self study report

Process of Becoming a World Class Engineer

Lara El Said

UIN: 723008730

Group 4

Date turned in: 11/06/2015

ENGR 112-101

Introduction

My passion to become an engineer was not an inherited trait but instead my passion has grown

ever since I was about 10 years old and due to my passion for both math and science as well as

solving problems. As I grew older I realized that success is attitude, effort as well as approach.

At an early age I wasn’t able to decide which major specifically in engineering do I want to

pursue, but setting my career goal was never hard for me. I’ve always seen with a career that is

able to make a difference and change the world into a better place. One of the factors that

pushed me towards desiring to offer something to this world is my appreciation to the

opportunity I had to be an educated person. Later on in my high school year I realized that my

passion for chemistry that’s why I chose chemical engineering to be my major. I linked both my

ambition to fulfill my goal and my passion towards math and science specifically towards

chemistry to come up with my preferred major which is chemical engineering. My long-term

goal is not only becoming an engineer but also becoming a successful world class engineer. To

become this person I would face some obstacles as well as complications that I need to

overcome. For that reason I should be able to come up with a plan, to understand where does a

world class chemical engineer stands and where I am in order to be able to know how to move

from the place I stand to the place I want to reach, therefore I need to make my own roadmap.

This report will discuss what actions and activities I am required to take and perform as well as

my responsibilities to fulfill my dream in becoming a world-class engineer.

Goals and desire to become an engineer

A person without goals is a lost person. Goals give directions to the person to know where they

are going toward their life, to know what pathway to take, and to change the attitude and

lifestyle in order to take actions for the person to reach his goal. As Brian Tracy said in Eat that

Frog “Goals are the fuel in the furnace of achievement”. Therefore I believe that at first I need

to set my goals even before setting my plans, in order for the plans to be successful I need to

know where I want to reach. Setting a goal may not be easy, but the payoff is definitely worth

the effort (Raymond B. Landis). Being an engineer would fulfill my goals, one of my goals is to

benefit the society. I would like to apply my skillful knowledge to offer something beneficial to

this world. Engineering offers me the opportunity to achieve my goals and make a change in

this world. Engineering would give me the chance to make a difference in this world by

developing my intellectual stimulation by creatively thinking outside the box since engineering

is about my passion of solving problems and also about applying science to our real world. So in

other words being an engineering would mean achieving my goals in many aspects, such as

engineering would also fulfill my other goals such as having an exciting work environment and a

prestigious career as well as being financially satisfied. Which added my enthusiastic of being an

engineer and fulfilling my dream is the opportunities that engineering offer such as job

satisfaction, improvement of communication, social impact and many others. These goals can’t

be fulfilled by only attending an engineering university and getting an engineering degree but

instead by being a world class engineer which involves hard work with planning and

commitment. Setting up my goal is my first step of becoming a world class engineer, now I’m

supposed to take actions. Goals would give my life directions.

Small goals built up to the big goal

Big goals which is the person’s major goal needs time to be achieved therefore the person

needs to patient and motivated to work on their goal for later on, this can be done by breaking

down the big goal into small goals at the beginning. Small goals will build the pathway of big

goals. Therefore I decided to start fulfilling my small goals which will lead me to the path of my

large goal. My small goals that will lead me into the pathway of becoming a world class

engineer include graduating within 4 years from university with an outstanding GPA, participate

in activities as well as engineering clubs that would aid me later on in my career, and

participating in researches; all of these will help me gain experience for my larger goal which is

becoming a world class engineer. The small goals are the building blocks and bases for my big

goal.

Commitment to the goal

In order to achieve my goals I have to be committed to them. With commitment everything is

possible. That’s why although I would face stress from the workload and challenges I should not

give up and lose my commitment but instead I still should be as much as I was or even more

enthusiastic about becoming a world class chemical engineer. As Mario Andretti said “Desire is

the key to motivation, but it’s determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your

goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek”. If I was

not committed there would always be an indecision.

Strategies to be committed to my goal:

1. Understanding what an engineer is:

First thing I should do to be committed to my goal is to understand what exactly my goal

is. Understanding what engineering is not a simple thing such as a definition but instead

engineering is a process. Therefore I began by researching and found out that engineers

make dreams come true by applying science to the real world and solving problems.

2. Taking past engineers as role models:

Other successful engineers would motivate me to stay committed to my goal. Therefore

I looked at the table of the engineers among the 200 wealthiest individuals and was

reminded of the great chances that I might have in my life if I stayed committed. I

searched about Sergey Brin which is the co-founder of google and took him as my role

model to keep me committed to my goal, since role models helps the person to stay

committed to their goal.

3. Making a roadmap:

Developing a roadmap would encourage the person to reach till the end of their goals.

Developing my roadmap for the next 4 years I’ll spent in university before graduation

encouraged me to stay committed to my goal since engineering is a process that should

be taken step by step. Developing my roadmap broke down the step by step into 4 years

which will help me to succeed in the engineering program and encourage me to

complete till the end since after each step which is each semester in this case I would be

more confident and dedicated to accomplish my goal. Refer to Appendix 1 for the

roadmap I’ve created for my degree plan.

4. Seeking a source of motivation:

There would come a time where I wouldn’t be motivated and won’t feel like putting the

same effort as before. Therefore I should have a source of motivation to keep me

committed to my goal. I set my source of motivation to be rewarding myself from time

to time when completing the required tasks.

Being prepared to “Change from a high school to a university student”

At the beginning of my destiny I faced some difficulty by changing from a high school student to

a university student. I came to a realization that high school’s way of studying doesn’t work in

university and I need to change my attitude towards this thing. In high school time was

organized for the students and studying one day before the test was enough for me to even ace

the test while in university I had an education flip the first thing is that time is not structured,

students should be able to manage their own time and studying one day before the test is not

enough since connections about the concepts should be made for the topic to be more clear. In

addition the materials covered in the university are for sure more dense than the ones in high

school.

Moreover, I realized that I have some mistakes that I tend to do as a university student that I

should fix in order to maximize my chances of succeeding therefore I decided to take an action

toward these mistakes. My first mistake I did as a university student is Studying 100% alone.

Studying with others is useful since it helps a student to fix any misunderstandings he had

about the topic and studying with others would help you exchange information which yields

into learning from others knowledge as well as experience. For that reason I committed myself

that I need to collaboratively study with others in a while. Another mistake that I did is I

avoided professors outside the class but it turned out that students who interact with

professors outside the class are the strong students. At the beginning of my university path I

didn’t like going to a professor’s office but later on I realized that when I started to go to the

offices to clarify stuff and ask questions my academic performance improved.

All of these important stuff I should take care of when moving from a high school student to a

university student. As I mentioned before in university time is not organized as in high school

therefore managing time is such an important factor for a university student to succeed.

Changing attitudes in order to succeed in courses

I have acknowledged some specific strategies that would help me to perform an outstanding

performance in my courses to be able to become a world class engineering. The strategies

include:

1. Devoting my time to study

I should be able to dedicate some time for studying which would come from managing

my time. To be a successful student I need to practice more, therefore devoting more

time to my studies would improve my performance in the course.

2. Not piling up the studies

Studying after each lecture would not pile the studies for later on and by that would

save me time and effort for later on. Therefore I should be able to review the materials

covered in class as soon as possible after the lecture to help in the process of studying

for an exam.

3. Studying with others

As mentioned previously collaboratively studying with others would fix any

misunderstanding I had towards the subject as well as help me gain knowledge and

experience from others which will improve my performance in the courses. Another

beneficial side of studying in groups is that the student would be motivated to study

when surrounded by a studying environment.

4. Interacting with professors

As I also mentioned before students should not avoid professors. Professors are here to

help students. Since also professors contribute in my learning and grades I should be

able to leave a positive reflection about myself and that occurs by respecting them,

avoiding any behaviors they dislike as well as showing interest in the studies.

5. Being prepared before the lecture

Preparing the studies before going to class would help me to interact more in class and

have a background about what the professor is explaining and that will help me into

understanding the material more and being more focused. Preparing the material

before class can happen by checking the syllabus, reading lecture notes (if available)

before attending the class, or even reading the content from the book.

6. Planning a successful studying schedule

Coming up with a successful studying schedule will help me organize and manage my

time in studying. This is done by setting up my priorities in the studying according to the

urgency and importance of the subject. Planning a successful studying schedule would

show me how much effort I need to put in each course.

7. Avoid procrastination

Procrastinating will pile up the work and makes the student to stress later on. One way

that helped me to avoid procrastination is to always remind myself that there is more of

work to be done by this I would pressurize myself to start working.

8. Build self-esteem and manage stress

I should never give up even though the work might seem complicated I need to keep

reminding myself with effort I’ll be able to achieve anything and by that I’ll also avoid

stress.

9. Ask questions

At the beginning I didn’t like to ask questions, but later on I realized that who asks

questions get stuff cleared up before the exam therefore performs well. That’s why I

decided whenever I’m lost in a certain topic I’m supposed to ask questions and not be

shy.

10. Leading a healthy life

Leading a healthy life is one of the factors that most students neglect the importance of.

Health contributes to the mental abilities as well as productivity. As they say “a sound

mind in a healthy body”. To lead a healthy life I should exercise, eat nutritionally,

exercise almost daily, and get enough sleep at night (try to get an eight hour sleep).

11. Using campus resources

The university offers many academic resources that would aid me to academically

perform well. I should use these resources wisely to improve my academic

achievements. These resources include consulting an academic advisor, seeking help

from tutoring centers, as well as attending any workshops that would be useful

academically such as time/stress managing workshop, or even writing a report/essay

workshop.

Time management and specifying priorities

To be able to manage time in university is a critical part that not all students are able to do.

However to be a world class engineering I should be able to manage my time wisely. Managing

my time would give me enough time to study and practice to excel academically and will also

reduce my stress level. One helpful technique to manage my time was using the urgent-

important matrix. The urgent-important matrix helped me to distinguish the activities from

importance and urgency in order to make a progress toward my goal. This matrix showed me

how not to confuse urgent activities with important activities in order not to waste my time and

devote my energy while not fulfilling the needed result. This matrix helped me to learn how to

apply time management to my life. The matrix is divided into 4 quadrants. Quadrant 1 which is

urgent and important is used for crisis tasks. Quadrant 2 which has the important but not

urgent tasks is used for goals and planning. Quadrant 3 which is the urgent but not important

tasks include the interruptions. The last quadrant which is quadrant 4 has the not urgent and

not important tasks which are the distractions that I am supposed to avoid. Refer to figure 1 to

check my urgent-important matrix with the tasks.

I-Urgent and Important1) making last minute changes2) attending project meetings3) doing project report4) solving a problem (crisis) 5) attending lectures and doing the

assignments

II- Not Urgent, Important1) Planning and scheduling2) designing the project3) testing the project4) system development5) preparing for exams early

III- Urgent, Not Important1) unimportant requests from others2) transform data into knowledge3) set up research4) improving research skills5) disagreement from misunderstanding

among teams

IV- Not Urgent, Not Important1) unnecessary web-surfing2) adjusting equipment3) over production4) relaxing excessively5) wasting time

-

Figure 1: urgent-important matrix

I am supposed to spend the majority of my time on the important but not urgent tasks, since

they are the tasks that pay off for the long term and help me fulfill my goals. Therefore I should

try to move activities into quadrant II by starting the required tasks of the project early

although they are not urgent at the moment. So in other words the task that would be urgent

at one point in the future should be moved to quadrant II and not neglected because by

spending my time to complete the tasks in quadrant II I would avoid the pressure that I would

face later on in quadrant I since they are urgent tasks. So by starting to work on the activities

earlier which means that moving the required activities into quadrant II and make it priority

would pay off in the long term since I would complete the task before it becomes urgent, by

that I would save time for the future in the urgent and important tasks. Quadrant 2 is the

milestone of quadrant 1

Improving learning skills

I should understand what my learning skills are since the learning style would affect my

pathway to my goal. I need to understand what type of learning skills I have to be able to find a

productive way to learn and work on the other learning skills that I need to gain to be able to

reach my goal of becoming a world class engineer. To understand my learning style and skills I

did a survey that revealed to me what my learning styles are. Check figure 2 for the results of

the survey.

Result Analysis

The results revealed that I’m fairly

well balanced on the two

dimension of the scale of all the

learning styles. It was revealed

that I am an active learner as well

as a reflective learner, I am a

sensing learner as well as an

intuitive learner, I am a visual and

verbal learner, and a sequential

and global learner. In other words I am able to perform with two opposite learning styles.

The results showed that I can learn in both situations by being active or silent since active

learners learn by working with groups and being active by finding a way to apply the

information and reflective learners learn by thinking quietly about the material by writing

notes. The second scale shows that I do not like memorizing instead I like to connect the

information I know to real life problems, and read the whole question carefully to prevent

careless mistakes. I liked that I’m well balanced for the characteristics of the second scale since

this will aid me in the engineering world. The third scale showed that I’m both visual and verbal

learner which means that I can learn from pictures, figures, drawings and other similar stuff or

by written and spoken explanations such as notes or group discussions. The last scale is the

scale that made me surprised the most since I thought that I’m more of a global learner than a

sequential one. Since global learners first skim through the entire chapter then suddenly “get

it” which means they learn in large jumps while sequential learners tend to fill in skipped steps

so they understand in linear and logical steps by also relating older topics to things that they

already know so they make connections.

How to improve my learning process

The results showed me that I can improve my behavior in order to develop my academic

success. I can change my behavior regarding two characteristics first by improving my reflective

side since I’m mildly more active and improving my global learning since I’m also mildly more

sequential. To be able to cope with various learning styles would give me the opportunity to be

able to cope in any learning environment. Therefore I would like to work on strengthening each

of learning skill to be able to be a world class engineer. I am planning to strengthen my

weakness in some of the learning styles such as to start to think of the material a little bit more

before trying it and seeing how it works. Secondly to strengthen a little bit of my global thinking

I should start relating new topics into previous topics (make connections), this will make me to

understand the topic more.

Team work and leadership skills

Team work is a very important thing to engineers especially in the future in my career.

Therefore to be a world-class engineer I should be able to be an effective leader to be able to

work in teams. An engineer should be able to have good communication skill since engineering

would include design project teams, laboratory groups, research teams and other types of work

that would include working in groups. To improve my team work skills I should work on these

techniques:

Listening cautiously to others would improve my way of communicating with others. I

should practice to be able to explain my ideas clearly and freely

I should improve my management skills, to be able to manage task I should also work on

organization. First of all I should be able set goals for the meetings and that is

accomplished by being organized by setting an agenda. To be a good leader I should

make sure that all the team members should participate in meetings as well as the

projects.

Developing integrity and ethical behaviors

To become a world class engineer the most important trait of an engineer should not be

neglected which is integrity. Therefore honor is the most important trait to me, I believe a

person can build their integrity by interacting with trustfulness professional people that

worship integrity and honor. A person can also build his integrity by facing challenges and

respecting other people’s properties. Every single person likes the type of people who do not

cheat or steal as well as treats everyone equally with no exceptions in other words a person

with high manners. These are the traits and behaviors that I seek on having in my personality to

become a world class engineer.

Summary

To be a world class engineer is not a simple thing and needs an effort to reach to this stage. To

reach to this level I need to understand where do I stand and what steps I should take to

improve my behavior towards the best. All of what’s been mentioned from setting small goals

to lead to long terms, time management, working on improving my learning styles, deciding

priorities, up unit developing some important traits such as being a good leader, having good

communicating skills as well as developing the essential ethical behaviors, all will help into

becoming a world-class engineer and improving who I am today and where to I stand. To fulfill

my dream it needs an effort therefore I’ve created a list to be able to identify where I need to

strengthen myself. One important thing that will help me reach my goal to become a world

class engineer is my desire and dedication to be one.

Appendix 1

Year 2014, Fall Credits Year 2015, Spring Credits

CHEM 107 3 CHEM 102 3

CHEM 117 1 CHEM 112 1

ENGL 104 3 ENGR 111 2

MATH 150 4 MATH 151 4

UGST 1 PHYS 218 4

POLS 3

Total Credits 12 Total Credits 17

Year 2015, Summer Credits Year 2015, Fall Credits

ENGR 112 2 CHEM 227 3

MATH 152 4 CHEM 237 1

CHEN 204 3

MATH 251 3

PHYS 208 4

ENGL 251 3


Year 2016, Spring Credits Year 2016, Summer Credits

MEEN 221 3 ENGL 210 3

CHEM 228 3

CHEM 238 1

CHEN 205 3

MATH 380 3

HIST 105 3



CHEM 316 2 CHEM 322 3

CHEM 318 1 CHEN 323 3

CHEN 304 3 CHEN 382 3

CHEN 313 3 ECEN 215 3

CHEN 354 3 POLYS 207 3

CHEN 320 3

ENGR 482 3



CHEN 414 1 CHEN 426 3

CHEN 424 3 CHEN 433 1

CHEN 425 3 CHEN 461 3

CHEN 455 3 CHEN 451 3

CHEN 464 3 CHEN 459 3

CHEN 481 1 HLTH 236 3

HIST 106 3


Work-Cited

Landis, Raymond B. “Studying Engineering: A road Map to a Rewarding Career”, 4th Edition,

Discovery Press, Los Angeles, California, 2012.

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