Engineering: Discuss experiences that led you to choose an engineering education at U.Va. and the role that scientific curiosity plays in your life.
Perched upon the steps of a three-stepped ladder with arms and legs caked in white dust, I let out a brief sigh with a twisted face. My eyes fall upon the completed product-a cluster of crackled scraps of wood conjoined to create an ancestral altar for rituals. It was beautiful. It was mine.
The previously used pre-ordered pedestal that we threw away was neither ugly with its gold embroidering, nor was it disjointed in its assembly. It was simply just a pedestal.
Perhaps not the image of success, but in my eyes, I see the time poured into the project. The problem solving was more than measurements and calculations, but rather implemented my ability to ask how I could improve upon its precision. Each piece of the compound had to be precisely aligned which each other, along with the complexities of angles and malleability of the material. Putting it together was a big puzzle.
But, it's more than just a straightforward process. There is an intuitive sense to this. One has to imagine the final product before making and cuts. It's almost an artistic feel to picture the puzzle already completed, to see if it matches with what you want.
Every time I walk by the family room with the altar, I don't see it for its full self, I see the nail I hammered in, the slight elevation of the top, and the smoothness of its surface. Objects become pieces of work put together, I see the nail I didn't screw and the hedges I didn't fasten together.
Perched upon the steps of a three-stepped ladder with arms and legs caked in white dust, I let out a brief sigh with a twisted face. My eyes fall upon the completed product-a cluster of crackled scraps of wood conjoined to create an ancestral altar for rituals. It was beautiful. It was mine.
The previously used pre-ordered pedestal that we threw away was neither ugly with its gold embroidering, nor was it disjointed in its assembly. It was simply just a pedestal.
Perhaps not the image of success, but in my eyes, I see the time poured into the project. The problem solving was more than measurements and calculations, but rather implemented my ability to ask how I could improve upon its precision. Each piece of the compound had to be precisely aligned which each other, along with the complexities of angles and malleability of the material. Putting it together was a big puzzle.
But, it's more than just a straightforward process. There is an intuitive sense to this. One has to imagine the final product before making and cuts. It's almost an artistic feel to picture the puzzle already completed, to see if it matches with what you want.
Every time I walk by the family room with the altar, I don't see it for its full self, I see the nail I hammered in, the slight elevation of the top, and the smoothness of its surface. Objects become pieces of work put together, I see the nail I didn't screw and the hedges I didn't fasten together.