Valedictorian on Education

Swiftkick reposted Erica Goldson's graduation speech as Valedictorian of her high school class.

Her energy is refreshing and she is able to verbalize glaring problems (not new problems) with our system of education.

Here

Progress!

A new post, A new post. Yes, progress to the process. Documented above. I will make some more posts about the work that will happen in the next week:

-Presentation of progress to Dean Jamison on Wednesday

-Generation of the first aerosol, hopefully before then!

More to come!

Open Access and Publishing

One of the interesting topics discussed in my Preparing Future Faculty class has been the change in ownership as well as the authenticity of published journals vs online "publishing". It is interesting to view authorship through the scope of scientific progress. The possibility is that there could be literally no cost to publishing science. This opens the door to all scientists and breaks down the barrier of formal education, but when that happens, fear walks in and proclaims that science itself will not be trustworthy.

It also raises an interesting question of where the funding for research comes from and where it will come from. This has been one of the motivating factors behind my blog posting of my experimental setup. So far my CFD work has been traditional "closed" science, while my experimental work has been "open" science. I am considering ways of making the CFD work more open, but my personal question becomes, "If I make posts about how to really do the work I am doing and someone learns it well enough to do it, what is left for me to do?"

Peace,

Landon

Whorls and Fleas

This morning, I was speaking with my friend who conducts himself in the scientific process within the Life Sciences building at VCU. Over breakfast we discussed the difference between Analytical, Empirical, and Numerical Analysis. These distinctions may not be something that are on your radar, but they play an important role in the drama/comedy of my life and work.

Please allow me to set the stage...

Analytical Sciences are formed out of Philosophic principals applied to societal needs. An interesting side note, Plato can be seen as a good example of the analytical scientist, but he was following in the footsteps of Socrates the "politician" (Good General Greek History). Plato created thought experiments, but he never tested them because of his belief that experimentation was never necessary. Similar to Einstein's thought experiments on quantum study because they were unable to do experimental work on that scale at the time (not by choice).

Similar to Plato stepping away from politics, Aristotle stepped away from unverified thought. Aristotle changed the way we see science by applying simple logic and keeping track of (empirical science). Statements are made by logically following physical observations and isolating the system you are observing to discover what might cause the change. This progressed for a while, but we'll fast forward a couple thousand years or so and settle on Galileo and the easy target of Sir Issac Newton to explore more of what we mean about the merging of empirical and analytical.

Mr. Issac's well known laws of motion (1687) are sentences that describe the motions of objects and relate Galileo's work on celestial bodies to objects we live in contact with. Every word is deliberate and has a precise meaning. These are analytical relationships, but the are confirmed with experimental success. Newton however, also offered "numerical" possibilities in his solution of problems which could not be solved "analytically".

Considering lastly the subject you may be least familiar with, Numerical Anaylsis. Leonard Euleris a good subject to discuss for the application of analytical and empirical thought to the pursuit of an answer, a result, a number. While this branch has been around for a very long time, it is the implementation of the personal computer that allows for a great number of calculations to be followed through quickly and reliably. Prior to the computer iterations would be computed by hand and could take months to complete. As an interesting anecdote, in 1910 Lewis Fry Richardson ran numerical analysis to predict the weather at 1 pm based on the weather at 7 am. Three months later, his results were incorrect, but his process was mostly correct and the amount of work it took to do by hand is astonishing. "He calculated himself that it would need 60,000 people involved in the calculations in order to have the prediction of tomorrow's weather before the weather actually arrived.(ref)"

The process of numerical analysis in terms of my research can be seen simply as using things that people like Euler came up with and Richardson used to simplify complex problems. These complicated problems are Differential equations, which simply means that things that we observe are changing with respect to the change in a quantity (or two, or three or more). These equations are "coupled" meaning that you have to solve them all at the same time. So numerical analysis is taking a small problem that is very complicated and translating it into a simple problem that is very large.

So what?

Ok, so the point is that there are many people who have undergone the tasks of science and I am studying in this line of scientists. I resonate with little bits of each biography and I am beginning to see why it is a good thing that I am studying as I am at VCU. I am forced now to learn to be comfortable with each side of discovery. My advisor excelled in analytical thought during his undergraduate and graduate education and has applied that to Numerical Analysis to become one of the top in his field. He has worked with Dr. Mike Oldham, who is similar and different in various areas of life. His passion for science is similar, but his passion is in the mechanics of the lab, not the numerics of the problem. He walked into the organized lab and just destroyed the cleanliness, but turned it into a real lab. He undid the assembling I had wondered about and guess and connected all the parts in a way that took up a small amount of space and will actually work. It is the kind of thing that comes with ~30 years experience, he's a good person to know.

Dr. Longest and Dr. Oldham both look at me like I'm doing something they are sure glad they don't have to. Both of them have great respect for the other's work, but are not comfortable doing it. Their goal for me is to be able to generate data from computer studies, validate it with experiments. This allows them to pontificate analytical relationships using these correlations. The interesting part for me is the application to the social and political. The application of my project to people and the impact it can have. But I am learning about the other parts because they are necessary to be well rounded.

Till Then, Poetry. - Landon

Big fleas have little fleas

Upon their backs to bite 'em,

And little fleas have lesser fleas

And so, ad infinitum.

-- Jonathan Swift

Big whorls have little whorls

That feed on their velocity,

And little whorls have lesser whorls

And so on to viscosity.

-- Lewis F. Richardson

She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid.

Dr Oldham visited to round out the first week of empiricism. He walked in lab proud of the equipment and confident in the ability of the devices to produce useful data.

Many hours later he walked out of the lab leaving a parts list for materials needed to finish setting up the lab so we can begin to gather some data. The list comes from a range of suppliers. From the auto store, to McMaster-Carr we will be placing an order next week, and then I will be returning to numerical studies while we wait for the parts to arrive.

I may document some of the more interesting parts of the numerical work, but there is much less attention grabbing items on computer screens than in an experimental lab, so we'll just see how it goes.

Till again-

Landon

Day 2 Engineering Experiment

From Ordinary Radical Engineering

With yesterday spent organizing, today is to be spent assembling something to resemble an experiment and help generate questions for the expert, Dr. Mike Oldham. He is coming on Wednesday to answer questions I have and see how we have things setup.

From Ordinary Radical Engineering

With that, I'm off!

Peace,

Landon

What does a PhD in Mechanical Engineering look like at VCU

I'm transitioning from the pursuit of my Bachelor of Science in Engineering to my new pursuit of a PhD in Mechanical Engineering at VCU. I've been writing about the class I have been taking that is preparing me for the teaching and administrative side of obtaining a PhD. This is but one side of a three sided program. In addition to teaching and fulfilling administrative tasks I will also be conducting research.

Without further ado, I will begin my documentation of the experimental side of my research. I work for Dr. P Worth Longest in Mechanical Engineering. For years Dr. Longest has been conducting research in aerosols science and particle deposition . Well, as I am starting my work with him and am going to be here for a while, Dr Longest would like to begin an experimental side of his research to validate previous correlations and create new ones for future works. The difference between computational and experimental sciences is gigantic, but our plan is for me to be able to understand both and create case studies that spring from physical reality and can be validated by systematic numerical analyses.

Before this I have to wash the countertops and the shelves and learn what all this equipment does. Similar to a cooking blog I am hoping to add updates and include pictures. I will try to remember to bring in my camera and take nicer pictures, but to begin I will just post the overall look of the lab.

Peace,

Landon

And The Dream goes On

Speaking of college students, Martin Luther King Jr wrote:

Most of the "brethren" think that education should equip them with the proper instruments of exploitation so that they can forever trample over the masses. Still others think that education should furnish them with noble ends rather than means to an end.

And through the rest of The Purpose of Education, which Dr. King wrote to Morehouse College in 1948, he concludes:

If we are not careful, our colleges will produce a group of close-minded, unscientific, illogical propagandists, consumed with immoral acts. Be careful, "brethren!" Be careful, teachers!

The theme of my blog indeed seems to be social reform, and it is hard to speak of this change and not refer to Dr. King. My previous entry had a few responses that prompted me to a few questions.

So my questions are: What are we doing to ensure that we are providing the education that we are responsible to provide? Not simply enough to not get fired or bad marks, but are we living up to the moral standard that a teacher should live up to?

How does this education of morality exist and effect our science classes? What is the role of morality and social consciousness in Engineering? (I am not satisfied with the idea that the Engineer needs to have only enough morality to not deliberately choose a bolt that is too small or weak when designing a bridge) As a highly educated individual what is my responsibility to my community and to my brothers and sisters?

Engineering Social Reform

Why?

Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings. - The Bible, NIV, Isaiah 58:12

In the summer after my last semester of classes as an undergraduate engineer I took a writing class that allowed me the opportunity to reflect on the education I had just received. I have attached a paragraph as well as the linked to the entire document below. During my teaching and technology class I was asked what an engineer thinks (or more why an engineer thinks) about social reform (see previous post), and I think this will shed a little bit of the light on the matter.

There is visible a great downfall to this whole progression of business. That downfall is that the upward march of progress in the global market appears to be to the edge of an unsure cliff. We want to compare what it is that we are hoping to accomplish versus what we are actually accomplishing. Therefore we need to stop teaching our students facts and formulas while withholding the dynamic interactions and conflicts within their very education. Can you train a student to solve a local problem within the frame of the bigger global picture by instructing her in how to solve a problem without a bigger picture? This compartmentalization of education has lead to a disenfranchised generation by causing a lack of coherence and purpose in our curriculum.

An Engineering Curriculum

Preparing Future Faculty

Hi. My name is Landon. I am an engineer and much to the chagrin of the stereotype, I like to write. I was raised in Richmond, Virginia, but more in the suburbs in Glen Allen. I was home-schooled after 6th grade because I was stubborn and my family told me that I was too much of a "social butterfly" to be able to handle being alone in home-schooling. I tell you this as an explanation offering to ease your mind of trying to comprehend a "social" engineer, which is an oxymoron in general. People generally prefer knowing that I was home-schooled early so they can understand me as being the strange home schooled guy. I focused primarily on English and Philosophy during my formative years and reserved algebra and the sciences for college. Upon entering I began exploring engineering and found that I really only like it in as much as I can apply it to help people. But I also enjoy being the engineer who likes to write. Likes to think about the big picture, and likes people.

So with that taken care of, I have an assignment. This is to address the prompt, "Create an analogy for the 'Ideal student - teacher' relationship."

I'd say the ideal Teacher is one who knows everything and is willing to hear the most reduntant question or help the most utilitarian need.

The Ideal Student is one who carries no pride in her/him self and is disciplined and obedient.

The ideal student - teacher relationship is like a brother or a sister.

- Back to the fishtank,

Landon