Raymond B. Landis - Studying Engineering: A Road Map to a Rewarding Career

Studying Engineering

A Road Map to a Rewarding Career

Fourth Edition

by

Raymond B. Landis, Dean Emeritus

College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology

California State University, Los Angeles

Published by:

Discovery Press

Los Angeles, California

www.discovery-press.com

Permissions and Copyrights

Cover design by Dave McNutt

Chapter title illustrations by Brian Jefcoat

Graphic illustrations by Kerry Lampkin

Case study of University of Maryland Gamera human-powered helicopter project by permission of Inderjit Chopra, Director of the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center

Franklin Chang-Diaz photo in Chapter 1 courtesy of National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Studying Engineering: A Road Map to a Rewarding Career, Fourth Edition

Discovery Press/2013

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

All rights reserved.

Copyright 2013 by Raymond B. Landis

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior permission in writing from the author.

ISBN 978-0-9793487-4-7

Inquiries and comments should be addressed to:

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TO KATHY

FOREWORD

When I was a sophomore in high school, I decided that I wanted to be a chemical engineer when I grew up. I could invent all sorts of reasons for this decision that would make me sound like an unusually wise and thoughtful 15-year-old, but they would all be lies.

The truth is at the time there was a great job market for engineers, and stories of red carpets and multiple job offers and outlandishly high starting salaries were laid on us regularly by teachers and counselors and in my case, by my parents. Just about every boy who could get a B or better in math and science courses decided that he was born to be an engineer, and I saw no reason to buck the trend. Why chemical engineering? Because sadly, this is also the truth I had gotten a chemistry set for my birthday, and I thought pouring one liquid into another and having it turn green was seriously cool.

Like most of my engineering-bound classmates, I knew nothing about what engineers actually did for a living, and when I enrolled in chemical engineering at the City College of New York two years later, I still knew nothing. There was a freshman orientation course, but it was just the old Sleep 101 parade of unenthusiastic professors delivering dreary 40-minute sermons about civil engineering, mechanical engineering, and so forth. Its a wonder that this course didnt drive more students away from engineering than it motivated. Perhaps it did.

My ignorance persisted for pretty much the next three years as I worked through the math and physics and chemistry and thermo and transport and circuits you have to know to graduate in engineering but constitute only a small fraction of what engineers actually do. It wasnt until I got into the unit operations lab in my fourth year and then spent a summer in industry that I started to get a clue about what engineering is really about figuring out why things arent working the way theyre supposed to and fixing them, and designing and building other things that work better or work just as well but cost less.

And what engineers did for a living was only the tip of the iceberg of what I didnt know as a freshman. In high school I rarely cracked a textbook and still came out with nearly straight As, but it only took one college physics exam to let me know that the game had changed. I also left high school thinking I was a great writer, but the D+ on my first English paper set me straight about that too. Plus, I didnt know how to take effective notes, summarize long reading assignments, prepare for and take tests, or strike a good balance between school and the rest of my life. I could go on but you get the idea.

I eventually figured it out, of course. If I hadnt, I wouldnt have graduated and gone on to become an engineering professor and the author of this foreword. Unfortunately, many of my classmates never did get it, and most of them were gone by the end of the second year. And I know they had the ability to succeed.

I dont think engineering school should be an academic obstacle course designed to weed out students who have the ability to succeed but lack basic study skills. If something is important for students to know, theres nothing wrong with giving them some guidance in figuring it out. We do that routinely with math and science and control and design. Why not do it with studying and learning?

Thats where Ray Landis and Studying Engineering come in. The book is a compendium of everything I wish someone had told me during my freshman year of college. If I could have read it then, even if I had only absorbed a fraction of the wisdom it contains, I would have been spared the major headache of having to learn it the hard way. And if the book had been used in a first-year engineering course taught by a knowledgeable and supportive instructor, the next four years of my life would have been far less stressful, and many of my talented classmates who dropped out as freshmen and sophomores would instead have graduated with me.

Virtually everything students need to know to succeed in engineering school is detailed in Studying Engineering. Using a conversational tone and numerous real-world examples and anecdotes, Professor Landis paints a vivid picture of the vast range of things engineers do, the world-changing things they have done in the past, and the challenges to problem-solving ability and creativity that engineers routinely face. He also introduces students to the learning process how it works, when and why it goes wrong, and how to avoid the pitfalls that have ensnared generations of engineering students (including those unfortunate classmates of mine).

Moreover, Studying Engineering introduces its readers to themselves and to one another, providing insights into different ways people approach learning tasks and respond to instruction. Students who take this material to heart will gain a better understanding of their own strengths and weaknesses, learning ways to capitalize on the former while overcoming the latter. Their new knowledge will also improve their ability to communicate with their classmates, teammates, and professors. These insights and skills will serve them well throughout college and their subsequent professional careers, whether or not they remain in engineering.

If you are an engineering educator who teaches first-year students, I invite you to think about the things you wish someone had told you when you were a freshman and then use Studying Engineering to help convey those messages.

If you are a student, I encourage you to pay close attention to the book because it will teach you how to get the most out of your engineering education. If youre going to succeed and excel in engineering school and down the road as an engineering professional, youll need to learn these things sooner or later. My advice is to do it sooner.