User:Mwc10

The block I painted as a senior member of my high school newspaper

Hello, everyone, I'm Mark C., a freshman in the Pratt School of Engineering from Northeast Ohio.

Future Plans

I hope to complete a double major in civil engineering and mathematics, and time allowing, spend a semester abroad in the UK. I'm quite interested in genealogy, and my dad's side of the family traces its roots to County Mayo, Ireland, so I figured studying abroad in that area would prove to be a great learning experience, both in and out of the classroom.

Interests

High School

Some of the activities in which I participated during high school include:

• Baseball
  • Left-handed pitcher with what I have been told was a pretty good curveball
• Student Newspaper
  • Staff Writer, Page Editor, and, most recently, Head Copy Editor
• Academic Challenge
  • Captain of a ragtag group of Jeopardy! fans
• Math Tutoring
  • Helped my peers with their calculus homework
• Table Tennis Club
  • Pretty self-explanatory; I'm having my parents send down my paddle and a package of balls if anyone from Alspaugh is ever interested in a game.
• Volunteering
  • Primarily at the local hospital

Duke University

During First-Year Orientation week, I perused the DukeGroups Web page to see what student organizations I might be interested in joining. Just some of the ones I wrote down include:

• Duke University Mathematics Union
• The Chronicle
• Duke Libertarians
• Intramural sports
• Duke Blackjack Team

I will be working as a grader for the Mathematics Department this semester.

Computing Experience

Like some others, I am coming into EGR53 without ever having worked in a UNIX environment or programmed in any language. With Dr. G's guidance, though, the first day of lab went much more smoothly than I had anticipated. And despite the comparatively rough road ahead of me, I'm looking forward to having some fun and learning a lot of new things.

NAE Grand Challenges for Engineering

I recommend subscribing to the MIT News RSS feed, so as to never miss any of the breakthroughs folks there seem to make month after month and year after year. Take, for example, A system that’s worth its salt, David L. Chandler, MIT, created 23 March 2010, accessed 1 September 2010 (Provide access to clean water).