Re: the verb to CAD CADded? CADed?
 

I thought the whole point of FIRST was to get a better understanding in engeneering, not english.... (robotics is NOT the debate team!) (<--sorry for anyone on the debate team, but its true)

Re: the verb to CAD CADded? CADed?
 

Sometimes, pictures are not enough. That's when English comes into play.

Some college things: Even engineers notice when technical writing has bad grammar/is a bad translation. While building a plane from a kit (trainer plane, in more ways than one), I noticed some errors in the kit's instructions. The one that really surprised me (and others): two pieces, at opposite ends of the fuselage, with completely different functions and shapes, had the same designation. In another case, a piece that is supposed to run between two pieces is impossible to do-- one of the pieces was wrongly numbered in the instructions (3 instead of 13), or so this bunch of engineering students thinks. The plans, on the other hand, are quite clear, if you can visualize what things are supposed to look like.

And there are three classes that all the engineers have to take at my college: Freshman Composition, Technical Communications 1, and Technical Communications 2. Yes, we do need to know how to write well. No, you can't get out of those easily.

Re: the verb to CAD CADded? CADed?
 

Well <sheepish grin> maybe. Or at least re(hand)draw it with straighter lines, so it didn't look like I drew it on my lap while zooming up Rt128. Second thought: probably not -- I've learned that some things can just be left as a scribble.

My last couple of years before I started with CAD (not, "before I began CADding"!) I was doing most of my drawings with ink on mylar, mostly because I was getting bored with pencil, but also it made such better drawings. As a left-hander, I had already learned to avoid smearing the ink.

My first year college architectural professor told us that the best architects are the worst spellers. I thought I had it made! One of the reasons for CAD is the built-in speller.

Re: the verb to CAD CADded? CADed?
 

Grammar :p

Along the lines of this thread, Firefox 3 has built in spell checking, for those of you stuck in IE7 there is a plug in called IE 7 pro (http://www.ie7pro.com/) that will add spell checking. I believe Google Chrome also has spell checking but don't hold me to that. I say this not to be a jerk about spelling but to help people spell better. When my office installed IE7 pro our spelling became significantly better. Not because we learned to spell better, most of us could spell, but because we were made aware of it and that little red line bothered us.

Re: the verb to CAD CADded? CADed?
 

English is a tool, a tool for communication. Like all tools in engineering, an engineer strives to use his tools appropriately.

If you think that engineers do not need an understanding of English, I'll tell you now that you are mistaken.

English (or rather language in general) is at the core of engineering because it would make no difference at all, if you created the greatest widget in the world, if you could not communicate to others what your widget is and why it is great.

Re: the verb to CAD CADded? CADed?
 

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so whats the ways out of it? hacking the college server and changing your classes along with your grades, and how much you owe???? errrrrrr...... I mean making friends with the dean and getting him to exempt you from it?

Re: the verb to CAD CADded? CADed?
 

Wow, you know to get that strong a reaction you'd think we told you that we were discontinuing FIRST...

Realize, when we say communication we are not talking about the essays you probably had to write in high school which consisted of, "How does so and so's piece make you feel?" We are talking about technical manuals and the like. My freshman term at Kettering we had to take a class all about technical communication, writing business proposals, memos, emails, and reports. A year later when we approached a potential sponsor the first thing they asked for was a business proposal. Proof that while you can have the most stunning idea in the world it doesn't mean crap unless you can present it well. Communication is as important to engineering as mathematics.

EDIT: Hacking is never an option, that is like cheating and cheating is bad.

Re: the verb to CAD CADded? CADed?
 

Uh, no. Hacking gets you thrown out of the school, and making friends with the dean(s) won't do much either. You MIGHT be able to test out of English 101 (Freshman Comp.), but I don't think so. *Checks major-required course list* Nope.

They aren't that bad, though. The trick is to get one of the "fun" professors and enjoy the class, then use the spelling checker. (For example, about half an hour ago I was working on a PowerPoint for an instruction speech on navigating with a map and compass. The topic was my choice.) The professors are usually pretty good about assigning interesting topics, or letting you choose your own. In my Technical Communications 1 (Tech Comm 1 for short; non-written use only) class, we even get to choose when we present papers.

Re: the verb to CAD CADded? CADed?
 

thats only if you get caught!

thats good.... sounds easy if you have good profesors. I guess I will have to wait to find out if I like it or not. lol. XD

Re: the verb to CAD CADded? CADed?
 

This is a tech school. We have our ways of catching hackers and people like that. (Some illegal downloaders were caught last semester, I think.)

Besides, there is the ethics violation here... And that's another subject altogether.

Re: the verb to CAD CADded? CADed?
 

ok, you just have to be an amazing or an anoymous hacker. XD

and who cares about ethics????? lol. jk.

Re: the verb to CAD CADded? CADed?
 

That sounds like our friend Senator Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens.

Because of that, he was convicted on seven counts of lying to the Senate Ethics Board about hundreds of thousands of dollars of gifts and home improvements "donated" to him.

Re: the verb to CAD CADded? CADed?
 

Here at Cal Poly, even the engineers have to take that English class.... Once we pass that, we get to take the required technical writing class.

Re: the verb to CAD CADded? CADed?
 

CADed I really do not think is a word to put in a paper and I really dont think it is used as a verbal word anways/.. Just to let you know. lol

Re: the verb to CAD CADded? CADed?
 

Actually you may find that your English classes serve as an interesting break from having classes with the same people on the same topics all the time. I know that many of us at UBC viewed English 100 as an opportunity to experience classes with a different gender mix than that which we experienced in our own classes.

And while I know you are mostly joking (either that or you have a really sticky exclamation point key) you should keep in mind that the point of education is not just to provide one with technical skills, but also to broaden experiences and create common reference points. Just as I would not consider an Arts major to be well educated without a basic background in mathematics and sciences, I wouldn't consider an Engineering major to be well educated without a background in literature and history. Oh, yes, and grammar, too!

Jason