Non-required Courses
There is a course project that spanned from sophomore year to senior year. That project is about investing unused credits into courses that fall out of my mechanical and aerospace degree requirements (non-required courses). I had two options
Option 1: Take what would improve my mechanical design level most.
Option 2: Take what would maximize my grade. Or do not take non-required courses at all.
I am glad I took Option 1. Lots of pain, but lots of gains:
EECS280 Programming and Intro Data Structures (2019SU B-)
I was very poor at coding and even afraid of coding. So I took EECS280, a required course for computer science students. I performed poorly, but after those 3 months, I was no longer afraid of coding. Since then, when I need to program for my machine, I do so with great confidence.
MATH471 Numerical Method (2019SU B+)
Not all equation in engineering has an analytical solution, and I was very curious whether a numerical solution exists and how to find it. So I took MATH471, whose first part was about applied numerical methods and the second part was about using topology to prove why those methods work (notes here). The final project was about solving the vector optimization problem below by writing a script with only scaler + - * / and exp().
This was a grad-level course. Lectures and projects were terribly hard, but I loved them. After this course, I became skeptical about the term “optimum”.
MATH450 Advanced Mathematics for Engineering (2020WIN A)
It taught us how to apply maths to engineering. I like the course, and I’ll like it even more if it gives rigorous proof. (Notes here)
MATH565 Combinatorics and Graph Theory (2020FA B-)
This was a pure mathematics course for Math Masters’. During the first lecture, I realized that I would rank last in this class. I asked myself two questions:
“Do you have to take combinatorics and graph theory?”
“Yes. They are the language for mechanism synthesis.”
“Do you have to take it now?”
“Yes. I won’t have time to take it later."
So I stayed. I’m glad I was able to understand around 50% of its topics (notes here). After MATH565, I could read mechanism synthesis without any difficulties.
PHIL391 Plato (2021WIN B)
This was a course for philosophy-majored juniors, and I turned out to be the only engineering student in that class.
I wanted to improve my thought process for mechanical design. So I took this philosophy course to get some training about how to think.
MECHENG552 Mechatronics (2021WIN A-)
During the first lecture, the instructor said: “You must have some knowledge in control. Otherwise, you should drop this course”. I was very nervous: I literally didn’t know anything about control. I'm glad he didn’t find that out or kick me out.
MECHENG552 was a lifesaver for my ornithopter. On Jan. 2021, the mechanical aspects of my ornithopter were almost completed, but I had no idea about electronics, control, and sensors. MECHENG552 covered all of them.
Intro. to Political Theory (VR101), Intro. to Political Science (VR160), Professional Ethics (VG496), Project Management (CS03), Piano Performance (PIANO110) are all interesting non-engineering classes. However, they eventually played a role in my degree requirement, so I could not count them as non-required courses.
