Over the summer I blogged about my favorite freshman aerospace engineering intro class, but each semester brings a new list of classes and more favorite classes! This semester, my favorite class is AME 310. Initially I was scared to take this class because normally it is a course Juniors take; however, the course material hasn’t been too difficult and the professor and students make it interesting! When I registered for this class, I never would have imagined that I would enjoy basic thermodynamics; however, the professor, Professor Penkova has done a lot to make the class interactive and applicable to things we use everyday. A previous student from SC Racing came in to speak about combustion engines in cars, and last week representatives from Chevron came to do a demonstration and applied what we were learning in class to what they do at Chevron.
They brought the actual equipment that they use to train their new employees and did a typical training demonstration for us. the demo really helped me apply what I learned in class to real world experiences and actually get me more interested in thermodynamics. The representatives that came were Viterbi Alums as well! I can’t wait to se what else this course has in store for the rest of the semester! While the course itself does not have a lab section with it, our professor has many lab demonstrations planned to help us learn the material.
