Engi-Living

Andrew DharamseyEGR 199-012

12/4/14

Table of Contents

Page 1: IntroductionPage 2: Introduction and HistoryPage 3: HistoryPage 4: History and StrengthsPage 5: StrengthsPage 6: StrengthsPage 7: Strengths and WeaknessesPage 8: WeaknessesPage 9: WeaknessesPage 10: Weaknesses and GoalsPage 11: Goals and Conclusion

Dharamsey 1

Engi-living

Engineering: “the branch of science and technology concerned with

the design, building, and use of engines, machines, and structures.” But

engineering is so much more than just designing and building things; it’s

about helping further the advancement of the human race. In doing so,

engineers fix the problems that plague our world, and by extension, help

others. To me that is the very definition of success: helping others and

making a difference in the world. So, based on this definition, in order for me

to be a successful engineer, I need to be able to help people and be able to

make the world a better place through my work.

As a citizen of the United States of America I am already tremendously

blessed to have a great quality of life. Because I have been blessed, I feel it

is my responsibility to bless others; being able to give back is my major goal

in life. Whether serving at church or giving a percentage of every paycheck

to St. Jude, my definition of a successful career is a life not wasted, which

means giving and serving.

That is my whole purpose and goal behind becoming an engineer. Are

there other, better paying jobs than engineering?? Heck yeah there are!! Can

I get them without a college degree?? Oh yeah!! Can I serve without an

engineering degree?? Of course!! But, with this degree, I can do all three

AND be a father who is always there for his children; I can be a good role

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model for them and teach them life lessons, just as my dad did with me,

which made me into the person I am today.

With this degree I can give them a great education and a nice place to

live. I can provide all of their necessities, and afford some of their wants. In

order to obtain this degree I have to: complete three more semesters of

calculus, one more semester of chemistry, two semesters of physics, sixteen

engineering classes, and some technical electives.

Obviously, this degree isn’t an easy one to acquire. However, I know I

can seek help from on-campus resources, friends, professors, and my own

family. Through their help and support I will obtain my engineering degree

and become a successful engineer, not only that but also in my career as an

engineer.

My dream since I was 8 years old was to be a Mechanical Engineer. My

sister is a mechanical engineer and she is able to work with her hands, which

is something I really want to do too. I love playing with Legos because I love

building and using my imagination to solve problems and to improve current

solutions. When I was younger I used Legos as my creative outlet. My Lego

career includes projects as simple as a “spaceship” with 4-5 Legos in

kindergarten, to a remote controlled bulldozer that moves snow and sand,

and a remote controlled paddle boat named the “Voyager” that actually

floats on water.

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As I have grown in my understanding of how to build things more

efficiently, the problems I want to solve have become more complex, one of

my dreams is to make a smart diabetic pump that will help diabetics, like

me, better control their disease. Diabetics can monitor their glucose levels

with a special device that is part of the site (what goes into your body to give

insulin) that wirelessly (through low energy Bluetooth) transmits the

information to an app on their smartphone. This app can store the data it

collects in the cloud and the individual’s doctor can access it from their office

to monitor blood glucose levels, thus helping to keep the patient healthier.

This app will also have the nutrition facts from restaurants that can be

selected and queued so the app will calculate the carbs and suggested

insulin and the user can tell the pump to deliver insulin through the app. The

pump itself will be completely redesigned to be skinnier and a bit longer to

add the ability to hold more insulin but to be more inconspicuous. The

operating system will also be completely overhauled, since the pump can be

controlled by an app or directly from the pump, to make it much simpler to

use and much more efficient to take insulin. As I keep growing in my

understanding of physics and how things work I can keep building even more

important solutions such as how to make a physical keyboard for a

touchscreen device to help calm a common struggle for people all over the

world. Solutions to complex problems require better “Legos” so to speak

and being a Mechanical Engineer would help me get better “Legos” to build

efficient solutions to complex problems.

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As a student I love math and science. More specifically, I love physics. I

am wired in such a way that I am able to look at math problems and know

instinctively what to do, and I actually enjoy doing them. This ability

emanates from my learning type: Logical/Mathematical, which stems from

my desire to advance my knowledge and my inborn impulse to ask “why”

questions.

I had always enjoyed reading, especially higher level reading because I

could ask those “why” questions and I realized that this along with my

imagination was really going to help me as a student. So I became an avid

reader and found the more I read, the easier it was to find topics to research

and tinker with. By the time I entered High School my imagination had

grown, and though my imagination may not be the most creative, it

definitely helps me to come up with simple solutions for complex problems.

My imagination and questioning has opened up a whole new world to me and

allowed me to have many great and memorable experiences, thus allowing

me to broaden my horizons and look toward the future.

These qualities are a product of how my parents raised me, and always

provided challenging material for me to work with. I was brought up in a

secure household where I was free to ask anything. Because I have a strong

sense of clarity and openness in my conversations, I have great relationships

with my family, girlfriend, and friends.

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I love hanging out with people and taking a break from school work

every now and then. Whether it’s going to the movies and dinner with my

girlfriend, Crisann, to making a midnight Walmart run with some friends, I

interact with people very well. In having great relationships with people, I am

also able to change and grow to adapt to a specific group (such as a group

project), so that I can help foster an atmosphere of productivity and

efficiency.

I also know what it takes to be a good leader. By using the knowledge

from my years as a Boy Scout and my experiences as an Eagle Scout, where

I was head of our entire troop and was tasked with making sure everyone did

their part and did it well, I am able to lead groups to great heights of

understanding and confidence and teamwork, because I know how to lead

and how to organize everyone to capitalize on their strengths. However, if it

is a subject that someone else is more qualified to lead or teach. I will be an

active team member and support the leader, doing my part to make the

group environment a friendly one. This strength of mine is exemplified in

studying and helping others.

There is nothing better for me than to study with other people.

Whether being the “student” or “teacher,” or a combination of both, it all

helps me to excel with learning concepts. This also allows me to keep

everyone focused and engaged, another ability that I am very good at. If,

however, there is a time that nobody can help me, I need to go to a

professor and ask for help. This isn’t something I’m “afraid” to do, but

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something I don’t really like to do. Not only would this help me educationally,

but it would also help me make connections and build relationships with

those people. It would also help motivate me to go to class and be a more

productive student. An important aspect of being a productive student is

extracurricular activities, which help me be socially involved with other

students and feed my craving for technology.

I am part of the Marching Wildcats and serve on both Calvary Baptist

and Crestwood Baptist Church’s Tech teams. Not only do I work in teams a

lot but I also lead teams and organize meetings and presentations. These

activities keep me active and healthy and, while they add to my stress

sometimes, I also have learned how to relax and unwind after a hard day.

I am not only physically healthy, but I am also mentally and spiritually

(morally and ethically) unimpaired. I will never cheat or lie in any setting.

There is absolutely no reason for it, the consequences are much too severe

to cheat, and I could never bring myself to cheat.

As an engineer I like structure; I thrive in a well-structured

environment. For me, spontaneity is ok…in small doses. However, I tend to

react with spontaneity, when someone I care for mentions a “want” or a

“like” or something that would make their life easier- I usually buy it. The

gifts tend to be something they enjoy, it’s “thoughtful,” and I adore doing

that for my loved ones, but in all honesty it’s really bad for my pocket book.

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This is something I really need to work on. I love giving to others, but there

comes a point where it becomes too much.

So dealing with adversity (basically bad spontaneity), is not one of my

strengths. I tend to not handle it well because it makes me super stressed.

My mind reels due to the numerous variables and too many new unknown

things, and I normally wind up making bad decisions. If I have enough time

to process and think the problem through, I’ll usually be ok and can figure

out what I’m doing. But with my bad time management skills, it is very

difficult to recover from an issue when you only have one night to deal with

it.

Which leads me to another weakness I have: time management. I am a

terrible procrastinator and this is a HUGE issue as an engineering student

since the projects that are required for my classes take a ton of time and

energy and team work to complete, especially if the work is going to be

unpleasant work, like writing. I was born in Indiana and attended Indiana

schools until the fifth grade, where we did not learn how to write essays,

poems or annotate literary works. Toward the end of my 4th grade year, my

dad was transferred to Louisville, KY. It was fall, 2006 and I started 5th

grade at Buckner Elementary School in Oldham County, Kentucky. I found

out very quickly that I was far behind everyone else in my writing abilities,

when most kids in my class had a portfolio bigger than my head and all I had

ever written was a short poem. This is still an issue for me to this day and

writing is the most stressful objective that I have to do.

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My procrastination is usually due to some stressful calamity that I

can’t deal with, or that the material is boring or very unpleasant to work on,

leading to me saying things like “I can do this later really easily!” or “I’m

never going to get this done so why bother…” Obviously, this is not in any

way a good attitude to have.

This problem could be solved by addressing another of my

weaknesses: my reluctance to seek help. I should, and I need to, ask for

assistance…but I just don’t. I have tons of opportunities to go and talk to

professors, or TA’s, or the Study, but I just think that I can do it all by myself.

In order to be a successful engineer I need to learn to not procrastinate and

go seek help so I can learn and not be a “surface level” student.

I also need to start using a planner so I don’t forget homework or

exams, since a successful engineer is organized, thus allowing them to get

everything they need to done. I am the type of student that thinks they can

remember everything about their day. Usually this works since I’m a hands

on person and writing down assignments doesn’t work that well for me.

This knowledge doesn’t extend very far from myself since I don’t really

know the differences in the different learning types and personality types. I

know the basics but I have no idea how the different types fit together or

clash; it just doesn’t “click” for me. In order to be a good leader, that is

something that needs to change so I can foster a better working

environment for my team members. Bad grouping of personality types leads

Dharamsey 9

to failure, and although failure can sometimes lead to success, it very rarely

ever does.

Because of my lack of discernment of other people, the knowledge of

myself also lacks. I know I am a hands on learner and love using my hands to

learn concepts, but I don’t know how to apply that to classes where you sit in

a lecture and take notes. For me it is almost painful to sit in a classroom and

just take notes because I want to DO something physical and see whatever

we are learning about happen (this is a little different with math).

I have many academic and career goals for being an engineer. One

such goal is to have at least a 3.5 GPA upon graduating from UK with my

undergraduate in Mechanical Engineering and a double minor in

Mathematics and Physics. After which I plan to pursue my master’s degree in

Business through UK’s two year master’s program. Another goal I have is to

intern/co-op at a company to gain vital experience for post-graduation

employment. I also hope to take advantage of “The Study” and the

“Chemistry Learning Center” so that I can master all of the subjects that I

need to learn for my degree, rather than just doing the minimum to get by.

Which leads to my other academic goal that is essential that I work on: time

management. I am a huge procrastinator and it really impacts my grades.

From not finishing homework to not studying enough for exams, getting over

my procrastination is a HUGE obstacle that I am going to get rid of, not only

for my sanity but also for my health. In doing so I would be able to go to the

Study or talk to my professors, thus building connections for a future job, and

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helping me understand concepts, thus giving me a much better

understanding of Mechanical Engineering as a whole. Finally, my “double

goal” is being able to discern different personality types and learning types.

By doing this, whether I am working in a group project or in an engineering

group, I can tailor myself to fit the team’s dynamic, allowing me to help the

team work and flow better as a more effective and efficient unit.

In conclusion, being successful is to serve others and to be able to help

others and making a difference in the world, and to be a successful engineer

I need to be able to help solve issues for people not only locally but also

nationwide and internationally and, eventually, maybe even solving

interstellar problems.

Dharamsey 11

Please enjoy these cartoons, as I am now hooked on Dilbert thanks to your

class.