Becoming an engineer
I am not going to lie. Being an engineer is hard. I have hardly been at it for a week and I can already tell that a bumpy (but surmountable) ride lies ahead. Before coming to Penn, I rarely wrote essays about health technology and discussed my passions with people who share my interests, so this has been a big transformation for me. I thought that the recitation on swine flu was particularly fascinating, because I learned of various places where I could find information and how to properly cite sources. I must admit that I did struggle at some points trying to find a particular date, or realizing that the information I had was useless because it was outdated. Anyhow, I gained so much from the search process that I didn't mind it in the end. For example, I now know that, although wikipedia is a good resource to start off in a general area of knowledge, the greatest thing about it are all the references at the bottom of the page.
I am not going to lie. Being an engineer is hard. I have hardly been at it for a week and I can already tell that a bumpy (but surmountable) ride lies ahead. Before coming to Penn, I rarely wrote essays about health technology and discussed my passions with people who share my interests, so this has been a big transformation for me. I thought that the recitation on swine flu was particularly fascinating, because I learned of various places where I could find information and how to properly cite sources. I must admit that I did struggle at some points trying to find a particular date, or realizing that the information I had was useless because it was outdated. Anyhow, I gained so much from the search process that I didn't mind it in the end. For example, I now know that, although wikipedia is a good resource to start off in a general area of knowledge, the greatest thing about it are all the references at the bottom of the page.
Frankly, we all know that having to cite absolutely everything can be tedious sometimes, but I think that it’s extremely important to learn how to thoroughly examine my sources for future papers and research. I found it challenging but also very rewarding to look for different information sources and check their credibility to include them in my blog posts and to discuss them during recitation. The validity of a very strong argument could completely crumble if it was based on an outdated article, if a biased party wrote it or even if it was not specific enough. I also enjoyed the round-table debate centered around the two questions on swine flu, and learning from my classmates through their diverse opinions and perspectives. This is another aspect of engineering that I am enthralled by: working and discussing in teams to resolve issues.
I feel that learning about these questions and most importantly how to research them is essential, not only because we are potential bioengineers, but also because we are members of a society where swine flu and other topics are very serious problems. The experience of talking about an issue and how to potentially solve it in different ways was fascinating to me. I know I'm still far away from being a real engineer; and though I still have much to learn and many hurdles to overcome, so far, I love engineering.
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