Stress Management

My name is Randy Nguyen and I'm majoring in mechanical engineering. The reasons I want to major in this rewarding field because I was always passionate about cars and how each components works. There are three concentrations in mechanical engineering: design, mechatronics, and thermal fluids. Design is part of mechanical engineering and being able to work on mechanical drawings that deal with the physical aspects of materials and modulus of elasticity is important in machine design and manufacturing. There are many materials that engineers need to understand in able to distinguish the loads that will result in fatigue failure, because of the safety factors that engineers need to follow. Mechatronics is another concentration of mechanical engineering which deals with electronics and mechanical components. It consists of understanding the sensors, actuators, and microprocessor. The microprocessor is able to program the components that help to run the motors and light up the sensor. The last concentration is thermal fluids, which deals with the thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid dynamics. There are many things that deal with heat transfer such as the piping in buildings that have the tendency to heat up flowing fluids in the system. The method most companies would have to be able to use is to calculate the sizes of the structures and determine the insulation that covers the pipes.

As a student, I have encountered many stresses ranging from the classroom to the workplace. I have noticed that I procrastinate a lot when I'm at school. I usually stay up all night to study for a midterm or just doing homework because I can not properly manage my time. This causes excessive workloads and it will keep on piling up the next day. "The social engineering is a cognitive strategy employed to help minimize stressors without avoiding them. This technique is a reorganization process where you manipulate factors and elements in your environment to your best advantage so as to travel the path of least resistance. Social engineering involves analyzing a problem, creating a series of viable options, and then choosing the best options to clear stress-prone obstacles out of the way." [1] This is one of the ways that students can be studious when going to school, being able to prioritize, scheduling, and executing their daily responsibilities to manage there time more wisely. "Victimization is a perceptual attitude where in one feels specifically targeted by events or circumstances and has no choice but to suffer the consequences." [1] The material that a professor lectures is intended to help their students perform well by understanding theory and by doing groups projects that emphasize hands-on applications. One of the benefits to group projects is teamwork and being able to work together to complete a task. Usually, students would be excited to work on a project because it cuts a lot of time from lectures. This is very common with engineering students like because they would like to be able to work with there hands, rather than thinking about problems that are abstractly theoretical. The thing that would stress students about projects is the concern of having members that wouldn't contribute to the project and would rely only on one of their members to do most of the work. The student subjected to the majority of the workload would feel like a victim, because he/she is given this load of burden. Over time, this would definitively cause a lot of stress.

In Mechanical Engineering or any field that demands hard work and immense dedication, dealing with stress in more elaborate methods is helpful to one's health both short-term and long-term. Through taking this course and doing outside research I have compiled a list of stress management techniques that I can use towards specific situations I come across while doing Mechanical Engineering. One of these methods is known as autogenic training. Autogenic training is a relaxation technique that involves daily sessions of about fifteen minutes each. During each session one undergoing stress would perform non-tiring workouts similar to yoga and meditation. This would be a good exercise for someone in mechanical engineering because it does not take up that much time from one's busy work schedule. It also does not tire you out but rather brings you into a state of relaxation which people need. It has some good effects such as "[it] restores the balance between the activity of sympathetic and the parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system. This also helps to promote digestion, lower blood pressure, slow one's heart rate, and promotes the functions of the immune system" [2]. With all these good effects to