#ALSO ALSO ALSO I GOT 100 ON MY AP PHYS FINAL

[cr4yolaas]

i was too focused on ap phys final that i forgot that i post on here and freaked out

[addierose444]

Fall 2020: Semester Summary

On Thursday, I turned in my last exam of the fall 2020 semester! Compared to other semesters, I had a lot more in the way of exams and projects. While it has surely been an atypical semester, things went a lot better than I expected. You can check out some of my other fall 2020 blog posts here. 

My favorite course this semester was mechanics (EGR 270). I enjoyed this class because I found the course material interesting and relevant. Mechanics builds on concepts learned in PHY 117 (or in my case, AP Physics C Mechanics). I was a little bit nervous about my preparedness because in high school I had done well in physics but had fully intended to retake it in college. One advantage that I had was that my high school physics teacher studied mechanical engineering in college and thus taught from that perspective. In mechanics, we started by learning about stress and strain. Throughout the semester we used equilibrium equations (Newton’s Second Law) to solve for unknown forces and moments (engineering term for torque). Specifically, we analyzed trusses, structures, and machines. We also found centroids and calculated moments of inertia. We finished the semester by drawing shear and bending moment (both of which are internal forces) diagrams. One thing that I appreciated about this class was learning multiple ways to solve a problem. For instance, for shear and bending moment diagrams you can use equilibrium equations, calculus, or sometimes little tricks. Here is a concept map that gives an overview of the topics covered in mechanics and how they relate. 

Another course that I enjoyed more than expected was discrete math (MTH 153). Even though I have taken math up through multivariable calculus, the course content was totally different and challenging in its own way. This was my least time-consuming class but required a surprising amount of mental energy (way more than I expected for a 100 level class). I definitely benefited from forming a study group with some of my classmates. This course in many ways reminded me why I love math. The course consisted of four units, logic, sets, functions, and additional topics. The overarching purpose was to introduce us to proof writing. I can’t say I love writing proofs, but I have definitely developed an appreciation for it. One particularly fun topic from the last week of class was combinatorics. Combinatorics problems are fun because they are like little puzzles with shocking huge numerical answers.

My most time-intensive course was multivariable calculus (MTH 212). And to be totally honest, we didn’t even get the full homework load. The course was fast-paced and covered a lot of material (6 chapters of our textbook). I generally liked the class, but am glad to not be a math major. Key topics include partial derivatives, multiple integrals, and vector functions. Taking multivariable calculus concurrently with mechanics and thermodynamics increased my appreciation for what I was learning. 

Speaking of thermodynamics (EGR 290), it really builds off of EGR 110. Specifically, the energy balance was a key equation we used. Solving thermodynamics problems is all about making appropriate simplifying assumptions and then applying the right equations. We also learned about various properties of pure substances including pressure, temperature, enthalpy, internal energy, and entropy. We did this conceptually, with equations, and with property tables and diagrams. We also studied the Second Law of Thermodynamics in its many formulations. Finally, we studied power and refrigeration cycles. 

At the beginning of the semester, the course I was most excited about was data structures (CSC 212). Unfortunately, this course was a bit too easy for me and thus not as interesting. I ended up sort of being a teaching assistant for the class. It wasn’t all a waste as I got valuable programming practice and an opportunity to communicate about code and computer science concepts. I also had a lot of fun with the final project where I built a course database and student schedule generator.  Another silver lining is that I have secured a paid job designing a programming contest for high schoolers!

My final course was private guitar lessons (MUS 914). While lessons over Zoom aren’t ideal, I am happy with the progress I made this semester. I primarily worked on improving my fingerpicking skills and technique. I shared this in my last post, but here is a video performance that I prepared for an upcoming recital. 

While online courses aren’t perfect, in my opinion, they are a strong aspect of remote college. The real challenge is not having in-person interaction for clubs and house events. Also, being at home is not what we signed up for as college students. This semester the clubs I was involved with were Uke Club and Smith’s chapter of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE). I am on the board of both clubs, which if I am totally honest, is the main reason I actually attended events. Uke Club met over Zoom every Friday at 6:00. This was sometimes a great way to end the week. However, other times I was already so exhausted by then and ready for my week to actually be over. As for SWE, we didn’t really do that much. We held a few game nights which were fun, but not super relevant to engineering or career preparation. My other main non-academic commitment was my ResLife job as a Remote Community Advisor (RCA). My role was to help develop community in my virtual house (Parsons) and support individual residents. I did this by having individual meetings, holding open hours, collaborating with house council, and just generally being active in the community. I also met twice a week with my supervisor (once one-on-one and another time with my fellow RCAs).