I would love to leave school behind for a moment
and take a drive
out to the country, somewhere in the interlake
watching the forests and spent fields fly by
lit by a sun less direct than in the younger days of summer

We would stop somewhere that looked interesting
somewhere we knew from fleeting glances many times before
and wander through the coarser grass, looking up
at the golden leaves set crisp against a cloudless blue sky

The wind here blows cooler than before
a gentle but tireless reminder
of what soon awaits both us and this land

In reading Greg Macpherson‘s weblog, I came across this nugget of goodness from GMAC on his US tour experience.

What did I learn about the United States on my trip? If the US is in fact the captain of the ship we’re all stuck on I think we should sneak into his cabin after he passes out from all the Old English he’s been drinking and chain his arm to the sink so that he can’t reach that massive gun-rack in his closet or the ‘full-speed ahead into the abyss’ lever on his wall (next to his poster of Michael Douglas.)

For anyone who’s interested, GMAC is playing the Gas Station this Friday, September 23.

Good friend Eric Au is leaving for Calgary to persue grad studies. I asked him last night if he was planning on taking anything quintessentially Winnipeg with him, after which I immediately suggested he take a pothole.

Ask The Audience: What would you consider quintessentailly Winnipeg, in jest or in seriousness?

While in Portugal, Dan and I happened to bring and read the same book, Kim Vicente’s The Human Factor. It turned into a bit of a humorous rivalry as to who was reading faster and who was going to finish first, but we ended up finishing nearly at the same time (Dan did beat me).

It was quite an exciting “last hundred metres,” as the book improved significantly and hit home for both of us when it shifted to discussing engineering education. Vicente really hit the nail on the head about where engineering schools need to head in the future to produce engineers that design technology with an affinity for human nature, helping to improve our quality of life in an increasingly technological world by reducing the “bad fit” that often exists between people and technology.

It’s quite encouraging, so I wanted to share it with everyone. There it is below, in all its glory. And no, I didn’t type it out.

From Kim Vicente’s The Human Factor, Random House Publishing, pp. 302-305:

Finally, universities can also contribute by taking a critical look at technical education. Since I’m an engineering professor, I’ll concentrate on engineering education. Most designers focus on technology because engineering curricula are largely still based on a Mechanistic world view. Students learn about thermodynamics, materials science, calculus, linear algebra, chemistry, physics, electrical circuits. All these topics are important; our planes wouldn’t fly and our bridges wouldn’t stand without them. But, as I’ve tried to show, these skills aren’t enough any more. The Human-tech Revolution doesn’t do away with the need for technical competence; designing to fit the physical world is critical. It just asks that we go beyond technical excellence, that we look at the interaction between people and technology. And, surprising as it may be, most engineering students are never taught to do that. They graduate without having taken a single course in designing for people. They join the workforce without being skilled in Human-tech thinking. They live in a Mechanistic world where they literally can’t see incompatibilities between people and technology. The best and the brightest may overcome these educational deficiencies and learn the value of Human-tech thinking from practical experience, but most don’t. And they wind up designing very impressive technical widgets that most people use with difficulty, if at all.

The impact of educational change is slow, but all engineers need to know that it’s possible to design technology that has an affinity with human nature. They need to know that there are systematic methods for achieving that goal, and that those methods have been proven to make a difference. They need to know the tremendous negative consequences of focusing on technical details alone. Mind you, that doesn’t mean that all engineers should become Human-tech experts. That’s not realistic, nor desirable for that matter. But they do need to know that attention to the interaction between people and technology is a crucial part of good design and that there are experts who specialize in that area.

It doesn’t take much, actually. For example, almost every engineering undergraduate is required to take one course in engineering economic analysis. That doesn’t make these students expert accountants or economists; specialists will always be needed. But taking the course exposes students to the relevance of economic factors to project management, and engineers are required to take it because, no matter what the industry, every engineering project has a budget: you simply can’t avoid economic considerations. The very same argument applies to the human factor: every engineering project involves interaction between technology and people somewhere along the way. Yet there’s currently no requirement that I know of for all engineers to be exposed to these considerations.

I also believe that, in the long run, making this kind of change to engineering education would result in tremendous — possibly surprising — benefits. Right now, engineering tends to attract people who are born Mechanistic thinkers — technologically clever, but somewhat narrow in their interests. Most of them are men. A lot of students who are just as good at the technical details but also have broad interests don’t go into engineering, or if they do, don’t stick with it, because they think it will be boring to spend four years taking only math, science and technical courses. These students are at least as bright as the ones who do currently go into and stay in engineering. They too have excellent high school grades, especially in maths and sciences. But they have wide interests. They can write a proper English sentence. They can speak clearly and convincingly. They’re heavily involved in extracurricular activities. They have good people skills. They read newspapers. They’re leaders. They want to learn about history, psychology, politics, sociology and other courses that don’t currently have a place in the rigid and overly prescriptive engineering curricula. These students — ones that we’re currently losing to other disciplines — would make outstanding engineers and precious leaders in society. They’re born Human-tech thinkers. Many of them are women.

By putting more emphasis on Human-tech thinking we would be graduating better engineers. Technical skills are essential, sure, but many of society’s problems demand a broader view, and many of the students we graduate are ill prepared for the challenges that await them. They wind up perpetuating rather than solving our societal problems. And the students who bypass engineering and become leaders often don’t have the knowledge or the skills they need to tackle society’s important problems — many of which are technological in nature, given the degree to which technology is becoming central to so many critical sectors, and not just at the physical level, but at the level of organizations and political systems too. Most people in leadership positions in government, for instance, have no technical background at all; many are graduates of law, politics or business. (Can you name one prominent politician who has an engineering degree? Answer: Jimmy Carter.) Today’s leaders find their way into positions of power and influence because they have a good sense of history, context, people and organizations — knowledge that is absolutely essential in making public policy decisions. But it’s clear that many of society’s problems today also require a knowledge of technology. Do you think that politicians without any technical knowledge are in the best position to make life-critical decisions about the safety of our water, for instance, let alone nuclear or environmental decisions? Society needs a new breed of leader — one that is as comfortable with differential equations and computers as with human psychology and politics.

After much effort on many people’s parts — especially these two — the brand new, new and improved, longer-lasting with less aftertaste umes.mb.ca has finally arrived. Bask in it’s glory, and bask regularly for it will be improving and evolving as the year goes on.

As originally posted on http://azores.paulofernandes.net

The other guys are going to talk about the Jantar D’espirito Santo (Dinner of the Divine Holy Spirit) at an overview level, so I wanted to share a few of my favorite memories of the three days we spent on this project.

Sunday Morning Sopa Delivery
After getting up at 6 AM on Sunday, we made our way over to the local church to begin work by 7 AM. The first task of the day was to deliver the traditional sopa (soup, made of beef broth, beef chunks, heavy bread and fresh herbs) to most of Almagreira, as well as shut-ins and others in the surrounding parts that would not be able to attend the Jantar—between 100 and 150 orders. This involved loading up tureens of piping hot soup into the back of a pickup truck, climbing in, and driving through the streets of Almagreira. At every second house, the truck would stop and four of us would jump out, arm ourselves with a tureen, and knock on the door. When the door was opened and a resident appeared (often with a stunned look and less than full attire, especially right at 7 AM) we would exclaim “Sopa D’Espirito Santo!”, give them the sopa and then wait for them to put it into another pot and give us the tureen back. After a quick “Obrigado!”, we’d get back into the truck and head to our next delivery.

The sopa delivery was a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. Flying back to the church to reload on soup with the cool wind (and the occasional rain) blowing by us as we looked upon the Almagreira countryside from the back of the truck was an awesome experience—likely my favorite of the day.

Sunday Afternoon/Evening Serving
We were on the front lines for the dinner at the church. Every 30-45 minutes we would have a sitting for the sopa, where we would ensure that everyone had enough vinho (wine) or somo (juice) to drink and enough sopa to eat. Once the dinner concluded with a cheer led by Paulo amongst others (“Viva Espirito Santo!”, or “Long live the Holy Spirit!”), everyone left and we cleaned and re-set the tables. Rinse and repeat for 7 hours.

While this was also a lot of work, it was great to see the community of Almagreira and surrounding areas come together to share good food and fellowship, the rich and poor alike.

The Monday Cleanup
I won’t say too much about this one, as it wasn’t very interesting for the most part. However, one of the tasks I took on (along with Dan and Jamie) was the cleaning of the eight 60 litre cauldrons used to cook the soup. We used degreaser and wire brushes to go at it, and the cauldrons were looking much better after we gave them a good scrubbing. Unfortunately for me, much of the scrubbing moved the blackened and baked-on grease from the cauldrons onto my shirt (the same white shirt I used for serving the day before). Needless to say, I looked like I’d been caught in a snowstorm of black greaseflakes.

Monday Night Dinner
As a final wind-up for the weekend’s activities, the entire family and all the volunteers got together for a dinner of kebabs and lots of other good food. It was a nice way to finish off the Jantar D’espirito Santo, and made it easy to forget the numbness that occupied my feet a day earlier.

That’s all for now—I need to register for my university courses next year. Take a look at our photos to get a better idea of what the Jantar was like, and please keep the comments coming. Bom Dia!

As originally posted on http://azores.paulofernandes.net

The time has come to share a few more observations and experiences of our time in the Açores. Today I shall regale you with tales of the Portuguese Age Factor, and my new nickname.

The Age Factor
One thing we’ve been noticing as of late is that up to a certain point, most everyone here seems to appear older than they actually are. It’s been somewhat surprising when we’ve found out the ages of some of Paulo’s cousins’ girlfriends, as they’re younger than expected. One in particular had seemed to be about 24-26, until we found out she was 20—younger than any of us! I’m not exactly sure what to attribute to the “Age Factor,” but we have been theorizing that it’s because people here still have to work harder physically on a day-to-day basis compared to the average person of the same age in Canada/North America.

My New Nickname
When we first met with Paulo’s parents to ask any questions we might have had about our voyage, the issue of our names in Portuguese somehow came up. Paulo and Dan (pronounced like Danielle over here) had names that worked relatively well, but my name was a bit too North American for direct use—many of the letters in “Steve” are not pronounced the same way in Portuguese. This prompted Paulo’s dad to suggest a more Portuguese-friendly pronunciation: Estevsh (the first “e” is quick, the second “e” is soft [as in not hard], and the sh is slurred together with some “j”). It didn’t stick that much in Winnipeg, but it has really caught on over here and is now the reference of choice for Paulo, Dan and Paulo’s dad.

So with that, allow me to introduce myself: my name is Estevs.

This is the last update until at least Monday, as we will be working all weekend for the Jantar de Santo Espirito (Dinner of the Divine Holy Spirit), where we’ll be helping to serve a feast made from 2 cows, 200 loaves of bread, and countless other beverages and supplies. Catch you on the flip side.