My learning Journey
My learning journey is very overwhelming to describe as it documented my personal growth, improvement in technological skills, and the overwhelming emotions that I feel stepping into something that was previously unknown to me. Although I am aware that this portion is not graded, I would still like to share my perspective on this course in a descriptive and narrative language. Overall, this course transformed me, and it would be my pleasure to allow more people to find confidence in themselves as they go through an engineering and creative journey full of discovery.
Here is a story of how a Public Policy and Global Affairs student crossed path with Engineering.
Upon Departure
Going from one place to another requires a road map, sufficient supplies, and most importantly, the absolute trust in their ability to complete the journey. This emotional road trip best summarized my experience with the Interdisciplinary Project Work course.
As a university student, I am free to choose what I study. As a result, most of the subjects I chose lies in my comfort zone. Moving into my second year, I gained a better understanding of what I am comfortable with; I preferred to settle down with the subject I seemed to be good at. Although this method would require less effort from my end, it simultaneously limited my opportunity in trying something out of my comfort zone. Before I realized, I became scared by the thought of approaching this course–an entirely new journey.
As someone who has never taken a course from EEE before, the unknown is mysterious and somewhat scary. Yet, explorers always pull down the curtain to peek into the other side of the world. For me, I gathered courage and threw myself into the machineries, laboratories, controllers, chips, Arduinos, Programmers, 3D models, and the list went on. The overwhelmingly technological environment was completely different from what I was acquainted with. People scramble to find perfection that adhered to their creation. They looked professional, smart, creative; and gradually, I put myself in the shoes of an outsider; an imposter to invade the world of intellectuals.
An Outsider
At the start of the course, Prof Hanyang grossed over the menus of Fusion 360 while Prof Andy carried the class through the understanding of the Arduino. Everything seems to be so natural and relaxing for everyone else. Looking down, I sense my pen rolling in my hands as I stared blankly at the rows of codes running in the program. God, how should I catch up with everyone? I have so many questions in my head:
“How do you know this head connects to this plug?” “Why does it matter that this light is not going into that sequence?” “What are the uses of diodes? resistors?” “How do I find the size that fits this hole?”
These questions would seem to be ABCs for them, and the embarrassment built up: if I remain in this class, I would be a burden for everyone else in my group! I would not be able to contribute anything to my team, so would I even have a group that is willing to take the risk of teaming up with me? I should consider to drop out of this class…
Regardless of the up and downs in my brain, it is too late; the semester is approaching its third week and I could not drop out anymore. Luckily, I encountered two seniors from IEM who are willing to be my groupmates in this project. This development is like a wind that cleared the fog. From then on, the fear of learning something and creating something with my own hands became less scary.
Approaching something new on my own might be scary. But now I have friends willing to guide me through, and the professors promise to help us out! At that moment, the dark path was graced with a beam of brightness; we were moving forward in our journey together.
Our Roadmap
It sounded cool to create something. We could dig up sand, recycle plastics, save the ocean, reduce pollutants… Each of us presented enthusiastically with an idea. Of course, I could only suggest things that appealed to me, as I didn’t understand the scope and technical capabilities of our group members. Nonetheless, I have an absolute confidence that we could achieve our goals together.