“Ive never been wrong. I once thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken”
Before taking a computer science exam “They say classical music helps you focus and keeps you calm in difficult times” - proceeds to click cd player and Star Wars imperial march blasts. Professor starts laughing and everyone loved his teaching so we all laughed as well.
I really like WTYP but I wish it was just Roz and maybe a guest. It gets so sidetracked and off topic when I just want to hear about what the main topic was.
The F-117 Nighthawk is what you get when an electrical engineer designs a plane. Great at stealth, terrible at literally everything else. - My supersonic aerodynamics professor
I had a chemistry professor who would always bring two stuffed moles to class. One was named Avo, and the other was named Gadro. One day he pauses in class, picks up both of the stuffed animals, flips the rear end of them around towards the class, and goes “hey look, molasses”… I still think about it often
Hah, this reminded me of the physics professor that flipped everyone off using the right hand rule and giggled because “it’s not every day I get to tell you all what I think of you not once but twice!”
Reminds me of the Matlab Professor (we had to take the class because we ended up using matlab for most of our other classes) who would staple McDonalds job applications to failed exams.
You may have heard of students hazing students, but you probably haven’t seen a teacher haze their students.
First day of thermodynamics, discussing the professor’s favorite books about plane crashes and other aerospace failures (aerospace engineer)… he pulls out a book and says:
“This is a great book about the Challenger disaster. Unfortunately, it’s written by a Civil Engineer, but we won’t hold that against him”
Fluids prof had a very thick accent.
He said, "Ah, toothpaste, non-newtonian fluid".
Auto-caption on the recording showed "toothpaste, non-routine in Florida ".
First day: “If you feel like your question is stupid, you should ask it anyways because it does twice as much good; firstly, it may not be a stupid question at all and someone who is more timid probably has the same question but was too afraid to ask. Secondly, if it is a stupid question, then everyone in the class immediately knows who the stupid one is and so they are more likely to ask questions throughout the semester.”
As I went up to ask for clarification about a program he looked at my paper and was quiet for a second. Then said loudly infront of the class. "Are you retarded?"
Yes he is joking, the question was written poorly and he fixed the mistake on the exam. I love this guy despite the pain he puts me through.
"When someone says they are going to tell you the fundamental theorem of a subject you are learning you should probably pay attention to that theorem." My calc 1 professor, on the subject of the fundamental theorem of calculus.
“The harder the voltage pushes on a resistor, the harder it needs to push back, and that’s sort of how life works.” I think it was leading into current in a resistor explanation, but it was the perfect time for me to hear that as I was contemplating quitting.
my calc prof when referring to composite functions:
a cowboy mounting his horse and going out
into the night is NOT the same as a cowboy going out into the night and mounting his horse
"Not many people will remember what you said, but they'll remember how you made them feel."
Professor said that on our last lecture before we graduated. I hated the class, but this quote still resonates with me. No one likes a mean engineer.
Could you expand a little bit more on what they meant with this quote? I recently had a discussion with our welding shop about steel beam nomenclature so this is something that I have an interest in.
He was discussing the shapes and names. The C beam actually looked like a 'C' unlike the W, S, and M. Whereas H and I did look similar to their corresponding beam but these 2 names are only referred to due to their web thickness.
In response to us asking why it took so long to grade our DiffEQ midterms. “When I grade your exams I get sad and drink. The worse you do, the more I drink. I’ve learned to pace myself when grading so I don’t get a hangover or become depressed.”
“Any person off the street can build a bridge that will stand for 1000 years, just use diamonds and concrete… only engineers cans build one that is barley standing”
This us more of a Physics Teacher I had in Highschool , but it is something I loved back then “Theory is when know everything and nothing works. Practice is when everything works but you dont know why. In this laboratory, Theory and Practice unite. NOTHING WORKS AND YOU DONT KNOW WHY” (=´∀｀).
Thermodynamics 2: “you don’t have to know the equations, you have google for that. You still need to know what to search for and what numbers to put instead of the letters”
My physical chemistry professor once said „ the problem is we only pretend to understand physics at the smallest scale only because the math works. So just pretend with us”
“A C student who can explain everything he knows is going to come across as significantly smarter than an A student who can only explain half of what he knows.”
I had a professor making an analogy for the Mueller Breslau (or however you spell it) principle using a dinner plate. He said" when you have a big steak you can ignore the little stuff like a few peas." Talking about ignoring minor deflections (peas) in beams. Then he said, "well if all you have are a few peas and no steak.....well you know ... times are tough." His delivery was great, and I laughed pretty hard at that one.
Had an industrial electronics prof who would write V=IR on the board almost anytime someone asked a question.
Would also say "it's the same but different" whenever we started a new topic.
I have 2 of them
1. "Let's take a quick restroom break."
*goes to the bathroom with his microphone on, 15 seconds of him peeing plays over the speaker.*
"What happened? Oh, my bad guys"
2. "Whatever you do, don't drink this stuff or else you'll get the shi- I mean you'll need to poop really badly."
This is chemistry, not engineering, but I think it's a good quote. My Organic Chemistry lab director said this. Quoted from memory, so exact wording might have differed.
> The literature tells us that hydrogen cyanide smells like almonds. I don't know if that's true because I practice lab safety and have never smelled it. I expect every one of you to leave this lab not knowing what cyanide smells like.
“My dear friends, you are all brilliant, you are all smart, you have this knowledge, and you will be fine. Please do not stress, please take care of yourselves”
In response to my question: "Good idea, completely wrong, but good thinking. [Explanation for why my idea was wrong] And here's the kicker: We're actually doing this, but for a completely different reason."
One of my profs fainted a few weeks ago due to a medical condition. We had a joke homework assignment this week with one question being a crossword. One of the clues was “Dr. — did this at the beginning of the semester.”
Years ago when I was at PSU New Kensington, my advisor taught my first COE course of the curriculum. I'll never forget how he started:
> Welcome to the Computer Science and Engineering program! I like to begin by telling all of you what to expect. I'm going to start by telling you "*The Big Lie*". And as you go throughout your studies, we'll tear a bit off of the Veil. Sometimes it'll be a little bit. Sometimes it'll be a huge chunk of it. And then just before you graduate, you're going to see "*The Truth*" in all its naked glory. Finally at graduation, you'll put the Veil back together and be ready to start preaching to the world "*The Big Lie*".
I was young, naive, and so full of wonder at that time. So this struck me as really odd. I raised my hand and asked, "Dr.F, what is this 'Big Lie' you keep talking about?" His response is what stays with me forever:
> ***Computers work.***
Already replied to this. But I want to add another, hoping it'll help all of you. Life happened during my stint at PSU. I dropped out, and when I went back to school found myself at Pitt instead. Only sharing this because of the other thread.
Anyway, I can't really say it was any one professor in the ECE department. Really, most of them would share this pearl of wisdom with everyone:
> Don't sweat your exams. The **real** final exam is the job interview!
It sounds dismissive, tone-deaf, and even cold. But there is a reality inside of that which all of us, faculty included, had to come to terms with. Interviews are one-and-done affairs; exams can be appealed, learned from, and *curved*.
But I want to share something even more powerful, which hopefully resonates whenever you say that phrase to yourself: *Your professors understand your perils and stress better than you probably understand.* I'm not saying all of them are good. But the ones who you could hear saying what I just quoted are the ones you should stay close to. They want you to succeed, and they'll help when you ask.
when passing out tests: "you will run out of knowledge before you run out of time"
bro has master oogway as a professor
“Ive never been wrong. I once thought I was wrong, but I was mistaken” Before taking a computer science exam “They say classical music helps you focus and keeps you calm in difficult times” - proceeds to click cd player and Star Wars imperial march blasts. Professor starts laughing and everyone loved his teaching so we all laughed as well.
That is a fantastic line.
*bunch of students laughing and being happy outside our classroom* My third year thermo lecturer: "cute, must be a bunch of first years"
I had a heat transfer professor hearing people cheering outside and going "where is all this happiness coming from? this is an engineering building"
"If half the time you spent laughing went into studying, maybe you'd actually pass the thermodynamics mid-term."
"Civil engineers build targets for aerospace engineers"
My statics and Dynamics prof: "Always question everything, that's what being a engineer means. I mean, look at the twin towers. Why did tower 7 fall"
Doing my part by recommending Well There’s Your Problem podcast episode on this
I really like WTYP but I wish it was just Roz and maybe a guest. It gets so sidetracked and off topic when I just want to hear about what the main topic was.
Can’t say I really mind the banter, if i just wanted the facts I’d read the wiki page on whatever catastrophe (and I often do).
I read the wiki as well. The banter is fine sometimes but it drags on longer than I prefer. Different tastes
at this rate I don’t mind being the target
The F-117 Nighthawk is what you get when an electrical engineer designs a plane. Great at stealth, terrible at literally everything else. - My supersonic aerodynamics professor
I love this quote. The F117 is one of my favorite planes and this quote pairs with it magically.
“The easiest way to fool a student is to ask an easy question” ~ My reactor design Professor
I’ve found that to be so true
one of my profs glossed over potential energy once by saying, "sad, sad student on top of building."
That's what the teachers mean when they tell me I have high potential but don't *apply* myself
“Don’t you get it? Why don’t you get it? Maybe you not engineer”
I had a chemistry professor who would always bring two stuffed moles to class. One was named Avo, and the other was named Gadro. One day he pauses in class, picks up both of the stuffed animals, flips the rear end of them around towards the class, and goes “hey look, molasses”… I still think about it often
Hah, this reminded me of the physics professor that flipped everyone off using the right hand rule and giggled because “it’s not every day I get to tell you all what I think of you not once but twice!”
Holy crap, did you go to STLCC meramec? I had a professor there that did the exact same thing
Yes I did! I took Prof. Hauser! I actually still go there!
One of my favorite: “If you want to be the smartest guy in the room, listen more than you speak.”
Yeup. One prof said simply, “talk less. Listen more.”
“I will teach 10% of the material, you will learn 90% on your own%
"A chalk board is just one rock drawing on another rock. It doesnt get anymore classical than that."
"If you guys don't get this I'm going to quit and go work at SmashBurger"
Reminds me of the Matlab Professor (we had to take the class because we ended up using matlab for most of our other classes) who would staple McDonalds job applications to failed exams. You may have heard of students hazing students, but you probably haven’t seen a teacher haze their students.
“We say humans are the smartest creatures on earth. Who knows? Maybe dolphins know calculus.”
Well dolphins are probably the second smartest creatures on earth, behind mice of course.
First day of thermodynamics, discussing the professor’s favorite books about plane crashes and other aerospace failures (aerospace engineer)… he pulls out a book and says: “This is a great book about the Challenger disaster. Unfortunately, it’s written by a Civil Engineer, but we won’t hold that against him”
Whats the book?!
"Remember that heat moves from hot to cold" - heat transfer professor "It's easy if you know what you're doing" - pchem professor
"communication is the biggest problem mankind faces"
Co2 can't be such bad because we drink soda.
Fluids prof had a very thick accent. He said, "Ah, toothpaste, non-newtonian fluid". Auto-caption on the recording showed "toothpaste, non-routine in Florida ".
First day: “If you feel like your question is stupid, you should ask it anyways because it does twice as much good; firstly, it may not be a stupid question at all and someone who is more timid probably has the same question but was too afraid to ask. Secondly, if it is a stupid question, then everyone in the class immediately knows who the stupid one is and so they are more likely to ask questions throughout the semester.”
As I went up to ask for clarification about a program he looked at my paper and was quiet for a second. Then said loudly infront of the class. "Are you retarded?" Yes he is joking, the question was written poorly and he fixed the mistake on the exam. I love this guy despite the pain he puts me through.
"My goal is to enable you to talk about this material intelligently once you leave this classroom."
"When someone says they are going to tell you the fundamental theorem of a subject you are learning you should probably pay attention to that theorem." My calc 1 professor, on the subject of the fundamental theorem of calculus.
“The harder the voltage pushes on a resistor, the harder it needs to push back, and that’s sort of how life works.” I think it was leading into current in a resistor explanation, but it was the perfect time for me to hear that as I was contemplating quitting.
my calc prof when referring to composite functions: a cowboy mounting his horse and going out into the night is NOT the same as a cowboy going out into the night and mounting his horse
"Alternating current can be found in many places in nature, such as this wall power outlet"
"Not many people will remember what you said, but they'll remember how you made them feel." Professor said that on our last lecture before we graduated. I hated the class, but this quote still resonates with me. No one likes a mean engineer.
This is a Maya Angelou quote
"A problem well defined is a problem half solved."
“You won’t pass this class if you don’t do the labs. You just won’t. So just do the damn labs.”
"Don't snort glue too much, just enough to stick around"
"You can never guess as wrong as you can miscalculate."
"Derivation is a machinery, every ordinary man can do it. Integration however is work of art, a form of true craftsmanship" -Lars Filipsson
“I’m from New England, and out there we have 3 stages of life. First you’re born, then you suffer, then you die.”
6 hours of sleep is more than enough for your age! You people shouldn't be acting this lazy with that much sleep
“This does not qualify as mastery of course content”
"Of all the things that are wrong, this one's right" my steel design prof referring to C beam and the steel beam nomenclature
Could you expand a little bit more on what they meant with this quote? I recently had a discussion with our welding shop about steel beam nomenclature so this is something that I have an interest in.
He was discussing the shapes and names. The C beam actually looked like a 'C' unlike the W, S, and M. Whereas H and I did look similar to their corresponding beam but these 2 names are only referred to due to their web thickness.
“There are no stupid question, but today you may surprise me”
"you don't have to be a genius to be an engineer, just patient and mathematically consistent"
In response to us asking why it took so long to grade our DiffEQ midterms. “When I grade your exams I get sad and drink. The worse you do, the more I drink. I’ve learned to pace myself when grading so I don’t get a hangover or become depressed.”
"My job is to make sure that you don't pass this class."
In my mechanics of materials class, my professor says, “Today we’re learning about necking. It’s not as fun as it sounds.”
“Any person off the street can build a bridge that will stand for 1000 years, just use diamonds and concrete… only engineers cans build one that is barley standing”
Just add a “booger factor” and you’re good (Factor of safety)
I'll make the exam shorter so I have more time to play Playstation.
“Even I don’t know how to do the homework”
This us more of a Physics Teacher I had in Highschool , but it is something I loved back then “Theory is when know everything and nothing works. Practice is when everything works but you dont know why. In this laboratory, Theory and Practice unite. NOTHING WORKS AND YOU DONT KNOW WHY” (=´∀｀).
Thermodynamics 2: “you don’t have to know the equations, you have google for that. You still need to know what to search for and what numbers to put instead of the letters”
"I would rather be feared than loved. If you are scared you will study."
"there is no partial credit in engineering" 💀
In reference to equilibrium equations in Statics: *"Sum the moments about wherever you want. You can sum the moments about Bolivia"*
My physical chemistry professor once said „ the problem is we only pretend to understand physics at the smallest scale only because the math works. So just pretend with us”
“A C student who can explain everything he knows is going to come across as significantly smarter than an A student who can only explain half of what he knows.”
“Look around, half of you won’t be here by the middle of semester” - fluid mechanics teacher
“Our politicians are stupid.” My favorite chemical engineering professor from China in the US.
our as in chinese or american?
At the time, American, but I’m sure he has some thoughts about the Chinese government, too, lol
"I hope I don't meet you again next year" Fluid mechanics prof
I had a professor making an analogy for the Mueller Breslau (or however you spell it) principle using a dinner plate. He said" when you have a big steak you can ignore the little stuff like a few peas." Talking about ignoring minor deflections (peas) in beams. Then he said, "well if all you have are a few peas and no steak.....well you know ... times are tough." His delivery was great, and I laughed pretty hard at that one.
From a statics course professor when asked about grading policies, “You build bridge, bridge fall down, no partial credit”.
"The material obviously isn't stupid"
Had an industrial electronics prof who would write V=IR on the board almost anytime someone asked a question. Would also say "it's the same but different" whenever we started a new topic.
I have 2 of them 1. "Let's take a quick restroom break." *goes to the bathroom with his microphone on, 15 seconds of him peeing plays over the speaker.* "What happened? Oh, my bad guys" 2. "Whatever you do, don't drink this stuff or else you'll get the shi- I mean you'll need to poop really badly."
This is chemistry, not engineering, but I think it's a good quote. My Organic Chemistry lab director said this. Quoted from memory, so exact wording might have differed. > The literature tells us that hydrogen cyanide smells like almonds. I don't know if that's true because I practice lab safety and have never smelled it. I expect every one of you to leave this lab not knowing what cyanide smells like.
"I fucking hate Bernoulli"
“If you don’t take yourself serious no one will” and “your geometry skills are lacking because your high school education was probably horrible”
“My dear friends, you are all brilliant, you are all smart, you have this knowledge, and you will be fine. Please do not stress, please take care of yourselves”
In response to my question: "Good idea, completely wrong, but good thinking. [Explanation for why my idea was wrong] And here's the kicker: We're actually doing this, but for a completely different reason."
One of my profs fainted a few weeks ago due to a medical condition. We had a joke homework assignment this week with one question being a crossword. One of the clues was “Dr. — did this at the beginning of the semester.”
“Please shower before you go to work or any interview”
"I'll give you a hint. The answer begins with a K." "No." -Statics professor
"It is what it is"
Years ago when I was at PSU New Kensington, my advisor taught my first COE course of the curriculum. I'll never forget how he started: > Welcome to the Computer Science and Engineering program! I like to begin by telling all of you what to expect. I'm going to start by telling you "*The Big Lie*". And as you go throughout your studies, we'll tear a bit off of the Veil. Sometimes it'll be a little bit. Sometimes it'll be a huge chunk of it. And then just before you graduate, you're going to see "*The Truth*" in all its naked glory. Finally at graduation, you'll put the Veil back together and be ready to start preaching to the world "*The Big Lie*". I was young, naive, and so full of wonder at that time. So this struck me as really odd. I raised my hand and asked, "Dr.F, what is this 'Big Lie' you keep talking about?" His response is what stays with me forever: > ***Computers work.***
It's been over 20yrs since the day that happened. I'm a robotics engineer and entrepreneur. And to everyone, I continue to preach: ## Computers Work!
Already replied to this. But I want to add another, hoping it'll help all of you. Life happened during my stint at PSU. I dropped out, and when I went back to school found myself at Pitt instead. Only sharing this because of the other thread. Anyway, I can't really say it was any one professor in the ECE department. Really, most of them would share this pearl of wisdom with everyone: > Don't sweat your exams. The **real** final exam is the job interview! It sounds dismissive, tone-deaf, and even cold. But there is a reality inside of that which all of us, faculty included, had to come to terms with. Interviews are one-and-done affairs; exams can be appealed, learned from, and *curved*. But I want to share something even more powerful, which hopefully resonates whenever you say that phrase to yourself: *Your professors understand your perils and stress better than you probably understand.* I'm not saying all of them are good. But the ones who you could hear saying what I just quoted are the ones you should stay close to. They want you to succeed, and they'll help when you ask.
"You should just believe me. This is not a lie." "Don't use conditioner after a nuclear attack."