Women In Engineering

Oakland Mills High School needs women in engineering. It is not just for boys. See Coach Yarn to sign up today.

Passionate Research

       Innovation in computer science over the last fifty years has stemmed from big businesses allowing computer scientists to explore their passions. FORTRAN was developed mostly at night by eager programmers at the IBM research labs. Unix was simply a pet project worked on by Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson at Bell Labs eventually leading to the creation of C, the most common programming language in the world. Years later at Bell Labs, Bjarne Stroustrup developed C++, the first language to implement object oriented features. All three of these revolutionary projects started as research projects simply because the inventors wanted to push new technology to the limits and expand the bounds of human knowledge.

       In order for innovation to continue to occur, passion needs to be explored, not deterred. Both FORTRAN and C were developed in research facilities where people were hired with the explanation, “You come and we'll give you excellent equipment and you will work with nice people and in a year, you will tell us what you did. (“Go To”. Steve Lohr. ch. 6. pg 112). Most of these employees had more lucrative offers elsewhere but chose to go where their passion could be explored.

      As the lure of money has grown, we have seen less and less business environments where researchers can follow their passions. When you are hired, you are working to put money in the bosses' pockets. With deadlines to meet and strict guidelines to follow, people are less likely to take the risks of innovation. Over the last 20 years, the number of computer scientists has grown exponentially but the rate of innovations has not. This will change quickly if big businesses decide to let brilliant minds follow their passions as they were once allowed.  

Equal Partners in Marriage

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sees men and women as equal partners in the eternal relationship of marriage. As equal partners, husbands and wives work together to fulfill all the duties required to maintain a family. Typically these duties fall into traditional gender roles. However, in some homes, the mother may need to work or the father may choose to stay home. I come from a home where my mother has worked almost my entire life. In the summer months, my Dad stayed home and ran a day camp for children with two working parents. We spent long afternoons biking around the city, playing kickball, going to the park, and having picnics. My Dad had to take the lead in nurturing and caring for the children while my Mother worked.  While this situation may not have been ideal, my parents were able to work together and still fulfill all parental responsibilities. Many other parents, like mine, do not follow traditional gender roles, but can still fulfill all parental responsibilities by working together as equal partners.

An Open Source Education

The philosophy of an open source project is simple; universal access to a products design allows anyone to make improvements to the product for the benefit of all. This leads to an interesting process where people will work for free to improve an existing product. A person is driven to work on the project because it is of personal interest to them. Interest is a powerful motivator. It can turn the pure drudgery into a pleasurable pursuit. In a high school education, students see learning as a boring job. Instead of being motivated to learn, students are motivated to get good grades.The interest is not there. High schools can learn how to motivate students by understanding how open source projects keep programmers interested. The key is universal access. An open source programmer can see what others are doing, what projects are available, and then choose what he or she wants to work on. This same flexibility can be integrated into high schools by having less required classes and offering a larger breadth of electives. With a more open education system, students will become more invested in their education because they are in classes that are of interest to them.

Mormon.org

“The Standard of Truth has been erected; no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing; persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent, till it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear, till the purposes of God shall be accomplished, and the Great Jehovah shall say the work is done.” - Joseph Smith Jr.

Like the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, the Gospel of Jesus Christ continues to roll forth to all the Earth. In the early days of the church, I’m sure it seemed an impossibility that every single person in the whole world would hear the message of the restoration. By utilizing modern technology, the church is growing faster than ever. In the privacy of their own home, people can search, and find answers to deep questions of the soul through Mormon.org. People wonder “Where did I come from?”, “What is my purpose?”, and “Where am I going?”. Unfortunately,  most are too embarrassed to talk about these questions with others, especially not two missionaries knocking at their door. The new Mormon.org  overcomes this embarrassment by allowing anonymity to all that are seeking answers. As technology advances, the church will use it to spread the Gospel until  “it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear.”