The Engineering Experience

Posted on April 29, 2014 by Kat Frangos Have you checked out the DesignLife  website  recently?  You can find a quick introduction into all the fun things you can do as a Purdue engineer and the wide variety of opportunities available to Boilermakers.  Here's a list of the " Top 10 Reasons to Love Purdue " from the DesignLife website: 10. Five-star Dining (well, almost)  — Ranked 14 th  in the nation — so good you’ll think your mother made it 9. Nearly 1,000 Student Organizations  — We dare you to claim there’s not a club for you 8. A-list Entertainment  —   We’ll bring the big names to you. Recent faves have included Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, and Blue Man Group 7. Grand Prix  — They don’t call it the greatest spectacle in college racing for nothing 6. Study Abroad  — 300+ options in 54 countries (some just for engineers!) 5. Big Ten Sports  — Come see why Purdue’s fans are like none...

Posted on April 24, 2014 by Jessica Callinan One of the most exciting yet daunting experiences as an engineer at Purdue is your senior design project. I remember hearing about senior design my freshmen year from older friends, and I was always afraid of the day that I had to do it.  Most seniors take senior design their graduating semester, and all of last semester I was terrified of the impending doom I expected senior design to be. Upon our first day of class, I realized that I had been terribly mistaken and mislead.  Every major does senior design differently, but for Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, it is split into and aeronautical senior design and an astronautical senior design. Typically, aeronautical does an aircraft project and astronautical does a spacecraft project. I chose the astronautical side, as space has always been my focus and a space project sounded really interesting. Our professor proposed our project in a very simplistic manner: "I ...

Posted on April 22, 2014 by Kat Frangos This is a repost (from last weekend) from my personal blog, " Kat's Krazy Adventures ."  Hope you enjoy it! It's amazing how fast time flies by.  One minute,  I am a freshman, arriving on Purdue's campus for the first time and now, here I am, just about 5 weeks from graduation.  When did that happen?! When the "Graduation" tab shows up on MyPurdue, you know it's official... Over the past semester, it is been a roller-coaster of late engineering nights, spending quality time with friends, working hard on senior design, and crossing things off of my Purdue Bucket List.  Sixteen weeks in a semester may seem like a lot of time, but it just really doesn't last.  I was at Walmart today and now my mindset has become "how much do we need for the next month?"  Now that there is so little time left here, it's even more important to make the most of every opportunity. Just last week, I we...

Posted April 14, 2014 by Beata Strubel Take a look at the lotion on your counter or your favorite shampoo. The technology in beauty care products continues to advance. Your lotion does much more than simply moisturize, and your shampoo is much more than liquid soap. Think of the hundreds of thousands of beauty care products you see and use on a daily basis. Engineers play a role in creating, formulating, processing, and producing all of these products. This past summer I was able to see part of this process as an intern at Procter & Gamble, where I worked in Beauty Care Research & Development. My project involved modifying a material to be used in a new anti-wrinkle cream for Olay. My Team at P&G (Ready for our company 5K!) Downtown Cincinnati with other P&G Interns (I'm in the center) Prior to my internship, my only lab experience was in freshman general chemistry lab. My project involved organic chemistry synthesis, so I learned a lot on ...

Posted on April 9, 2014 by Jessica Callinan One of the main reasons I came to Purdue was because it is a big school with lots of opportunity to try new things and reach out to new people. As a freshmen, I was eager to join as many clubs as possible and meet as many new people as I could. When I  came to college, I never expected a sorority to be an organization that I would join. Looking back now, it is one of the best decisions that I have ever made in college. As many people that have never been exposed to Greek life, I had my hesitations based on stereotypes shown in media. However, all of these stereotypes were quickly and completely proven false. On the first day of recruitment, I was a little bit nervous that I wouldn't impress any house, but as soon as I walked into the first house I realized that I didn't have to try and impress anyone. The girls genuinely wanted to get to know me for who I was, not have me act like some expectation I thought they had. Everyo...

Posted on April 3, 2014 by Catherine Courchaine I was a huge fan of volleyball in high school. My teammates and I formed great bonds, we set school records, we sweat, and we cried. When my last season ended, I thought I was done playing competitive volleyball. I had become a decent player, but not a Big 10 caliber player. When I arrived at Purdue, the club volleyball team was the perfect fit. Club volleyball allowed me to balance a tough engineering course load with the fun and competitiveness of a traveling team. Collegiate club sports tend to have travel and non-travel options. The Purdue University Women's Volleyball Club forms two traveling teams and a third team that practices with the club every week but does not attend tournaments. Practices are usually about 1.5 hours several days a week and tournaments last a weekend and occur about every other weekend at universities around the Midwest. Every spring, the teams prepare to compete at Nationals, an absolutely unforget...