EE494

Lun Zhang

EE494: General Education Reflection

During my time at Iowa State University, I had the opportunity to take non-engineering

courses that I was interested in. I learned about environmental study, economy and women’s and

gender studies, which contain different areas. These courses taught me a lot of thing and gave me

another aspect to think about engineering problems. In addition, I think these courses were

relative to Electrical Engineering, so that I would not feel any pressure about taking these

courses.

One of the first general education courses I took from ISU was environmental study (Env

S 324) taught by instructor Aaron Wood. This course mainly taught the forms of renewable and

non-renewable energy and the impact of energy production on the environment. This course gave

me a chance to see what is the most important energy source that people consumed over the

whole world, and what is the best clean energy for human being in the future. More specifically,

I learned fossil fuel production among U.S., and several energy policies that made by U.S.

government and the importance of those policies. Overall, from my own perspective, this course

provided several solutions for future problems, such as shortages of fossil fuels and global

warming effects. I knew what type of clean energy is better and efficient to generate electricity

instead of using burning fossil fuels.

The second course I took was Econ 380, which taught by Mr. Diego S. Cardoso. This

course was also very close to environment study, however, it mainly focused on the electricity
market. This course discussed some economic concepts and how to use these concepts to think

about energy and the environment. This course provided me an opportunity to think about social

problems from different views. For example, I learned what is the optimal pollution level by

considering from both society’s side and firm’s side, also, this taught me a lot about ethics

through different perspectives and I knew what is the right thing to do as an engineer. The latter

part of this course was about electricity market, which was really close to EE major. From this

part, I had a better understand about how the electricity market works and the bidding policy of

it.

Thirdly, I chosen Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS 201) to be my last general

education. This course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Women’s and Gender

Studies, and also discussed the contemporary status of women in the U.S. and worldwide from

social, economic, historical, political philosophical and literary perspectives. I learned how

women are represented and how are they portrayed through traditions and religion. This course

gave a deeper understanding of equality between the sexes, and it is our responsibility to build an

equal society.

Thus, it is certain that those general education courses provided me a distinct aspect

about problem solving. More specifically, I knew a number of renewable energy sources that will

be a promising method to generate electricity instead of using traditional fossil fuels, and it is

urgent for the whole world because of climate change. In addition, there must be a time that we

will run out the fossil fuel, thus, we have to come up a new solution to resolve the problem.

Furthermore, in my opinion, these knowledges will help me in my future career, since I

know how to think from ethical aspect and what is the right thing for an engineer. Through

learning about the emission of the pollution, I knew how to find the optimal level of emission
that will cause no harmful impact to the environment and human being, as well as the firm will

pay less money on tax about emission of pollution.

In conclusion, I am glad that I can study in Iowa State University and learn these

allimportant knowledges, especially from the general education courses. As an engineer, instead

of thinking technically, I have to think from different aspects, so that I can come up with a more

efficient method. I am certain that these knowledges will help in my future study and career.