Written by Adebola Oshomoji for MindSET Magazine

Following on from Doja’s ‘Do You Have to be an Engineer to be an Engineer’, I thought it would be a good idea to look into a few stories of people that have engineered solutions to problems without necessarily having an engineering degree. The creation of accredited engineering courses has ensured that we have the highest standard of engineers working within the industry. However, I do not believe that what you can achieve is (and should be) limited to the type of degree you’ve completed nor do I believe it to be the deciding factor for who you are and can be. If you have a solution, do you wait until you have the required degree to solve that problem? If you have the means and desire to educate yourself now, do you wait until you’re old enough (or can afford to) go to university to do so?

Are you still an engineer if you have no plans to use your engineering degree?

Kelvin Doe (DJ Focus)

“Creativity is universal and can be found in places where one does not expect to find it. And perseverance and passionare essential to nurturing that creative ability” – Kelvin Doe

Kelvin Doe (now 16) is the youngest of 5 children and was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Raised single-handedly by his mother, life wasn’t always easy for him and his family, but her resilience and self-belief ensured that none of them lived in suffering. From an early age, Kelvin was extremely creative and was a fan of taking electronics apart to see how they worked. For years, he had dreamt of creating solutions to many of his community’s problems, but could never afford to do so. From the age of 11, Kelvin felt that enough was enough and began collecting scrap electronic parts from trash yards on the way home from school. He was at times found building inventions in the early hours of the morning.

Armed with his creativity and his newly found resources, Kelvin (by the age of 14) built an amp, a mixer, a mini generator and an FM radio transmitter to launch his own radio station. Under the name DJ Focus, Kelvin became the voice of his community and his inventions helped to empower the youth. He didn’t stop there however. With Sierra Leone’s constant power failures, Kelvin Doe was desperate to find a way to light up people’s homes. He created home-made batteries to power his community’s lights. He now has further plans to build a windmill to help power the homes of his Freetown neighbours.

“It was tough and hard. I spent many frustrating nights trying and failing, but nevertheless, I persevered until I completed the project” – Kelvin Doe on making his own radio station

Kelvin’s amazing story caught the attention of David Sengeh (founder of Global Minimum inc.), who flew him to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)  to present his inventions to students and participated in hands-on research at MIT Media Lab. Kelvin Doe officially became MIT’s youngest visiting practitioner. He has also given lectures to undergraduate engineering students at Harvard College and presented at TEDxTeen 2013. He has long term aims to become a scientist so that he can improve the lives of his fellow Sierra Leoneans.

For the full article, be sure to visit MindSET Magazine's Blog.

Or Sis.

Whichever works.

For some reason, some people just love to ante up the drama in the workplace. And somehow, folks like to involve me in. Thanks, universe. Thanks.

I like to think of things in this way: A typical work week, Monday through Friday, 8 hours a day plus an hour per day for lunch equals up to 45 hours a week. Yeah, I know we spend a whole lot more in the office, just play pretend with me for a while. If you’re lucky, which I’m not, you might get 7 hours a night of sleep. So, a 24 hour day becomes 17 hours of being awale. 9 hours of the 17 hours you are at work. And we haven’t even considered travel time to and from the office. And the reality is that many of us spend more than 8 hours a day in the field getting business done.

In short, what I’m trying to say is that you see your work family more than your own family. Think about that.

Did you?

Good.

When you see your coworkers more than your spouses, children, pets, etc., wouldn't you want your work environment to be more comfortable? I know I do. You don't have to like everyone, but you should be able to be cordial and able to work with others to achieve the missions of your organization.

So why have drama? I don’t get it. 

Can someone explain it to me?

Written by Jenny Simpson for MindSET Magazine.

When it comes to the science-orientated CBS comedy show The Big Bang Theory there have been mixed reviews from ‘real-life’ scientists, resulting in various blog entries on why they love or hate the show. Some believe  that it gives a negative view on scientists, others simply enjoy the comedic approach to topics they identify with. Nevertheless, when disregarding personal opinions on the jokes and the characters, there is no denying that the show has brought science into our homes and popular culture.

Popular culture is often viewed as being something trivial, reflecting the tastes of the general public, but it’s also a way of introducing new ideas to the masses. I’ll use my sister as an example…

My sister Rosie is 12 years old and The Big Bang Theory is undoubtedly her favourite programme on TV. So of course she knows the theme song by heart, and can often be heard quoting Sheldon Cooper (bazinga!) Yet, I am also aware that it has inspired her to pursue new interests. Although she has always been interested in animals, since watching The Big Bang Theory this has developed into an interest in biology, with particular fascination in how animals live. In the show, a potential source of inspiration for this could be Bernadette. Bernadette is a microbiologist, and as well as achieving in her field is also considered to be one of the more socially accepted characters. Rosie says:

“The Big Bang Theory has made science more interesting to me. It’s a funny show that makes you take notice of the science facts – they are included in the stories and are shown in a fun way! My favourite character is Sheldon.”

At the moment she is into creepy crawlies – she has bought a Spider World kit, and can sit for hours analysing the ants living on our tree in the garden under a magnifying glass!

Television has always been considered a good way of capturing children’s attention, and if done in the right way can educate as well as entertain. It’s a way of making science accessible. For Rosie, The Big Bang Theory seems to be doing something right! After all, I never thought I would overhear my little sister discussing the Large Hadron Collider (true story), or be answering some of the science questions whilst watching The Chase. “Where did you learn that?” I asked. “The Big Bang Theory,” she said.

For the full article, be sure to visit MindSET Magazine's Blog.

Too good not to share:

1. Go to Youtube.
2. Pause any video (not an ad).
3. Click outside the video pane and type 1980.
4. Remember how awesome Atari was!

Taken from MindSET Magazine's blog

Nowadays you either need to go down an apprenticeship route or gain a university degree to be known as an engineer but If I were to graduate with an MEng (masters in engineering) then decided to work as a doctor, having not done anything within the engineering field, would I really be an engineer?

Well, with that question in my mind, I thought that it’d be good to look at some of the things that are available as a result of engineering outside an engineering degree.

So let me start with something a lot of us are familiar with:

The wheel!

Yes, the wheel is a product of engineering! Ok, so let me explain; an engineer, in simple terms, solves real life problems. Back in a time where stones were used as tools, our fellow humans found they had a problem – they couldn’t transport objects as easily as they liked; a solution had to be found! And low and behold, the wheel was invented!

If the wheel is a product of engineering, doesn’t that mean the people who invented it are engineers?

Read the full story by visiting our blog page

Are you a risk taker?

I recently read an article (well, a rather incomplete one) about risk tolerance being a differentiating factor between leaders and managers. Leaders take risks and inspire others with their vision, while managers handle managing the activities to bring out the vision. How about also relating risk tolerance to the difference between those who stand out and those who blend in with the rest of the pack?

First off, what is risk tolerance?

In lay(wo)man terms, I take it to mean your ability to handle risks and not be averse to taking them. 

To be able to stand out in your organization, you need to be willing to put yourself out there, which is inherently a risk. Think about it. When you put yourself out there, regardless of the type of situation, you do have the chance to fail. But, that’s not as important as is the opportunity to succeed.

Many of us, when faced with new situations tend to see the negatives first and let them stop us. Yes, this includes me. Instead what we should do is combine risk tolerance with risk mitigation. Look at the both the pros and cons, and devise a plan to overcome any foreseeable setbacks as they come. Make your risks smarter and work for you.

Risk.

Can you handle it?

Taken from Doja's post on MindSET Magazine's blog:

A few weeks ago, I told my story of how MindSET came to be, briefly mentioning that I am studying engineering but didn’t want to be an engineer, but obviously that makes no sense, so there’s no better place to start than from myself – where I began and how I got to where I am now.

The build up to my interest in engineering began while I was still in secondary school. My parents had been prepping me up to become a doctor (as they do), giving me some PhD-level book to read in my spare time to “enhance” my knowledge in something I had no interest in whatsoever. It wasn’t until they actually asked me what I wanted to be that it occurred to me; exactly what did I want to be? I knew what I liked; there was just no name for such a career.

As a child, I was curious about how electronic things worked; disassembling, “assembling” then taking back to Argos (with the receipt and a lie) to get a new one. So I told my parents I like electronics and would like to do something where I could build such things.

“Oh, you want to be an electronic engineer?”

Wait, what the hell is an engineer??!!!

Read Doja's full story by visiting our blog page:

http://blog.mindsetmag.co.uk/what-is-an-engineer/

I'm constantly telling my friends to stop sitting around and waiting for their career, or their life, to happen. To succeed you need to make the conscious decision to own your life and your career to ensure your future success and happiness. It takes some self reflection to really determine where you want to be in life and what you need to do to get there. And to be honest, it’s not always an easy thing to do; I struggle with it, too.

It's not always easy to figure things out, but there are some questions that I have asked myself throughout the years that have really helped. I'll share of few here with y'all since I'm a cool person.

1. What is your personal definition of success?

I just can’t stress how important this is, I really can’t. What success is to me is not what it is to you, and what success is to you, is not success to your neighbor. Let’s stop comparing ourselves to each other and come up with our own personal definitions of success. When you do this, the end goals that you are striving for are of actual significance to you.

2. Do you have your priorities in check?

Have you reconciled your priorities in regards to meeting your goals? Do you need to shuffle priorities around to achieve your goals? Are you okay with moving some things to back burner while pushing others to the foreground? Is it worth any of the strains of priority shifting? Yes. No. Maybe you need to reshape your goal to be more inline and in sync with your priorities.

3. What are your resources and how can you use them?

Resources come in many flavors: educational opportunities, professional organizations, even your coworkers. To achieve your end goal, you need to identify these resources and their benefit to you. What training classes do you need to take? What certifications would be beneficial to you? What professional organizations should you take a part in? Who is in your network? But don’t be a user, though. Don’t be a person that tramples upon others and actually expect (or demand) their respect at the end of the day. It doesn’t work like that. Respect and a polite demeanor go a long way. Trust. 

4. Are you willing to deal with your own flaws?

You need to “get over yourself.” We are our own worst enemy. We all have our flaws and we need to learn coping mechanisms to overcome them. If you are not willing to recognize your flaws, how can you expect to achieve your goals? Many times it is our own action or inaction that is preventing us from reaching our goals. We tend to mask our faults and misplace the blame to external sources. In order to succeed we need to recognize who we are to realize who we want to be.

5. Can you deal with failures?

Crap happens. It really does. You’ve gotten everything all laid out, everything is working to plan, and someone pulls a loose thread and everything becomes unraveled in a blink of an eye.  Been there, done that. We all have. If you really want to get to where you want to be, you can’t live your life wallowing in what could have been. Pick yourself up, figure out what went wrong and why, and remedy it. And if it’s something that is out of your power to fix, figure out how to make the situation work for you. Don’t let the system work for the (wo)man, make it work for you.

To close out, I’d like to remind y’all this awesome quote by John Lennon “Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans.” Goals and priorities shift over time, and by no means does this make you a failure.

- Engineering Diva

Check out my blog at engineeringdiva.wordpress.com

Rich - Its always good to hear that a great Engineer such as yourself has bridged your technical expertise with your entrepreneurial side.  The site looks great!!  Bookmarked!

Joseph Mariano