School Stuff

So, a few months have passed by since I last wrote. I suppose if I wait long enough, then there is plenty of news to write about. But at the same time, there is so much to write about that I probably won't even touch the surface. Anyway, here it goes.

I passed the FE Exam!!!! So, this was probably one of the biggest tests I have ever taken and I'm glad to have it out of the way. I took the test April 10. The actual test was 8 hours long. I had to wait until July to get the results. The next big test will be the PE exam (Professional Engineers exam), but that won't be for another couple of years.

Hmm, next I can talk about the summer semester of school. Wow! I don't know why I signed up for 5 classes because it turned out to be a lot more busy than I thought it would be. Most of them went just fine and I was able to keep up because there were deadlines all along the way. However, for the fifth class, the professor didn't set any deadlines so it was easier to put off so I could do the work for the other ones. It ended up that I was doing most of the course work for the class the last couple of days of the semester. The last day, I think I did 12 or so quizzes and then a couple of tests. I was about to take the final, but the clock struck midnight and the class disappeared. Horrified that I missed the final, I starred at the screen for a few minutes until I realized that it was over and I couldn't do anything about it. The final was worth 100 of the 520 total points for the class. I had done pretty well on all the quizzes and tests up to that point, but I was still a little worried that I wouldn't have been able to pass the class. A few days later, the grades were posted and I did pass. I was lucky, and now I know if I take any more online classes, I will take less and won't put any off for the last day. It is good to have all the credit for those five classes transferred back up to the U.

Right now we are about three weeks into the Fall Semester up at the University of Utah . I am seeing now that I am registered for too many classes, but I'll have to stick it out. I registered for these classes at the same time that I registered for the ones over the summer. I guess I was having a really good day and felt like I was on top of the world. Anyway, I'm getting through it, but I know there will be more stressful times ahead.

Here are my classes:

• Italian
• Institute (Book of Mormon Isaiah class)
• Senior Design
• Survey of Jazz (Counts for fine arts credit and diversity)
• Robotics
• Advanced Controls
• Electronics

One of the big things that I am doing in school this year is my Engineering Senior project. My team is designing a new control board that will be used in the robot competitions. We have to design and make the control board and then make about four robots to demonstrate its features. The project should be a lot of fun. I wish I knew everything that I needed to know before I started though. It is always difficult to learn as you are doing the project. My extra classes teach the same topics that I will need for this project and also to continue on in robotics.

Robotics is a branch of Mechanical Engineering that also includes a lot of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science stuff. From the classes that I have taken so far, this has been the field that has interested me the most. After this semester, I will have a good idea if this is what I want to do. If everything goes as planned I will be able to get my Bachelors Degree next spring. I will then go on to get a Masters with more focus on robotics. I'm excited to be in classes that are what I choose to do rather than just the basics.

So anyway, that is how school is going. It is great to be learning new things, but its difficult to manage the time it takes to get everything in there.