The engineering and economics of my experience

Long preserved thoughts about Romanian education

2007-05-30T19:26:00.000-07:00

Just say the word education and you have guaranteed yourself my attention. I became interested in the problem of education in Romania because it caused me a lot of suffering in my schooling in Romania. But I did not suffer because I could not learn or had bad grades. Instead, school did not offer what I wanted and needed at that time. I am not the person to rebel against professors that give a lot of homework or who ask a bit more from their students.

My concern was that I did not get all the useful information and training through the programs offered in school. Sometimes I felt like I lost a day of my life because I had to go to school to meet the attendance requirement. Some of these days were usually in the first week of classes, last week(s) of classes of each semester, days before school breaks, days before and after a big celebration in my high-school (such as Freshmen Ball, Senior Prom, Halloween Party, Valentines Day). I don't consider them useless, but these extracurricular activities should not require students to stop going to classes and professors to stop teaching their lessons because they did not have enough students.

But wasting time at school is one of the smaller problems that I have experienced in my education. The lack of interest in both students and professors about the general purpose of education is a more important problem. Most professors do not see their job as one of the most important jobs in a society; they are not aware of their responsibility to shape valuable citizens. Professors do not make their courses interesting enough for students to pay attention and show respect to the class, professor and material studied. Most of the times the incentive for studying is a good grade and not the knowledge.

And this brings me to one of the greatest problems of the education: plagiarism. In the presentation I made with Corina for the Romanian Conference at Columbia University we called it the CULT(URE) of PLAGIARISM. When you want to increase your grade in a course in high-school you usually had to submit a paper on a certain topic. Usually that paper was not the creation of the student, but a copy-paste version of some article from wikipedia and other web resources or an already made paper that you can find on websites like www.referat.ro
At the end of high school we had to take a certification of English competence because I graduated from a profile that had English as an intensive study subject. So, we had to write a 2o page paper on a topic of our choice from the English culture. Guess where did all the information in most of my colleagues papers come from?
Plagiarism only trains unethical behavior and wastes the time of the student. He does not gain anything than a good grade for printing some information from the Internet. But that good grades does not serve him in the long run, but professors accept it the way it is.

The professors that are most criticized are usually those who actually do something, and those who don't do anything usually pass somewhat unseen. From my high-school experience, there were two professors severely criticized who did not deserve the words that were brought. One of them was a visiting professor we had for English who was a Peace Corps volunteer. He tried to implement to our class the principles under which he studied in US. He asked us to write papers in English that had to reflect individual experiences; no plagiarism allowed. Students actually had to use their brains and come up with two pages of writing in English and submit the paper before the deadline. First, he was criticized for making students work to much for a class like English. Second, he was "too strict" with the deadlines and did not accept late submissions without penalty ... as this was a very wrong thing to do. And third, he was very strict with using materials which were not the product of the student and he failed the students who did not abide. All he wanted to do was to help students improve their English and respect their integrity but he was perceived as doing the wrong thing. At this point, I owe him a great deal of my success in the college writing courses.
The other severely criticized professor was my econ professor who tried to implement the programs of Junior Achievement as extracurricular activities to our econ class. But the time she invested in doing this was not appreciated and was considered a waste of time for the students. All her enthusiasm and all the knowledge from the program was not good enough for this "great" system of education we had.

Mainly, these are the things that bothered me in school. Of course, there are many more to be said about the problem of education in Romania and I promise to write more posts about it.

But, how can we solve the problem of education? Marian Stas has one solution.
I respect and support the initiative he started, which is called "Public School - The Real Deal". The papers and articles he wrote are here, but all of them are in Romanian. In them, he actually comes with a viable solution to this problem and I have nothing else to say but "Go for it!"

I think this is all for now, but I promise you at least another post about my conversations with some of my friends who are studying at university in Romania.

Some Extreme Engineering and Wishes

2007-05-27T19:51:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching an episode from the new series of Extreme Engineering from Discovery Channel. This is my favorite show ever, the one which inspired my passion for Civil Engineering. I remember the times from high school when I had to stay up until 12 at night to watch the show contrary to my parents "orders" and when I wrote essays for admission to college about my dream of taking part in such a project set in Romania.

The episode I just finished was about Hong Kong's International Airport. Not only did they build the biggest enclosed space for the passenger terminal for the airport, but they also had to build a huge island for the actual construction of this amazing human endeavor. As if this was not enough, they also built one of the longest system of double-decker suspension bridges in the world, an underwater tunnel and a new system of highways and high-speed railways to connect the city with the airport. Not only did they build this with the most ingenious design and most brilliant solutions to the problems, but they had to stand in front of some of the worst forces of nature, typhoons. If you think this is incredible, wait until I tell you that they finished it in 7 years.

I can only be amazed and inspired by this humanly effort. But I am also covered in a lot of pain because my thoughts took me to my country. Romania cannot even make possible the most mundane job for a civil engineer, building a simple highway across the country. I think the human factor in Romania is a much worse natural force than typhoons proved to be in Hong Kong. My bitterness makes we dream of the time when I will be able to take action and make Romania open its eyes. I want it to realize that life is not about how many estates you have, what cars you drive and how much money you can make. I want it to see that it is more rewarding to have an efficient economy based on a functional infrastructure in a country where the political figures are concerned about development and innovation rather than playing kindergarten games of power.

I hope I am not just a dreamer and that I will live to see it happen. Or rather, I should start thinking about a way to make my wish come true.

Good or not?

2007-05-17T20:03:00.001-07:00

I just finished watching 3rd Season Finale of Grey's Anatomy . I have watched this show for an year. I started by watching a downloaded version of the first season and then I did not have the patience to watch the second season so I just picked up the main parts thanks to the amazing and vast material found on YouTube. Although I skipped the second season I did not feel I lost a lot of information. This already tells a lot about the kind of show it is.

I don't know yet what to think about the episode that ended the first magical number of series. There are pros and cons, as there is to everything in life. So, I'll try to lay them down and see if I get to a conclusion by the end of the post.

First of all, there are so many questions unanswered by the end of the episode. Did Meredith actually end her relationship with Derek when she said "It's all over"? Did she refer to Derek as well when she said that? Why was Callie chosen Chief of Surgery? What will happen now with her dream of having a baby? How would this affect her marriage with George? How will George react to this news? Did George actually fail on purpose? What will happen with the unsolved love between George and Izzie? Did Preston leave the show for good? Or will he return "at a good moment"? What was Richard's reason for not choosing Miranda as Chief of Surgery? What will be the reasons for Addison and Mark to stay at Seattle Grace and not follow Preston's example?
I like drama, so I must like leaving with these questions. The unanswered questions make the viewers' waiting worth while.

But, where did they lose the witty commentaries at the end. I loved them and it made the show to have a purpose. I expected at the end of the third season to see a intelligent observation that was better than all the previous ones. I also found the pace of the events to be slow compared to other episodes. Drama cannot be hurried, but when it's painstakingly long it does not help at all, although drama is supposed to be "painful".

In the end, I think that the quality of the show started to decrease and I am expecting greater effort from the producers next year to please my expectations.

The image I have posted at the beginning is more intriguing than the whole last episode of the third season. Can it be because I have watched Grey's for too long?

The End of My First Year of College

2007-05-14T19:19:00.000-07:00

Yes, it does feel like yesterday was the Orientation Ceremony. It seems trivial to say that, but that is truth. Truth is always trivial. A year has passed again and it seems it's time to look back and think a little about the process. This would have been easier if I kept a diary, but I could not find time and motivation to write regularly. Recently, I started a blog for the same reasons I wanted to keep a diary. I have hope in this project and I even put it in my goals list for this year.

Speaking of Lists of Goals, at the beginning of the year I made a list like that and now it seems that I underestimated my potential. From the 21 items on the list, I managed to complete 8 of them in the first 4 months of the year, 3 of them got cut of the list because of the circumstances and will never be done and I am in the process of accomplishing 5 more. So, there are 5 things left to be done for the next 7 months of this year. The thing to be learned from this is that I should do Goals Lists biannually at least.

I was also questioning myself if I have changed in these 9 months of college. And I think I did change a lot. First, I gained a lot of knowledge both academically and personally. I learned how to learn. I wish I knew this way earlier, but I think this is a skill that builds along maturity. In high-school I never dared to read ahead of what was taught in class because I considered it useless. I was thinking that if I read it before class I would either not understand it and lose my time by reading it or understand it and then lose my time in class hearing the same thing from the professor. The lesson I learned this year was that my reasoning was bad in every aspect. In the first scenario, if I did not understand it while reading it alone I could go to class and know what to ask the professor. On the other hand, if I was able to comprehend the material, I could go to class, hear the explanation again and take the knowledge to the next step, the application. This year I have also learned that just memorizing isn't enough. I am inclined to say that this is a problem that the Romanian Educational System is facing, because we were rarely asked to apply the pure knowledge from the books in order to transform it into skills. I have also started to learn how to prioritize and manage time. I am not excellent at it, but I am shooting there. Having an agenda and lists of tasks makes life so much easier and relieves the stress. Even though it takes time from each day for planning, it saves you time while executing your plan. My ideas are flying now to the Japanese Management type, a subject that I would like to further explore in one of my future posts.

I also learned how much the people in my life mean to me. I learned how difficult it is to be far from the family, from the people I love the most. I realize I need to be surrounded by people, by friends. Even if I don't have best friends, I need some people that can be at least a catching net for the bad moments in my life. I also learned to cherish diversity. One of my very good friends from Lafayette has an origin in Mexico and currently lives in Texas. I would have never learned about the Hispanic community if it wasn't for her. Other friends are from Kenya, Bulgaria, China, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Russia, Hong Kong, Ecuador, and many other countries. I start to wonder if that would have been possible at home. I am certain it wouldn't have happened. Just talking about their experiences and analyzing their way of being provides you with so much knowledge that it can sometimes be overwhelming.

Looking back with a global perspective over this school year, I can conclude it was another year of enriching experiences. I can only hope the coming school year will live up to these standards.

God, rest in peace this Great Man.

2007-05-08T12:28:00.000-07:00

My dad just told me that Octavian Paler has died today, at 81 years from a heart attack. I have not particularly read his writing, but my dad sent me this poem. At the end, I could not keep from crying.

(Romanian version)

Avem timp

Avem timp pentru toate.
Sa dormim, sa alergam in dreapta si-n stanga,
sa regretam c-am gresit si sa gresim din nou,
sa-i judecam pe altii si sa ne absolvim pe noi insine,
avem timp sa citim si sa scriem,
sa corectam ce-am scris, sa regretam ce-am scris,
avem timp sa facem proiecte si sa nu le respectam,
avem timp sa ne facem iluzii si sa rascolim prin cenusa lor mai tarziu.
Avem timp pentru ambitii si boli,
sa invinovatim destinul si amanuntele,
avem timp sa privim norii, reclamele sau un accident oarecare,
avem timp sa ne-alungam intrebarile, sa amanam raspunsurile,
avem timp sa sfaramam un vis si sa-l reinventam,
avem timp sa ne facem prieteni, sa-i pierdem,
avem timp sa primim lectii si sa le uitam dupa-aceea,
avem timp sa primim daruri si sa nu le-ntelegem.
Avem timp pentru toate.
Nu e timp doar pentru putina tandrete.
Cand sa facem si asta - murim.
Am invatat unele lucruri in viata pe care vi le impartasesc si voua !!
Am invatat ca nu poti face pe cineva sa te iubeasca
Tot ce poti face este sa fii o persoana iubita.
Restul ... depinde de ceilalti.
Am invatat ca oricat mi-ar pasa mie
Altora s-ar putea sa nu le pase.
Am invatat ca dureaza ani sa castigi incredere
Si ca doar in cateva secunde poti sa o pierzi
Am invatat ca nu conteaza CE ai in viata
Ci PE CINE ai.
Am invatat ca te descurci si ti-e de folos farmecul cca 15 minute
Dupa aceea, insa, ar fi bine sa stii ceva.
Am invatat ca nu trebuie sa te compari cu ceea ce pot altii mai bine sa faca
Ci cu ceea ce poti tu sa faci
Am invatat ca nu conteaza ce li se intampla oamenilor
Ci conteaza ceea ce pot eu sa fac pentru a rezolva
Am invatat ca oricum ai taia
Orice lucru are doua fete
Am invatat ca trebuie sa te desparti de cei dragi cu cuvinte calde
S-ar putea sa fie ultima oara cand ii vezi
Am invatat ca poti continua inca mult timp
Dupa ce ai spus ca nu mai poti
Am invatat ca eroi sunt cei care fac ce trebuie, cand trebuie
Indiferent de consecinte
Am invatat ca sunt oameni care te iubesc
Dar nu stiu s-o arate
Am invatat ca atunci cand sunt suparat am DREPTUL sa fiu suparat
Dar nu am dreptul sa fiu si rau
Am invatat ca prietenia adevarata continua sa existe chiar si la distanta
Iar asta este valabil si pentru iubirea adevarata
Am invatat ca, daca cineva nu te iubeste cum ai vrea tu
Nu inseamna ca nu te iubeste din tot sufletul.
Am invatat ca indiferent cat de bun iti este un prieten
Oricum te va rani din cand in cand
Iar tu trebuie sa-l ierti pentru asta.
Am invatat ca nu este intotdeauna de ajuns sa fii iertat de altii
Cateodata trebuie sa inveti sa te ierti pe tine insuti
Am invatat ca indiferent cat de mult suferi,
Lumea nu se va opri in loc pentru durerea ta.
Am invatat ca trecutul si circumstantele ti-ar putea influenta
personalitatea
Dar ca TU esti responsabil pentru ceea ce devii
Am invatat ca, daca doi oameni se cearta, nu inseamna ca nu se iubesc
Si nici faptul ca nu se cearta nu dovedeste ca se iubesc.
Am invatat ca uneori trebuie sa pui persoana pe primul loc
Si nu faptele sale
Am invatat ca doi oameni pot privi acelasi lucru
Si pot vedea ceva total diferit
Am invatat ca indiferent de consecinte
Cei care sunt cinstiti cu ei insisi ajung mai departe in viata
Am invatat ca viata iti poate fi schimbata in cateva ore
De catre oameni care nici nu te cunosc.
Am invatat ca si atunci cand crezi ca nu mai ai nimic de dat
Cand te striga un prieten vei gasi puterea de a-l ajuta.
Am invatat ca scrisul
Ca si vorbitul
Poate linisti durerile sufletesti
Am invatat ca oamenii la care tii cel mai mult
Iti sunt luati prea repede ...
Am invatat ca este prea greu sa-ti dai seama
Unde sa tragi linie intre a fi amabil, a nu rani oamenii si a-ti sustine parerile.
Am invatat sa iubesc
Ca sa pot sa fiu iubit.

[English Version]

WE HAVE TIME

By Octavian Paller

Translated by Sorana Lucia Salomeia

We have time for everything:
to sleep, to run from one place to another,
to regret having mistaken and to mistake again,
to judge the others and to forgive
ourselves,
we have time for reading and writing,
for making corrections to our texts, to regret ever having
written,
we have time to make projects and never
respect them,
we have time to make illusions and gamble
through their ashes later on.
We have time for ambitions and illnesses,
to blame it all on ambitions and details,
we have time to watch the clouds, advertisements or
some ordinary accident,
we have time to chase our wonders away
and to postpone the answers,
we have time to break a dream to pieces and then
to reinvent it,
we have time to make friends, lose them,
we have time to learn our lessons and then
forget them quickly afterwards,
we have time to be given gifts and not understand them.
We have time for them all.
But there is no time for just a drop of tenderness.
When we are about to get to that too – we die.
I have learned some things during my lifetime,
experiences that I am now sharing with you!!
I have learned that you cannot make somebody
love you;
All you can do is be the beloved one.
Everything else… depends on the others.
I have learned that, no matter how much I might care,
Others might not care at all.
I have learned that it could take years to earn somebody’s confidence
And only a few seconds to lose it.,
I have learned that it is not WHAT you have in life,
But WHO is there for you to have.
I have learned that charms could be of use for only
About 15 minutes,
Afterwards, nevertheless, you had better know something.
I have learned that you should never compare yourself
to what others can do better than you,
but you what you can do yourself;
I have learned that what happens to the others is not as import as
what I can do to help;
I have learned that in whatever you might cut things,
They will always turn out to have two sides;
I have learned that when you have to depart from your dearest ones,
you should do it with the warmest words;
It could be the last time you see them.
I have learned that you could carry on for a long time
After stating you cannot take it anylonger;
I have learned that heroes are those who do what is right,
when the ought to,
regardless of the consequences;
I have that there are people who love you
But do not know how to show it;
I have learned that when I am upset I have
the RIGHT to be so
But I do not have the right to be mean as well;
I have learned that true friendship continues
to exist even when great distances are involved
And that goes for true love too.
I have learned that, if somebody does not love you
the way you might want to be loved,
It does not mean they do not love you with all their heart.
I have learned that no matter how good a friend might be to you,
They will inevitably hurt you from time to time
And you will have to forgive;
I have learned that it is not always enough to be
forgiven by others,
Sometimes you must learn how to forgive
your own self;
I have learned that, regardless of how much you might suffer,
The world will never cease running because of your pain.
I have learned that the past and circumstances
could alter your
personality,
But it is certainly YOU to be held responsible for what you become;
I have learned that, if two people argue, it does not mean
they do not love each other,
As well as their not arguing would not prove that they subsequently
are in love.
I have learned that you should sometimes put the person
in the first place
And not their deeds;
I have learned that two persons could be watching the very same thing
And perceive two totally different meanings;
I have learned that, in spite of any consequences,
Those who are fair and honest with themselves
reach higher peaks in life;
I have learned that one’s life could be changed
in only a few hours’ time
By people who might have never even known them;
I have learned that when you believe there is
nothing more you could offer,
You will always find the strength to help a friend
who in need.
I have learned that writing,
Just like speaking,
Could soothe your inner pain.
I have learned that the ones you hold dearest
Are taken away from you far too soon…
I have learned that it is far too difficult to realize
Where to draw the borders between kindness, not hurting the others
and firmly sustaining your ideas.
I have learned to love
In order to be loved in my turn.
http://www.poezie.ro/index.php/poetry/118721/index.html

I can only say: "Great words from a Great Man."

Would an autistic person commit suicide?

2007-04-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

http://www.sussexautisticsociety.org/images/logo.jpg

This week we had to write an essay in the College Writing class about autism. One of my friends who is also taking the class had an interesting opinion on it. In her creative writing piece she described the thoughts of an autistic female in an asylum who committed suicide. The lady already killed a person and she was under close surveillance. Her essay was purely hypothetical, but I was wondering how much truth is there in this idea.

I cannot completely agree that an autistic person is capable of committing suicide. I see an autistic person as unable to adapt to the society. As we can see in the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Christopher would have been able to kill a person, if he felt threatened by their presence. He would kill only in order to protect himself. The instinct of conservation has a greater input in his reactions than in normal people. Then, why would he kill himself? It does not make sense to me.

One argument I received was that they might feel pressure from the society, that they might feel threatened by their environment. How can this be true, when autistic persons live in their own world. They do not adapt to the society and sometimes they do not even understand what happens in the society. How can they feel pressure from something they do not understand or are not part of?

In conclusion, I believe an autistic person would not be able to commit suicide. What do you think?

About me

2007-04-24T16:33:00.000-07:00

Romania is my home country and I was born in the middle of it, in a small city called Tirgu Mures. The term city might not be appropriate for Tirgu Mures from an American perspective, but compared to what towns and cities look like in Romania, I would say it is a city because of the economic development and the range of options you have in your career.

I am in a long term-long distance relationship with a smart, handsome and loving man. In general, having a long term relationship is a little challenging but having a long-distance one is definitely a provocation. Still, we have managed to be together and have very good relationship. It wasn't and still is not easy to succeed, but when you have found the right person it is worth every single moment.

I am currently a first year student at Lafayette College in Easton, PA (USA) pursuing a dual degree in BS Civil and Environmental Engineering and BA Economics and Business. During the summer I will be doing research with my adviser on "Models of User Design Preference for Multi-Objective Optimization of Roof Trusses". I am really excited to learn about programming genetic algorithms and clustering mechanisms in a field that I like.
Next year I will serve as a Resident Adviser for the Residence Life Office. I will be in charge of an off-campus special interest house called Reeder St.
I am currently involved in some clubs on campus and I plan on continuing my work with them. The first one is Engineers Without Borders which has a main project in Honduras, helping people from poor village to have access to clean water.
I am also involved in the Family Weekend Committee as part of the Campus Programs Team. I have taken part in activities organized by the International Students Association, the Club Tennis Team and Intramural Volleyball.

With that said, I think you have a pretty good amount of information about myself.

The photo I included with this post was taken at Lafayette and resembles one of my favorite things. I dare you to guess! (Iubu, this challenge is not for you, since you know it very well.)

Important day

2007-04-22T18:40:00.000-07:00

Today is the birthday of my blog. Also today, Claudia celebrates her 20th birthday anniversary. Claudia is a very good friend of mine from Lafayette College (the college we both attend as freshmen students).
I started this blog because I always wanted to keep some sort of diary about my life and my everyday experiences . Corina was the one who inspired me to start this adventure and I look forward to see what is going to result from it.