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Becoming an engineer
The main thing to know about engineering is that your education will never be complete. That is what makes it fun.
A few ideas for getting started:
Communication: All engineers begin as specialists, and most engineering projects require more than one area of special knowledge. Most engineering is done by teams, just like FIRST. For teams to work best, each specialist must know how to communicate ideas to others. So learn to speak and write clearly and concisely. And learn to draw -- a good picture is really worth much more than a thousand words.
Fundamentals: Take all the physics and math courses you can, as early as possible in your education. The further you go in any area of specialization, the more your early lessons in physics and math will help you.
Find an easier way: Don't be satisfied with the first method that you find for solving any particular kind of problem. Keep looking for techniques that are easier, faster, and cheaper.
__________________
Richard Wallace
Mentor since 2011 for FRC 3620 Average Joes (St. Joseph, Michigan)
Mentor 2002-10 for FRC 931 Perpetual Chaos (St. Louis, Missouri)
 since 2003
I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.
(Cosmic Religion : With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931) by Albert Einstein, p. 97)
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