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As I began to work on my test taking and study methods, my grade jumped from a 76 to an 88 on the third test. First, we make our best effort to convince you that you can do it: that success in engineering study, like success in anything you attempt, is a process that you can learn and master just like the many, many other successful students who came before you did.

We point out, however, a mindset that keeps some high-ability, well- prepared students from mastering that process — overconfidence. Students who naively assume that their ability will carry them through engineering study as it did in high school can have a rude awakening.

Next, we offer two models to help you understand the skills and knowledge you will get from a quality engineering education, plus a third model to guide you towards obtaining that quality education.

We close the chapter by discussing the need for you to structure your life in ways that will minimize distractions and interferences.

Only by doing so will you be able to devote adequate time and energy to your studies and take advantage of the many resources available to you. The material introduced in this chapter will provide a foundation for you to build on as you study the other chapters of this text.

From time to time, I meet practicing engineers who tell me about the time when they were first-year engineering students and the dean told the students in their Introduction to Engineering class: Look to your right; look to your left.

They think that by scaring students about engineering study, the students will be more motivated to succeed. What does strike me, however, is how angry these practicing engineers are at the dean for having given them such a negative message.

And in some cases the event happened some 30 years before! These former students are still upset that the dean tried to frighten them at a time when they were unsure of themselves and easily intimidated. When I meet with first-year engineering students, I convey a very different message. My message to them and to you is: Each and every one of you can be successful in graduating with your Bachelor of Science degree in engineering.

How can I make such a bold statement without any specific information about your background or your ability? During that period I worked closely with more than 1, students.

Some of those students took more than nine years of full-time study to complete their engineering degree. I ran into one of those students many years later. He was a successful professional engineer and a respected member of his community. Yet they did not succeed in engineering study. Some flunked out. Some just dropped out. The common denominator for such students was that they were overconfident.

They had been able to excel in high school without a great deal of effort or a need to adopt effective learning strategies. And they made the mistake of assuming that engineering study would be like high school. They naively believed that their ability would carry them through as it had before. They failed to account for the fact that the faster pace and higher expectations for learning would require substantially more effort and improved learning skills.

A few of those students have come back to see me. They express their deep regret for not sticking it out. I hope you are not such a student. One early indication of this is how receptive you are to the material presented in this book.

Thinking there is nothing of value here for you is a sign that you are overconfident. If you are, I hope you will consider this section as a wake-up call.

You can ignore this warning with the intent of shifting gears later. The problem with that approach is your early courses, particularly in mathematics and science, provide the foundation on which your entire engineering education will be built. If you start out with a weak foundation, you will find it difficult, if not impossible, to build a sound structure on top of it.

Do you lack confidence? If so, are you beginning to believe you can do it? Or are you overconfident? If so, are you beginning to become receptive to learning new strategies and approaches for your engineering studies? One student with seemingly limited ability and poor preparation succeeds. Another student with outstanding ability and excellent preparation fails.

How can that happen? What are the keys to success in engineering study? What are those things you can do that will virtually ensure your success — those things that, if not done, will at best result in your working below potential and even lead to failure? Success in engineering study is not unlike success in anything you have attempted or will attempt. Achieving success is a process, and each step in the process can be learned.

Lots of resources are available to help you. The Internet is an easy, reliable guide for identifying the resources that best speak to you. For books and CDs, www. Make learning about success one of your life goals. If you work at it, your capacity to be successful will expand and grow. You might even surprise yourself at what you can achieve. And who knows? When I was sitting in your seat, I could never have imagined I would someday write a book like this one.

I assume you want to be successful. But just wanting to be successful is not enough. Everyone wants to be successful. But what do the students mean when they indicate they want to be successful? Are they all thinking about the same thing? Probably not. Success is making money. Success is having control over your life. But almost always one or more students will give the correct answer: Success is the achievement of goals. Unfortunately, many students lack a clear goal and commitment to that goal necessary for success.

Identifying a clear goal and developing a strong commitment to that goal are the essential first two steps in the process of achieving success. What does each of these words mean to you?

Does success bring happiness? Can people be happy if they are not successful? Do you usually get what you want? Do you usually want what you get? What insights can you derive by contemplating the relationship between success and happiness?

That is, setting goals — having specific ideas of what you want to accomplish in the short and long term — is a key requirement to becoming an effective student and professional. Only when you set goals will you have something to strive for and something against which to measure your progress. One student is extremely unhappy and resolves to study much harder for the next exam.

These different responses results from the different expectations these two students have , based on their goals. Goals Give Your Life Direction. I hope you realize by now that they were trying to help you. They were trying to alert you to the importance of setting directions for your life. They probably even realized intuitively that the more reluctant you were to grapple with this question, the more important it was that you of all people do so.

Setting goals may not be easy, but the payoff is definitely worth the effort, as the stories of many successful people indicate. Following is but one such story. Astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz Dr. A veteran of six space missions, he has logged nearly 1, hours in space. Chang-Diaz was born and raised in Costa Rica. As a child he was enamored by U. They would then go through a countdown and lift-off and pretend to travel to distant planets.

When he finished high school, he worked for a year and saved enough money to buy a one-way airplane ticket to Hartford, Connecticut, where he had some distant relatives. In Hartford he repeated his senior year of high school, learned English, and was admitted to the University of Connecticut, where he majored in engineering. After graduating with honors, he began graduate study at MIT, eventually receiving his Ph.

He then applied for the astronaut program, was accepted, and became the U. To learn more about Dr. Chang-Diaz and his career as a U. The point that the story of Dr. Chang-Diaz drives home so convincingly is the need to have goals.

His story makes me wonder what I might have accomplished had I set such lofty goals. Right now your primary goal should be to graduate with your degree in engineering. But what else would you like to accomplish? Become president of your own company? Become a multimillionaire? Become a college professor? And what about your more immediate goals? Maybe you want to make a 3. A good exercise would be for you to write down your short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term goals.

Consider what you want to accomplish in the next week, in the next month, in the next year, in the next five years. Review and update these lists regularly. Start by making graduation in engineering one of your primary life goals. What distinguishes each? Do you have goals? What does it take to convert a dream into a goal? Perhaps because you were good in math and science, one of your high school teachers or counselors recommended that you study it.

Few students do. Regardless of your reasons for electing engineering, it is critically important that you develop a strong motivation to succeed. Engineering is a demanding field of study. Even a student with excellent preparation and strong ability will not succeed without a high level of commitment. What does it mean to clarify your goals? And by better understanding their value, you will become more committed to achieving them.

As noted earlier, many students know very little about engineering and what engineers do. In particular, they tend not to know about the tremendous rewards and opportunities that an engineering degree offers. Learning about these rewards and opportunities, as we will do in Chapter 2, will figure significantly into clarifying your personal goals.

You have a feel for what accountants do if you have had to manage your personal finances. You have seen lawyers at work on TV shows such as Law and Order. Through your coursework, you have developed some feel for what mathematicians, chemists, and physicists do. It is doubtful, however, that you have had much exposure to engineering.

The exposure you have had has probably been indirect, through contact with the products that engineers design. Learning about engineering is a lifelong process, but it should begin now. Take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself. You can start by studying Chapter 2 of this text thoroughly. Explore some of the many Internet websites referred to there, particularly those whose purpose is to help students learn about engineering.

Attend seminars on career opportunities, go on field trips to industry, and talk with company representatives at career day programs. Browse the resource library in your career center. Become active in the student chapter of the professional engineering society for your major.

Talk to your professors. Read biographies of successful engineers [3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. If you land a summer job in industry, be curious and inquisitive. Look around. Talk to the engineers there and find out what they do.

Over time, these efforts will pay off and your understanding of engineering will increase. Increased knowledge brings increased motivation. We tend to like things we know a lot about.

Each time you reached the next higher level, you were able to handle it, even excel at it. How did you do it? By taking lots of little steps, each one building on previous steps. And if you can pass these calculus requirements, you can pass the junior engineering courses. If you can pass the junior engineering courses, you can pass the senior engineering courses.

So you see, succeeding in your engineering program is a process of taking one little step after another. Progressing through the engineering curriculum is just an extension of what you have already demonstrated you can do.

Lay out a plan of what you will need to take each semester or quarter. Having a step-by-step road map to follow will increase your confidence and strengthen your commitment to achieve your ultimate goal: that B. Highly successful football coach, ESPN sports analyst, and motivational speaker Lou Holtz notes a primary difference between people who succeed and people who fail.

People who succeed are people who, when they get knocked down by some adversity, get up; whereas, people who fail are people who, when they get knocked down, stay down. Or you can hear from Coach Holtz by watching his minute University of Portland commencement speech at www. The most likely reason you will fail to graduate in engineering is that you will encounter adversity and give up. You will have difficulty with a course or a professor.

You might have a personal problem. Whatever adversity you are bound to experience, you will be tempted to use it as an excuse or justification for quitting. By strengthening your commitment following the steps outlined in the previous three sections, you will develop determination. You must be determined to persist, particularly in the face of adversity.

A Personal Story I dropped out of college early in my sophomore year. When I attempted to register for my second year, I learned I had lost my full tuition scholarship because of poor grades. Faced with having to take out a massive student loan and having broken my leg playing intramural football, I dropped out.

I had always wanted to be a jet pilot, so as soon as my leg healed, I went directly to the local Air Force Recruiting Office. To my chagrin I was told a college degree was required for acceptance into flight training. Soon I was back in school with newfound determination. That experience was a significant lesson to me that doors would be shut without a college education. Adopt the view that you are going to achieve your goal and that nothing is going to stop you.

And how do you keep adversity from stopping you? How can you keep failures from discouraging you? I find this age-old saying to be very helpful as a philosophical basis for overcoming adversity: We learn more from our failures than we do from our successes.

Think about it. I was the best in the class on the pommel horse. So when we had a competition at the end of the term, everyone expected I would win that event. But when I began performing, I was so nervous I felt as if needles were pricking my skin all over. I came in last place. I was terribly embarrassed and ashamed. It took me a long time to get over that failure. But that experience showed me that if I take myself too seriously and want to win too much, I can actually perform much worse than I am capable of.

That experience has helped me deal effectively with high-pressure situations ever since. Learning to overcome adversity as a student will also benefit you during your professional career. Joseph J. I encourage you to read Mr. If you are determined to graduate in engineering, if you persist even in the face of adversity, if you take the view that you will not allow anything to stop you, the chances are very good that you will succeed.

Believe in yourself. You can do it! Have you ever experienced a significant failure? What was it? What did you learn from that experience? The real challenge remains — achieving the goal. This means that you base your day-to-day decisions and choices on whether a particular action supports your goal i. The same applies to attitudes you hold. Or do you believe that people succeed because of their effort?

Dweck [10]. The second belief — that people succeed because of their effort — is empowering because the amount of effort you put in is in your direct control. You can choose to put in more effort and in doing so significantly affect your success.

Think about the way you deal with challenges and obstacles. What is your view about effort? How do you deal with criticism? Which mindset do you think would bring a person more success and more happiness in life?

If you see some of the fixed mindset traits in yourself, what could you do to change your mindset? The relative importance of ability and effort was perhaps best explained by the famous American inventor Thomas Edison: Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. Does the following dialogue sound familiar to you? Student: Fine!

Student: Physics: Electricity and Magnetism. Landis: How are you doing in that course? Landis: What score did you make on the last exam? Student: Forty-three. Landis: What grade is that? Student: No. Student: Probably not.

Student: Maybe. How many hours are you putting into your physics course? Student: About 15 hours a week. Landis: How many hours have you studied today? Landis: How many hours did you study yesterday? Student: None. Landis: How about over the weekend? Student: I meant to, but just never got to it.

In my experience, poor academic performance can usually be traced to insufficient effort. It is using energy, particularly mental power, to get something done. In later sections, we will consider how much time is sufficient, what is the best use of that time, and when to put in that time if you want to be an effective and efficient student.

The important point here is that your success in studying engineering is largely in your control. How well you perform will depend, in large measure, on how much effort you put in. Accomplishing an academic task, like completing a homework assignment, will require you to devote adequate time and to focus your mental energy. These are things that you can choose to do or choose not do. In large measure, your approach to your engineering studies depends on the ideas we have already discussed.

It assumes that: You know why you want to be an engineer and appreciate the value of a technical education. You have clarified your goals and developed a road map to lead you to them. You have a strong commitment to achieving your goals, even in the face of adversity.

You have gotten your life situation in order, so that you are not overburdened with problems and distractions. To understand what I mean by becoming a master student, consider the following analogy. If you were to take up chess, what would you do? Learn the basic objectives, rules, and moves and then begin to play? So you might read a book, take a lesson, or watch experts play. You would realize that to become a chess master, you need to spend time both playing the game and learning how to play it.

Your approach to the study of engineering can be likened to a game. To become a master student, you must not only play the game i. The first step in playing the game of becoming a master engineering student is to get a clear picture of what is required to earn your B. Earlier, when discussing what it means to prepare a road map for yourself, I gave a brief synopsis of what you need to do to graduate in engineering.

Let me give you a related description here. You become an engineer when you pass a set of courses required for an engineering degree. What is required to pass each course in the set? Primarily passing a series of tests and exams. To pass the series of tests, you must pass each test one at a time. So by breaking down the education process this way, you can see that to become an engineer, you must become a master at preparing for and taking tests. Of course, this is easier said than done, because many other factors are involved.

As you read the subsequent chapters in this book, you will discover different ideas and perspectives on how best to approach your studies. Learning to be a master engineering student will be a tremendously rewarding and beneficial experience. It will enhance your immediate success as a student, while developing important skills you will later need as a practicing professional engineer.

Are you aware of the role attitude plays in your success? What do you think of the following statement? Positive attitudes produce positive results. Negative attitudes produce negative results. Do any of the items describe you? If so, in what ways could you see that particular attitude interfering with your success in engineering study?

Do you know why you hold this attitude? Are you willing to try to change the attitude? What would be a more positive attitude that you could adopt? One of the primary purposes of this book is to help you become conscious of and change any negative attitudes you may hold that will impede your success in engineering study. You will learn the process for this change when you study Chapter 6: Personal Growth and Student Development.

Step 1: Setting Do I want to be an engineer? Step 4: Changing What do I need to do differently to non-productive achieve my goal of becoming an behaviors engineer? This book will help you navigate this process. Chapter 2 will help you firm up your goal of becoming an engineer and deciding which discipline to specialize in.

Chapter 2 will help you strengthen your commitment to becoming an engineer by providing knowledge about the field of engineering, while exposing you to the rewards and opportunities of an engineering career. For example, you might schedule Saturdays from noon to p. Or you could devote another block of time to figuring out what behaviors you need to change to be a more effective student.

Consider the saying: No deposit, no return. Your education represents a major deposit, or investment, you are making in yourself. Your return will be in direct relation to what you put in. You must realize that whenever you take the easiest instructor, avoid a tough course, or cut a class, you are hurting yourself.

Whenever you make a conscious choice to avoid learning, growing, or developing, you are not getting away with something: You are working against yourself. Having a model from which to view your education will assist you in getting the most out of it.

Earlier in this chapter, I gave simplified explanations of the engineering curriculum in order to demystify it for you. First, I described it as a required set of courses you must take. Later, I broke down each course as a series of exams you must pass. It is time now to broaden your view of your engineering studies because a quality education involves much more.

The purpose of the next three sections is to give you three models from which to view your education. These models will assist you in answering such important questions as: What is the purpose of my education?

What should I know when I graduate? How do I know if I am getting an excellent education? How can I enhance the quality of my education? Will I have the knowledge and skills to get a job and be a successful engineering professional?

These models are also useful for all kinds of personal assessment or self-evaluation. My suggestion is that you measure yourself against each item presented in these models. In other words, ask yourself on a scale of zero to ten ten being highest : How would I rate myself on this item? In areas you feel you are strong, just keep doing what you have been doing. In areas you need to improve, map out a plan to strengthen them. Personal assessment and development plans will be discussed in more detail in Chapter 6.

Institutions are being asked to establish educational objectives desired results and student outcomes achieved results , demonstrate how they plan to achieve these objectives and outcomes. This process is called institutional assessment. It is not unlike what happens to you in your classes. Your professor sets course objectives and has expectations of how well you should do in achieving these objectives. At the end of the term, the degree to which you meet these expectations is measured and translated in the form of a final grade.

One way engineering programs are held accountable is through the accreditation process administered by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology ABET.

Understanding the accreditation process discussed in more detail in Chapter 8 will help you better understand the engineering education you are receiving. An ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science, and engineering b.

An ability to design and conduct experiments, as well as to analyze and interpret data c. An ability to design a system, component, or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints such as economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability d.

An ability to function on multi-disciplinary teams e. An ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering problems f.

An understanding of professional and ethical responsibility g. An ability to communicate effectively h. The broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context i.

A knowledge of contemporary issues k. An ability to use the techniques, skills, and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice This list of attributes provides a clear picture of what you should get from your engineering education. That is, when you complete your engineering degree, you will have the knowledge, skills, and attitudes you will need for a successful and rewarding career. Think about what is meant by each item on the list.

Reflect on the perspective that this is a type of blueprint for what you should gain from your engineering education. Consider which areas are most appealing to you. Which areas are you likely to excel in? Communication skills? Problem solving? Use of engineering tools? Ethical responsibility? Certainly, one reason why many students choose to major in engineering is the availability of jobs.

In light of this, you need to consider what characteristics are important to employers and work to develop yourself in these areas. Communicates effectively in a variety of different ways, methods, and media 2. Possesses the ability to think both critically and creatively 3.

Shows initiative and demonstrates a willingness to learn 4. Functions effectively on a team 5. Possesses the ability to think both individually and cooperatively 6. Demonstrates an understanding of engineering, science, and mathematics fundamentals 7. Demonstrates an understanding of information technology, digital competency, and information literacy 8. Maintains a positive self-image and possesses positive self- confidence Note that the top-ranked items are personal traits communication skills, initiative, willingness to learn, critical and creative thinking skills, self-image and confidence, etc.

Technical knowledge, including understanding of math, science, engineering fundamentals and information technology, are ranked 6 and 7. As you approach graduation, you will undoubtedly participate in a number of interviews with prospective employers. Subsequent chapters in this book offer guidance and suggestions to help you acquire these attributes. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 will address academic success strategies that will ensure you have strong scholastic qualifications.

Chapter 6 will instruct you in ways to develop your personal qualifications. Chapter 7 will explain the value of active involvement in student organizations and engineering-related work experience.

How can you guarantee that you get that quality education? We can find the answer in a classic paper by Alexander W.

Conversely, according to Astin: An uninvolved student may neglect studies, spend little time on campus, abstain from extracurricular activities, and have little contact with faculty members or other students. Although your institution can do things to encourage you to study more, spend more time on campus, become involved in student organizations, and interact with your professors and fellow students, increasing your level of involvement is mostly up to you.

Be proactive! You can choose to devote more time and energy to your studies, spend more time on campus, and become active in student organizations. You can choose to interact more with your professors and become more involved with other students.

In doing so, you will greatly enhance the quality of your education. One of the key objectives of Chapter 2 is to strengthen that commitment even more by increasing your understanding of engineering as a profession and giving you a clear picture of the rewards and opportunities that an engineering career offers you.

With a clear goal and strong commitment to it, you are well on your way to achieving it. All that remains is to do it. Full-time engineering study is a major commitment, so you must be prepared to devote most of your time and energy to it.

This means eliminating or minimizing any distractions or obligations that will interfere with your studies and work against your achieving your goal.

Students in such situations are very likely destined for failure. The more immersed you can get in the academic environment of your institution, the better your chances of success will be. Commuting takes time, energy, and money; and living at home can present problems. Parents may expect you to help with the household duties. Little brothers and sisters may be noisy and distracting. Neighborhood friends may not understand your need to put your studies ahead of them.

Place a high value on your time and learn to say no when necessary. Regardless of your living arrangement — at home with parents, in an apartment alone or with a roommate, or in an on-campus residence hall — I would suggest that you come to campus early in the day and do your work there, rather than coming only to take classes and leaving as soon as possible.

Your university or college campus is an academic place. Whereas, at home, apartment, or residence hall there are many distractions TV, DVR, refrigerator, friends, parents, siblings , on campus there are lots of resources professors, other students, places to study, library resources, tutors.

Working up to ten hours a week at a part-time job is probably okay, but more is almost certain to take its toll on your academic performance. While it may be essential for you to work, it may also be that you are working to afford a nice car, expensive clothes, or other non-essentials. Look at it this way.

If your career is successful, someday you might make more per hour than students make per day. So try to delay as many material wants and minimize family obligations as possible. By doing so, you will have much more in the long term. If you must work while going to school, particularly if your work exceeds ten hours per week, how can you achieve a reasonable balance between working and studying?

One way is to follow the guidelines below. His is not a rigid rule, but rather a guideline. I have shared it with first-year students in an Introduction to Engineering course each fall. The Rule assumes that a student can work for 60 hours a week over the period of a term. This work includes academic work, work at a paying job, and time spent commuting. It also assumes that a student studies two hours for every hour spent in the classroom.

Subtract 20 from 60 and the result is Divide 40 by three one hour in class and two hours studying per week for every credit hour and the result is This means that most students can take 13 units of coursework and derive satisfactory results while working 20 hours.

Ninety-five percent of the engineering students who are dismissed from the University of Kansas, School of Engineering, violate the Hour Rule. From time to time, I encounter a student who is taking four courses each term but passing only two of them. The point is, be realistic about your situation. If your family members pose problems, have a frank talk with them. Let them know that you want to make school your number-one priority. Ask for their help and negotiate clear agreements about their demands on you.

If you are a recent high school graduate, dealing with friends from high school — especially those who are not pursuing a college education — may be difficult.

If you find yourself in this situation, you alone will have to decide how to handle it, as there are no easy answers. But it is important to be realistic and understand the consequences of your choice to study engineering. By making this choice, you are moving yourself in a different direction that may increasingly distance you from your old friends, while bringing you into contact with new people and peers — and opportunities for new friendships. However you decide to deal with your old friends, by all means do not let them keep you from the opportunities to develop new friendships at school.

List those things and come up with ways to bring about the needed changes. We first focused on the importance of making graduation in engineering your primary goal. We noted that achieving a goal requires you to adopt appropriate attitudes and behaviors. We also discussed the importance of effort, in terms of both time-on-task and mental energy.

Last, we explored the importance of the approach you take to your engineering studies. We saw that success not only means that you study hard but also that you study smart. Three models were then presented to help you understand what a quality education entails. Each of these models identifies the knowledge, skills, personal qualities, and behaviors that you need to develop during your college years. Each model also identifies specific areas against which you can assess yourself. Doing periodic personal assessments will call attention to your strengths and areas for improvement.

The chapter closed by talking about the need to structure your life situation so that it supports your goal of graduating with an engineering degree. References 1. Covey, Stephen R. Hansen, James R. Hickam Jr. Beyer, Kurt W. Jacobs, Joseph J. Dweck, Carol S. Astin, Alexander W. Available from rlandis calstatela.

What did they say or do? Why do you think they said or did that? Discuss the relationship between success and happiness. What is the definition of each of these words? Do you have a personal goal of graduating with your bachelor of science degree in engineering? How important is that goal to you? How can you make it more important? Develop a list of 20 goals you would like to accomplish in your lifetime.

Be bold! Establish a goal for the grade you want to achieve in each of your courses this term. What GPA would this give you? How would it compare to your overall GPA? List ten benefits that will come to you when you graduate in engineering. Rank them in order of importance to you.

List ten tasks that an engineer might perform e. Rank them in the order that you would most enjoy doing. Explain your ranking. Read a biography of a famous engineer. Write a critique of the biography.

Include a discussion of what you learned from the book that will help you succeed in engineering study. How many hours do you think you should study for each hour of class time in your mathematics, science, and engineering courses?

Is this the same for all courses? If not, list four factors that determine how much you need to study for a specific class. Ask one of your professors why he or she chose teaching as a career rather than professional practice. Would you rather tackle an easy problem or a difficult one?

Which do you think would benefit you more? Make an analogy with the task of developing your physical strength. Pick the two most important ones and try to implement them.

Prepare a brief presentation for your Introduction to Engineering class that discusses your success or lack of success in implementing them. List six things that your professors can do for you beyond classroom instruction. If you spend hours studying, how many of those hours would you be studying alone?

How many would you be studying with at least one other student? If you study primarily alone, why? List three benefits of studying with other students. Check off any of the statements below that describe your attitude. I lack confidence in my ability to succeed in engineering study. I have a tendency to sabotage my success.

I tend to blame others for my failures. I am generally unwilling to seek help from others. I tend to procrastinate, putting off the things I need to do. I avoid contact with my professors outside of class. I prefer to study alone rather than with other students. For any of the items you checked, answer the following questions: a. Is this attitude working for you positive attitude or working against you negative attitude?

If the attitude is working against you, can you change it? Meet with your engineering advisor or an engineering professor to discuss your ranking. List ten skills or attributes that you need to work effectively with other people. How can you go about acquiring these skills and attributes?

Find out if your engineering college has a list of attributes it strives to impart to its graduates. If so, how does it compare with the list in Section 1. Rate the items in Problem 21 above on a scale of zero to ten ten being highest as to their importance. Develop a method for determining which of the items in Problem 21 need your greatest attention.

Which quadrant contains items that need your greatest attention? Which quadrant contains items that need the least attention? From the list in Problem 21, pick the three items that need your greatest attention and the three items that need your least attention.

Develop a plan for self-improvement for those that need your greatest attention. Implement the plan. Which of the items in Problem 21 have to do with your skills?

With your attitude? With your approach to your studies? Make a list of factors that interfere with your ability to perform academically up to your full potential. How many of these are external e. How many are internal e. Which of these interferences can you reduce or eliminate? Develop a plan to do so. Based on that rule, how many credit hours should you be taking? Are you Overcommitted? What can you do about it?

Who are your best friends? Are they engineering majors? How many engineering majors do you know by name? What percentage of the students in your key math, science, and engineering classes do you know? How could you get to know more of them? Hopefully, when you are finished reading the chapter, you will have a comprehensive understanding of the engineering profession and perhaps have found the engineering niche that attracts you most.

This information, coupled with knowledge of the personal benefits you will reap from the profession, is intended to strengthen your commitment to completing your engineering degree. Next, we will discuss the rewards and opportunities that will come to you when you earn your B. Having a clear picture of the many payoffs will be a key factor in motivating you to make the personal choices and put forth the effort required to succeed in such a challenging and demanding field of study.

The remainder of the chapter will be devoted to an in-depth look at engineering — past, present, and future. To look at the past role of engineering in improving the quality of our lives, we will take stock of the Greatest Engineering Achievements of the 20th Century, selected by the National Academy of Engineering. To look at the present state of engineering, we will examine the various engineering disciplines, the job functions performed by engineers, and the major industry sectors that employ engineers.

To gain some insights about the future of engineering, we will look at the Grand Challenges for Engineering presented by the National Academy of Engineering in These challenges provide an indication of those fields showing the greatest promise for future growth.

The last section of the chapter will focus on engineering as a profession, including the role of professional societies and the importance of professional registration. Yet, when you think about it, it is a fundamental question, especially for a new engineering student like yourself. So, just what is engineering? That theme depicts engineering according to its function: Engineers turn dreams into reality.

Over the years, many variations of this theme have been put forth, from that of the famous scientist Count Rumford over years ago: Engineering is the application of science to the common purpose of life.

Harry T. Roman, a well-known New Jersey inventor and electrical engineer, compiled 21 notable definitions of engineering. These are listed in Appendix B. Then compose your own definition. Write it down and commit it to memory. Still, there is a variety of ways to start learning about and understanding engineering, one being to tap the tremendous amount of information available online.

One helpful website you should check out is www. At that website you can learn much about both engineering and National Engineers Week. The following additional websites will help further your understanding of engineering: www.

The question is often asked: How is engineering different from science? Both make extensive use of mathematics, and engineering requires a solid scientific basis. Yet as any scientist or engineer will tell you, they are quite different.

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