International opportunity

f I have the chance to study abroad or do the internship, I’d like to go to Spain, Germany, and Britain. The first reason is European countries attract me since I was a kid. Since the Industrial Revolution, many historical events took place here and the culture influenced the modern society. I think the culture of Europe is completely different with Chinese culture. I’m curious about the castles, chivalry, and legends about vampires. Different with the history which I am familiar with, European history is kind of complicated. I’d like to spend months to visit the museums, galleries and old cities in Europe. Another reason is the engineering in Europe is in the leading position. Maybe it is not as creative as the American engineering, but we can learn something from the tradition. It’s good to explore the original modern engineering. I want to stay there for three months doing my summer internship or exchange study. It will be awesome if I can go there in 2012 because of the London Olympic Games.

College life

I read many people’s articles about the Thanksgiving Break and Winter Break. It seems that many of them will go back to home and have a great time with their family. I can’t wait for the break too, but the reason is I will go to Chicago and spend several days there to visit the museums and shopping. Chicago is not far from Purdue. It’s weird I didn’t go to Chicago in the past three months. Before I came to U.S, I searched lots of information about Chicago and I believed Chicago is a wonderful place for traveling. It’s good to have some friends can go with me and I hope we can have a great Thanksgiving break. Some of my friends will go home during the winter break. They can’t wait for the final exams because after the exams they can go back home and spend three weeks with their families. I think this is the first time of most of us that live far from the home alone for three months. But I must say, that the college helps us transition to life on our own. Without parents around me, I must learn to take care of myself. I need to cook by myself and clean the apartment. Also, I need to deal with study problems and learn to deal with the problems between friends. Most of the time, my parents can't understand what is happening around me. I must be independence. Before I came here, I knew almost nothing about cooking. My mum always worried about me. Now, I can cook and friends around me told me I am good at cooking now. Many friends have the same experience. Although sometimes I hope my parents can be around me, the college life does teach me a lot of things except studying.

New Technology in Rural Areas

In the present time many people believe that the introduction of new technology is a regular occurance and shouldn't be much of a challenge. But the fact remains that in rural areas it is an exponentially more difficult task and takes longer because of the variety of factors that need to be taken into account.

The first and most important is the mindset of the people in the target area, their financial status and their cultural  habits. In technologically backward area the primary roadblock for new technology is old tradition. Also, people in these rural areas tend to be very distant from the rest of the world and they are in some sense not even directly under the control of the government and therefore may have a different, even contradictory set of goals for the development of their community.

Another is that the technology that gets delivered to these areas is generally on one of the two extremes: experimental or outdated. The may be beneficial, but often end up being harmful to the community.

These are a small portion of the challenges that introduction of new technology in backward areas.

Nanotechnology in Latin America

Today in class a lot of challenges were discussed about bringing technology in rural areas of Latin America, specifically areas in Columbia. An important piece to keep in mind about introducing new ideas into rural areas is the people. Questions to consider include; do they want this new technology introduced? If not, how come? If so, what do they need? With this, one has to know the people. This can come from living in the area, learning the language or even having a translator to communicate. Another thing to consider about the people is their culture. Referring to the article from last week, the indigenous people Australia lost a part of their society because of the introduction of the axe. Although, the people had already had the axe, having it by large numbers changed its value. This is almost like a foreshadow of what would happen if a whole new invention was brought into an area. Besides people of an region, it is also key to examine the area’s needs and how the engineers native to the place think.

I Miss the 90s

You know the weird moment when you have to think about what year it is? That happened the other day. After remembering it was 2011 and not 2010 I laughed at myself. It’s November and I had to think about the year! It’s only been 2011 for over ten months now; you’d think I would not have to think about it. After, I realized that a decade ago, wasn’t the 90s! This realization brought made me feel old… My last year of being a teenager is about to be half way done! My youngest brother can soon say he has a sister who’s 20 years old. Back in the day, anyone with a sibling who was over 15 years old was looked at in awe. Mindboggling.

I then started thinking about the 90s and early 2000s; especially the TV shows and music. My younger cousins have never heard of Doug Funny or Helga’s love for Arnold or how Lizzie McGuire has a cartoon conscious. The 90s was a great time to be a kid. Saturday morning cartoons were still awesome; roller blading was the “thing” to do; and the Backstreet Boys, N’SYNC, Smash Mouth and other boy bands were on top of their game.

Also, was the food a little bit stranger back in the day? Remember colored ketchups? I think Heinz came up with the idea to make purple and green ketchup. I never gave these ketchups a chance; the idea of eating green goo just didn’t attract me. Or when Skippy Peanut Butter made peanut butter in go-gurt form…too much peanut butter.

Highlights From the Past 48 Hours:
-I had a dream I hung out with LMFAO (I’m thinking I have an obsession)
-My roommate and I did laundry from 2-4 in the morning; Prime Time!
-I had strawberry popsicle #iMissSummer

*Now Playing: “Every Morning” by Sugar Ray

Native American Heritage Month

Last Tuesday, we (me and my partner) participated in the Native American Heritage Month Opening Celebration which was hold by NAECC as the beginning of Native American Heritage Month. This event was celebrated with a Native American community drum circle.

At first, I thought this event wastes me time and I must take part in it because of the ENGR 131 class. But with the development, I found the activity was interesting and gave me useful information about the native America Culture. At the beginning of the celebration, the speaker showed his drum to us and introduced native America culture around the drum. The basic rhythm is the heart beat. The lecturer told us this is the first sound we heard, the heart beat of our mothers. Their drums have different sizes and convey different massages by different rhythm. Tony, the speaker, said he used the drum to pray. He prays for the deity in native America culture and prays for animals and his families. One of his statements is expressive. He believes that people can communicate with animals and plants. I found this statement is similar with the fairies in China. In Chinese culture, many animals and plants can live thousands of years and they absorb the essence of the nature. After thousands of years, those animals and plants become Jing, a kind of evil spirit. They can change their bodies and become human. Those animals and plants have emotion. Many ancient novels image the love stories between human being and Jing. But there are many differences between native America culture and Chinese culture. Native Americans pray for the nature. They hope the animals and plants can live well. In china, people don’t pray for Jing. Most of the time, people believe that human can’t have contact with Jing, because they think Jing are kind of devil. I think that the Native American's view of the world is very interesting. They are very in touch with it and it plays a big role in their lives and their religion.

Week 12 Rural Latin America

I think the economic inequalities between urban and rural area are existing in most countries. “Rural regions also display less access to public services, such as lack of clean water, sanitation, health services, education, and particularly electricity supply.” All of those highlight the gravity of the rural poverty problem. If the government wants to improve the technology of rural region, the government has to ready to the substantial upfront costs and long-term financial investments. The government’s financial income must support the huge cost without influence the development of other parts of the country. In addition, rural areas in Latin America are also hard to exploit, such as the rainforest and peatlands. The harsh natural environment blocks the implementing of technology. Another problem is the population, more and more young people were attracted by the modern cities and left the rural regions. Most of the time, young people lead the innovation of technology. Without the huge demand of technology, the government needs to pay more effort on the implementing technology.