ENGINEERING The Universities that teach it & the Companies that use it

Adventures of A Future Engineer

A junior at Iolani School in Honolulu, Hawaii, Lizhou "Lisa" Wang spends much of her free time working on the school literary magazine, performing community service, and participating in speech and debate, Students Against Drunk Driving and dance. She plans to pursue a career in engineering.

When I first heard about TEAMS, I thought it was a manual construction competition and hesitated to participate. But when I learned that TEAMS focuses on design rather than construction, I was ready to sign up. The problems involve extensive mathematical calculations, application of the laws of physics, analytical writing, and creativity. Most importantly, TEAMS allows for creative application of the knowledge learned in the classroom to real-world problems.

TEAMS problems range from the fantastic, like designing a power station on Mars, to the functional, like designing a car with better fuel economy. And solving even the most apparently simple problems requires finding answers to a set of component problems. Just like real engineers, TEAMS participants must address everything from structural limitations to insufficient funds to questions of safety and quality of life.

Because real engineering projects require a breadth of knowledge, TEAMS problems often cover material not ordinarily studied in the classroom. But I did not know this until I signed up for the 1997 JV team. After the first practice session, I felt lost and bewildered. I was overwhelmed by the demands for physics and chemistry that I had not yet mastered. So I gave my spot on the team to a more deserving person and determined to prepare myself for the next year's competition. In December of my sophomore year, after months of independent study and acceleration in chemistry and physics, I joined the 1998 JV team.

As practice began, our coach divided the team up into four groups of two. This would allow us to solve all ten scenarios in the 90 minutes of competition. Each pair worked on problems in their free time and regularly shared solutions at weekly team meetings. At the meetings, we also shared creative approaches and shortcuts, learned to work as a whole team, and developed trust through disagreement and compromise. By debating the problems, we discovered solutions that no one person could have imagined.

February 7, 1998, was our big day. We were a little nervous, but as the problem portion of the exam began, our competitive focus kicked in. My partner and I worked on three problems: improving automotive fuel economy, providing expert testimony for a traffic accident, and designing a water treatment facility. I enjoyed these problems because they addressed issues that regularly impact our lives. As we worked through all the details, we discovered similarities to problems we had already encountered. For example, recognizing that the traffic accident problem was similar to the inelastic collision problems in physics, we immediately diagrammed the accident in a free-body diagram. Using information provided about the timing and final positions of the wreckage, we traced the collision back step-by-step. This allowed us to estimate the initial velocities of the cars prior to collision, and using these speed calculations, to determine which driver should be held responsible for the accident. We then translated our analysis into lay terminology for a hypothetical legal report. This problem showed us how the math, science, and writing that we learn in the classroom are put to use in the daily life of an engineer.

An hour after the exam ended, the winners were announced. All our work had paid off! We were the state champions in our division. But TEAMS gave me much more than a trophy. I made new friends, learned effective teamwork, and mastered scientific principles I wouldn't have encountered until college. TEAMS showed me that engineering balances real life and abstract science, and will allow me to use math, science, verbal skills, and creativity in a group situation to help better the world.

This article was originally published in the January/February 1999 issue of "Imagine...Opportunities and Resources for Academically Talented Youth."