Skip navigation

Zibb

Rowe's and Columns

Senior Technical Editor Martin Rowe covers topics relating to general-purpose instrumentation, compliance, communications test, and anything else that comes along.



   Advertisement

Profile

RSS Feed

  • Add this blog to your RSS newsreader!

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Most Commented On

Archives

By Category

Blog

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Should tech schools shed the nerd image?

Oct 15 2008 2:15PM | Permalink |Comments (10) |


As an engineering student, I regularly saw others on campus wearing calculators on their belts and equations on their shirts. It's just part of the tech culture. Now, some MIT studnets are trying to shed that image.  A student-produced webcast tries to convince people that engineering and science students don't just spend their Saturday nights in the lab, but that they do what other college students do--they party and play sports.

I've heard people say that part of the reason young people don't study engineering is because of the nerd factor. They don't want to be stereotyped. Do you agree?

Reader Comments



at 10/16/2008 12:15:10 PM, Cortland said:
If young people don't study engineering (which is debatable) it may be because they never built an Erector Set crane, fiddled with chemicals or got shocked from 1.5V across a homemade electromagnet. Engineering with that kind of background is a spectator sport.

Plus, the good looking women are in sociology classes.

I've been juggling electrons since I was 14, and if I hadn't run away to the Army at 17 I would have been in an engineering school, sure. With pocket protector and belt-clipped slide rule, of course.





at 10/20/2008 1:59:08 PM, KB said:
Well, it's hard to shed the image cuz we ARE nerds. Mostly at least. I try to hide it, my wife tells me she didn't realize I was a nerd 'till I started bringing home "A"s in physics. I play screaming guitar riffs Friday nights with my band, wear my hair sorta long (and still have it, not balding @ 40!).. but I'm still a nerd in sheeps clothing.

You can't fight nature :)



at 10/20/2008 2:15:32 PM, W17053 said:
Didn't Bill Gates get called a 'nerd'? Who wouldn't want to be a gazillion-aire like Bill? Then again, I think we are born with curiosity that transforms into Engineering.



at 10/20/2008 2:20:39 PM, greg HOBBS said:
I think that Image should be shatterd, because there is a whole new generation that are very smart, good looking, and Do play sports, so it's basically a myth at this point, as I see it.



at 10/20/2008 2:29:02 PM, Jonathan Williams said:
Do we really want engineers and scientists in the field because they like the image it portrays? I rather suspect the "




at 10/20/2008 2:29:02 PM, Jonathan Williams said:
Do we really want engineers and scientists in the field because they like the image it portrays? I rather suspect the "




at 10/20/2008 2:29:51 PM, Jonathan Williams said:
Do we really want engineers and scientists in the field because they like the image it portrays? I rather suspect the "nerd factor" is the excuse some may use because they don't want to admit that it's too hard for them. If they have the "knack", they will naturally gravite towards STEM programs regardless of the image and figure how to be academically successful regardless of how difficult it is. Also, Hollyweed hasn't done much for our image (Honey I Shrunk the Kids, etc). I think you will find to a lesser or greater extent, that all colleges and universities with strong STEM programs have a certain percentage of nerd culture. What you will find however, is that the majority of those in STEM don't look a whole lot different than those studying education, business or law. Notice I didn't include the humanities, because they have the corrollary image problem where theirs is one of long hair, tye-dye, mind altering substances, activism, and communes.



at 10/27/2008 1:44:44 AM, Manu Singh said:
It's a myth. I went to RPI and studied computer engineering, class of '99. I never wore a TI-85 on my belt either. It was stowed safely in my pack where it wouldn't be subjected to 0*F temperatures. Yes, we're nerds, but smart people are balanced individuals. That means you're equally nerdy about your health, social aptitude, cooking, sports, hobbies, music, outdoor activities, family, friends, and life in general. By the time you're of age to apply to an engineering school, if you're not passionate about science and its applications, you don't need to be looking at engineering school at all. Yes, my bedside reading is Advanced Digital Signal Processing and Noise Reduction, 3rd Ed., by Vaseghi and NO, I'm not taking any classes right now... I just like to read about that sort of stuff. I'm going to hurl myself down a mountain on a mountain bike tomorrow on the North Shore in Vancouver and tear a motor apart in my shop later that same evening. Nerd? Yes? Trying to hide it? No.



at 10/28/2008 2:50:58 PM, Les said:
Have you visited an engineering college campus lately? Some of my students have lip rings, tongue studs... and the women are just as good looking, if not better, than those in the sociology classes.




at 12/12/2008 7:57:55 AM, M. Keller said:
As it was in the seventies so it is now. There are those students who have goals in their lives and become the future movers and shakers and there are those students who think college is for parties and sports. The former do not have to be convinced to enter engineering, regardless of the common stigma. College is too expensive these days to spend it partying...

Post a comment



Display Name

Change Image
Before submitting this form, please type the characters displayed above.
Note the letters are NOT case sensitive.


ADVERTISEMENT

About Us   |   Contact Us   |   Free Email Newsletters   |   Free Magazine Subscription  |   Advertising   |   RSSRSS   

©1997-2009 Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Use of this Web site is subject to its Terms of Use | Privacy Policy

Please visit these other Reed Business sites