THOUGHTS ON THE QUOTE PICKED DURING THE FIRST LESSON 02/09

 “Without clear lines of communication, our ideas would stay within our own small development teams instead of becoming mature products. While this is obvious to those of us who have become experienced engineers, the real question is: Why is it lost to us when we are engineering students?”

~ Akbar R Khan, Software Systems Engineer, USA, “Good Communication Is Essential...” (2014)

In my opinion...

  • As engineering students, the quote resonates with us really well. Akbar delivered a really short yet sharp and concise message with the quote. It shows the transition in communication ability from engineering students to experienced engineers. From this we can infer that communication skills amongst engineers is developed with time and experience.

  • Based on our experiences, most of the lessons in school were theoretical. Although hard skills such as math and physics are beneficial to us during tests/work that requires calculations. Soft skills like interpersonal communication cannot be taught, as it must be cultivated through repeated practice.

  • We are thankful that in polytechnics (as well as in SIT) we were introduced to multiple interdisciplinary modules which shed some light on communication essentials.

  • Having a blend of normal theoretical engineering modules and interdisciplinary modules enabled students to be able to better communicate their designs/proposals in projects. With a broadened perspective, engineers are able to convey their ideas and thoughts through different means of communication such as verbal, non-verbal and visual aids.

Comments

  1. Xuan YiSeptember 4, 2024 at 11:47 PM

    I completely agree with all four of the points you made. Individuals will grow as engineers as they gain experience. and through some modules that we learned at Polytechnic and SIT, we were able to communicate using the points you mentioned. Verbal, nonverbal, and visual aids.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Brad BlackstoneSeptember 6, 2024 at 7:59 PM

    Thanks for this highly detailed and insightful explanation, Krissh.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

FORMAL INTRODUCTORY LETTER

Dear Sir Brad, I am writing this letter to introduce myself formally to you and even my classmates who might be reading this letter in the coming weeks. I am Krissh, a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate at SIT and I am from the class, T20 in the Critical Thinking and Communicating module. Previously, I attained a Diploma in Aerospace Engineering at Ngee Ann Polytechnic after which I served the nation for 2 years in the army. As a child, I was often intrigued by how things worked. Growing up, I watched television channels such as Discovery Channel and National Geographic instead of cartoons. I was often amazed by how things worked, especially airplanes! I enjoyed learning math and science related subjects compared to other subjects. However, it was only in polytechnic where I found out that learning engineering is heavy in math and science. In secondary school, I was a member in Singapore Youth Flying Club (SYFC). Being part of SYFC, I gained a huge liking for aircraft and technology
Read more

INITIAL RESEARCH PATHWAY ON THE DESIGN/SYSTEM SELECTED

Image
Me and my partner, Denzel,  had to decide between the Tela Autopilot System and the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS).  After some discussion among ourselves and consulting Mr Brad, we settled for the Tesla Autopilot System. An image of Tesla's Autopilot System in use 1. To start, we used generative AI, specifically ChatGPT, to state the features of the Tesla Autopilot System. ChatGPT provided a list of some of the key features and provided a brief introduction on each feature. 2. Some of the key features include: Traffic-Aware Cruise Control (TACC), automating steering, automatic navigation, automatic lane changing and automatic parking. 3. From here, we plan to do further research on the respective key features of the system. 4. After getting some information on the respective key features of the system, we plan to compile them individually and then get together to make a detailed summary on it.
Read more