Well, in keeping with tradition, it's time for a ten month update (well only about nine... but who's counting?) Theres no point in trying to catch everything up... so I'll start with the most important part: IM AN ENGINEER!!! Yes, that's right, I have a full time job! There's a lot that goes to the story but the quick of it is that I was in some large projects when a position opened up.

The company came to me and offered to pay the rest if my way through school, including grad school, and I could not pass it up.

My official position is engineering change coordinator. The funny part of my title is that it is self explanatory, yet it is incredibly difficult to explain. You see, I coordinate all changes that happen in engineering... and I love it. It's not technically engineering work in the classic sense, but you have to be on top of things at all times. And, it pays the bills. Also, I am still on some other "real" engineering projects so it's a good balance.

With my new position, I've been traveling a lot recently to Reynosa Mexico. Over the last six months I have probably spent 60% of my time down there. It us incredibly fun and I'm learning a ton.

Well, in an effort to keep thee things brief, that's my quick catch up. Hopefully, I'll gave some real engineering post. Oh, and don't worry, just nezause I am an engineer now, I'll keep the title of this blog!

As an Illinois College engineer (yes, that's what I call myself), we have been fortunate to be in a position where some of the greatest gains in our knowledge does not receive a grade. Believe it or not, being there you are learning so much more about engineering... heck, about life, than you could ever learn in a classroom.

These are the things that college... And life... Are made of.

Where oh where do I start...

After taking 10 months off, it's probably a good idea to get everyone caught up to what I've been doing, and how things are going at SIUE. I've also been promising to posts some classes I think would be a good idea to take and I'll get right on that quickly.

One quick note: It seems that my Illinois College email is not working at the time (maybe due to some Alumni classification or something) so please everyone use my Gmail address (JoeCalmese@gmail.com) for contacting me for now. As soon as I get the IC one figured out, I'll let you know.

Well, the last that you all knew, I was doing a CO-Op at Emerson Flow Controls. I decided to do this to get some experience in the "real" world and I thought it would hopefully hammer home some of the concepts I had been learning about for 3 1/2 years... and, well... it did! Taking that semester off was probably the best decision I've made in college thus far. I learned so VERY much during that time period that I know positively I would not know had I stayed in school. Also, it has given me the fortunate benefit of adding experience to my resume... and if any of you have ever Monster searched engineering jobs, you'll notice that experience is worth it's weight in gold.

As it turned out, however, the division of Emerson that I took the co-op with is actually quite small. In fact, they have only two Manufacturing Engineers that work in the St. Louis headquarters. Because of this, and that fact that they were launching some really large projects, I walked right into a perfect situation! From day one, I was handed $30,000 capital projects to lead, and to this point, I've spent over $200,000 in capital purchases, with another $1.2 Million to go!!!

I got so involved in these projects, that they actually kept me on part time so I can still run them, as I finish up school at SIUE. So now, I'm working part time there (24 hrs/wk) while I finish up school full time. Because of the Co-op, my expected graduation date is December 08. However, if I play my cards right, I should have this job until then. I've been working directly with some top executives and everyone there has treated me like a full time employee... it's been great! I couldn't have asked for anything better.

Now with all of that said, it seems like a good time to think about how IC had prepared me for my "real world" position (at least as close as I can get for now). Right away, the very first thing that comes to mind is COMMUNICATION. Part of my co-op is that I receive constant feedback (positive and negative). This is what allows me to grow and learn as a student, and an employee. During my feedback sessions, it has been expressed to me that the difference between myself and other co-ops that I have replaced is my ability to communicate.

I pride myself on this, and so will you. It is what sets us apart... far and above. It doesn't matter how eloquent a solution is, or even that there is a solution if you can not communicate you ideas. 80% of my job (no exaggeration) is spent communicating the ideas that I have for the problems that arise.

Some may wonder why this can't be learned at other schools, and I'll tell you: They do not place equal emphasis on classes outside of your major. At IC, every class is weighted the same. That does something to a student's psyche. We know and understand that we have to work just as hard in sociology as we do in physics (and often times harder, as it comes less easy). By contrast, at other schools, particularly engineering schools, students are instructed that their major classes are the only ones with importance. This is done so much so that you'll often find those engineering students refer only to their engineering GPA, as if the other classes do not matter.

Another sign of the devaluing of "other" classes is that most Engineering schools do not allow you to take upper level classes to fulfill any of your "Gen Ed" requirements. At IC, most of the catalogs only describe the classification of the course you need to take, not the level. At the Engineering school, SIUE included, it says that you can ONLY take an intro level English class. That somehow, because you're an engineering student, you're not allowed to learn how to write (or paint, or read, or act...) at an advanced level, only the basic.

This is crap. Fortunately for all of you, and for me, we did learn how to write, philosophize, and socialize on and advanced level where every class, regardless of major is treated equal. And that's how it should be. That is why we enter the real world a head up on everyone. Because, in the end:

"You can have brilliant ideas, but if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere."

— Lee Iacocca

As always, feel free to contact me with any questions or comments.

Stay tuned...

Joe

Well hello everyone!!!

That's right... I'm back by popular demand. Stay tuned for a 10 month update!

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.

In response to a comment

Just a quick note: Someone left a comment on the previous post (the co-op one), and to make sure everyone could benefit, I've published my comment as a post. It was a very good question, and if there are specific issues that I have left off, let me know.

I'm not exactly sure what you've heard, but there are a few things out there that I know of. First, you gain nothing by going to IC. Second, it's a huge problem to get into the engineering school. And one more thing I've heard is that you'll be pretty far behind when you switch.

All three couldn't be further from the truth!

First, and foremost: The experience you gain is probably the most valuable asset in attending IC. You gain such an appreciation for all the finer things that college offers, not just what engineering school beats into you.

Next is the switching schools thing. I honestly believe it is a very smooth process IF (and that's a huge if) you make up your mind on where you want to go, and have some idea of what you want to do before your last year (and certainly your last semester) at IC. Giving yourself as much time to plan for classes and such is the #1 thing a student can do to ease transition.

The final problem is one that I was concerned with. As it turns out, there was no need. As you go through the IC program, they are very much aware of the stringency of an engineering program. For this reason, the "Physics with Engineering" program is evaluated on an outside scale, and it is one that they keep up with admirably. The professors make sure to use the same pace as engineering schools, to ensure the integrity of the program and the future success of their students.

Going to IC you get all the benefits of going to an engineering school (as you will be in 3 short years), but you get the added pleasure of learning in an environment designed to teach every student as much as possible, not in an environment designed to "weed out" the poor students. IC's program is perfect for students who need a little bit more support and instruction early on, but can learn to excel individually. I think this can apply to just about every 1st year engineering student. If that is not the case, MIT is probably where you are headed. This is all combined with the idea that you're still learning the same information, and then some.

Yes, I know, if you are learning the same info, what's the point... right? Well the point is that you get to also enjoy classes in speech, art, english, and one of my favorites (seriously), philosophy, and many more. You are not just taking these general education requirements from some part time professor who just teaches sociology to those who have to take it... no! You are being taught by the same professors who teach the men and women at IC who will become professional sociologists or artists, or any other 'ists'. That's a big deal. You also get to lead groups, play sports, and emerse yourself into the very same culture, traditions, and ideals that the colleges of this country were founded upon.

That's a big deal, too.

I hope my point is not mistaken to mean that people who can't "hack it" at an engineering school go to IC first. That is completely incorrect. What I mean is that IC allows students to be blessed with the opportunity to taught on an individual level, which makes a huge difference in the quality of education. It has been my opinion that the students who have come from IC have been equal to, and in most cases, ahead of the students from the engineering schools. We have a better focus and understanding on ideas and solutions beyond the text book formulas and cheat sheets, and we have mastered the art of doing a lot of different, interdisciplinary tasks (Liberal Arts!) while still being able to solve problems quickly and systemically.

And if that's not your view on how an engineer works, then maybe IC is not the best option.

Joe

CO-OP position...

So I decided since I am going to be a manufacturing engineer, what better way to prepare myself for a job and see if I still want to go to graduate school than to work for a semester. Well, I decided to take a position that one of my professors got me in contact with Flow Controls of Emerson Climate Technologies, a buisness partner of Emerson. Emerson is a large company with many buisness partners, but is best known around St. Louis as Emerson Electric.

Well, I've already started my job on Monday (December 18th) and I think it's great, so far. They have a very good system for CO-OP's. They employ two a year and they make sure to have them overlap by a week each time, so as to have the old co-op train the new one. The guy I am replacing, Tyler, helped me out a TON this week. I already have two very large projects to work on, and when we return from Christmas vacation, I will have a lot on my plate.

At Flow Controls, they place a lot of responsibility on their CO-Ops. They treat us like regular employees and they allow us to use our brains, all the while helping us along so we don't fail. The way it was described to me of a typical day from my boss, Evren: "I will come into your office, give you a problem. I will not know the solution, I will not know who does. That's your job. You are to figure it out, report it, and if it looks good, we'll go with that." The first project I am working on is scoping, purchasing, and implementing 4 brand new machines for our plant in Mexico. These are $15,000 machines a piece, and they are trusting me to make a decision. That's awesome!

Since I was only there for a week, I don't have much more to report than that. I should say that taking the CO-OP was a very hard choice, because it will delay my graduation by another semester. However, I feel that the experience I gain will completely outweight the drawbacks of being in school one more semester. I will continue to update...


Joe

Life at SIUE: What I've learned in 1 semester

This probably could have been broken up into a few different blogs, but I'll try to keep it to the point. The format of this is particularly special, because I'm not talking about equations and such, I'm meaning more about the real life things most of us are concerned about anyway. So here we go in no particular order other than how they pop into my head.

I have learned...

-The greatest way to figure out what you want to do is by narrowing it down to what you don't want to do. When you do it this way, you can take out huge chunks of choices. Chances are, you're never going to be able to pick exactly what you do within a company (as an engineer), so it's better to only look for jobs that you know will not make you do the things you hate. For example, I will not look for a job that makes me use Auto CAD all day long... not my cup of tea.

-Lab reports are stupid. That's right, I hate them. Every professor wants them differently, and if they really wanted to know how to do the lab, why did they hand you the procedure? Say what you will... if I never have to write another report I will die a happy man. And yes, I know that's impossible...

-Group projects require more individual work than individual projects. Seems odd to me too... but it's true. One of the biggest difference between SIUE and IC i have found are the group/final projects. Yes, at IC, we turned every homework assignment into a group project, but that was for comfort sake. At SIUE, 4 out of 5 classes I had assigned final group projects (sounds like a Trident commercial, right?). They are often weighted very heavily and require many more hours than they first appear. As usual, I promised myself I would get a head start on my part, and as usual I waited until the very last days to complete them. Oh well, grades came out fine so all is well that ends well...

- I miss IC

- I want to be in quality control when i graduate/go to grad school. As a potential mechanical engineer, I was more wanting to work with quality control, efficiency, lowering costs, all of these type of things, and if you talk to anyone who knows me, they will verify this, i'm sure. Well coming to SIUE, I had the chance to look at the Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering program and to my surprise, that fits in perfectly there. You see, even though they are one program, there are two different degrees. Industrial is more related to people. How they work, kinds of output they are giving, where they are located, etc. Mechanical engineering (they kind i wanted to do) was more related to the machines. How the machines worked, better design, better outputs, things of this sort. Well Manufacturing Engineering is the combination of the two. It deals with the over all setup of people and machines and over all outputs and such. It turns out I love this kind of stuff...

-The egg obviously came first. Well I guess I didn't learn that here, but still. What are the odds that a bird just appeared? Exactly. Now what are the odds that two different animals met, fell in love, and had a lovely little egg? See my point?

- Always, ALWAYS make sure when you are walking around up there in J-ville, you stop to realize how lucky and fortunate you are to have the kind of experience you are having or about to have. It's the greatest experience of my life and I'm sure the most valuable one too...

Until next time my friends,

Joe

Wow, it sure has been a while!

Ok ok ok... i know i know i know... some of you might be wondering "ok mr. joe, what happened to every week???" The quick answer: I got busy. The more accurate answer: I drastically underestimated the time I would be spending doing everything that was required of me. But at last, some time to update, fill in the blanks, and all of that good stuff.

For future reference, if it has taken me a while to update, and you seriously need some information, just email me. I promise i reply to those faster than I post. Also, I will be posting a few different blogs to catch up, so i do not have to post it all at once and the information is a bit more organized.

First thing first: I am finished!!!

That's right, my first semester at SIUE has come to an abrupt end, and I have mixed feelings about it. All in all, however, I had a very good time and I learned a great deal more than I anticipated. I have "sorta" narrowed my career path, gained some valuable experience, and decided to skip out on next semester...

Yep, that's right, no school for me next semester! I am going to be doing a CO-OP with a manufacturing company in St. Louis. More on this in the next blog.

So the order of the next few blogs will be:

Life at SIUE
CO-OP position
Classes to take

Read on, enjoy, comment, laugh, cry, you know... you know.

Signing off...

Joe

As you can tell, I AM an engineering student...

Late nights, no time, hard work... ahh the fun of being back in the swing of things! Sorry I haven't posted in a long while, the combination of the start of the new semester and getting classes for next semester (I know, pretty soon) all straight has really kept me busy. So to recap:

The first week of the my new semester went extraordinarily well. I got into the groove of things quickly, and all of my classes seem particularly reasonable. Meaning, I have been more than adequately prepared. My friend from Illinois College, Ben, who is doing the same dual degree program as I am doing, and I were talking, and we feel that we are in the best situation possible. It is amazing how comfortable we feel in all of our classes, and we are quickly becoming the guys who other students go to for questions (that's a great feeling, by the way).

SIUE does their scheduling a bit different than other schools. They start to schedule for next semester classes the 2nd week of school year... odd. So, there has been a huge mix up when it comes to the classes I have taken, have to take, and all of that such. It comes down to the fact that I will still be able to finish on time, I will just have to "overload" myself one semester with 18 credit hours instead of the usual 15. This doesn't seem like a huge deal to me, because I did that quite frequently at IC, but apparently to students in this area, 15 is their magic number. In the coming days, once I get the schedule worked out, I plan on listing the classes that a student interested in SIUE should take at Illinois College. I think this would have helped me greatly. Their requirements are much different than what Wash U requires and different from U of I. The basic advice is to try to figure out what school you are going to want to get in, and have a back up. That way, you can work for the one school's requirements, while still completing as much as you can of the other school's.

Now as for as my semester going... I had my first quiz on Wednesday, marking my first real grade of the semester. It went very well, and I'm pretty excited about it. I also have my first test next Tuesday, which has me nervous already. I have had a constant (not overbearing) load of homework. There is always some to do, but it doesn't feel like too much. The classes here are taught slightly different than at IC, and some of that can be contributed to the fact that we have 40-85 students in a couple classes. The professors here are more "problem solving" oriented in their lectures, and the theory is left up to the student to learn through readings and such.

This is sort of opposite of IC, which I thought I would love. As it turns out, that's not the case. It is MUCH easier (even if it doesn't seem like it at the time) to learn the basic theory and FUNDAMENTAL ideas behind a particular TYPE of problem, and be able to learn how to solve all the problems of that TYPE rather than only being able to solve a particular problem. Luckily after three years of training, I have realized the importance to doing this very thing, and I have been fine. Some of my other classmates have problems transferring one problem to another simply because they haven't understood the underlying fundamentals, and therefore cannot relate them. (Yes, Dr. Steckenrider and Dr. Chamberlain, you may gloat now)

Well after all of that, I think I'm caught up for the most part. I promise to keep updated at LEAST once a week, and that will make for shorter, more lively posts!

As always, comments, emails, colorful metaphors are welcome...



Joe

So here is the rest of the deal (part deux),

This past Friday (8/4) marked an important day for me; it was the end of my research! I sort of have mixed feelings about the whole deal. On one hand, I had an incredible opportunity to make connections and gain invaluable experience, and on the other hand, it could have been more productive.

My professor did not spend very much time with me, and that left me sort of wondering what I should be doing, how to take care of things, and how much I should really get accomplished. After the Symposium, however, I realized that I was on track with the rest of the students. I feel, however, that I could have gotten so much more done with a little more help and guidance... o well.

The summer flew by so fast for me. After I started working hard on my project, the weekdays were over before they started it seemed, and time was just going by. I am VERY glad that I was given such a great opportunity at Wash U. this summer. I think it has helped me realize that Grad School is definitely in my future. I came to this not because of the work I did, but I saw all of the work that was going on. I saw all of the other grad students' projects and it got me very excited to know that will be me soon enough. Being able to do research on my own project, finding information no one else has, designing experiments and drawing my own conclusions... all of this seems incredibly wonderful, and I can't wait to get started.

So all in all, it was a very good summer. Although I didn't get out of the actual research what I wanted, I got out of the experience what I needed,and that's the most important part.

Until next time...

Joe

Ok, so here is the deal (for real this time),

After much deliberation, and an odd phone call, I have decided to turn my world completely upside-down, and change schools. Instead of Washington University in St. Louis, I will be attending Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (SIUE). A huge decision like this requires much explanation, so I shall do my best:

If you all can recall, I had a big mix-up with housing and all of that business (see previous blog) and that's where this all started. I was sitting there trying to figure out where I was going to live, and how I was going to afford all of my bills for the next year and all of the sort, when out of the blue, Mr. Ronald Banks, assistant to the Dean in the engineering department at SIUE called on my cell phone (still a mystery how he got that number!) He told me that he was excited that I was coming in the fall and that he looked forward to seeing me. As you can imagine, I was shocked, and couldn't quite figure out what he was talking about. When I asked him why he was under that impression, he told me because I was still active in the system, and he looked me up...

----So at this time, I should explain who Mr. Banks is and how I know him. Mr. Banks is a good friend of Mr. Richard Johnson. Mr. Johnson is an Alum of Illinois College and an Emeritus Trustee as well. He is very active in the recruiting, especially of minorities (which I am, by the way) and comes from Alton, IL-- my home town. He helped me a great deal in getting to Illinois College and got me in contact with Mr. Banks. Also oddly enough, I was in a program called MESA (Midwest Engineering and Science Association) when I was in 8th grade and Mr. Banks is the head of that program.----

Still with me?

Well, when I was making my original decision, I decided against University of Illinois at Chicago because of the distance from home and my sisters. That left just SIUE and Wash U. Originally, Wash U made what looked like an incredible offer: A scholarship worth a bit over half tuition which is about as much as they give (room and board I would have to work for), plus a grant and the research for the summer and SIUE's offer was not that appealing. It would have "only" been an extra few thousand dollars to go to Wash U, so I felt it was worth it. Well after Mr. Banks called, I told him that story, and that I didn't feel as if I got a very good deal from SIUE. He assured me I was incorrect, and that I should check again. So I did.

And as it turns out, I'm not as smart as I think I am. When SIUE awards their financial aid, they included not only room and board (which I will be living off campus) but also all of these extra costs that they estimate I might have. The bottom line, I thought I was going to have to pay 9,000 more than I really have to! I got a small scholarship, a few grants, and I will actually be refunded a small amount of money that should help me pay for my apartment. And now, after taking a small student loan, I will not have to work, although I will. All in all, the difference came to around 18,000 more per year!

So with that said, the decision was almost made for me. Although Wash U. is an incredible school with an unbelievable reputation, it just did not fit into my plans for the future. Going to SIUE, I have NO doubt in my mind that I will receive the same quality of education (if I had any doubts, I wouldn't have changed), but I just don't get the prestige. For me at this point, it is not that big of deal. I will be going to grad school for a Master's anyway, so the only thing that matters is how much I learn, not who teaches me.

Further more, SIUE's Engineering school is much smaller than Wash U.'s, and I really believe I'll enjoy that. Mr. Banks has given me the chance to volunteer with him in these minority youth engineering programs, and that is something I am incredibly excited about! I have received help from so many people that it will be very nice to start to give back. Also, with my classes that I have taken at Illinois College, my advisor has all but promised me a position with him as a grad student. This will be a very exciting adventure for me, and I am very eagerly anticipating the start of the school year, where ever that school may be.


As always, comments and/or emails are welcomed and appreciated!


Joe Calmese

Just moving along...


Well this summer is moving along quite fast. I have just 3 more weeks, including this one, left of research. I think I can get finished this week, and then I'll have nothing to do (yay!). I do, however, have to prepare a presentation for the "Undergraduate Research Symposium" (sound the scary music).

Another thing that is being squared away is my living arrangements. As it turns out, I am living with another Dual Degree student for the summer, Eric. We got to talking, and he and his buddy are going to be looking for an apartment because his friend is coming from the same school, but is going to Logan Chiropractor School. Long story short, they asked me to live with them in this amazing place in Chesterfield. We got all set to sign the lease, but I was notified that I already signed the lease to live in the Wash U owned apartments!

So, even though I feel bad for not being able to move with Eric, I'm going to be very close to school, and be surrounded by the Dual Degree people, which will be very cool. As I have heard, being with those guys and making a ton of friends is what this place is all about. Apparently, the Dual Degree students all stick together, have pizza parties and all that good stuff, and it will be a good experience for me. Plus, I can ride my bike to school instead of driving, and that's definitely a plus.


I'll be moving in the 19, scheduling classes the 25, and starting classed the 30th... so that will be a very interesting blogg time. Stay tuned...

Have any comments? Well feel free to post them, I shall reply. Anything you want to know about? Again, I will reply.


Joe

p.s.
did you know that a T.V., when turned off, can use up to 40% of the power it would use if it were turned on!? This means, now that I am paying my own bills, the T.V. will be unplugged. (Thanks Tom Brokaw)

So far, so good...

Ok, so it turns out that the professors really do know what they are talking about. The one I'm talking about right now is Dr. Strieb, computer science professor at IC. I took 4 of his classes, and with 4 weeks in to my research, I am using EVERY bit of it. They all have been extremely helpful.

I can imagine if Dr. Strieb saw all of the programs I have been writing to help with the research, he would just laugh and say, "told ya' so."

Everything is going pretty smooth so far. I have been working on liquid crystal flow from nematic phase to isotropic phase... and if you don't know what that is, join the club. Really, what I'm doing is using the equation my advisor and 3 other people have worked out, and modeling it in MatLab (a software program that MANY engineering schools and companies use... it's sorta like Maple or Mathmatica). I am trying to judge what the different coefficients do to the graphs of the output. The cool part is that no one has ever tried to do what I'm doing, so there's a strong chance that I'll can get it published with Dr. Fried's (my advisor) work. The uncool part, I have NO idea if I'm right or wrong. If any graph appears, I won't know if it's supposed to be there or not!

I have been getting acquainted with MatLab for the last few weeks, and just reading through a few of Dr. Fried's papers. I have this 20 minute "midterm" presentation to give on Monday, so I'm trying to get the first half of my research wrapped up this week. It will make for some long nights.

It's a good thing that I stayed awake, for the most part, during Calc 3 and Differential Eqs. too, because I have been using that stuff none stop. (Thanks Dr. Calderhead and Dr. Marshall, respectively)

All in all, the general lesson for the day... pay attention to what you are learning, because there's a reason you're learning it! If the school year here is like the research this summer, I'm going to be just fine... because I have been very well prepared, and I'm extremely grateful for that.

Until next time,

Joe


p.s.

Someone should mention that in IC 102, or whatever they are going to call it now, if you're learning about the library, you should learn how to use the darn Library of Congress stuff, because it took me two hours to find 3 books! Apparently, Mr. Dewey isn't THAT popular.

So I want to be an Engineer?

That's a question that I don't have the right to answer now. It's too late! I am Joe, I have just completed my 3rd year at Illinois College, and I am in the midst of transferring to Washington University in St. Louis for the fall, for Mechanical Engineering. So you see, to answer that question any other way than yes, would mean for a colossal waste of time.

It is my understanding that I am "blogging" to give insight into what a fourth and fifth year student does while completing the 3-2 program from IC. I am thrilled to be able to share my experiences, but I can assure most of you, they will not be profound, life changing, or incredibly passionate. In fact, the more I think about it, if in fact they stay incredibly boring, that just means that everything is going incredibly smooth, and I'm doing one heck of a job.

That won't happen, either.

I'm sure there will be some trials along the way, but without those, how much fun would it be anyway? I'm sure I'll write about bad tests and professors, fun times, bad times, and all those times in between, and through all of it, I hope it shows at least one thing: you can be very successful going through the Illinois College program.

Some quick clarification: I no longer attend IC, they are not paying me (although, it wasn't an option, Scott), and I have absolutely no reason to do this, other than I still believe very firmly that I have had the greatest opportunity in going to IC, and I really hope that my experiences can help some others along the way. If only 4 people read this thing, and that is a possibility, then that's four more people I have helped, and that makes me feel four times better.

So, without any further ado, I welcome you all to my blog, may it be as exciting for you, as it will be for me.

Joe

p.s.
Anyone can ALWAYS reach me at- calmesej@ic.edu - please just include "Blog" as the subject.