Note: This site is likely not new for many people.

So as I struggle through Engineering school (as a not math savvy person), I've been looking back as to why I decided to studying engineering to begin with as a reminder to motivate me.

I realize that one of the largest reasons I chose to study engineering was this fantastic group of kiters / engineers at MIT, Zero Prestige. Sure I had seen some really inspirationally engineering projects while I was thinking about studying it, but these guys showed me that they weren't all number loving desk jockies. They showed me that there were plenty of engineers with curious, adventurous, and charismatic minds.

I say this as I work an incredibly mind numbing, depressing, number crunching, desk jockying internship that has had me second guessing the whole engineering world. They remind me that engineering doesn't have to the corporate world I've found to despise. That engineers can be nothing more then clever people following nothing but their passions.

These guys started this group at MIT with a group of kite obsessed grad students, and now Saul Griffith has helped with Monkey Kite's designs, worked along side of Peter Lynn on kite suspend wind turbine projects. Tim Anderson went on to be a co-founder of the Z-Corp 3D printer, and spent a good deal of time writing about sailing on a yacht he acquired for free (one time using a massive Nasa Parawing as a sail when his mast snapped.). Eric Wilhelm started the fantastically successful Instructables website, and a member of Squid Labs.

Long story short, I just wanted to share that these guys are the reason I am here, and the reason I am studying what I am at the moment. Their content is certainly outdated and not suggested to anyone, but part of me wishes more clever minds like this lovely bunch were still around.

http://www.zeroprestige.org/

nice story but i must disagree with something--numbers are absolutely one of the most satisfying concepts around and certainly something you just cant get around if engineering is your field.....math is ANYTHING but boring......

Quote:

Originally posted by wheresthewind? math is ANYTHING but boring......

I second that wheresthewind!

But I did like the rest of the post

math = meh

im ok with it.. not at your level of math by any means (Calc 101 was my apex math class lol) but i will say, im an engineer inside somewhere. Some of my best college nights were at the local pub drawing every conceivable design on bar napkins with the engineering students... ive always been more of a hands on guy tho, and not a paper theory person.

i applaud you guys, your work is beyond my current abilities!

if your work gets me flying... Hell yeah brother!!
:Ange09:

most people that enjoy math ARE the exploring curious types--that was my point!

I suppose 'numberI loving' was ap poor choice. I should have said that they showed me there are creatively inclined engineers. Obviously I love math, but we certainly have a love hate relationship. :D

the thing that has blown my mind for years, is that math is prevalent in anything we do--music theory=math lots of math--sound synthesis=lots of math--kites=math=its everywhere, just look around you......

on the opposite end of the spectrum are folks like me... I went to ART SCHOOL and got a bachelors degree in "how the cr&p am I supposed to make money doing this." This is where math was the equivalent of "if jimmy has 5 paintings and sells 2 how many paintings does jimmy have left..." I seriously took a college level math course that taught things like how to balance a checkbook and adding and subtracting fractions. It was sooooooper boring for guys like me who were actually way advanced in math through high school.

But now 10 yrs later working on a master's I've had to bout with Statistics, and man was that a fight... BLEH

But math is cool, i guess... I can still add and subtract fractions

Kudos on the engineering stuff.

i met saul and the rest of the guys at nahant beach or they met me,they were kite surfing on home made boards then in the winter saw them at lake quannapowitt on ice blades on atb sitting on them,long time gone.