ENGR10004 ESD 1 Reflective Journal

What is Engineering? Week 1

Typing the magic word define before engineering in google search will give a dictionary
definition of the branch of science and technology concerned with the design, building, and use
of engines, machines, and structures. So far, from my research about the topic engineering the
words that come-up the most when defining engineering are design and problem-solving. My
latest definition of engineering is: a field that combines science and mathematics that focus on
designing machines, technology etc using theory and then optimization of said machines in
order to complete the most efficient finished-product possible. I came up with this definition
based on a gaming term I learnt called Min-maxing, which meant using a combination of
cheap items, minimum stats and requirements but still getting the best results. This min-maxing
tactic was despised because it was cheap as it allowed level 20s to be as powerful as level 30s.
Applying this concept to real life technology, we may have car Engine A which has titanium
cylinders, 0-100km/h in 3 seconds, and is gold-plated. But we have the more efficient car Engine
B which was optimized by using less expensive materials but still having similar specifications
to Engine A. In short, for me, engineering is producing efficient products through optimized
designs.
A certain field of engineering Ive had my sights on for a long time is mechatronics engineering.
On the University of Melbourne mechatronics engineering page, it was written that if I took
mechanical engineering as my major for my bachelors, the masters of engineering in
mechatronics course will only be 2 years and hence I am doing a mechanical systems major
currently. Mechatronics engineering, from what I have researched is the field of engineering that
focuses on the hardware and software interaction of a design. Meaning it is a mix between
computer based engineering such as software engineering and computer science and more
physics based engineering such as mechanical and electrical engineering. In short, mechatronics
engineering is the bridge between different fields of engineering. This got me very fascinated
with the concept of mechatronics engineering, it mixes computer and technical engineering work
in one single discipline.

Being a mechatronics engineer meant that you are not a master of mechanical, software, or
electrical engineering but you are capable of doing tasks in each of the field as somewhat of a
jack of all trades. That fact might not sound appealing to most as it raises questions about the
job-availability of such an engineering field. However, I like to think of that fact as an advantage,
being a mechatronics engineer means you will be the center of design projects that require
mechanical, software, and electrical engineers. This is because you are able to create links
between the concepts of the different engineering fields and essentially combine these three
disciplines of engineering into a single design project. In this modern era where we are starting
to produce more cars with computers, and robots (industrial robots) which both are products of
conjoined mechanical and software systems, I think that mechatronics engineering will play a big
part in the future of technology. If the Industrial Revolution was the boom for mechanical
systems, and the modern era is the boom for computers, the future will be the boom for
mechatronics.
Another field of engineering that has caught my attention is nuclear engineering. This is because
I was fascinated by fusion and fission during my high school studies and it was the field of
physics I had good grades for. It is the field of engineering that is responsible for the design of
nuclear power plants which (arguably) is one of the better sources of energy we have available
currently. However, I also think that nuclear power through fission is still risky and quite harmful
due to the radioactive waste and the dangers of meltdowns evident through the aftermath of
Chernobyl and Fukushima. Hence I am mostly interested in nuclear engineering because I would
like to participate in working on a practical and efficient power plant design that can handle
nuclear fusion.
Being able to work on nuclear fusion as a nuclear engineering would be an honor. It could lead to
the production of a power plant that can potentially produce energy the same way the Sun has
been functioning for billions of years. Nuclear fusion engineering can potentially solve all the
worlds energy problems due to its efficiency and the abundance of nuclear fusion fuel,
deuterium, in the Earths oceans.

Why study Engineering? Week 2

When I was of young age, I had been exposed to technology greatly due to family members. I
had an aunt who would fix our computer when it broke from time to time, an uncle who finished
electrical engineering in university and worked at a Samsung branch, and my dad who worked
overseas as a car mechanic. Hence, I became fascinated by various pieces of technology and
became curious regarding their operating systems. As soon as I heard and learnt the word
engineering and its definition, I had set a dream to become an engineer once I reach adulthood.
Of course, my motivation for studying engineering does not entirely stem from childhood
experiences.
During my high school years, I learnt that the basis of engineering is solving problems. Upon
learning this, I became ambitious; what if I solve the worlds future energy problems by
designing a power plant capable of nuclear fusion? and what if I solve physical disabilities by
designing exoskeletons or biomechanical limbs that can move using some kind of sensor that can
read the brain. These were some of the ambitions (or delusions) I had as a nave high schooler
and thus I came to the conclusion that I wanted to be in a career in the field of engineering.
On a serious note, there are three rewards and opportunities which, in my opinion, are the best I
can get out of studying engineering. In no particular order, they are:

I get to make a living out of math, which was the subject I enjoyed the most during my
entire studying career.

I get to work on technology I was never a sporty person and I never really got into the
field of performing arts, however, I am technology inclined. I like working on electrical,
mechanical, and computer stuff.

During the past couple of years, weve had great breakthroughs in technology, such as
virtual reality, usage of drones, and AI advancements. Someday, I want to contribute to a

Graduating is very important to me because I can finish university level study at a very young
age and hence I can start working in various engineering firms quite early in my life. Which
therefore, allows me to finally get my dream job (hopefully). If I want to further raise the
importance of graduating, I would:

Think about the rewards of graduating as an engineer. (mainly money)

Think about the sense of satisfaction of finally finishing study after nearly 20 years of
school upon graduating.

Increase my level of ambitiousness further as a form of motivation.

Being able to like the page Engineer memes on Facebook without being judged.

Improve my study habits and time management.

Learning Process Week 3

Many people in this university have talked about students who succeed in university but didnt
necessarily thrive in highschool and vice versa. Im a part of the vice versa situation, I had good
grades in highschool (94.2 in terms of ATAR) and so I became disillusioned and somewhat
overestimated myself. Upon seeing my highschool results, I started thinking that my tertiary
education will go by smoothly. Of course, from how I have been setting up the paragraph, it is
obvious that I was proved wrong once I started university study. Perhaps my great highschool
grades were a direct cause of the experienced and capable teachers I had during year 12.
However, in university, the lecturer or the tutors capability is almost irrelevant. Lets say that in
highschool, your grades are 40% dependent on your teachers competence and the remaining
60% is dependent on your own capability. University study is more like 10% dependent on the
teaching side and the large 90% is depending on the learners side.
In short, university study is mostly about how much you want to learn. Even if you keep a 100%
lecture attendance but put no hours in independent study, you will not learn much. Lectures are
about learning key-concepts, your independent study is using these key-concepts and applying

them to various problems. From my perspective, this shift in teaching process is to prepare
students for the real world work experience. Once we enter our jobs, we would probably be
barely taught anything anymore. It is true that we learn as we work in a certain field, however
this learning is solely dependent on ourselves. We wont have anyone teaching us the processes
step by step, hence learning becomes very reliant on ourselves. Therefore university study is
much akin to a parent slowly letting go of their childs hand and letting them learn how to walk
by themselves. We have to be able to learn by ourselves without the need of a teacher or
instructor telling us the how-to-dos.
According to a certain online test, I apparently moderately prefer reflective learning than active
learning and quite balanced in the scales of sensing-intuitive, visual-verbal, and sequential-global
in terms of learning. Apparently, a reflective learner is someone who can understand more
through thinking rather than doing. This meant that for example, I would understand the
physics of an object more through thinking about and studying the theory than doing a practical
or experiment. As soon as I learnt that I was this kind of learner, I knew I had to change.
From time to time, our physics lecturer would prepare a demonstration of an experiment in front
of the class. He would tell us the talk to someone about our predictions of the physics of the
experiment. In many of these demonstrations, my predictions have been incorrect. I linked this to
my apparent learning preference and instantly knew that I have to be both an active and
reflective learner. I cant just rely on my brain solely and trust the answers I think of. I have to be
able to visualize and simulate problems and not just think about the theory of the problem. I have
to balance my reflective-active scale in order to become a better learner. Being a reflective
learner is much like highschool study where just reading and thinking about the notes you wrote
is enough study for the day. Being an active learner means becoming better in terms of concept
applications and real-life problem-solving and hence much more akin to university study and
work experience.

Time Management Week 4

I: Important and Urgent

Revise all topics covered so far in all

II: Important but not Urgent

subjects.

Do all assignments that I have

Do advanced study (get ahead of all

classes).

currently.

Get a replacement credit card after

losing it.

Somehow catchup with friends and

family (who have displacements of
700-3000km from here).

III: Not Important but Urgent

IV: Not Important and Not Urgent

Be happy

Have fun

Get out of Silver IV

Drink up

Stephen Coveys Matrix

There are only 2 items in quadrant I but I have to apply those in 4 different subjects, so in
reality, there would be about 6-8 items in quadrant I if I were to write the same points per
subject. Quadrant III and IV have most of the non-university related items, they are more
personal and related to self-satisfaction. I am aware that having fun is important too but my
current circumstances require sacrificing fun for the sake of study.
I believe that when working on large projects in which you have group members counting on
you to finish your parts of the project, time management is quite important. I have to make
sure I put enough time in the project to get to the goal but also make sure I dont completely
neglect my other subjects. As a university student with many subjects and hence many
different due dates, time management becomes a key concept in achieving satisfactory
grades. Allocating hours rather than impulsively studying and doing assignments makes it
easier to keep track of ones progress. In the long-term, the fixed hours of studying will also

be imprinted as a natural habit and hence doing school work probably wont feel as tedious
as it were before applying proper time allocation.
Through the usage of Stephen Covey Matrix, I learnt that I might have to properly manage
my time in order to do enough schoolwork. I find myself prioritizing items in quadrants III
and IV more just because they are easier to do and give immediate merits. Most items in
quadrants I and II are difficult and require hard work, however, they are the most important
parts of my university career. In order to fulfill the items in quadrants I and II, I will have to
set aside the less important quadrants III and IV and focus on studying for now. Once I get
through all the study, finally fulfilling quadrants III and IV will be twice as rewarding
knowing that I have already finished doing the important things. In order to do the above, I
will have allocate hours into study and be strict on myself about these hours.

Teamwork Week 5
From the recent peer assessment round, I was quite surprised by discrepancy between my
self-assessment and what my peers have assessed me. I got assessed to be above average on
the following:
1. Level of enthusiasm & participation
2. Organising the team and ensuring things get done
3. Suggesting ideas and contributing to finding solutions to problems
5. Helping to manage team conflict and solve disagreements
6. Providing constructive feedback to team members
Furthermore, I was assessed to be well-above average on the following:
4. Performing tasks efficiently
7. Reliable, met required deadlines, attended group meetings, punctual.
8. Contributed to the team during workshop classes

9. Quality of work performed for team project.

The lowest rating I got was from criteria 6, regarding providing feedback to team mates, which I
fully agree to. But from what I found, everyone else in my group had marked themselves quite
low on this same criteria. This most likely is a result of us being a newly formed group, and
hence we are cautious when it comes to giving feedback. Its difficult to give feedback if you
dont know how the other person will get affected by that feedback. I think my group and I can
improve on this as we continue on this semester. Once we start working with each other more,
we will also get to know each other more and thus recognize each others flaws and strengths.
Hence, giving constructive feedback becomes a possibility in the future.
There were many criteria in which my self-assessed and peer-assessed ranks differed.

Level of enthusiasm and participation:

I marked myself as average in this criteria but was marked above average. When
assessing myself, I tried to assess myself relative to the group. From my perspective, my
enthusiasm and participation was the same or similar to the other group members.

Organising the team and ensuring things get done:

My self-assessment was average and was assessed to be above average. This is a similar
case to the above, I had thought that I was ensuring things get done the same way other
people from the group have. I thought that everyone at the group was at the same level in
this criteria.

Performing tasks efficiently:

Here I assessed myself to be above average and got assessed to be well above average. I
marked myself as above average because I try to not waste time and if I find that Im not
needed when a certain task as being done by the group, I try to move on to the next task
or another task that I am capable of doing. I couldnt mark myself as well-above average
because despite doing tasks ahead, I dont always do the tasks perfectly and get the
correct results and will mostly have to double check with the group in order to find out
what I did wrong.

Providing constructive feedback to team members:

In this criteria, I marked myself as below average but was marked to be above average. I
was confused by this assessment, I had given almost zero feedback to anyone in my team.
I do tell my group members if they had done something wrong during a certain task but
Im not the only one who does this.

Reliable, met required deadlines, attended group meetings, punctual:

I was assessed to be well-above average and I assessed myself to be above average in this
criteria. I marked myself as above-average because I try to help my group members on a
task they are finding difficult as much as possible. Maybe because of the fact that I have
helped or tried to help most group members individually, I was marked to be well-above
average.

Contributed to the team during workshop classes:

Similar case to the first two criteria, I marked myself average because I feel that I work at
the same level as my team. It could be that I was marked to be well above average in this
criteria because they perceive me to be doing a lot during workshop. But thats only
because I want to work efficiently, I dont want to waste workshop time and so I move
onto another task. This doesnt mean I am contributing more than everyone in the group,
as we are all still working at the same time.

Quality of work performed for the team project:

Once again, similar case to the other criteria, I believe that everyone had done the same
or similar quality of work in our group project. Hence I only marked myself as averaged
but was assessed to be well above average.

My SAPA factor was 0.85 and my SPA factor was 1.01. This means that I seem to have greatly
underestimated myself or maybe I was overrated by my group. This also means that the group
perceive me to be working only slightly above the groups average which I can agree to.

To conclude, I think that the future peer assessments will show the real performance of each
group members. Once deadlines become crucial and report writing has to be done, we will be
able to honestly assess our group members.

Academic Success Skills Survey Week 6

From the 16 skills, I have chosen 6 which in my opinion, are the most important skills for
academic success and evaluated myself based on these skills.

I schedule my time, utilizing time and priority management principles: Disagree

I would give myself an A+ on the amount of time and energy I devote to my

studies: Neutral

I prepare for each lecture by reviewing my notes, reading ahead in the text,
attempting some problems, writing down questions: Agree

I keep up in my classes by mastering the material presented in the last class

meeting before the next class meeting Agree

I recognize the importance of goal setting and I have clear academic goals: Agree

I feel good about myself and about my situation, and I am confident about my
ability to succeed academically: Agree

My average score based on these skills and my self-evaluation is 0.5 ((-1+0+1+1+1+1)/6)

However, from these 6 skills that I think are the most important, there are two which I have to
improve on. These two skills are both regarding how I use my time and managing priorities. I
regularly schedule my studies but usually do not follow this schedule and hence end up wasting
time. I find myself easily distracted and as a result, losing track of time. When watching TV
shows, Id promise to myself that Ill stop after the episode Im currently watching only to repeat
this promise 5-6 times until I finally do work. I am aware of the toxicity of this attitude but
somehow I cant do anything about it. The only way to prevent this behavior is by placing strict

restrictions on myself such as completely cutting off the internet and other extreme actions. In
short, I lack discipline, I have to enforce my study schedule on myself and actually follow it.
Therefore, I disagree in the section: I schedule my time, utilizing time and priority management
principles
Although, every time I actually get into doing school work, I can become machine-like. Once I
start doing study, I become strangely motivated and just keep going until I become exhausted.
Similar to the concept of static and kinetic friction in mechanics, once I overcome the static
friction (laziness), it takes less effort for me to keep doing study. If I could master this strange
behavior, Im sure it will be a great asset to my academic skills. Hence my rating of Neutral in
the I would give myself an A+ on the amount of time and energy I devote to my studies skill; I
can only confidently evaluate myself as strongly agree once I fully utilize my skills in studying.

Roadmap to Graduation Week 7

For my major, I have mechanical/mechatronics system in mind and hence will be taking subjects
that will lead to either of these majors. I can fully decide which major Ill be choosing once I
fully research the potential outcomes of each majors (job availability, future growth, income).

First Year
Semester 1

Physics 1

Calculus 1

ESD 1

Japanese 1

Semester 2

Physics 2:

Calculus 2

ESD 2

Japanese 2

Linear Algebra

Engineering

Management-

Computation

related Breadth

Physical science
and Technology

Second Year
Semester 1

Engineering
Mechanics

Semester 2

Foundations of

Engineering

Engineering

Business-related

Electrical

Mathematics

Materials

Breadth

Imaging the

Mechanics and

Science Elective

Management-

Environment

Materials

related Breadth

Mechanical

Thermodynamics Systems

Business-related

Design

& Fluid

Modelling and

Breadth

Mechanics

Analysis

Networks

Third Year
Semester 1

Semester 2

Unfortunately, I wasnt able to join any engineering clubs, however I plan to join the mechanical
engineering club in the future to get a better perspective of mechanical systems as a whole.
During semester and summer breaks, I would go back to my home town and since my dad works
as a mechanic in the local Toyota branch, I will consider working with him with the goal of
further enhancing my knowledge of mechanical systems. I believe that getting hands-on
experience will help me greatly in my undergraduate course.
After I graduate, I was also planning on doing at least a year of work experience related to the
major I graduate with. I wont be a certified engineer because I finish a Bachelor of Science
course but I might be able to find work experience in the University itself as a researcher or look
for a possible internship. This work experience may help me once I finally take my Master of
Engineering course.