Impact of Engineers in The Universe

Let us think about the world around us for a moment: Automobiles, mechanical pencils, medication, mobile phones, laptops and even a toothbrush- everything that is man made was designed by someone – an Engineer. From the ancient architecture of buildings in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to modern inventions, engineers have the driving force behind making things faster, better, lighter and most importantly safer.

Hong Kong City Lights at night.
https://www.pinterest.com/blackdiva26/city-lights-at-night/

Earth's city lights as shown from space
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view.php?id=55167

It is really amazing how lights of buildings are now visible from space. This only represents how engineers have taken an extra mile as far as electrification is concerned. Electricity not only gives lights but also powers our industries. This may sound like too common a thing to mention, but it represents some of the engineers‘s greatest accomplishments. I cannot even start to think what would happen without electricity. An NBC post-apocalyptic science fiction television series ,Revolution, did a good job in predicting how the world would come to a halt without electricity- without engineers. Engineers are still working tirelessly to match the continuously changing world to meet its needs. Other emerging areas of engineering include biotechnology and nanotechnology. Engineers are working to use technology to help blind see, the hearing impaired to hear and the disabled to walk. Engineers will remain relevant in our lives as they continually find solutions to match our dynamic society.

-Panashe

What Is Tissue Engineering?

Tissue engineering is a sub-field of the bigger field  biomaterials. Tissue engineering is the study of the growth of new connective tissue, or organs, from cells and collageneous scaffold to a fully functional organ for implantation, back into the patient. The main point of tissue engineering is to repair, replace, restore, maintain or improve portions of or whole tissue such as bone, blood vessels, skin, muscles, etc.

Image source: Tissue Engineering

Donor tissue dissociates into individual cells, and the cells can be implanted directly into the patient, or they can be expanded in culture, and re-implanted into the patient after expansion. Donor tissue can be heterologous (such as bovine), allogeneic (same species, different person) or autologous (from the same individual the tissue is going back into). The most preferred cells to use are autologous, because using autologous cells avoids rejection, which could happen using the other cells. A limitation to cell growth and tissue engineering is difficulty in growing specific cell types in large quantity. Some organs have a high regenerative capacity, cell growth and expansion can still be difficult. Tissue engineering is a great way to help patients recover from diseases and anything emergent dealing with their body.

-Alex Brown

Sources:
"What Is Tissue Engineering." What Is Tissue Engineering. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.

"Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine." Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine. National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.

Koh, Chester J., and Anthony Atala, Dr. "Journal of the American Society of Nephrology." Tissue Engineering, Stem Cells, and Cloning: Opportunities for Regenerative Medicine. Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2015.

A world of opportunities

“Brains are wired through hands-on interaction with the physical world” Anonymous

I learnt to walk by taking baby steps and falling a million times. I learnt to talk through saying something. I learnt to listen by listening. Just as the above  quote suggests, we learn through doing things. Engineers also learn by being actively involved.  Experiential learning is the basis of all internships, co-ops, research opportunities, engineering societies and early real-world projects for prospective engineering students.

msutoday.msu.edu

Opportunity: Real Word Engineering projects

About: The goal of the program is to provide engineering students across all disciplines with a library “of high-quality, tested, hands-on team-based society-focused projects for first-year students. These projects are designed to increase the recruitment, persistence to degree, and satisfaction of all students, and particularly women, in baccalaureate Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Biosystems Engineering  and Electronics Engineering degree programs.”

Benefits: Having prospective engineering students actively involved in real world projects instills a sense of enthusiasm in the students and they are likely to adhere to those disciplines. The projects also involve the students at a much more intimate level than the typical lecture.

Opportunity: Engineering societies

About: Students can be part of professional engineering societies throughout their college life. Engineering societies such as Engineers Without Borders (WEI), Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW), Women in Engineering (WEI) aim to further the engineering profession and the interests of individuals engaged in that field.

Benefits: Engineering students get mentorship from professionals, enhance their support networks and learn a lot about their prospective fields. Faculty members and student interactions  also help to provide the foundations of professional relationships.

supportforstudents.msu.edu

Opportunity: Undergraduate Research
About: Undergraduate Research is an epitome of engaged learning. It is the collaborative research between faculty members and students  to examine, create and share new knowledge. Freshman students can also get the chance to explore a specific topic within a field and make an original contribution to the discipline.It also involves creation, experimentations, development analysis and problem-solving.
Benefits: Students are able to gain experience since research combines classroom and hands-on experience. Engineering students also improve their analytical and critical thinking skills, learn to overcome obstacles and work through complex problems.Students who invest the time and effort into undergraduate research leave with a strong network of colleagues and connections

All these opportunities are available for engineering students to take advantage of so that they can learn more about engineering through active engagement.  To all prospective engineering students brace yourselves for a world of opportunities. Till next time.

Panashe, M-

Sources

“About RWEP." IEEE Real World Engineering Project. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2015.

“Undergraduate Research at Michigan State University”. Michigan State University. Print

The Experience of Learning English

         I found that I have a deep feeling in learning language. I want to introduce my experience of learn language. Although I've started to learn English since I was in elementary school, what I learn is the basic English conversation. I got down to learn English was from two years ago when I decided to study abroad. Since my foundation of English is very poor, I was very tired to learn English. I had to recite a lot of words everyday. Some of the words were very hard to remember, so I recited those words again and again. I kept the vocabulary book with all the time. When I had enough vocabulary, I started to practice reading and listening. I think listening is the most difficult part for me because I have never been in a real English environment. At first, I could understand nothing from a conversation. I felt that I could understand every single word . But when you put them together into a sentence, it will be very hard the catch the speed of the conversation while translating. When you remember every words they said and start to translate them in your brain, they have already been saying the second sentence. You have to understand those words in a very short time, so that you will have enough time to get ready to listen another sentence. I think the most important thing is to keep practicing. I found it real hard to learn another language just by reading and listening rather than live in a real English environment. Language is used to communicate. As long as you don't use them for a while, you will forget them. For example, I've already been in United State for one and half year without going home. I even think that my Chinese is not as good as before because I have barely used Chinese for a long time.

-Hongyuan Xue

The Raspberry Pi

Its name might make you think otherwise, but a Raspberry Pi is actually cheap credit-card sized computer. It was created with the goal of teaching people about computers/computer science, and many people use it to create things like robots, media centers, and gaming machines. The price varies from version to version, but you can typically expect to pay about $20 - $35 for one, and they have the computing power of a low end computer. As of earlier this year, over five million have been sold and that number is only growing.

A Raspberry Pi Model A

So what can you do with a Raspberry Pi? Robots, media centers and gaming machines are pretty basic projects, but there is a seemingly unlimited number of different things that can be done with a Raspberry Pi. Currently I own two of them: one I have at home where I have my own radio station set up, and it broadcasts music that can be picked up by any FM radio near my house, and another in my room on campus that I currently do not use for anything, but I have thought about setting it up as a server to host either a website or a Minecraft server. In the past I also had one of them set up as an alarm clock, which I talked about in a previous blog post.

On the social media site Reddit, there is an entire forum (or “subreddit”) dedicated to the Raspberry Pi, and many people have posted their creations on there. They range from arcade machines, drones, home automation projects, and even one person who created a wearable version, similar to the Google Glass.

The Raspberry Pi is an innovative piece of technology, and more and more people are using it to expand their skills in the field of computer science. It has helped me personally understand how computer hardware works, and it has helped many people learn how to write code and create new kinds of software. If you are looking to get into computer science in any way, I would recommend looking into getting one, as it is a very educational tool and fun to work with.

-Erik B.

Sources:

"Five Million Sold!" Raspberry Pi. N.p., 18 Feb. 2015. Web. 08 Nov. 2015.

Raspberry Pi Model A. Digital image. SparkFun. SparkFun Electronics, 5 Oct. 2013. Web. 8 Nov. 2015. <https://cdn.sparkfun.com//assets/parts/8/2/1/1/11837-03.jpg>.  

Talk Topic #3

After watching the video on "How Humans Learn: Brain and Mind", I have learned many different ways that human beings can learn. First of all I learned that the brain was the organ and the mind is what gives us being, and gives us our conscience. Input data that we receive, or information is transported to the thalamus in the middle of the brain, and goes up to the cortex. Though information doesn't just go one way, there is almost ten times more information that goes from the cortex to the thalamus, which is the information we use in our daily lives. People who know more are able to learn more. Learning is a change in cognitive structures that occurs as a result of experience. People who already have knowledge use that knowledge to learn or absorb new knowledge. There are two types of learning. Rote learning is when you take in information, but it's not connected to anything, if you don't understand what you take in, what good is it? Meaningful learning is when you take in new information and it's connected to information you already know, the more you know, the easier it is for you to understand new things. Learning changes the physical structure of the brain. The neurons in our brain connect in different ways as we learn new things. New neuro pathways are created and neuro networks are made greater. As you learn you change the structure of your brain. We also create our own reality. We use our brain to fill in the blanks, our brains look for patterns and uses these patterns to create our own interpretation. After watching the video, I knew a little bit about the brain, but not too much, and taking in all of that information, going to the thalamus and up to the cortex, my brain has began to make connections between neurons to create new neuro pathways and larger neuro network in which I can now use to learn more and more new things.

-Alex Brown

Sources:
Johnson, Andy, Dr. "1. HOW HUMANS LEARN: BRAIN AND MIND."YouTube. YouTube, 17 Jan. 2013. Web. 07 Nov. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nz5ZG_R8i_c>.

Prompt #10

I strongly encourage you to click the link below and look at some of these disasters that have happened because of failed engineering jobs.

http://listverse.com/2007/12/04/top-10-worst-engineering-disasters/

After looking at them, it shows how meticulous and exact engineers have to be with designs and calculations because the tiniest mistake can ruin an entire project.  Reading into some of these stories can really create a bad image of engineers in people's heads and that is not what our field wants. Yes, mistake happens and it is really easy to screw small things up but that is why our field is so picky with the different type of majors. People are all mastering certain areas of engineering as a whole and that is what makes engineers reliable. Every so often, things such as the pictures shown below do occur but that is rare. The reason engineers must be so qualified is because while half of the job is knowing the material, the other half is being smart enough to put all the calculations together correctly. Also, this is why engineers for the most part work in teams. Working in teams reduces the chances of error and instead of one brain working on a project puts multiple people together to brainstorm better ideas and give more opinions on certain things. With all of this being said, the bad view on engineers that some people have should not be permanent based on one mistake that other engineers may have made in the past, mistakes do happen but the engineering success rate of everything is incredibly high and our society should have respect for the people that keep our world up to date.

-Dominic W.

Sources:

Google Images

http://listverse.com/2007/12/04/top-10-worst-engineering-disasters/