Enginerds ahoy!

This week has been a whirlwind. One minute I was just moving along at a nice relaxed southern rate. (Marcia would call it Ghana time) The next minute I had so much to do, and no time to do it in. Between preparations for Senior Design Symposium on Wednesday, Senior Dinner on Monday, and trying to find time to work on a final paper for our West Africa Seminar, (not to mention the countless exams my teammates have had this week) late nights, and early mornings have been status quo since last week.

Half of the Ghana Project Team at Symposium

Most of the engineers on our team are graduating this year (April 29^th!), so we attended Senior Dinner. We were inducted (initiated?) into the Order of the Engineer. Each of us received a steel ring to wear on the pinky of our working hand. The rings are symbolic of the responsibility we have as engineers. I was super excited to get mine, and it was the highlight of the evening for me.

Then awards were announced. The students vote on professor of the year for each discipline, and the teachers choose three students of the year for each discipline, Service, Academic, and All-Around.  I’m proud to announce that the advisor for the Ghana Project, Dr. Eason, received Mechanical Engineering Professor of the Year. I was chosen as All-Around Student of the Year for Mechanical Engineering. And, as if that wasn't enough, The Ghana Project was nominated as one of the top three Mechanical Engineering Senior Design projects of the year.  The recognition was well deserved, especially the project recognition, as the entire team has pulled together to make the project what it is today.

Our setup at Symposium

Meanwhile, Heather and Nicole were wrapping up work on our posters for Senior Design Symposium. They put a lot of effort into making the posters look perfect. Mission accomplished in my opinion. The next morning, the entire team met to practice our presentation. I think I’ve decided that Jermey should wear a uniform because he likes to present with a parade rest stance, “In the event of an emergency the team will be extracted expeditiously.”

Symposium was a blast. We had about two hours before we had to present, so I went around to check out everyone’s finished (or nearly finished products).  For an enginerd like me, finally seeing everyone’s finished products was impressive. I was really proud to be a UNF student, and especially a member of this year’s class. SWOOP!

"Make him an offer he can't refuse"

Our presentation went really well. We had a standing room only crowd, and when it was finished, they asked some really good questions about the project and about our experiences with the project.  The entire team pulled it off, and it felt seamless. It feels amazing to finally have this last hurdle past us; especially since our final paper for Senior Design is mostly complete as well.

Of course, the week isn’t quite over. I still have one more paper to finish. Next up is graduation, and then we fly to Africa! It’s just over three weeks away from today. While it felt extremely real when I was getting inoculated against everything,  as I write this, it seems surreal. It feels like a dream that I’m going to wake up from just as I get to the good part.

Here’s hoping I don’t wake up any time soon,

Maria
Co-Captain of the Ghana Project (and Enginerd Extraordinaire)