As a part of the senior year curriculum, students are required to take BSEN 4300 and BSEN 4310. These are both courses that specialize in preparing students for not only their senior design projects, but also our future careers as engineers. This course is taught by a group of professors who have multiple years of experience as professional engineers. They bring in outside speakers who are practicing the profession now to educate students, and also to show them how to act professionally.
During this course, I learned the importance of many different aspects of the engineering profession but the most important are value of standards, team building, and the protection of intellectual property. The first important topic we covered were the ASABE standards. We learned where to find these standards online, how to use them, and how to check our work to be sure it was within the acceptable standard. These standards are very important to the profession because it holds engineers accountable to quality and performance.
Team building is also a very important part of the senior year curriculum. The first semester of the senior year, we as students are assigned our senior design projects. We are placed in teams of three or four and are tasked with a special project that will be continued through the rest of our senior year. We have to learn to do research, design, communicate, and function as a team, much like we will after graduation and as we start our careers. This aspect of the professional practice curriculum is definitely the most important.
Another very important topic we covered in the professional practice class is the importance of protecting intellectual property. We discussed patents, copyrights, licenses and trademarks. We discussed how important it is to not only give credit to other peoples work, but also how important it is to project ones own. We discussed how important nondisclosure agreements are and how important it is to patent ones work before other people can claim it as their own. We were taught that record keeping is a very important part of this process. These are all things that we must consider now for our senior design projects and consider later on in our careers.
During this course, I learned the importance of many different aspects of the engineering profession but the most important are value of standards, team building, and the protection of intellectual property. The first important topic we covered were the ASABE standards. We learned where to find these standards online, how to use them, and how to check our work to be sure it was within the acceptable standard. These standards are very important to the profession because it holds engineers accountable to quality and performance.
Team building is also a very important part of the senior year curriculum. The first semester of the senior year, we as students are assigned our senior design projects. We are placed in teams of three or four and are tasked with a special project that will be continued through the rest of our senior year. We have to learn to do research, design, communicate, and function as a team, much like we will after graduation and as we start our careers. This aspect of the professional practice curriculum is definitely the most important.
Another very important topic we covered in the professional practice class is the importance of protecting intellectual property. We discussed patents, copyrights, licenses and trademarks. We discussed how important it is to not only give credit to other peoples work, but also how important it is to project ones own. We discussed how important nondisclosure agreements are and how important it is to patent ones work before other people can claim it as their own. We were taught that record keeping is a very important part of this process. These are all things that we must consider now for our senior design projects and consider later on in our careers.