just placing the scanner inside the chamber. They both quickly said this was not feasible. When I questioned this decision, Evren quickly responded to me, "Scanners cannot work in a vacuum. There are very strange things that happen inside a vacuum. All of the laws of physics break down in a vacuum!"

I seriously could not believe what I was hearing. It was obvious that these two very bright "real world" people had no experience with vacuums... and so I played along. I responded,

-"oh... right... cause if we tried to scan the parts... the vacuum would probably distort the light waves".

--Evren replied, "yeah... yeah, something like that" dismissively.

-Continuing, I said, "... yeah, that's probably why vacuums aren't used with anything in everyday life..."

--A quick "yes" Evren replied.

-And then I added, "... so if we tried to, 'shoot' a beam of light off of a dish, in say... space, to send and receive signals... it probably---" Evren quickly cut me off and said, "just order the scanners!"
This story, although I found it humorous, just illustrates what happens when people deal ONLY with the "real world". There will, inevitably come a situation that hasn't been explored in your knowledge, and then that's when your own thinking skills will be needed.