April 13th

Greetings! For the past two weeks, the BOTTOM Line has been maintained on Facebook. The movement to a Blog is due to the number of former grads who are "too old for Facebook". If you can believe it! For a while I will double post the BOTTOM line to this Blog and to the RUFC in Facebook.

Analogy time. I lift weights. Most people are familiar with what happens to a muscle when a person exercises it - it grows and gets stronger. It turns out though, that it is not just enough to exercise the muscle the same way every time. To optimally build any muscle, you need to vary intensity, vary positional approach, vary type of weight, and more. I do this. In a seven week period I do 18 different workouts.

Well, the brain is the same way. To optimize "brain gain" you need to take many different approaches. Young engineering students and engineers tend to be one-dimensional. I sure was. I listened to one type of music, watched one type of movie, and averaged reading one book per year. I did not want to stretch my brain. Go to a play? No way! A symphony? Nope! A dance show? Ain't gonna happen!

The truth however, is that we do need to do all of these things. We've written lately about the importance of reading to become a good writer. To become a good engineer, we need to have creative minds. This "strength" can only come from lots of "exercise" of the brain through exposure to and appreciation of: the arts (all of them - I see you smiling Abby!), many different genres of reading, and diverse cultures.

The bottom line: start stretching your mind!