Dan's Blog

  Hello Professor Brad, I am Danial Amirul, a first-year Mechanical Engineering student who will be enrolling into your Critical Thinking and Communicating class, S20. I graduated from Temasek Polytechnic (TP) with a diploma in Aerospace Electronics, and have attained the Certificate of Recognition (COR) that is endorsed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS). In TP, I have attended a similar subject called Current Issues and Critical Thinking (CICT), thus, I feel that I will have an easier time understanding things taught in your class. I chose Mechanical Engineering due to my prior educational background and likeness for aircraft from a young age. I have always been fascinated by how such a huge and complex machine is trusted to transport people and goods across the globe. Throughout the years, from all the various class presentations, a communication weakness that I have identified about myself is that I have a lack of confidence during presentations. This would result

“Communication skills are an essential component in the education of engineering students to facilitate not just students’ education but also to prepare them for their future careers.” - Marc Riemer, Faculty of Engineering, Monash University (2007)     I chose this quote because I feel that this quote highlights the importance of communication, and why we have to do it effectively, especially in our careers. In the classroom, learning good communication skills would help students, like myself, to be able to present our ideas more effectively. In the workplace, strong communication skills would allow team members to work together, and ensure that everyone understands their role and what they are supposed to do to reach the desired outcome. To add to that, if a problem were to arise, good communication among team members would allow them to identify the problem and solve it as quickly as possible without having any time wasted. Furthermore, engineers with strong communication skills wil