Our world is immersed with a tremendous amount of intricate and influential technology. We've seen the development and application of electric cars, advanced rockets, nanotechnology, and even artificial intelligence. We owe much of this work to the time and effort put forth by scientists and engineers. It is for this reason that science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) are the principle field behind some of the most successful jobs. While the jobs are rewarding, it is important to remind ourselves of the difficulty and dedication required for these fields.
We live in a time where technology has influenced our thinking. Our own inventions act like children, and can completely influence your thought processes. We tend to seek the easy way out and try to justify our means by our end product. In an educational and professional environment, this becomes dangerous and detrimental to the integrity of the mission. In order to better this, we must first understand the requirements and expectations of these fields and the consequences lazy behavior has on them.
It is my first year at Wentworth Institute of Technology. I am a proud mechanical engineering major, as well as a manufacturing engineering minor. Ever since I began looking for colleges in high school, WIT was always my number one choice. I came from a vocational high school, and majored in machine technology. My upbringing as well as the shop allowed me to get my hands dirty, and I found work during a co-op as well. Machining is an area where strict standards and tolerances are imposed, so I was acclimated to that. But I wasn't extremely challenged in high school. I knew that the curriculum was exceptional, but it didn't give me the deep challenge I desire. That all changed at WIT. While I can assume most engineering programs are difficult at any school, Wentworth imposes a fast paced and rewarding curriculum (for me at least) but it is also extremely challenging and unforgiving. That is how it is meant to be.
From my perspective as a first year student, I encountered a stringent of lab reports and lectures to attend. My computer flooded with windows submitting BlackBoard documents and working on Google Docs with my physics classmates. The due dates were set in stone and you are very likely to get a whopping zero for late assignments. The other crippling feature was the tendency for the lack of partial credit. I get that though. Half Credit? Do you get half credit if you build a bridge, falls down and kills hundreds of people? The field of engineering seems so critical and daunting, who would want to tackle a major where failure is more likely than others? I am doing well, at the expense of some long nights, busy days, and headaches. But I love this with a passion. There are others who don't feel so deeply. With professions so necessary for society, we need a way to convey these STEM concepts well. I decided that I could gain perspective on this topic from a first year professor as well, so they might highlight the unique aspects of Wentworth.
I conducted an interview with Dr. Douglas Goodman, a Long Island native has always been interested in science. He spent his adolescent years in Connecticut where he pondered which science field he would major in. He spent his undergraduate years at Trinity College and he was a graduate student at UConn. This is his first year teaching at Wentworth. He has been my professor for our first two semesters respectively as a student and professor. He chose to come to Wentworth for a key reason: Wentworth is focused on the teaching mission, scholarly conditions come afterward. This is atypical with universities and colleges. What this means is that Wentworth's structure focuses professor time on their classrooms, lectures, labs, and curriculum. While scholarly conditions are still very relevant and becoming more encouraged as a means of involving the students, it is more broadly defined than other typical colleges.
What resonated with me in his reasoning for coming to Wentworth was the fact that he could focus on teaching. Dr. Goodman instructs a difficult but fair class. Newtonian motion, electrostatics, and magnetism weren't meant to be easy. But instead of watering down or babying the students, Dr. Goodman aims to shape his students into better problem solvers. Material is essentially arbitrary, but the ability to solve a problem will render you an asset to anyone. He does not give extra credit either, rather he makes extra credit available. He has iClicker questions integrated in his slides, which when answered correctly add extra credit points to your next exam. Not only does this help my grade, but it helps me and my peers stay on task and invest into coming to class and paying attention. If your lab group studies together and all of your raw scores are above a 70 on the test: Bonus five points. Dr. Goodman's approach is methodical. There has even been noticeable improvement in his classroom in a mere one semester of experience. He manages to teach abstract and complex physics through a means of real world applications, derived and thoughtfully explained equations and examples, as well as the repetition of problem solving processes.
What this led me to conclude is that if Wentworth has professors like Dr. Goodman, it's no wonder that they are pumping out skilled problem solvers who are stealing all the jobs in the Northeastern area and beyond. I mean we have a near 98% of graduates indicate that they were either employed or enrolled in graduate school. This comes at this expense however of a rather average retention rate for the first few years. But so be it.
STEM fields cannot be watered down nor spoon fed to baby students. Dr. Goodman told me that the majority of students at Wentworth create a positive yet hard working environment that values academic curiosity. He mentioned his department has a great attitude, they are collaborative and diverse. I would agree with him and that the students are as well. We all are very motivated, persistent, and engaged. Better innovators of the world are produced in these atmospheres, and the waves of graduates are living up to that title.
Institutions can learn from this approach. If they offer better faculty and methods of engaging and educating their students, they might produce more successful graduates. STEM fields are among the most difficult to grasp and study. Therefore it makes sense that the curriculum itself must be subjected to an iterative design process. In the sense, education has its own sociological and psychological input that is scientific at the core. It's important for professors and institutions to find a means of teaching the subjects and retaining the students. The discouragement must be minimized and the material must be digestible.
But it's not all about institutional and instructor responsibility. Students need to understand that the majors have bold and high expectations. If you plan on being an engineer or physicist then expect to be challenged every day. You shouldn't complain that the tests be made easier, you should study the material more. If you struggle doing that then find a better way to study. Our personal responsibility as students is the proprietor of our educational success. While professors can make or break a class, we need to remember that we'll only have them for one semester and we can learn the material regardless. "I can't do it" isn't an answer I normally hear at Wentworth and it shouldn't be one that any student serious about a line of work in this field. If you want change then professionally and objectively present the professor with your critique and hope they are like the mass of educators out there who are constantly trying to improve their performance. The worst case scenario is you bite your tongue and act like an adult. There will be people you work with who are similar, as we can see with our peers. It may not be fair, but that's life. And we must be able to handle intense adversity if we are to overcome the world's greatest problems.
The brightest of innovations and technologies require intense precision and persistence. Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, and Elon Musk did not shake their heads in disbelief as they forgot about a problem. They took to their resources and time and persisted on finding solutions. In turn they have made revolutionary advancements for us. Dr. Goodman is using his problem solving abilities and knowledge of atomic (AMO) physics to conduct research on atomic molecular optical topics. He is hoping that by studying collisions between neutral and charged particles at almost absolute zero (-469 degrees Fahrenheit), we can understand AMO theories to better implement cooling applications into exotic technology like quantum computers and atomic clocks. We have many minds working on interesting projects like these across the nation.
On the other spectrum however we have plenty of anecdotes that embody the consequences of not fulfilling this criteria. When engineers in charge of creating a walkway at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Kansas City decided to change the original design of their suspended catwalks in the hotel ballroom, they forgot to account for simply Newtonian physics. They clearly did not examine free-body diagrams, which are a cornerstone to solving any physics problem where forces are involved on a body. If they did they would have found that the style of walkways hanging from each other did not distribute the weight properly. In the original design each floor had respective rods and nuts to hold the weight, in the new design, the fourth floor walkway had to support its own weight as well as the second floor's weight. This caused collapsing during an event there where 114 people were killed and 216 were injured. There have been tremendous amounts of ethical violations in engineering and simple irresponsibility. These case studies are frequently found in our lectures and assignments, and rightfully so. We as engineers and designers must assertain to the highest of expectations.
My first year of college has conditioned me to save batteries on my calculator, and seldom copy and paste problems into Chegg. For a STEM field like mine, it deserves more respect than an inadequate student. I enjoy exercising the abilities that have been developed here. I've found more confidence in my work, and I've ventured into far projects and involved myself in many groups and organizations. Problem solving is universal to us, and it is a factor to what constitutes successful innovators and leaders. While we may be developing more advanced tools, we can't rely on them to solve our own problems and allow them to change our work ethic. They're tools, not crutches. If we are to continue our revolutionary trend in this technological age we must persist with an admirable and hard working ethic. The students at Wentworth demonstrate the qualities needed for prospective innovators, and its structure due to this nature is constantly being improved upon. We as a society can aspire to this behavior and attitude. The universality of an exceptional problem solver is the most valuable thing to us. We can learn from both students and educators as how to create an exceptional environment for both parties, so that both respective fields may advance; Educators are constantly changing their ways in order to find a balance of encouraging proficient students and retaining and encouraging students who struggle. Students and even educators must understand the real world necessity at hand. Our institution benefits from both our input, as does our community. The country needs architects, designers, engineers, mathematicians, physicists, biologists, chemists, etc... We as students at Wentworth and similar institutes are the ones who will fulfill those needs, and it's up to us how we progress and what we will be able to show the world.
