I suppose that's the 'blogger' equivalent of the infamous Hello World code used as a introduction by anyone in every programming language. I like it; execution was clean and simple.
My mental-turned-technological ramblings can begin with my abridged summary of the iFoundry program.
I wear my iFoundry shirt proudly about the U of I every wednesday, clad in a professional shade of grey. Why? Wednesday, only courtesy of iFoundry, is free pizza day for a hundred freshmen Illinois engineering students. We meet at Everitt Lab to embrace a 'global' vision of engineering. Too often, engineering is described as a major category plagued by tunnel-vison: We are taught to think all math and science - all the time. And frankly, this dominating view concerning how engineering should be taught has developed generations of successful problem solvers. However, recent trends in globalization (and cries from industry) have generated an incentive for the iFoundry faculty to collect ideas from outside the conventional engineering curriculum (i.e. philosophy, art, and communication) and apply them to the future generations of Illinois Engineering alum.
Students in iFoundry are exposed to highly educated professors and professionals preaching the word of entrepreneurship, creative design, service to society, and innovative solutions. A common theme of the iFoundry program is a shift in emphasis from thinking with your left brain (i.e. logic, facts, practicality - which are all important ideas) to training to use your right brain as well (i.e. imagination, philosophy, and meaning). Instead of thinking in series, it's all about thinking in parallel: be creative, see the big picture, and most importantly of all - ask good questions!
