As with most students, I began my GCSP journey with FSE 150: Perspectives on Grand Challenges for Engineering. Through this class, I was able to gain valuable insight and experience that I will be able to utilize for the rest of my time here at ASU and beyond.
In this course, we went through detailed exercises in each of the four Grand Challenges themes (Health, Joy of Living, Sustainability, and Security), going through real-world exercises depicting modern challenges in an industry context, and figuring out how to solve them.
One such takeaway from this class would be that I learned a great deal about scholarly research. As my paper revolved around research, the experience writing it helped me learn good ways to both find and process the information found in research journals. On a more personal level, I interviewed Dr. Wasif Bokhari, a professor at ASU, about his research involving machine learning. Throughout this interview, he provided me with ways to get myself involved with research at the university. This portion of my FSE150 class has made me more prepared to tackle larger research projects, such as my honors thesis.
Besides research, this class also gave me the opportunity to apply engineering principles towards real-life problems. In order to be successful in implementing our Future Solutions project, we had to look at the issue from all sides. Not only did our solution have to solve the issue at hand, but it also had to be appealing to corporations, the government, and the public at large. If I work on creating a new product in the future, I will be able to think back to this project for advice.
More than anything else, this class helped open my eyes in regards to the Grand Challenges. There was not a single overarching theme in which I didn’t learn something of use. I learned that there is a constant struggle between effectiveness and appeal for products in the health industry. The sustainability industry has a similar struggle with cost, and I learnt that out-of-the-box thinking in the industry could be a potential solution. The joy of living “industry” is very diverse and hard to capitalize on due to differing public opinions on the matter.
I learned that the security industry, which is the theme I have decided to focus the rest of my GCSP experience on, is very underappreciated in our society. Something that Dr. Paulo Shakarian told us during his guest lecture was that “If you do your job correctly, no one notices. It’s only when you mess up when people pay attention”. This quote greatly resonated with me, especially in the realm of cybersecurity. Every time we do something as simple as entering a password online, we are depending on the software engineers to make sure nothing of ours gets compromised. This portion of my class experience cemented my belief that the people working in cybersecurity are holding up the foundation of the modern day world, and it has made me even more excited to explore the many intricacies of the field moving forward.
I am glad that I had the opportunity to be part of this class, as I walk out of it as a more socially conscious engineer. As much as I think the standard major track teaches students many things, it may not convey to them the major problems of the modern day. Since I have been a kid, I wanted to do something that would leave an impact on the world; I know that without this class, it would most likely be much harder for me to have an idea of how to help it. For the first time, I have been able to see a direct path towards being a part of fixing the world’s issues, and it fills me with a newfound sense of purpose and determination.