PROMPT: Stanford students possess an intellectual vitality. Reflect on an idea or experience that has been important to your intellectual experience.
Right now it's 73 characters over the limit.
When my interviewer and future coach was more fascinated about my time in art school than about my math and science grades, I knew I was in for something unexpected. Why would a mechanical engineer from MIT want to know about my latest pieces? Surely this had nothing to do with robotics. But I described it to him as best I could. I told him that they were not just captured images, but photo collages with two- and three-dimensional designs made of overlapping masking tape. The tape was not just adhesive for the collage -- it framed and demanded attention to the individual photos, the design highlighting the tape's rough, yet supple qualities to mirror the rest. He must have seen something in me; I had made it on my school's competitive robotics team. Perhaps engineering would be my "thing."
Two months later, my manipulator design made us champions in all four competitions that season. The next season I designed the manipulator for our 220-pound robot that stood five feet and rose to be ten feet tall. It took me weeks to find the correct angle needed between the arm I was building and a piston (of inconveniently unknown length) which would act as the arm's triceps. The issue was that the "arm" had to be perfectly parallel to the ground at times and perfectly perpendicular at others. Many bloody fingers later, I won "Best Arm Design". I felt I could engineer anything. Today, I am co-captain, and since we will be hosting the upcoming World Championship, the demand for my leadership and our collective brainpower is greater than ever.
Over my years on the team, I realized that I did not want to be an engineer -- a valuable personal lesson learned early on. The curious seeker in me found that I could apply all the mental skills I gained from robotics for other matters in life, like solving global issues and developing the entrepreneur in me. My coach later told me that after MIT he decided to pursue the art of filmmaking. And I understood. Regardless of my career path, I am and always will be a problem-solver, innovator, and creator at heart.
Right now it's 73 characters over the limit.
When my interviewer and future coach was more fascinated about my time in art school than about my math and science grades, I knew I was in for something unexpected. Why would a mechanical engineer from MIT want to know about my latest pieces? Surely this had nothing to do with robotics. But I described it to him as best I could. I told him that they were not just captured images, but photo collages with two- and three-dimensional designs made of overlapping masking tape. The tape was not just adhesive for the collage -- it framed and demanded attention to the individual photos, the design highlighting the tape's rough, yet supple qualities to mirror the rest. He must have seen something in me; I had made it on my school's competitive robotics team. Perhaps engineering would be my "thing."
Two months later, my manipulator design made us champions in all four competitions that season. The next season I designed the manipulator for our 220-pound robot that stood five feet and rose to be ten feet tall. It took me weeks to find the correct angle needed between the arm I was building and a piston (of inconveniently unknown length) which would act as the arm's triceps. The issue was that the "arm" had to be perfectly parallel to the ground at times and perfectly perpendicular at others. Many bloody fingers later, I won "Best Arm Design". I felt I could engineer anything. Today, I am co-captain, and since we will be hosting the upcoming World Championship, the demand for my leadership and our collective brainpower is greater than ever.
Over my years on the team, I realized that I did not want to be an engineer -- a valuable personal lesson learned early on. The curious seeker in me found that I could apply all the mental skills I gained from robotics for other matters in life, like solving global issues and developing the entrepreneur in me. My coach later told me that after MIT he decided to pursue the art of filmmaking. And I understood. Regardless of my career path, I am and always will be a problem-solver, innovator, and creator at heart.