Assignment #0

For our introductory assignment, the class members have been asked to write about ourselves in the context of CVEN 665 and provide a definition/explanation of the term "critical thinking."

First, my interest in the water resources field steams mostly from my experiences in environmental engineering. I became interested in Water Resources as I looked at the need for water supplies and treatment in previous classes. From my background in environmental engineering, I have more experience and interest in dealing with water quality parameters (and the subsequent treatment of the water resources to meet necessary quality characteristics). I am also interested in overall systems to determine potential water inputs and uses. For this interest, I previously took CVEN 664 in the Fall of 2007 as a first semester graduate student. I definitely enjoyed the class, and it likely serves as a reason for taking 665--I would like to combine the fundamentals gained in 664 with numerical analysis and optimization. Ultimately, I see myself being particularly interested in water reuse type applications given that they will allow me to combine my knowledge of treatment and prospective knowledge in water resources.

From CVEN 665, I hope to gain a greater knowledge of systems theory and analysis/optimization techniques, and I hope to gain a better working knowledge of using computer programs to complete analysis. One of my weaknesses is typically using new or different computer programs to solve problems, so I will look forward to trying the new programs associated with optimization for this class. I hope to be able to utilize the analysis techniques in other areas besides water resource systems (such as environmental systems).

Finally, based upon my previous education experiences, I have tended to think of critical thinking as a process of utilizing knowledge from varying sources (such as different classes or disciplines) in developing a conclusion or thought for a separate problem. Included in critical thinking would be some evaluation to determine the legitimacy of the conclusion or thought. The critical thinking process involves going beyond simply plugging numbers into equations to yield an output (though critical thinking could be used to determine methods to collect the information that goes into the output). When looking at engineering, it is apparent to me that a good engineer must constantly practice critical thinking to develop effective solutions to engineering problems that meet the needs of clients for the overall public good.