Observing Community

Quite recently I was able to attend an engineer event for chemical engineers. The event included many students and a group of five engineering professors specifically chemical engineers. This event was held to give a glimpse to students about the life of a chemical engineer could be like and what type of research these professors are doing right now.

            The event started off with each professor introduced themselves and explaining the type of research that they are currently working on. As a student siting in my seat and listening to each professor articulate about his passions of finding renewable energy and new types of medicine were really fascinating. I slowly began to see how dedicated each of these professors were to their research and to the community of chemical engineers. Later in the event, after the presentations, all the students got a chance to meet up with any professor that they wanted to talk with. As I was waiting to go and chat with professor Lunt, I slowly observed how chemical engineers interact with their own peers and to students.

            I could tell from my observations, when chemical engineers talk about their research to other chemical engineers a lot of what they talk about is details on their finds. The community of chemical engineers is very studious, dedicated to their work, and hardworking. Each professor is unique in how they view the world of chemical engineering, but at the end of the day each chemical engineer is always trying to find ways to better the world.

            After observing the chemical engineer community, I was quite intrigued at how they do things. Some of the cultural conclusions that could be drawn about a chemical engineer is that all they do is wear a lab coat and just work in a lab twenty four seven. That is not necessarily true, even though chemical engineers who do research in labs may have to abide by those rules, there is a bigger picture that they need to fulfill. A good portion of the time when a chemical engineer works they are writing reports on their findings. There are a lot of things that chemical engineers do that do not get broadcasted to the public. So for most of what the general public sees is a clear-cut chemist who works in a lab all day.