Portfoilo 3

As civilization grew, engineering was nourished. In the modern era, engineering get closer and closer to people’s everyday life. In the century just ended, engineering recorded its grandest accomplishments. (http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9221.aspx Oct, 9th,2008,ND) However, as the population grows and its needs and desires expand, old and new threats to personal and public health, such as pandemic diseases, terrorist violence, and natural disasters, demand more effective and more readily available treatments. Thus, the world’s cadre of engineers will seek ways to put knowledge into practice to meet these grand challenges. Actually, there are totally 14 great challenges to overcome:
1. To find source of environmentally friendly power
2. To use nuclear fusion to solve the power problems
3. To explore methods of capturing the carbon dioxide
4. To design countermeasures for nitrogen cycle problems
5. Quality and quantity of water
6. Reverse-engineering” the brain
7. To computerize catalogs of health information
8. To develop new medicines
9. To counter the violence of terrorists
10. To sustain the aging infrastructures of cities and services
11. To reduce vulnerability to assaults on cyberspace
12. To develop computer-created virtual realities
13. To enhance exploration
14. To improve methods of instruction and learning
From them, we can see sustainable supplies of food, water, and energy; protection from human violence, natural disaster, and disease; full access to the joys of learning, exploration, communication, and entertainment — these are goals for all of the world’s people.
In sum, governmental and institutional, political and economic, and personal and social barriers will repeatedly arise to impede the pursuit of solutions to problems. The challenges facing engineering today are not those of isolated locales, but of the planet as a whole and all the planet’s people. (http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9221.aspx, Oct, 9th,2008,ND)

Reference: http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/cms/8996/9221.aspx, Oct, 9th,2008,ND

Portfoilo 4

When mentioning difficulties writing in my engineering classes, I think there are three main difficulties: first, how to express myself effectively; second, how to make the essay organized; last, what to write in an academic essay. In my opinion, expression is the most important when we are using a language. However, sometimes I do not know how to express myself. As a result, some misunderstanding emerges. For example, in my course st1131, a statistic module, I am a little afraid to answer some essay questions, because I do not know how to express myself effectively. Moreover, it is also difficult to organize well an essay. If the organization of an essay is really clear, then the essay is more readable and understandable, otherwise the essay will seem like messy. Sometimes, I do not know how to organize an academic essay clearly. Lastly, it is also not easy to decide what to write in an academic essay, namely, the content of an essay. As I pick up a pen or look at the screen of my computer, I feel puzzled and lost. I always ask myself what to do and what to write. If we say the organization of an essay is like the skeleton of a body, then the content of an essay is like the flesh and blood of a body. From it, we can see that it is the content that makes an essay fresh and live. Whether an essay is attractive or not mainly depends on the content of it. However, I often feel it difficult to choose what to write. For instance, when I was writing assignment1, I have the same feeling—nothing to write. In conclusion, the difficulties I have in writing an academic essay are that I do not know how to express myself effectively, not sure how to make an essay organized and do not know what to write in an academic essay.