the air

2007 has been another remarkable year for me. To put it frankly, the following milestones are what label 2007 a great year:

• A perfect semester: 4.0 semester GPA
• Caterpillar senior design project
• Elgin Industries internship
• Published paper

There’s nothing more gratifying than seeing straight A’s on your report card. If you aren’t already aware, there is nothing superior to earning a 4.0 GPA in a semester. However, the challenge now is, can I do this again? Since the spring semester of 2006, my GPA has been on the rise. It started out from a 3.71 and here I am, on top of my game. Here’s the secret to my success: it’s really not that hard. You just have to be willing to sacrifice some things for the greater good.

Senior design is considered the final hurdle before graduation. Due to my plan of study, I took senior design a semester early, but next semester, I have pretty laid back courses. Senior design is like an unpaid internship that is graded. From my experience, it is relatively difficult to earn a grade lower than an A.

An internship with Elgin Industries was definitely a high point for me. It came on the heels of attending the national IIE conference. I learned a great deal of what exactly industrial engineers do in a small company and the fact that I really need to move out of the Illinois region. What I really need is to move to a larger company in a warmer climate. Here’s hoping for 2008.

Perhaps the greatest achievement of mine is getting a research paper published at the national level. I got the opportunity to present a paper at IERC2007 in Nashville, TN and learn about other interesting research projects that graduate students as well companies are pursuing.

I don’t want to sound as if 2007 is going to be the only year for me. That’s why, I’ll go ahead and keep this recap short and sweet. Here’s to another great year!

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