I’ve been involved in engineering for a long time, mostly on the education side of things. First I was an engineering student, and I worked as an engineer in industry. Eventually I became a professor — a gig I enjoyed for more than thirty years. Over that time, I’ve become convinced of some things that aren’t commonly asserted, but should be. Here are a dozen things that I believe engineering students should understand — before, during, or after they are in school.
First, five things about engineering and engineering school:
- I believe that engineering desperately needs more Differents. (Are you a Different? Engineering might need you.) And that means attracting more different types of folks into engineering school, and making sure they graduate, with all their best differences intact and vibrant and juicy.
- I believe that no one has to lose their juice to succeed in engineering school. In fact, its your juice that’s going to get you through and help you stand out. And you can have fun in the process.
- I believe that you can find your tribe, your clan, the people who enjoy your juice, even in engineering school.
- I believe that engineering school is an excellent starting point for a lot of different career paths.
- I believe that engineering school and engineering work are very different experiences.
And also, seven things about learning:
- I believe that if you are reading this, you already have mad learning skills.
I also believe that you have already mastered some important complex concepts.
You’ve got plenty of learning skills to thrive in engineering school. - I believe that curiosity is the secret sauce that drives effective easy learning. Learn to pay attention to that quiet “hmmmm …” of curiosity, and your learning journey will grow broader and spicier and lots easier.
- I believe that the best learners understand the learning process in general and their own learning process in particular. And the best learners are always learning about learning.
- I believe that active study techniques are far more effective than passive study techniques. Active study techniques are things like quizzing yourself, translating information into your own words and pictures, or trying to do the problems before doing the reading. Active study techniques are neither easy nor comfortable, but they work. Fast. Passive study techniques are things like re-reading the textbook over and over, or underlining and highlighting, or copying answers from
Cheggonline services or solutions manuals or a friend. Passive study techniques are easy and familiar, and you feel like you’re doing something, but passive study techniques rarely produce the results you need, and they are time-consuming. Active techniques will turbocharge your study time. - I believe that effective engineers are fluent* in multiple languages, but they’re often not thought of as different languages. Engineers need to be fluent* in written and spoken English, images, mathematics, code, and non-verbal signals. *Fluency means you can use the language skillfully in both directions. That is, you can speak and you can listen; you can read and you can write. Fluency also means that you can skillfully deploy your languages in both formal and informal settings. For instance, if you can use a diagram to explain yourself in a report for a lab course as well as on a whiteboard in a project team meeting, you’ve got fluency in using images for engineering work.
- I believe that everyone can define their own way of winning, if they know the rules of the games they are playing. You can declare your own W.
- I believe that the 4.0 is a toxic concept.
Finally, one more, because it underlies everything:
I believe that sleep is the most important thing, for physical and mental health, and for academic success. Truly. The Most. Important. Thing.
Think about this: every single critter on our planet sleeps. Every one of us. Even though a sleeping critter is vulnerable and immobile and unaware of their surroundings, they sleep. Doesn’t that tell you it’s important?
Sleep is both the indicator that something is out of whack and the fix that brings things back into balance. If you can’t sleep when you want to, something is going wacky. If you’re sleeping at times when you really want to be awake and alert and doing, something is going wacky. And if things are going wacky, pay attention to your sleep and get it right. Things will get better. Things will get less wacky.
(So it’s a baker’s dozen. That’s okay. A little extra belief is a good thing.)
Three admonitions …
I’ve distilled this set of beliefs into three pieces of advice. Things I wish my younger self had known, things I taught to my students and advisees, things I embedded into the courses I taught and the projects I led.
- Cultivate your curiosity, especially about yourself as a learner.
- Learn the rules, but define your own W.
- Get comfortable with being uncomfortable.
… leading to a book (coming soon, with your help)
Do these beliefs and admonitions resonate with you?
Do they pique your curiosity to hear more? to share your own views and experiences?
Oh good. I’m very pleased you are here.
I’m writing a book that expresses these beliefs in stories and images. The book also includes exercises to help the readers, and pointers to research that goes more deeply in case the reader wants to probe more deeply into particular topics.
This website is where I’ll share the work as it develops. I’m glad you’re here!
Occasionally I’ll send an email out when I post something new.
Join my email list, and I’ll send you my Tiny Tips to Try Today.
It’s a preview of the kinds of goodies that will be in the book.