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lauren quotes

Lauren’s Quotes #6

[274-277; 282-290] This semester I also took a circuits class that’s required for my engineering major, and it was 100% project-based, so we would do some coding thing with what we already know and then turn in a short paper about it. Then move onto the next project. So, this semester is the first semester that they’ve structured the class as project-based. In the past, it’s been a class that’s learning how to solve circuit diagrams, which no one liked, so they’ve decided to revamp it. At the beginning of the semester, we had a couple of lectures, but for the most part, it was new projects. The first couple of projects we pulled from the instruction booklet. The booklet provides information on how you make a light blink and just really simple stuff like that. Then for a little bit, our TA was finding projects online for us to work on. Eventually, it was like, hey, look for your own projects online to work on.

[293-298; 301-311] A lot of the projects were super easy, and we finished them in less than a class period. For example, the blinking lights was pretty easy, and then as we went through the semester, the projects got harder. The last project we completed took a bunch more effort, but it was also our final project and we had to do a presentation on it. As far as the final project, we were told to pick our own project. My group and I decided to find something that’s not simple like plug in a light and turn it on with a button. Instead, we found an automatic watering device online that waters plants automatically, but the code was a bit buggy. And the class didn’t like to teach us to code with what we already know. It was more, here’s how you wire stuff, but we had a bunch of trouble with debugging the code. Debugging the code was hardest part about the project. The presentations are pretty easy, it was two to three minutes per group, because we have a bunch of groups. And you just went up there, and you’re like, hey, automatic watering system. Here’s a video of how it works.

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lauren quotes

Lauren’s Quotes #7

[88-89; 128-134] In addition to coursework, I am an undergraduate researcher working with a professor who studies Nano-materials. The Professor is like my boss, I guess. He’s a dude who runs the whole lab, and he tells us like, hey, we’re going to work on this project, or we’re going to work on that project. But he was one of the people who went up to the national lab to do the measurements. In general, he’s the one that knows most of what he’s doing at the lab, because he’s actually a doctor. He’s actually got a doctorate. So yeah, he knows a bunch of stuff about magnetism and Nano-materials.

[96-103; 112-125] When I first started on the project, I read textbooks to try and understand what magnetism is and stuff, but since then, I’ve been working in the lab more, because the professor let me know that I understood the material good enough. Most of my role as a research assistant involves running simulations on my computer, just part of why getting a new computer was really great. Lately, I’ve been using a program called Riffle 1D that takes reflectometry data. We’re doing neutron scattering, so we’re bouncing a neutron off of a sample, and then seeing what it looks like on the other side. And that’ll get measurements from the depth of it and how far apart the things are on the sample. So, once we get the data from the reflectometry, we put it into Riffle 1D, and then we have a code that says which things will have a layer of silicon and then a layer of gadolinium and a layer of other elements. And eventually we’ll it with air at the very end. Riffle 1D does is it changes the parameters for the thing, so we’ll be like, hey, we think the silicon is an instrum tall. And then Riffle 1D will be like, hey, to make it match the reflectometry data, the silicon got to be like two instrums tall. But if what we put in originally doesn’t work with the data at all, I go through and I change it to try and see if I can get it to work at all. Yeah.

[431-433; 435-439] This research opportunity led to me receiving an internship offer to work at the national lab. The professor I work with in the lab mentioned how there was an internship at the national lab we collaborate with, the place he did the measurements, for experiments. He encouraged me to apply for the internship. I said, okay, I’ll do that. And so, I applied for it. And I got the job, the internship, the job, I’m going to be working on the same project that I’m doing here. So, I’m going to be doing it at the National lab, so I’ll be able to do some actual measurements, and not just do stuff on the computer.

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john quotes

John’s Quotes #3

[7-54] After Thanksgiving, I realized that I was going to fail a class. I had to choose between engineering and physics. The engineering was just statics, and it was a very first engineering class and the very first one that involved math and physics to a more practical degree. I decided to stop going to that class so I could focus on physics. Physics I realized that I had to pass it. I stopped going to the mechanical class and I’m taking that class now. I’m doing a lot better in that now, so there’s hope. During the last few weeks of the semester I realized that I wasn’t going pass physics either. I ended up going through the class and I got a ton of second chances from my TAs and my professor for pulling my grade up. Because of my depression, I didn’t have enough energy to pull myself through those hoops. My problem was that I thought I knew everything. I ended up skipping the class. I ended up failing. and the depression didn’t help. In the end, I ended up failing both statics and physics. Which is fine. I ended up talking to an electrical engineer who has actually helped through failing classes for the past few years. He’s someone that I look up to highly. Hearing that I was going to be okay, it really helped. I feel less bad about failing classes now.

[33-54] I went back home after finals. On the ride home, I talked to my mom about my mental health and about how I failed the classes because she has access to my grades. I let her know that it was a combination of both the difficulty of the classes and my mental health. And now, over thinking it, I think a lot of it was just the mental health because it was more me trying to get the energy to do work. I do struggle with that still. My mom, she doesn’t quite understand mental illness quite as much as my sisters and I would like. My younger sister is going through mental illness. She is diagnosed with depression, anxiety and ADHD. Last week, I was just diagnosed with major depressive disorder. My mom is having a hard time understanding why can’t you get over this and just focus? I went to therapy without telling my mom. I didn’t want to seem weak or low. I relied on a lot of my friends and my therapist. Finally, being able to tell parents about the mental health boosted me.

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John’s Quotes #4

[94-107; 123-135] I’m currently struggling with a lot of feelings I have when I go to class. I don’t usually have productive thoughts. I feel like things are scaring me more than helping me now. Or I’m getting scared more than I’m learning. I hope it’s just the mental health thing. Recently, I’ve been getting better. I’ve been paying more attention, and I’m going to pass. I met with a psychiatrist last week. I just got medication and hope it will lift my spirits. When I go to class, I’m paying attention for the first 10 minutes. But after that, I start to have like breathing problems or my mind is wandering off. It’s like an escape. I’m in the classroom because if I’m in there, I’m more likely to learn something than if I’m not. But at the same time, once I look up at the board and see all the equations, all the steps that I phased out on, that’s the moment that I start getting anxiety and scared. So, I look away and I go back in my head so I’m not as stressed. It’s a cycle. It goes throughout the entire hour until I come back out without anything in my notes.

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John’s Quotes #5

[150-165; 189-194; 187-204] My Physics 2 class was all conceptual and was in a giant lecture hall with an older professor. He was very good and knowledgeable in physics. But he didn’t understand his students. His examples were too smart. His analogies didn’t make anything simpler. He tried to do was have us visualize these in certain ways, and I felt like that just complicated things. However, I appreciated him because he actually had class participation. He gave us a chance to ask our own questions. He gave us opportunities to work in groups. The reason why I failed it was mostly because of me. He gave me multiple second chances to bring my grade up. And it came down to my lack of energy.

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John’s Quotes #6

[169-186; 221-229] My statics teacher was very enthusiastic. His accent was a little hard to discern but other than that he was one of the best teachers I’ve had. If I had the teacher again, then I would gladly take him because he’s good. He asked or he drove class participation with grades. I think that’s what helped a lot. My statistics teacher was the best one. If I don’t become an engineer, then I’ll be a statistician just because of this teacher. She did everything that my Physics 2 professor did, but she had better examples and conveyed her ideas a lot better. She went through the problems concisely, and the steps were all clear. One time, somebody corrected her in class. They followed out the steps that she was doing on the paper and realized there was an error. She checked her work and, indeed, the student was correct. They got rewarded. But weirdly enough, the graphics teacher was my worst teacher that I’ve had. The class was a hot mess. My professor came back with material from 20 years ago. According to other sources, like my friends who took the course before, they didn’t have to hand draft. I was sitting there drafting out a weird-looking screw in isometric 3D by hand. He felt like a little behind the times. I understand why we did the things, but I also feel like we could have used our time better. He seemed like he wasn’t organized at all. I had a lab at a separate time. During that lab we learned AutoCAD, SolidWorks and Creo by our TAs. I felt like I learned a lot more because I learned something relevant. But I still ended up passing the course. I think that course in particular was low level and very forgiving.

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John’s Quotes #7

[272-296] I’m retaking statics right now. I’m also taking chemistry, Calculus 3, and Chem Lab. My statics course has more people but less attention. That professor, compared to the last one, he gives out better homework and tests, but otherwise he’s just lecturing to a brick wall. My chemistry teacher, kind of the same way. Then my calculus teacher, who I think is the best out of my professors this year, he comes in with Wolfram Alpha, all his notes written out on the computer. With plots and 3D shapes that you can move around. The way he teaches he has his notes projected, he’s writing on the board and he has a tablet in his hand that has the notes already on it, so he doesn’t have to go back to the computer. I think he’s the most well prepared. Doing his homework is a nightmare. But I feel like going through it is actually rewarding. I like this professor, but not for the same reasons that I like my other professors. For Chem Lab, TA is good. She doesn’t have to teach as much because we’re just reading off of a manual. So that course is easy.

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john quotes

John’s Quotes #8

[312-325; 334-340] I got my faculty adviser last semester. He is an actual professor in mechanical engineering, so I can talk to him about related issues. He was actually interested in me, which is a lot harder to say for the people in the Central Advising Office. I’m actually going to talk to him in a couple of hours to talk about my next semester. I’m excited for that. I really should go to more office hours, but I’m nervous to talk to my professors. And I’m looking into joining a club in the Engineering College, so I can get more interaction with friends and faculty. I don’t interact much with peers in engineering field, but I’m looking for more. I’m in clubs that are not related to engineering. I was only in a club last semester and we didn’t get much things done. Because a lot of our members were seniors and they were dealing with senior design

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