CIT Experiential Learning Reflection Paper
If you have attended an approved lecture or weekend country course, to get EL credit, you must write a 1-page
reflection paper and upload it to Blackboard for review. Please complete the following:
Student Information
Name __Bittner______________________________Brian_________________________________A____________________
Last
First
MI
Andrew ID: ___bbittner_________
Experiential Learning Course Number: 39- 220
(eg 210, 220 or 310)
Title of Lecture or Country Course:_The Material World (something like that)_____________________________
Name of Lecturer: ___Subra Suresh ___________________________ Date of Lecture: __11/19/14____________
Complete this form in its entirety, including an approximately 3-4 paragraph reflection, using Times New Roman 10 pt font,
single spaced, filling the page, but no further. Write a 1 paragraph summary and then 2-3 paragraph reflection on what you
learned and how it impacted you. Once complete, upload the form to the TurnItIn Assignment labeled "Experiential Learning
Reflection Report" that is located in the Blackboard course (in the Experiential Learning Reflection Report folder). If you do
not include both components, you will not get credit for that submission.
I went to Subra’s lecture last fall, and enjoyed his subsequent lecture this fall. He talked about his groundbreaking
work on nano mechanics, and how events at the atomic level can work to have big effects in the real world. Subra has been to
many impressive places. He was the head of MIT engineering and the National Science Foundation. His key insights were
discovered a while back, while head of the material science department at MIT. He and a grad student were looking to get a
better understanding of failure due to impulse (vibration) at the atomic level. Their funding wasn’t very large, but in what was
more of a throw away experiment they found highly valuable and repeatable information. They had a tub of soap bubbles laid
out across a plane. They subjected various impulses to groups of bubbles and were able to determine a consistent correlation
for the position of failure under certain constraints.
This lead to s big research overhaul in product development. Subra pointed to the production of Boeing airplanes as an
example of this particular research having an affect in the real world. Back in the 1980’s there was a terrible plane crash due to
failure of a tail component. Due to research done in Suresh’s material science department, they were able to backsolve the
progress of deterioration of the fin, and how it could have been prevented. This wraps in the title of Suresh’s lecture which I
can’t remember the name of but basically means phenomena at the atomic level can have big implications at the macroscopic
level.
This is important because as a material scientist you must explain, what is the impact of my work on society. For
Suresh that meant allowing for progression to be made in the production of large materials with high safety restrictions. By
reducing the risk of failure due to atomic makeup, we can avoid such configurations which are likely to cause problems in the
system.
I took away a few interesting things from the talk. For one, I was highly impressed with where Suresh’s colleagues
and graduates students ended up. Many became professors at high-ranking engineering universities or had strong influence in
governmental policy for science related issues. The man is special to be around. It seems that his drive and vision are
contagious to those around him. Just from watching him present, I was impressed at his true passion for learning, and his
clarity as a presenter. He is very skilled at presenting things to a non-technical audience. In one of the funnier moment of the
lecture he commented ‘I’m giving a presentation after lunch, and the rule is that I can have only one equations slide.’ This
reminded people that it was more important to get the high level of idea and appreciate the contribution of the work to how it
affects us in our daily lives.
As engineers, we have a responsibility to conduct our work or perform our research at a high level. It is great to have
such a good role model as our leader at CMU. Suresh couples his academic talent with a deliberate attention towards
professionalism in how he conducts his research. This provides a great example for all of the students in CIT. I really enjoyed
the presentation.