The end

This is my last post for CEE 5804. I wanted to thank all of you for the lively discussions during class. I also want to thank Dr. Edwards for his serials of his ups and downs as a professor advocate for social justice. His blend of his stories, other readings, and his passion came out …

Barba Tenus Sapientes

Barba Tenus Sapientes. It is a Latin phrase meaning, “Wise as far as the beard.” According to one of the leading Latin officialdo publications Mental Floss, they have the following description for Barba Tenus Sapientes: A man described as barba tenus sapientes is literally said to be “wise as far as his beard”—or, in other words, he …

Your education and experience has value…..

This has been floating around the social media sites recently. A customer asked me how much it cost to do this job….I answered him: $ 1500He said: So expensive for this job?I asked: How much do you think it would cost you?He answers me: $ 800 maximum… That’s a pretty simple job right? !”– For …

I can do that!

I once had a boss that attended a week training course to learn hydrogeology. He proudly brought the 3-ring binder into a meeting to announce that he was now a hydrogeologist. I sat there in the meeting ticking off the classes that I had in hydrogeology like Applied Hydrogeology, Groundwater Modeling, Contaminant Transport of Pollutants, …

Academic Caste System

I came to Virginia Tech for a PhD and I decided that I was not going to do it full time. For the last 5 years, Virginia Tech considers me not in “residency” for my PhD. I had to derive a plan and approved by my committee to show Virginia Tech that I am meeting …

Can we take the Dunning-Kruger Effect graph and add a third axis for time?

I am obsessed with competence. It has been an obession for the last twenty years competing in private industry internally against colleagues and against external coemption for various projects. I have been fortunate that I have sit at the knee of very smart people that I would consider “experts.” Expert is an interesting word in …

Truth

I am lifting the following paragraph from a “nameless” friend that just sent it to me in an email. He is trying to get published and the reviewers are hung up on a detail. He won’t be able to publish until he collects the data. He is done with his PhD and the funding is …

Intellectual Property

As I am reading the “Bad Blood” book, I keep thinking about intellectual property. If I come up with a good idea, it is owned by someone else. As I have employment outside of the university, I have signed (the now common) non-disclosure agreement and non-compete agreement so my employer owns all patents and “good …

What engineering degree?

Twenty years ago, I graduated from school and went to work at a mid-size engineering company. I came into those gilded halls as a staff hydrogeolgoist. It was the corporate headquarters with 150 people working in plush 8th floor offices in a skyscraper in Atlanta. It was an office that required a collared shirt and …

Branding

After today’s reading about branding and setting an professional identity, I thought of an experience when I first started out being a professional. I did a bunch of small geophysical projects with a very well known and one of the tops in his field geophysicist. After a couple of years of him and his company …