Welcome to Julia Thorpe's AE Senior Thesis e-Portfolio
Reflection & ABET Outcome Survey
AE 481W/482 Course Reflection
My first experience with thesis happened during the end of my second year of college when Prof. Ling required everyone in his AE 202 class to attend some thesis presentations. We also had to ask 5th-years questions about their project. I remember sitting there thinking I have no idea what they are talking about. How am I ever going to do this, let alone ask an intelligent question?
Each year I went to more presentations and each year I could follow what was being presented a little bit more. And I also knew more of the 5th-years each year so I was beginning to have a better understanding of what exactly I was up against. I was terrified. Sitting in on the presentations during my fourth year, all I could think about was “this is going to be me this year….” and dreading it.
But fifth year happened and it became real. I was indeed working on my thesis. Finding a building was an impossible task and I found most people to be very unhelpful. In the end I did not have a choice of buildings and was given a very complex laboratory. The lab was large and designed in such a unique was that analyzing and redesigning it way beyond the scope of a thesis project and would require more time then was available.
The technical assignments during the fall semester I found to be very educational. I learned a great deal about the design process and design standards. The downside what the lack of information I had to work worth. I had to make a great deal of assumptions about the design of my building and I am still fairly sure that my results were no where near accurate. But I told myself that it was the process that was important, and I kept on working. In all I would say that it was a successful semester and everything I learned with be helpful with my career in the future.
Second semester was another story. This is where my lack of information became a problem. My contacts with the building were the project managers. This would have been helpful if I had been a construction option student. As I am not, my contacts were not able to help with much more than providing information about the building, not about the system design. I did not feel that the discussion board would be helpful as my mechanical system was too complicated to be discussed trough email communication. The drawings need to be looked at and studied and then maybe I could ask questions. I also did not find that professors were eager to bounce ideas around with me. All of this I found very discouraging and left me with little or no direction. For projects as important as the department makes them out to be, I would have thought that there would have been more support from within the department.
In the end I feel that I did learn a great deal about problem solving and learning about a system from design documents. I also feel I learned a great deal about how to deal with a great deal of stress and pressure. If nothing else, the presentation was a wonderful opportunity for a shy girl like me to overcome my fears and give a good presentation.
Looking back, I don’t think I needed to be so worried about thesis during the beginning of my college career. It is a manageable project. My best advice for younger students is to keep everything in perspective. It is just a project. You will already have a job and the beginning of your life lined up. Your fifth year is the last year you have in college. Don’t give that up for a project. As my grandfather says, “Don’t let your education get in the way of your college career.”
CPEP & Discussion Board Reflection
I really liked the webpage templates we were provided. I thought they were professional and “pleasing to the eye.” I am thankful that we were provided with these templates because I have a very small knowledge about webpage design. It would have been a shame to have spent a large amount of time designing my webpage instead of working on my actual report. So thanks Eric. I really appreciate it.
As stated in my reflection, I did not use the discussion board. I know other students found it very helpful, so I think it’s probably a good service to have. There were very few emails sent from my option. I don’t think we felt this particular form of communication would be able to meet our needs. But I do appreciate the willingness of all the engineers who were willing to help us.