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amanda quotes

Amanda’s Quotes #11

[138-145] After I completed the first internship, I started another internship that was related to chemistry more. The reason why I did that one, because it was near my hometown. So, I could stay get some experience or some money while I could be at home. We were going to find a new oil, but we take it from the trees, the rest of the product when you are producing paper. And with that can paint it on, on a regular sheet of paper, and that makes the paper water-resistant. So, let’s say that you’re having a moving box, or something like that, and you have the paint on it, it got produced that way. Then it can have it outside and then even though it’s raining and everything, the stuff inside it won’t get wet.

[153-155] The goal of the project was to determine what was the most efficient way to get this oil. So yeah, the oil is not finished or producible to use. We were working out parameters and supposed to consider the manufacturers.

[157-161] This internship was also a professional environment. The team I was working with have a higher education, a lot of experience in the chemistry field. The location the lab had everything we needed. Maybe it was very messy in the lab. It feels like the lab can become messy, because it’s a lot of stuff going on. That was maybe the only downside of it. That was not professional.

[165-166] I define a professional environment according to the people around you have a high understanding and knowledge of what’s going on, and also everything you need is available.

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amanda quotes

Amanda’s Quotes #10

[87; 104-109] I didn’t have school in the summer. Instead, I had an internship in Northern Europe, which was about the data acquisition. My role involved testing athletes who came to our lab where we have some force plates under the different movements, like squats for example. By looking at the results from the force plates, we can determine how it’s using the right leg more than the left one. So maybe he’s going to have to do more weights on the left leg to be more stable to decrease that risk of injury.

[114-119] We used force plates, like this movements with a force plate, but also with an app that is supposed to do the same thing as a force plate, but obviously it doesn’t, because the force plate is much better. Here the results you got, but you were supposed to get this result, and fix yourself. I was not a part of making it better. I was just a part of collecting the data collection team.

[122-127] The team I was a part of were the test people, so that was a very, very professional environment. We were located in a gym, so it wasn’t very professional in that sense, but it was perfect enough for what we were going to do. And the main boss, he is skilled, very educated and very smart in that sense. But he wasn’t always there because I learned very quickly what I was supposed to do so then he could use his time to do something else.

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amanda quotes

Amanda’s Quotes #12

[170-172] Now, I’ve returned to school where I’m taking a chemistry class, chemistry lab, and a class that is called Biomechanics. Also, I’m taking Preliminary Design, which also has a lab for that one. I’m also taking classes called Instrumentation and Data Acquisition, and the lab for that class.

[177-179] In biomechanics, the professor had a lot of PowerPoint slides. We learned a lot about anatomy, and how to come combine the knowledge we already have from physics and calculate the forces and everything that can be implemented into the body system.

[130-135] Actually, I didn’t think we were going to use anything I learned from my internship, but now we have a project in Biomechanics where we are using force plates for collecting data. And that was a bit helpful, since I had used force plates during my internship. I don’t really know what we’re going to do with the data. Hopefully find out at some point.

[185-189] We used the school’s lab, which have force plates and a lot of markers that you put on yourself surrounded by a lot of cameras. The cameras will see all the markers. We can determine the movements and the forces, which is calculating the force plates, calculating the forces. So those two are combined in some way I assume.

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amanda quotes

Amanda’s Quotes #13

[192-197] Another course called Preliminary Design involves a yearlong project. I am working in a group of three, and we are designing an ankle brace that is supposed to prevent ankle sprains in soccer. In the beginning of the semester, we had lectures, which covered how you should think when you are picking out material, or how you should think when have different concepts, and the concept selection. But now later on in the semester, all those class times have just been time for us to be able to work on a project.

[200-207] I’m working in very good group. Everyone is doing what they’re supposed to do. And our goal is to have a prototype by the end of the semester, and we are using a flexible plastic called CPAs. That is supposed to allow natural range of motion and also provide forces at a higher velocity. We are 3-D printing the brace to be able to do thin, because current braces on the market are very bulky. And we have now downloaded prototype, and obviously it’s going to have to be redone because it was used the outer shell of it. So, there’s no support yet or anything.

[210-212] So when we’re getting our prototype by the end of this semester, we go ahead and do testing on it next semester. Probably redesign it to make it better than the current one on the market.

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amanda quotes

Amanda’s Quotes #14

[374-377] We wanted to go to conference to receive some more knowledge about how we could develop our ankle brace. To attend the conference, I had to be a member of the Biomedical Engineering Society.

[390-394; 37-407] The conference consisted of interactions with the faculty. Also, we saw a lot of schools promoting their graduate program. So, it was a lot of talking about their graduating programs. But then we also had the chance to attend sessions to learn more about biomechanics. One session was about injuries in biomechanics, and it was supposed to be a one hour, and then you went to that class, but it was 15 minutes presentation. But then one could talk about ankle injuries and some can talk about concussions, or something like that. So, it’s 15 minutes per presentation during this hour.

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amanda quotes

Amanda’s Quotes #15

[235-243] During the instrumentation class, he’s just going over some PowerPoint slides. And he jumps all over the place, so it’s very hard to follow, and I feel like I haven’t learned anything in the class. It’s also no homework assignments and no tests, so then it’s kind of easy to accept that I’m not going to learn anything. Yeah. So that’s not very good. But then we have that class, but as a lab. And I felt like I’ve been learning more in that class. We are working with an Arduino, coding that to accomplish different kinds of tasks. But the tasks are very difficult to understand since we don’t learn anything in the lectures. So, it’s almost too hard of a lab, which makes me not learn anything in that lab either because it’s just too difficult.

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amanda quotes

Amanda’s Quotes #16

[268-272] Oh yeah, forgot to mention one class called Advanced Machine Design. So, the first class or the first quiz, what is the module supposed to know from Intro to Machine Design. It was mostly a conceptional, so I didn’t remember it. Yeah. And they didn’t tell us it was going to be on it.

[281-283] Yeah, even though you have the software, is good to have an assumption, what do you think is going on? Knowledge, what you think is going to happen? Just because usually it’s always something wrong in the first set up of the computer.

[285-286] Then I just going back to check all the parameters that I have put in and make sure they are correct, and usually find a mistake in there.

[292-294] When I experienced difficulties in the machine design class, I started to study, whatever it was the quiz that they tested us on. And so, I learned that material, and then just tried to keep up with the current material, with the new material that he was teaching during class.

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amanda quotes

Amanda’s Quotes #17

[299-302] Managing engineering and soccer requires a lot of time management. I don’t have as much free time as other student I’d say. But it makes me very productive when I have some time to do homework and making sure that I’m really focusing on doing it as quickly as you can.

[333-337] The faculty are very helpful. For example, right now, when we worked on the ankle brace, then in those long projects I was talking about. Even though one professor that signs for that specific class, all the professor around us are very helpful. So maybe the material professor, even though we didn’t don’t have him this year, he’s still very willing to help us to figure out what kind of material we should order.

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josh quotes

Josh’s Quotes #10

[75-132] I was off for five days after I came home from school. I started working at my internship. It’s two credits for the internship. I was very excited. It was very fulfilling experience. The company was very good. I was able to achieve a lot of personal goals and spend time with friends on the weekends. I went dinner with my team. My boss was not very good at communication. A lot of times I wouldn’t hear back from her for two months at a time, which is kind of hard to work with when things are time sensitive.

[137-236] I worked at a hundred years old and big company where they make couplings for piping systems. I worked in the regulatory compliance department that only have ten people. Two main projects that I was given was to evaluate a mechanical T, which is a coupling that you can put on an existing pipe to add at a branch. My job was to test them against competitors to prove that ours are superior. The second project was to evaluate some gaskets that are not traditionally used because we want to move into more diverse markets.

A lot of my internship at the beginning was understanding codes and doing research. I was able to plan the tests myself, choose the size and number of products I wanted to use. I confirmed with my supervisor, order, and wait for them. While I was waiting, another project was brought to me. It’s called CE Mark which is almost all electronics. We have these marks on our products since we are a global company. My job was to prepare and organize for an audit. I was there to help ensure that we fix gaps and got to see how the audit works. I continue to replace missing files and waiting for my other parts to come in. Once those parts came in, I was in the shop every day to cut pipe rolling to attach the couplings to pipe and assembling. Over the course of two weeks, I tested 21 assemblies and 15 gasket grains.

I think the internship prepared me to manage time and figure out what’s the best solution. I was not prepared for independence but adapting it. In school, I’m given assignments and was told what to do. Here, I was given problems to figure out how to test by myself. Neither my team leader nor my director of regulatory were there on my first day. I met with the team and started a week early. I met with one person who introduced me to everybody. Most of my interactions were with the team leader. Most days I contacted with him while I need his help. I also work with another person during the audits to go over files. I was trying to learn as we went along. The interactions were limited to my team leader, director of regulatory, and my team. Everyone always interacted with me on a personal level.

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josh quotes

Josh’s Quotes #11

[75-132] Then classes started. I was feeling little down because I missed the experience over the summer. The second week of school, I found out there is the sophomore year award. It’s awarded by highest GPA. Over the summer, they have allocated $500 to me. After that it was a pretty even point for two weeks. Then everything started to get harder. Because of all the stress, my first exam was on the down curve. However, I did well on the exam. I had so much work to do. It was hard to stay motivated. I have to give up my leisure activities. Two weeks ago. I was supposed to be taking an exam, but I didn’t understand the material. I was overwhelmed. There was one day I spent 12 hours working on lab reports. I was trying to find new habits and working with friends to find new ways to achieve goal. I had the second machine design exam during fall break, and I did very well. Hopefully I can maintain it for the rest of the semester.

[239-373; 430-439; 467-489; 526-539] This semester has been the hardest I have ever had in my life. I never had a mentally challenging experience. I wouldn’t be here without my professors. I get enough amount individualized of help that allows me to be successful. I have five lectures and two labs. I have a thermodynamics lab or a fluids lab which builds on the thermo class last semester. I also have a microprocessors lab for my degree. Machine design is the longest class. Professor has a notepad. Everyone in the room knows each other fairly well because it’s not a huge program. He keeps us engaged by making jokes.

For system modeling and analysis, we’re modeling a system, predicting its performance and optimize it. It’s been a difficult class because the professor is new. It was a big transition for her. She was just out of grad school. She was expecting us to know a lot of things that we didn’t learn before. There’s homework that’s due every week. With the thermo lab, the first week we do a demo with machine we’re working with. Then we have supplemental activity to do with the data on our own. The lab report is on an A3 size piece of paper. It’s printed out as poster. It definitely teaches me have to simplify after getting complicated results. We had a class learning how to use programs. It’s a supplemental. The memo format is a one-page summary report which most people had anywhere from eight to 12 pages.

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