In today’s forum, we have to write about how we feel about writing. I have said that I have been taught new styles of writing that not only engineers use when making proposals and ideas, but to also write more like an adult in the real world for an occupation like a resume and resignation letter. It has improved my grammar, analytical, and citation skills. English and writing classes so far have been the only time where I could not be worried about any math or science classes. I have been so stressed lately about my other classes and writing my thoughts down has been helping me to calm down. In other words, I like writing because its the only time where I could express my ideas and thoughts and easily look for ways to improve my written skills. The only time I found writing difficult is the certain limit on words or pages. I have so much ideas to talk about but because of this limit, I have to decide very carefully on what important things to talk about to complete each of the individual assignments. If there was no limit, I could accurately put more information so that readers could understand more what I am talking about. When I started the Technical Description assignment, I had no idea what piece of technology I wanted to write about. But a few minutes later, I decided that talking about Waze was a good idea because not everyone has heard about it and I thought there might be improvements to discuss on how it should be used during the pandemic. Because of my commitment to Waze, I have been receiving good feedback from others which builds my confidence.

In today’s forum, we had to do a peer review on our partner’s engineering proposal drafts. We have until Thursday to discuss what we need to improve on so that our final engineering proposal draft comes out perfect. I am sure that the Professor and my partner would like what I have written. I am sure that I used the correct grammar and used the citations correctly. I have also looked at the coursebook to make sure the draft I have written is in the correct format. Most of my individual assignments were about Waze’s history how to improve its functionality during the pandemic. I am still waiting for my partner’s draft so I can read it and make suggestions for how to improve it. This would allow him to make his final draft come out better than ever. I am still waiting on how I did on the lab report assignment. I am confident with what I wrote because I actually followed the guidelines the coursebook provided as well as following what the other students thought that needed to be improved. I am also a bit nervous too. The reason for this is that I do not know if I used the citations correctly for this assignment and the last one. I am sure that I did it right because I followed the guidelines on the website the Professor recommended to me. Maybe if I had extra time, I could have read this assignment a fourth time, I would fix more grammar and citations so that this draft sounds and looks better.

The forum for today is to come up with a final decision for what you are going to write for the proposal assignment. I stated that I was going to write how to solve Waze’s energy consumption problem by improving its program on a standalone GPS device. I have already found an article that illustrates how its is possible for Waze to be used in a standalone device. This online article is called How to Use Waze as a Standalone Device? by Steve Kelly. He explains how to setup Waze in this piece of technology by using a tablet.  He also stated that the benefits of using an android tablet is that you would not need to change the program or attend the calls on the tablet. This could allow the users to use their smartphones for calling or messaging more while not worrying about its battery life. Additionally, location-based apps like Waze or Google Maps tend to use your battery power more than other apps. If that is the case, a tablet with car charger will keep your battery up on both devices. This demonstrates how I could make Waze consume less energy from your cell phones by having its own standalone device. If I combine this source with some of my ideas of working together with other technology companies like Apple along with the sources I have used so far, this should convince the audience to support it since most of them want to find what they are looking for much faster while wanting to save energy on their cell phones. This could also convince them to use Waze more because along with its significant features of community-user-base, this should improve real instant updates of what is happening in the streets and roads so they could accurately come up with a plan for where they want to go.

For today’s forum, I was supposed to discuss and refine my ideas for what topic am I going to write for the final assignment. At the same time, I was supposed tow write about how my progress in class has been. I have been showing up for class every week doing my daily assignments and responding to two other student’s responses. Anyways, I have determined that so far that the individual assignments I have talked were about Waze from its history to how could it benefit everyone with updates in its community user base. But I barely talked about the other problems people have with Waze. So for the topic of the final assignment, I have decided to talk about how to fix Waze’s energy consumption because that has been mentioned a lot more than the other problems from all the articles I read so far. I am sure that I am going to do very well with this assignment than the last one because I think I figured out how to use citations in my writing. I am still waiting for my Professor to respond how did I do in the lab report. I am sure that I did well because I gave him everything he wanted according to the instructions in the coursebook. Maybe if I find more sources than use the current ones I have used so far, it would help further discuss my topic for the final assignment. Maybe it could also help me come with better ideas on how to organize my details more so I could be less vague and more specific in my writing.

I am sure that I did very well in the lab report because I believe that I used citations correctly in most of my sections. In today’s forum, we had to come up with some idea on what we are going to write for the final project, the proposals. So far, I have talked about the current features Waze has to help people find people what they are looking for. I have also discussed how these features are helping families in need find emergency supplies and services throughout the pandemic. I think for this project, I should talk about the other problems people have with Waze more such as glitches and energy consumption from your mobile device. I would probably develop a new hardware device for Waze itself like how Garmin has their own models of mobile global positioning systems. I believe that in order for this to be possible, I have to work with major technology companies like Apple and Google in order for Waze to have its own mobile GPS. As I read about Waze’s history so far, it has been able to provide services for everyone by working with other companies. Only by working with others, real changes could be made, especially on technological upgrades. I believe the benefit of Waze being in its own mobile device is that you do not have to worry about losing battery life on your cell phones to make calls and I think that less glitches would occur if the software got updated. This would also encourage more people to use Waze more once the upgraded software for its community user base is installed, causing less frozen screens or glitches. I think the audience for this project would be for people that latest version or upgrades of a global positioning system so they could find what they are looking for much faster.

In today’s forum, we were given an optional assignment to discuss where we see ourselves a few years after we get our degrees. I said that in two years, I would see myself working probably as an advisor at some successful engineering company. I would probably be working with other fellow engineers with backgrounds in math and science to come up with new ideas and renovations for buildings, train lines, and etc. I am currently taking all the classes required for my CE degree but the real challenge so far has been my calculus two class because I am still struggling to adapt with the true or false tests and quizzes he gives out. If I am confident about myself and actually review the examples over again, this would help me pass the class. If I pass this class, I could finally take the second level of physics needed required for more CE classes. In all honesty, I wanted to be a Civil Engineer in the first place just so I would have the knowledge of building a new community. Other than earning an excellent salary, being a Civil Engineer is an important position because you have to focus on measuring things correctly so that a design does not break down and hurt others in the process. At the same time, I have to have good writing techniques when developing reports so my future supervisors would understand how what I did resulted into something. This demonstrates why I being a Civil Engineer means to me and the challenges I have to deal with before and after getting my degree. Anyways, my partner liked what I wrote for my first draft of the lab report. He told me what I have to fix before writing the final draft. I am still waiting for what the Professor has to say about my draft so that I am able to write the final draft according to his thoughts. I am confident that I am going to be fine with this assignment.

In today’s discussion forum, we had to review each other’s lab report drafts to see what needs to be improved before we write the final. The Professor put us in pairs and we had to look at each other’s and share our thoughts on what we like, dislike, and what needs to be fixed. I already posted my draft for my partner to read it. I tried my very best to follow the guidelines set forth by the Professor and according to the example lab report given in the coursebook. I also did my best to state more where I got my citations for the things I have written down for this draft. I was worried at first that I was not going to submit it on time because my laptop had serious freezing problems. But after realizing that I have a second laptop, I was able to finish the draft and still submit it on time. I just hope the Professor and my partner liked the way I wrote so that I do not have to edit a lot for the final draft. Moving on, I was so glad to hear that I got an A for the group project. The Professor completely understood what my group was talking about. The only thing that he did not like was that we did not state enough where we got our sources as we were writing each sections. This is something that I am trying to deal with right now in this lab report assignment. I hope I did everything right in the draft.

In today’s discussion forum, we had to post an outline of our lab reports we have to write soon. I found even more important information from my sources from the technical description on how Waze is getting upgrading so people could feel safe when going to their destinations. I was a bit nervous at first when writing the outline because I was so busy with other important classwork due soon. But I was able to be confident again and was able to figure out a game plan on how to write an outline for the draft. I am still waiting for what everyone else thought of my ideas but I am sure they would like what I wrote. I read other outlines and they had interesting topics they would like to talk about. The opioid crisis was a good topic some other student wrote. There must be a good solution in eliminating drug battles once and for all so no more damages could be done to society. He also included a very good idea for what to include in his appendix to further illustrate his topic to more to the viewers. Additionally, I also like the way that another student wrote about how to improve solar panels more by using different materials which would not decrease pollution and reliance on fossil fuels, it would also make solar panels more affordable for everyone. He did a really good job discussing the material and how it would help with the production of solar panels. I just wished that he had come up with an appendix so that he could further illustrate his topic more to the viewers.

In today’s discussion forum, we had to find any important information about our topic for the lab report we have to write soon. I found new important information in Forbes magazine on how Waze is getting upgrading so people could feel safe when going to their destinations. According to the article, it states that Waze allows its users to search for emergency food resources and covid testing sites by entering keywords in the search bar of the iOS or Android app. They could type words such as corona, virus, covid, and etc., to find the testing centers. For food distribution centers, the users can type keywords, such as food pantries, food help, emergency food, local food banks, and food assistance, to find the locations. To ensure better accuracy on Waze, information on coronavirus testing centers is provided only by governments or testing center operators. The navigation company needs to work with the appropriate agencies to display only the information authorities want to be presented so they do not overwhelm understaffed sites with a flood of traffic. Government officials and local authorities that would like to add testing information can upload it on Waze’s site and the navigation company will validate it and make sure drivers are informed. Basically, Forbes is describing Waze’s new upgrades during the pandemic by describing how governments around the world are providing new information to Waze so that people could search for the nearest covid testing sites and places to get emergency food supplies much faster.

I think I am going to do well with this next assignment. I came up with a very strong title and abstract on Waze and described specific data on its main website. I think that this might give me good reviews because I followed the instructions the coursebook provided and took a good look at a sample lab report just to give me a clear idea of what to write. As I was writing the abstract, I noticed that the abstract fills up the rest of the sections in the lab report from the introduction to the conclusion. I kind of imagined this going to be like writing a physics lab report, where you write a long essay with each body paragraph specifically stating what you did for each section and how confident are your results. Anyways, I am just glad that the Professor is going to teach us how to cite sources better when doing these assignments. This could really boost my writing style more when I am actually writing real engineering reports. I am a little bummed that the Professor has not posted any more grades. I am still wondering how I did in this group assignment. I am confident that my group did really well in completing each section of the memo on improving the LIRR more. I believe that the only thing we could work on next time is the spacing because we have so much information to write about that we need to only keep the relative information and get rid of useless details to make it work.