Rose-Hulman & Rose-Poly Check-in

[kirkorner]

ME 2009
J & N Metal Products
L.W. Sanders, Thom Adams, Pat Ferro, Eccles

 

[rhino]

kirkorner and notasccrmom are so new that they're still in the wrapper!

 

[rmcrob]

No doubt they are anticipating finals for the second quarter, which will be their last set of finals unless that has changed in the last thirty-some years.

 

[Fletch]

Got accepted way back in 1989, got a partial scholarship, couldn't afford the rest. Went elsewhere. But it would have been cool.

 

[notasccrmom]

No doubt they are anticipating finals for the second quarter, which will be their last set of finals unless that has changed in the last thirty-some years.

Still the same, but I'm concentrating my energy on this set of finals before I start thinking about my last.

 

[esrice]

I would ask if you all still have tape holding your eyeglasses together, but I'm sure you grads can afford Lasik now. . .

 

[jblomenberg16]

Haven't jumped up to Lasik yet...them darn physics and applied optics guys really scared me away from lasers and the like, unless they're strapped on a rail on the bottom of a tacticool rifle or pistol.

For the last 10 years or so I've really been impressed by this new technology known as contact lenses.


Man, I keep forgetting about the other guys I really liked there...Stienstra, Ovens, GIBSON!!! I even got a kick out of Dr. Morin in Mechatronics.

Sometimes when I'm hard at it at work, I'll have a flashback to Dr. Gibson saying, "Now In Industry" with his unique groaning voice accent.

Come to think of it, I really only had a couple of profs I didn't like there.

I didn't like my D.E. 1 professor (can't even rember his name), but he thought that all Sophmore ME students new how to program Matlab to solve complex differentials. He only lasted about a year I think. Didn't learn a darn thing other than how not to fail a class that you have no clue as to what is going on.

I made the mistake of taking a Film class, and again, can't think of the prof's name. But I dropped it at mid term when I couldn't accurately determine the lens filter used in certain scenes of Mcabe and Ms. Miller.

 

[rhino]

Man, I keep forgetting about the other guys I really liked there...Stienstra, Ovens, GIBSON!!! I even got a kick out of Dr. Morin in Mechatronics.

Stienstra is after my time, but I think I've met him at gun club events.

Andy Mech joined the faculty immediately after I left and I think he seems like a good guy. When I was at UC Berkeley, the UI of grads spoke highly of him when they found out I was from R-HIT and they knew he'd taken a job there.

To my, Bill Ovens is the exemplar of everything that is good about an engineer. He is the role model. He even looks (or did) the part, as you'd be hard pressed to pick him out of a crowd of late 1960s NASA engineers huddled together for a group photo.

He's also the guy that helped me turn the corner from being a scared freshman to being an actual ME major. I had him for graphical communications and the freshman design class, so I got know and like him and his style. Then I had him for my first "real" engineering class: statics. I got a 60% on my first exam and I panicked! It was the first time I'd ever failed any kind of exam and I knew I was doomed. My initial reaction was to flee to the chemistry department.

Initially (and probably still), chemistry was my strength. I got placed in the first quarter in Frank Guthrie's chem I class with all of the chem and chem e majors after we took placement exams, and I did well. Then I had Dennis Lewis for chem II, where I also did well. When I thought I was doomed as an engineer, I went straight to Dr. Lewis who was the chairman of the chem dept. then.

After I explained my story and told him I wanted to change my major to chem, he was able to stop laughing after a short while. Apparently I wasnt the first guy to fail an exam (who knew?). He told me I would be welcome in his department next year, but that I should wait a while and see if I really wanted to switch. That was first rate advice from a wise man.

So, I knew I couldn't fail a course. Getting a B in US History from 1865 to the present with Bill Pickett was traumatic enough. Getting a bad grade in a core course in my major was unthinkable. So I went to Dr. Ovens office and threw myself on the mercy of the court.

Now, some guys would have been soft and gentle, but Dr. Ovens was professional and expected it from all of us as well. He had me explain to him which concepts and problems had caused difficulty for me. After identifying the areas where I needed help, he had me work problems in front of him on the little blackboard in his office (it was actually green... no "whiteboards" back then!). When I finished the first problem, I asked him if my solution was correct. His response freaked me out: he said, "I don't know. Is it? You tell me."

So he forced me to convince him that I knew I was right. We continued until both of us were satisfied I was on the right track. That time in his office that day was what started me turning the corner to developing confidence in my own abilities, which was sadly lacking before that (and had regressed since then). He helped me learn some statics that day, but he helped me learn a far more valuable lessson about how to learn, how to teach myself, and how important confidence truly is in all areas of life. I am in his debt and I only hope that I can do a fraction for my students what he did for me.

Oh, I eventually got an "A" in statics.


Dr. Morin was another great character. I assume that everyone after us (and probably some before) called him "Papa Smurf" as well (maybe not to his face, of course). For those who don't know him, he looked exactly like Papa Smurf, but a little less blue. If he liked you, he was great. He could be a little grouchy with people who tested his patience. One of the reasons he liked me is because I was meticulous with my graphic solutions in kinematics (the first class I had with him). I used Purdue Form F graph paper (with 1cm major grids and 1mm minor grids, printed in amber on heavy white paper). For the given information, I would go over my pencil with ink, then leave the solution and all of my work in pencil. That was one situation where being neat and precise made a huge difference in the accuracy of your answer.

I also had Papa Smurf for Microcomputer Utilization, which was doing machine language/op code programming of Motorola 6800-series microprocessors back then. The human interface was a hexidecimal keypad. I'm not sure how things are now, but I suspect those skills are a dying or dead art nowadays, much like pencil/paper drafting.

 

[rhino]

. . . he thought that all Sophmore ME students new how to program Matlab to solve complex differentials.

Hah! When I was in school, MATLAB was a mini-computer application, all text based, that had only recently been recompiled (in FORTRAN, of course) for IBM PCs and compatibles. It only had a command line interface and I never learned to use it well enough to exploit its capabilities. It was handy for inverting matrices and other matrix operations, but it could do more even back then.

Methinks it's a whole new beast now!

I was there when microcomputers were "new" on campus. The first network of IBM PCs (JANET) was installed when I was a freshman. Later on, the school got a contract with Zenith for provide computers to the school and make them for sale to students as well. My first serious computer was a Zenith model 161-2, which was a "portable" that weighed between 45 and 50 lbs (not joking). It had a built-in amber CRT monitor (a whoppin 9 inches diagonally), and two 360 kB floppy disk drives (we couldn't afford the monstrously expensive 10 MB hard drive!). It had an Intel 8088 CPU and 512 kB of RAM, which was almost all you could get then (some other brands has 640 kB). The operating system was MS-DOS, version 1.XX. Heh.

Things have changed just a wee bit!

 

[notasccrmom]

Sometimes when I'm hard at it at work, I'll have a flashback to Dr. Gibson saying, "Now In Industry" with his unique groaning voice accent.

HAH! He still says that quite often... actually they all do.

Stienstra and Gibson are both very pro-gun dudes and very cool professors. Dr. Mech is also a good guy. I had him for Heat Transfer and he's full of corny jokes.

MATLAB is still largely text based, but it's definitely more powerful now.

 

[rhino]

Okay, I had no idea Gibson was pro-RKBA. I will try to "reassess."

 

[notasccrmom]

My first day taking a class with him, he had everyone get up and introduce themselves in front of the class and say a bit about themselves, hobbies, etc. I mentioned my shooting hobby and he quickly pointed out that he was an NRA member. He always talks about his old tractors and stuff too. He's a good ol' boy.

 

[cougar_guy04]

My first day taking a class with him, he had everyone get up and introduce themselves in front of the class and say a bit about themselves, hobbies, etc. I mentioned my shooting hobby and he quickly pointed out that he was an NRA member. He always talks about his old tractors and stuff too. He's a good ol' boy.

He talked to me one day about his shooting too once he found out I was involved with the gun club. In one of the design "labs" we were talking about simple designs that revolutionized their field. A group did the "bullet" and he took about 5 minutes to explain to them that it was a cartridge and the bullet was what was sitting at the end of the cartridge. He was a bit boring, but I loved the good ol' boy aspect of him.

 

[rhino]

My impression of him was (is) affected by the fact that he demonstrated a strong disliking of me. Of course, when I knew him, guns, rights, and politice played no role in my awareness.

 

[jblomenberg16]

My Mechatronics class was programming the Motorolla 6811 (I think that was what it was.) That was a pretty interesting class, and we made a pretty cool final project.

You know those things that cars have these days that beep when you get too close to something? We did that in 2000 on a remote control car, and not just in reverse, but in the blindspots and front too.

I'm pretty sure the back up sensors were in production cars in 2000, but just recently saw the blind spot sensors on Volvos I think.

Oh, and I got to be pretty handy at FORTRAN 90 too thanks to Dr. North. I thought I'd never run across a FORTRAN program in a million years after I graduated, and wouldn't you know it I did. It had since been upgraded, but the original program was done in FORTRAN in the 80's.

 

[jblomenberg16]

Speaking of professors and guns, do they still require Freshman to take the Military History and Military Science classes?

I don't remember my teacher, but it was an Army Officer who looked like Vanilla Ice.

We got to go down to the range that was over by ISU's football field and learn basic Pistol handling and marksmanship. If we were sucessful, we got an actual Marksmanship qualification medal with the Pistol Bar. I thought that was pretty cool.

We also got to the State Pen and do the repelling course, learned how to make a Swiss Seat, and finally how to cross the creek through campus on using a rope, a swiss seat, and a carabiner.

My team beat the ROTC team too, which was cool!

 

[notasccrmom]

I wish we still did all that, but sadly we don't. It isn't required anyways.

 

[rhino]

Oh, and I got to be pretty handy at FORTRAN 90 too thanks to Dr. North. I thought I'd never run across a FORTRAN program in a million years after I graduated, and wouldn't you know it I did. It had since been upgraded, but the original program was done in FORTRAN in the 80's.

Hah! We used FORTRAN 77 and were damn grateful for the opportunity! Whippersnapper!

Hey ... did you ever see Dr. North pull his pants up with his elbows? You don't notice it until someone tells you to watch for it . . .

 

[rhino]

We got to go down to the range that was over by ISU's football field and learn basic Pistol handling and marksmanship. If we were sucessful, we got an actual Marksmanship qualification medal with the Pistol Bar. I thought that was pretty cool.

They promised us we'd get to shoot, but it never happened. We never even saw a real, live M16. What a ripoff!

You guys got to qualify and get medals!

 

[rhino]

I wish we still did all that, but sadly we don't. It isn't required anyways.

For us, the first two quarters of ROTC were mandatory. I did the third quarter voluntarily! We got to learn some cool stuff too. We got a briefing on the "High Frontiers" program before it became "Star Wars" after it went "public." It was cooler and far more feasible before it was Star Wars. My favorite lecture was the NBC weapons lecture that the chairman of the chem dept. gave to us (Dennis Lewis). He was a LTC in the US Army Reserves at the time.

Too bad you didn't get to see me marching, about facing, right facing, etc.

Did you take the classes anyway? They were a good GPA booster if nothing else.