Hello again!
I’m looking forward to a truly awesome semester and I’d love to tell you about it!
First of all, my classes are amazing. I’m taking ISE 344, Engineering Team Management to grow as a leader and practice building teams with stubborn, know-it-all engineers. I have that class with Cassandra, Melanie, and Brendon, so obviously it’s going to be fun!
Next, I’m taking AME 420, Engineering Vibrations, which, from what I’ve seen so far, seems to be about periodic movements in complex bodies. That class, I’m really only taking because it fits with my schedule
A Cantilevered beam, type of structure statics problem we did this week for homework
My 3rd engineering class is ASTE 480, Spacecraft Dynamics on Tuesday nights from 6:30-9:10. I swear it feels like my head is filled to bursting at the end of the class, and I fall right asleep as soon as I get home. That one seems to be complex math to describe motion, torque, moment, moments, forces, etc on an spacecraft, be it irregular or spinning 3-dimensionally in space. Difficult, but useful.
My 4th major engineering class has me super excited!! Its ASTE 420, which is only for seniors in astronautical engineering. There are 12 of us, divided into 2 groups of 6 for our senior capstone class. Last semester I took AME 441 which is that majors senior design class, but this one is specifically tailored to astro students. The first day, the professor handed out a RFP, or Request for Proposal, for a Space-Based Solar Power (SBSP) architecture for space and ground stations!!
Maybe you haven’t heard alot about SBSP, but it’s a big deal for people that are both space nerds and interested in renewable energy. Solar cells on earth are great, but we lose efficiency as light is filtered through the atmosphere. Collecting solar energy in space is 100x more efficient, just due to the amount of sunlight (W/m^2). However, as you can imagine, there are quite a few logitical problems, which include how to get the energy back to Earth in a form that’s not a death laser. And even more importantly, who would fund this, when it’s likely that the payoff from the energy would take at least a decade. I could go on and on, and I will as we write a 80-100 proposal to answer this question. But I’ll keep you updated through tweet and blog (SO EXCITED!)
My 5th engineering class is ENGR 100, Honors Colloquium, and I have the honor this semester of being the student moderator. That means that I find speakers who are interesting to me and ask them to come lecture for an hour to the ~100 Engineering Honors students. The class is an hour every Friday, and I look for speakers who do exciting research or have helpful career or life advice. The first one last week was very interested. One of the criteria for the series is to have a 3.7 GPA (which I barely managed to keep all the way to my senior year!!)
Finally I’m taking the infamous USC Film Symposium class and see movies before they’re released and then hear from actors and directors and costume managers and etc. about the film
Other than my classes, I’m still the President of Society of Women Engineers and have so much fun and learn alot weekly with our general meetings and the great people in the club.
I’m a member of the Equestrian team and am showing my horse, Fast this weekend and then traveling to Arizona next weekend to try and win some ribbons!
I’m singing in a recital choir for one of my friends who is a conducting student.
I’m a TA for AME 341, Mechoptronics.
AND……. I’m going to try to make the most of my last semester at an amazing school so I don’t regret missed opportunities. Wish me luck, and Fight On!
