What IS the CEC?
Lets face it, engineering ain't all about pulling an all-nighter doing some grungy problem set. Engineering is working in teams, under time and budget pressure, putting together ideas from diverse fields to produce a product that is useful and that sells. Engineering is a creative activity where design and ingenuity and 'coloring outside the lines' is tantamount to some, rigid fuddy-duddy rules.
At Caltech, as all of us know, we get the hallowed fire-hoze of knowledge stuffed down our throats - but the really exciting aspects of engineering just can't be taught in 070Moore ...that's where CEC comes in.
...ok, fine, so there's more to engineering than classes, great..so what now?...
The goals of the CEC are to help fill the inevitable gaps that exist (as described above), to add adrenaline to engineering, to create a structure...something like a lobbying group if you will...for engineers at Caltech. We aim to do this by opening the door to lots of exciting competitons, by bringing in industry into much closer contact with students (for jobs, reserach, networking...), by making sure that there is feedback between student and professor, by creating a vibrant engineering community, not only within Caltech, but encompassing all of Southern California. These are pretty big goals, but no one ever got anywhere without dreaming big.
...yeah, but I'm taking 54 units...
SO ARE WE. No one is going to argue that time is'nt a premium at Caltech, or that random acts of flicking don't have their merit. This isn't some organization that's going to leech your time - that would be totally counterproductive. How is this arranged you ask? Well, just come to the meetings, you'll catch on pretty quickly...
...ok, ok, you got a point...so what are the CEC's plans?
Student Services
One of the greatest things about going to Caltech is that it's exponentially easier to have your voice heard as a student. We aim to make this even more universal by instituting such things as ombudspeople and simple webpages for all engineering classes; student-faculty discussions on the direction of curricula; an organized way for 30 people who don't know each other, but each of who wants a class moved up an hour, to get what they want; small funds for independent student projects; discount subscriptions to journals; an engineering resume book distributed to several hundred companies...sorta like a lobbying group in Congress, just, much more benign. The whole idea is, once we get a critical mass, life becomes a lot easier.
Besides all that, we want to get speakers directly geared towards what students want, like career planning, industry insight, how to take a techie degree and make big money...
2 Meeting Promise
Everyone's busy, and no one likes to be pressured into coming to boring meetings. That's why we've done away with them - all but 2 per academic year. Every communication will be done effectively and quickly through the webpage and the occasional email. This is why we need a fairly large executive committee to make things run smoothly...i.e. 'Help Wanted'...any takers?
Competitions
We plan to host engineering competitions to bring together engineers from diverse diciplines to work on semi-complex projects. Anyone who was involved in competitions in high school can attest to the thrill of building a working, moving machine. A lot of very practical knowledge is learned while doing such interdiciplinary projects, from getting a more intuitive grasp of what 'shear strength' means to the stratigies involved in dividing 10W of power between a motor, a PAL and an antenna. All work in the real world is done in groups and under budget constraints and this just can't be 'taught' in classes. We hope to involve not only EE/CS/MechE students (both graduate as well as undergraduate), but faculty who like to tinker around as well as engineers from JPL. This way there can be a broad intermingling of people and ideas...this is a great way to get to know all those mythical professors or engineers at JPL.
SoCal Events
Everyone always complains about the 'caged in' atmosphere that exists at Caltech, primarily because we don't really interact with other area schools. There's a lot to be gained by teaming up with existing efforts in the area, from larger more productive career fairs, more exciting competitions, networking with other profs...to simple things like getting to know students at other colleges. One of the major ideas that we've had is a Southern California Undergraduate Research in Engineering Conference. This would be a great way for students with similar interests in research in engineering can get to know and hear of each other, as well as for Caltech to become more prominent in the area.
More
We'd love to (and can) go on and on for days, but we'd rather that you come down to the first meeting (one of TWO, mind you...) and get the gist of it yourself...
...yeah, but I'm a graduate student, this doesn't speak to me...
This club wasn't created specifically for undergrads - it just happens that a bunch of sophomores came up with the idea and went after it. Since we don't know what it's like to walk in a grad student's shoes, we really can't go about thinking up great events and opportunities for grad students. But one of the major things we're trying to accomplish is to create a structure for all students and faculty. This way, if a group of grad students want to do something (say organize an event or protest a departmental decision), they can utilize the existing critical mass, connections, etc to expedite their goals.
...Ahhh, not bad...someone's actually DOING something...so what can I do?
Well, for starters, stop acting like some infomercial and think on your own...what would YOU like out of such an organization? Then come on down to the meetings, and we can all work together on making it happen...organization! (wow, what a concept.)
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