I started working on this project a little over a
year and a half ago. My project began when I was approached by Dr. Jen about working on the project. This project has been enjoyable to research and now recently to construct. This project became very important to my long-term goals because it allowed me to experience
what it is like to create something along side of other engineers. The project also has a vision of helping to provide a clean source of energy to other countries that are in need. That is important to me because as an engineer it is important to me to be able to create something positive for the world.
Each week is different with this project. I am the head of a small
engineering team that meets weekly to discuss calculations needed for
the project and ideas of how to advance it. Currently we have begun construction and each
week we move forward with that. Once the meeting comes to a close I usually delegate work to
different people then I figure out what I need to find during the week as well as help
others with any questions. I also regularly meet with professors to check the work that has been
done to ensure our project is not missing anything or is incorrect in any way.
This all has
allowed me to discover myself as a leader and as an engineer. It has also allowed me to discover what real world research is like
because I have had to figure out mathematics that I have never done before, and I have had to learn about turbines which I knew little about coming into the project.
Studying other people’s designs and learning how to calculate things and create a
design of my own using real world resources truly made me realize how fun engineering can be.
