It's Easy...I Think

“A wise man learns by the mistakes of others, a fool by his own.” This quote, taken from an old Latin proverb, encompasses a simple, but insightful philosophy that has proven quite useful during my recent studies at UNT. The first two years of my academic career consisted of core and undergraduate curriculum, where a majority of my time was spent delving into textbooks in order to extract the basic skills that would one day be used in my career, whether it be within industry or academia.

My coursework has taken a drastic but exciting turn during the transition from underclass to upperclass coursework. I now have several lab courses each semester, where I am able to implement the basics learned during my first two years. There’s one important thing I have learned though: never underestimate the complexity of a lab topic. In other words, there are some things you just can’t learn unless you actually conduct an experiment.

This concept in its simplest form is best illustrated by a situation I came across yesterday where I attempted to fasten two pieces of board together with a wood screw. The final result was a halfway inserted screw that had been completely stripped. It turns out that my drill bit was slightly too small; something I could not have known, unless I had asked someone else their opinion first. Instead I spent an hour wondering why I hadn’t thought about this problem occurring.

This goes back to my opening quote. If I would have asked someone, or done some research first, I could have avoided wasting my time. This also extends to our lab experiments. This is why we do literature searches, the first step in any experiment, to see how others conducted their research, and see if they encountered any problems.

So when my teacher told us to calculate the efficiency of a solar panel, I didn’t just say,”That’s easy”. I knew that I would have to do some research first, then take the measurements myself before I could be so confident. So for all you future engineers out there, always heed this Latin Proverb.