Fluency and Juxtaposition

Listening

For this assignment I asked a friend to take some time out and talk to me. She goes to the same university and I knew that she would be more than happy to speak at length to not only vent her problems but also to help me.
It was a bit weird at first to get her to start talking since the whole experience would be put on my blog. But after a little encouragement she began.
She hadnt had the best week. It was only made worse with the fact that today would have been her first-year anniversary with her ex-boyfriend. A few times she wanted to speak to her best friend at home about this but due to lack of time on the friend's part she ended up keeping her frustrations locked in. Also, the suicide last week reminded her of an incident a few years ago.
On my part, I tried my best to be a responsive and empathetic listener. I know from previous experience that I am probably not the best listener but here I made a determined effort to be one. I tried to implement AMPP for the better part of the conversation. It was difficult at first but later i found it easier to relate to her problems and maintain the emotional state in the conversation. I do think that i was able to be encouraging enough to ensure she took as many pauses as she wanted without anything getting awkward. Through this exercise I found out that sometimes when I am the loss of an appropriate response, I just leave the conversation hanging. Also, I am very bad at implementing the "C" of "ABC". But I am very good at agreeing with things.
Finally, I did find it very helpful when she at the end of the conversation pointed out: "Do mention in your blog that you want to improve on giving feedback instead of zoning out by the end of it."

Engineered Object

Living in the six-pack has one big problem. And that is the slamming of the doors at any point in the night. The residents dont realize that after opening the door and leaving it at its extreme causes it to swing back with a tremendous force towards the frame of the door and thus resulting in a loud slam.

The easiest solution to this would be to use door closers such as:

But these are an expensive option. Another way to mitigate the problem would be to re-engineer the door. According to me the edge of the door should have a another component. A parallel network of thick bristles should run down the entire length of the door so that when the door is left open to swing by itself, the bristles come in contact with the frame first and the loud slam is avoided. 

I dont know whether this idea is practical and feasible enough. I have strong doubts about its aesthetic value. But its an idea nevertheless. 

Toulmin Model

Communicating with TA

Hi!

I am a student from your ECE 110 Lab class (Thursdays at 7:50 am).

I unfortunately missed the lab today. There was some jam up with my alarm system and I ended up over sleeping. I wanted to know if there was anyway in which I could do a make-up lab or something. Labs constitute a major part of our grade and i don't want that to be messed up because of recklessness on my part.

Thanks,

Akash

This is an email I wrote to the TA of my ECE 110 Lab. I had written it last week.

Expanding your network

I intended to expand my network before this assignment was handed out. But just the fact that this was an assignment finally provided me that extra push i needed to finally sit on my laptop and send out emails. 

I have a keen interest in application development. This interest developed thanks to my three month stint as an industrial trainee at a software company. I possess the basic knowledge to get started but at times require the experienced hand to guide me. I decided to talk to my ECE professor (Professor Loui) about this. This is what i wrote to him: 

Professor Loui,

I am a student from your ECE 110 lecture class. I am writing to you since I need some help.

I want to work on an independent project in application development. I have basic knowledge in programming using Java and windows forms programming using C# (Visual Studio 2010). I have an outline of the project framework in my mind but I need someone experienced in this area to guide me. I do not know whether you deal with programming or not. If you do, is it possible for you to help me sometimes? And if not, can you please get me in touch with some other professor who can assist me?

Thanking you,

Akash Agarwal Binjrajka

I waited for three days but received no reply. This was very peculiar since I was under the impression that professors were very quick to response. The next class i asked the professor whether he had replied and to my surprise he answered to the affirmative. Later, I found out that there was something wrong with Illinois email account due to which i wasn't receiving any replies. I asked the professor to resend his reply. His reply was as follows:

Dear Mr. Binjrajka:

Thank you for your question.  Although I am familiar with software development in general, at the moment, I am supervising too many individual student research projects -- more than ever before in my thirty-year career.

If you do not need academic credit, you could find a graduate student or advanced undergraduate to guide you.  I recommend that you inquire at the student chapter of the ACM in Siebel Center.  Many students like you pursue their own projects without gaining academic credit.  You could even show your project at Engineering Open House.

Clearly, Professor Loui was not in a position to help with me it. Instead of being dismayed by this, I was on the other hand very happy since i was now aware of the ACM which would open to me a wider array of network choices. I intend to contact the ACM within the week and see what help they can provide in my endeavour. 

Reaction to the concept of missing basics

At the outset I at first didnt understand what the missing basics of engineering referred to. Were they the concepts which every engineer needed to possess and did not, or were they those techniques which only made an engineer better at his work? I also did not comprehend what those missing basics exactly meant. It was a vague term which anyone could interpret according to what they thought the missing basics were. I interpreted it as the skills a budding engineer required to fulfill his role in the profession. I believed it to be the lacking constituent of a complete engineer.
The skills which i intend on building this semester are the abilities to:
1) Communicate effectively and efficaciously (Verbal as well as written)
2) Think critically and ask probing questions
3) Perceive surroundings and sum them up quickly
Developing these skills is no easy task. From experience i am certain that it would take me the most amount of time just trying to figure out whether i am moving in the right direction and whether the path i choose to achieve this goal is the correct one. The due date for this skill set is the end of the semester. I have four months which i can make efficient use of by developing these "missing basics". I intend to continue with blogging which will enhance my communication skills. Also, i am going to read books which stress on critical thinking.
I know for a fact that this is a long shot but I also know that its possible.