 |
|
May 11, 2007 Vol. 76, no.
13S
 |
| RYAN
PANCHADSARAM received
the campus’s Kenneth Priestley Award for leadership, which recognizes
a graduating senior who is outstanding in student leadership
and in his or her contributions to student welfare. RACHEL
SHAFER PHOTO |
Aspiring to be great artists and engineers
By IEOR senior Ryan Panchadsaram
No one ever said being an engineer was going to be easy. When we
stepped on this campus four years ago, we were challenged by our professors
and our peers to work for what we deserved. Nothing was served to us
on a platter. Rather, if we recognized an opportunity, we had to pursue
it on our own. Being blue and gold means you can accomplish anything
if you have the spirit to do it, and that’s what makes Cal unique.
Our first year here was full of experiences, from making friends at
CalSo to realizing Telegraph Avenue isn’t as weird as it seems
to be. In our first football season, we defeated USC in a triple overtime
game. We have been able to hold our heads high against that “small” school
across the bay because we have had the axe all four years. Telling
the world that this is Bear Territory feels so good. This place has
given each of us a different experience, but we all have one thing
in common — we are all Berkeley Engineers.
As engineers, we need to be aware of how the world is changing. Today,
more than ever, we have to be ready in the workforce to be innovative.
If we want make a change in the world, we are going to have to be artists.
Our canvases are the applications we use in lab, such as Eclipse and
Sigma, the workbench in the machine shop, the microfab facility and
the chemistry labs. When we practice our craft, we push our limits
and let our creativity run wild — that’s art.
You can see creativity in engineering when you look at the San Mateo
Bridge and compare it with the breathtaking Golden Gate Bridge. There
are cars like the Ford Taurus, and then there are works of art like
the Porsche 911. There are our 10-year-old cars, and then there are
innovations like the Toyota Hybrid. For patients who have severe heart
failure and no treatment alternatives, engineers have created a medical
miracle: a fully implantable artificial heart.
When people say our profession is for people who are not creative,
tell them otherwise. No one ever said being an engineer was going to
be easy. We have the best responsibility in the world: making things
possible. We are the ones who push the world forward because we turn
ideas and fantasies into reality.
For the past four years our family and friends have been there supporting
us from the sidelines. They have been the ones who have been telling
us, “You can do it.” Or for some, the ones closest to us
have challenged us to be the greatest. At Cal, we have been taught
the framework and the values to be engineers who strive for change.
Our professors taught us the first lessons; now it’s our responsibility
to go out and learn the next ones.
|
|
