If I were to get this job...

If I were to receive the Test Technician Internship from Independent Test services, it would benefit my academic goals as well as help build a stronger resume for the future. The job pays a reasonable $10-$12 an hour which will also benefit my stock options. The job itself is directed towards engineering students, like myself, who need experience in the field. The qualifications list “Electrical and/or mechanical aptitude. Willingness to try different kinds of work, design, testing, cleaning, etc. Resourcefulness a must!” Along with the job description, which states “Looking for a self-starter who takes directions well and is willing to learn all parts of the business from managing tests and troubleshooting repairs to cleaning machines and facilities if necessary,” it appears as there is a lot of fun work to do. Being a self-starter, managing tests, and doing a wide variety of work sounds like a great experience builder for my academic interests. It gives me the opportunity to do a wide range of things and the variety of experience is very intriguing to future job offers.

The job takes any class level from freshman to senior and accepts applications through the My Spartan Career network. This means the application process is simple. The only hard part is finding a way to make yourself stand out from the rest. The internship is also located very close to the place that I will be living at this summer. The drive is only 20 minutes per day which keeps gas costs down. This job will help teach me to be more punctual as I could be replaced if I do not show up for work. It will give me much needed engineering job experience. It will also give me the opportunity to work with people in teams which is a common thing for engineering. This job will definitely further my academic interests.

The "Importance of Engineering"

            I read a blog article titled “Importance of Engineering” by Adam Symons. It takes a spin on its actual title and uses it as a political tool to emphasize the need for upgraded infrastructure in the United Kingdom.  We can essentially call it a remix on the topic as it is not called the “Importance of Engineering” to factually report the importance of engineering in the world, but used as an engine for an opinion by the author who is a politician. Politicians can usually be pretty persuasive in their opinions and will find all means necessary to be clever in addressing a large audience. The author talks about how the overuse of the word engineering has taken a toll on the academic discipline as people now feel it’s overvalued when it is really undervalued. The author also talks about that even with limited money, engineers can always find a way to do the job. Optimizing a solution is a big thing that engineers are known for. He goes onto talk about how we need to be looking at the money that is being spent and see if it can be better spent elsewhere.

            My response to this article overall is that it feels like a campaign speech. In other words, lack of facts, lots of highly positive opinion. There is only one fact stated in this entire “remix” and that is when the author goes onto to citing international research on a topic involving children and the quality of education linked to how well the teaching profession is received in the world. As a future engineer myself, I am not a fan of any opinion without substantial facts to back it up and if the author truly has a passion on the matter, they would put the time in to do the research. Here, I am just not making a connection with the author. Maybe instead of just saying “…many parts of Europe are far ahead of us in terms of infrastructure,” the author could display pictures making a comparison between the infrastructure of other countries and the UK. To me, that seems fair to the people that he is trying to sell his point. Overall, I do like the positive aspect of this article. I may not agree with the author on certain things, but it is important that the world knows the importance on the education of engineers. As engineers further our progress in the world (IE the engineers behind the US highway system, NASA, etc), the education they receive is more vital. This blog connects emotionally well with engineers, but does lack credibility on its claims.

Remix of Cultural Article Analysis

This is the video link to Vimeo for a Remix of my previous post "MSU Biker Culture":


MSU Bike Culture from Jesse Ouellette on Vimeo.

A Remix Example:

WRA 150 Remix - English Football League System from Matt Liebetrau on Vimeo.

Does this argument work?

I read the article “A consumer-choice health plan for the 1990s. Universal health insurance in a system designed to promote quality and economy (1).” This article was published in 1989. If we take a look at the historical context, it was published during the first Bush administration and five years before the Clinton administration push towards a Universal style health insurance system in the US. At the time of the Clinton push, a healthcare plan like this was highly unpopular. In recent times, we have seen that it is still unpopular (Rasmussen polling data), but has been passed and in full effect. This article is extremely similar to the ideals of the current Affordable Care Act. In fact, the abstract is essentially a summary of today’s Act. In this article, we do see a lot of conjecture. Even in the abstract, we see that since this is an experimental solution to a problem, it is an ideal that has little data to back it in the American spectrum. The article goes through and cites several financial figures and analyzes the gap between the rich and the poor. It lists several credible sources backing up these figures. We see plenty of charts. The problem is that for an issue like this, it is very hard to display facts on something that is purely experimental. The article argues that there is a need for “public sponsors” and “fair and quality health care” in the US and that the government should be behind regulating 1/6 of the US market. It goes through to cite that Europe is a prime example of Universal health insurance working in the US.

In my analysis of this article, I feel like that this article is still a little weak. It states that it is the solution, but I am not seeing the connection between the European system and here. Tax rates are not the same, the population size and demographics are different, and the American style government is different. There is no physical data from the US saying that this is a plausible method for dealing with high health care costs and bringing health care to those who cannot afford it. The arguments are mainly based on projectional data, which as the US learned from Medicare and Medicaid, is not always correct. It was not until years later that the Massachusetts government would do a small test with Universal health care at the State level. We learned this did not show great success. In conclusion, I do agree that the article is very logical, organized well, and cites credible sources, but I believe that the argument is flawed and missing key aspects. As the Affordable Care Act is in effect now, we can collect data and maybe rewrite an article in the future about the success or failure of the effort.