Here is something random that I just did that I found rather interesting. I ended up searching the University of Illinois’ Electrical Engineering website. Ok, some may wonder just how I would get to that site. I’ll walk through it step by step.
Step 1: Go to Wikipedia in the hope of either a) learning something or b) stumble upon a blog topic.
Step 2: Discover that tomorrow is the 16th anniversary of the release of Mosaic, the first commercially popular web browser that was created on the University of Illinois campus. Now that I think about it, the world wide web was essentially launched in a building I was walking past every single day as it was happening. Occasionally I would even enter the building but have no idea of the significance.
Step 3: After reading the article on Mosaic click to the article on the University and the campus. Discover that a) the legend of the ghost haunting the English building is worthy of Wikipedia, b) the fact that you can stand on a certain spot in front of Foellinger auditorium and have your voice echo back to you three seconds later isn’t and c) apparently they are now saying that the Foreign Language Building was not constructed in the shape of an upside down pyramid for the reason that, in case of a nuclear explosion, the building would collapse outwards and therefore not destroy the mainframe computers in the basement. The poor liberal arts majors standing outside the Foreign Language Building would be left to reflect for those last few moments as to their folly in choosing a liberal arts major. Meanwhile, those like me in Everitt Lab would rest assured that we were in a fallout shelter as we noticed the sign every time we walked to class. Because I don’t know about you, but if I had to choose a place to hole up after nuclear annihilation I would choose an electrical engineering building. But no, the Foreign Language Building was built that way because someone thought it looked cool. Takes all the fun out of it.
Step 4: Discover that the Engineering Campus has its own section on Wikipedia apart from the rest of the campus. React with pride in knowing that even in the land of Wiki those of us who resided North of Green take it upon ourselves to separate our land from the rest of the riff raff on the Illinois campus. I am upset however that no reference is made to the monolith between Everitt Lab and Engineering Hall that housed the time capsule that was placed in honor of the film 2001 due to HAL being born at the University of Illinois. That was probably my favorite random thing on the campus and I never found out what was in the time capsule.
Step 5: Go to the Electrical and Computer Engineering homepage to look at the list of professors and discover that basically everyone who taught me to do my current job is still on staff. A few are retired now but pretty much everyone responsible for the little bit of electrical engineering that I know are all still teaching. I find that rather incredible given that it will be fourteen years next month since I’ve graduated. Shows just how little turnover there is on campus.
I’m really proud of my time as an Illini (even if we are now apparently getting rid of the Sweet Sioux Tomahawk as well. The hell?) I certainly cannot fault my education as an engineer as it is really the foundation for all of my success. Nothing teaches you to think like being taught engineering at Illinois. The discipline and mental toughness required is amazing. I don’t know if I could survive it if you put me through it today. I wasn’t thinking about this when I flipped to Wikipedia this evening but I will be contemplating it as I call it a night.
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