How to be an ME 30 community member #

We’re aiming to nurture a community of learners - for both your work in ME 30 and at Tufts more broadly. Each ME 30 student has a role to play in sustaining that community. Here’s what you can do:

• Aim high and try hard!
• See failures as waypoints toward success.
• Share your ideas and build on others.
• Express your confusions and uncertainties.
• Celebrate your own and your peers’ learning.
• Give feedback on the design, not the person. (More on this below.)

Your engineering persona #

One of the major skills of an engineer is working collaboratively in teams. Over time, you should cultivate a persona that you adopt when you are engaged in engineering.

Great engineers are particularly good at giving engineering criticism that makes you feel enlightened, rather than beaten down. Here are some suggestions to help you get started.

Criticize the design, not the person. When you feel criticized, check whether the target might be the design rather than you. You might adopt Jon Postel’s Robustness Principle, from section 1.2.2 of the IETF’s RFC1122, “Be liberal in what you accept, and conservative in what you send.”

A few examples:

• ❤ “I’m worried this part won’t be strong enough.” ❤
• ⚠ “You’re out of your mind! This will never work!” ⚠

Be specific in your criticism. Try to anticipate failures and describe failure modes.

• ❤ “I’m worried the wood will slide under the tape, and then the upper deck will collapse.” ❤
• ⚠ “This design is bad. So bad. It just is.” ⚠