Generalization in Africa

The danger in generalizing Africa is pretty intense as it's an entire continent! And, not only is it a sizable continent in land mass, but it is also one that is full of diversity. From my perspective, there is danger even in generalising people that come from a certain City or High School, as within my High School, there was a very diverse graduating class. On the local level, it shows the danger and inhibits us from really understanding and getting to better know people. On the national and continental level, it is pretty much like putting a blindfold on as to one's perspective and understanding of an entire continent's worth of people and cultures.

Thanksgiving

First of all, Christmas needs to wait its turn. Every year the Christmas decorations are put out in store right after Halloween, and people are always saying, "what about Thanksgiving?" It has become a forgotten holiday, don't get me wrwong though there is not a thing that I don't love about Christmas, except the cold. I just want to know what happened to sitting down with your extended family at an enormous makeshift table and just eating until you can't open your mouth anymore while telling stories about what had happened this year. Now everyone I talk to is headed to Mexico to celebrate Thanksgiving or going out to a nice bar and grill with their immediate family.

Engineering & Africa

Very interesting question - I believe that many of the efforts to create 'solutions' for different areas of the African continent and apply engineering solutions from the 'west' have failed to properly apply the 'problem scoping' principals we've been learning about in our ENGR 131 course. Part of problem scoping is really learning about your stakeholders and the criteria for success before rushing to a solution that is technically sound and logical. In africa, the peoples and cultures seem to be much more diverse and individualised (as communities in relation to eachother), and this has a HUGE impact on what works and doesn't work there - solutions though logical from a technical standpoint can only work if they are catered to the specific populations.

Study Abroad

Well, I do certainly have an interest that has been developing over the past 13 weeks in spending part of my time as an undergraduate participating in a study abroad-type learning experience. When I started at Purdue, I was pretty sure that I would want to do this over in Western Europe, where I'm relatively familiar with the lifestyle and cultures, but I have gradually seen myself growing fonder of heading to one of the areas about which I know very little, including Asia, South America, and Eastern Europe. I feel that this could really be a supplement to a great education 'in the classroom,' because I know just how much you learn by immersion in a foreign culture and language. I am especially interested in tomorrow's discussion, because it often occurs that these things never get the proper attention that they deserve, and thus don't get talked about in the right context, or early enough in an educational career.

Possibly Studying Abroad

If I were to study abroad it would definitely be in Germany, Italy, Spain, or England. These are my favorite European countries and I would absolutely love a chance to study in them. I would want to go for at least a semester, most likely a spring semester due to the cold ugly weather all of the way until basically April. I would consider a year-long study abroad but I just don’t see that happening. I already started planning it but I have a major roadblock. There is a three year long project called the “EcoCar” competition here at Purdue that I really want to be a part of. This would take me until my senior year for the first eligible semester to study abroad, which does not seem very likely; you most likely are studying abroad during your early to middle years here at Purdue. So once I find a way around that I will not look back and I’ll go somewhere to study abroad.

November..

It is almost the middle of November; I cannot believe classes have been going for so long already. It feels like last week that we all got here as freshman having no clue what’s going on or where to go. I do not know what you guys think about this but my time here has flown by I wish that my first semester did not go by so fast. When I was in high school weeks would just tick by like months and months took forever to end. Now here at Purdue it’s been months and has felt like weeks. Although that is a good thing I think. It seems like that is a sign that I am enjoying this much more than high school. I can’t wait for Christmas but I don’t want to leave yet, I’m just getting settled. If spring semester goes by this fast I’m going to have to stop sleeping so that I have more time to do all of the things that I want.

Difficulties in implementing new energy technology in developing nations

Implementing technology in developing countries is an interesting engineering task. One of the biggest challenges, in my mind, is the infastructure is not adequate. Especially in the region that Dr. Jean Paul Allain is working in. the simple fact is this region cannot sustain the type of grid that we use here in the U.S. The mountains, swampy lake regions, and the rainforests make it difficult and impractical to construct power lines. Dr. Allain's team is inputing solar panels to each town and hooking the electricity up in those means. Not only does this take up space, it is expensive. After the problem of getting electricity to the town is solve, are the buildings in the town adequate to harness and use electricity? Here we have wiring, outlets, fuses, and all kinds of regulated material that can be a large fire hazard if it is not contained correctly. The next issue that needs to be accounted for is figuring out how the people that will use it will respond to what you are trying to do. The solution needs to be consistent with the indigenious culture. While Dr. Allain was talking about all of the lakes and water in Columbia, I was thinking that this water can be harnessed and converted to electricity with hydroelectric power. Then he brought that up and when we discussed it I noticed that I had not even thought of the ecological effects this kind of solution would have.