{"id":673,"date":"2018-12-05T14:21:58","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T21:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/?p=673"},"modified":"2019-04-30T15:43:36","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T22:43:36","slug":"busy-as-usual-the-third-year-shuffle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/2018\/12\/05\/busy-as-usual-the-third-year-shuffle\/","title":{"rendered":"Busy As Usual – The Third Year Shuffle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello everyone,<\/p>\n

I\u2019m now back at UBC for the second term of my third year of Mechanical Engineering, which is on Term 1 of the winter session in the Co-op schedule.\u00a0 Trying to explain the Co-op schedule is always complicated, so I\u2019ve just started saying I graduate on May 2020 (assuming everything goes as planned).<\/p>\n

I ended up taking an online course over the summer and I strongly recommend it. It didn\u2019t feel like an extra burden on top of Co-op work since it was only one course and now I only have to take five courses this term instead of the usual six.<\/p>\n

And the best part?<\/p>\n

Only one course starts at 8:00am.\u00a0 A dream come true.<\/p>\n

Now, when I was first looking at this semester on paper it seemed like an easygoing semester. Only five courses? Sounds like smooth sailing to my final year.\u00a0But engineering being engineering, this term is just as packed as all of my other ones.\u00a0Here\u2019s my quick student perspective off the courses this term.<\/p>\n

MECH 325 \u2013 Mechanical Design 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

This course applies to all options of the Mechanical Engineering program (Thermofluids, Biomedical, Mechatronics, and General.\u00a0 More info on those here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

You learn all about gears, pulleys and all sort of mechanical systems.\u00a0 There\u2019s tons of information and equations coming your way so get ready to soak in all types of variables.\u00a0 There\u2019s group work involved with designing components and small mechanical systems, but not every week.<\/p>\n

MECH 327 \u2013 Thermodynamics 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh boy, here we go again. Thermodynamics 2: 2 Hot 2 Handle<\/p>\n

Only students in the General and Thermofluids options of the program have to take this one.\u00a0 It\u2019s one of the most important and applicable courses for the field I want to go into after graduation (energy).\u00a0 That first midterm didn\u2019t go so well though, so this class has been my top priority.<\/p>\n

The second midterm is two days from the time I write this, so wish me luck.<\/p>\n

MECH 328 \u2013 Mechanical Engineering Design Project<\/strong><\/p>\n

This one applies to all options and it\u2019s the main design course this term.\u00a0 The project this year is to design an autonomous ocean microplastic sampler.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a little information on microplastics and why they are increasingly a problem in the ocean:\u00a0https:\/\/oceanservice.noaa.gov\/facts\/microplastics.html<\/a><\/p>\n

The project is actually pretty neat, but it\u2019s quite a bit of work.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have to build anything, but we do have to develop our design using engineering design principles.\u00a0 This means that we have to be very thorough with our decision process and there\u2019s tons of documentation is involved, so it\u2019s good preparation for the engineering field.<\/p>\n

MECH 386 \u2013 Industrial Fluid Mechanics<\/strong><\/p>\n

This course only applies to the Thermofluids option, so it is one of the more interesting courses for me.\u00a0 It\u2019s essentially a continuation of previous fluid courses, but more grounded in industry applications.\u00a0 There\u2019s a semester long project involved where you contact companies and try to solve problem they are having specific to fluid mechanics.<\/p>\n

I did pretty well on the first midterm, so the course is currently on my good graces.\u00a0 The turbulent flow midterm is just around the corner, so I\u2019m not sure that good grace will last.<\/p>\n

PHIL 101 \u2013 Philosophy 101<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is my non-engineering course this term.<\/p>\n

I highly recommend taking Philosophy.\u00a0 It\u2019s a nice break from the regular engineering courses were we get smacked over the head with all of the rules that we have to follow.\u00a0 The physics and math with equation after equation after equation.\u00a0 I feel like this course provides a different perspective on things.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s nice to take a step back and go \u201cWait, do I even exist?\u201d If I don\u2019t exist neither does that grade I got on the Thermodynamics midterm.\u00a0 There\u2019s comfort in that.<\/p>\n

__<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s about it. Two\u00a0design courses, two regular engineering courses, and one humanities for a total of five courses.<\/p>\n

Like I said, it looks like a pretty straightforward semester. After this it\u2019s an 8-month Co-op and then my final year.\u00a0 I just have to make it through this term first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello everyone, I\u2019m now back at UBC for the second term of my third year of Mechanical Engineering, which is on Term 1 of the winter session in the Co-op schedule.\u00a0 Trying to explain the Co-op schedule is always complicated, so I\u2019ve just started saying I graduate on May 2020 (assuming everything goes as planned). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56343,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4265571],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mech-undergrad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56343"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":795,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673\/revisions\/795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/mechambassadors\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}