Formatting note to the reader: Draft and Final excerpts from my works will be formatted in italics and centered. However, images and tables will not be formatted differently.

Introduction

Writing is not my forte. It has always been very hard for me to write a thoughtful and detailed piece of writing. I have also found it pretty hard to be able to express my thoughts in an easy to read manner. This writing class has challenged my abilities to write in many forms. Starting by writing a technical description, the format itself was very similar as something I had done before so I did not find it completely new. The technical report was a sort of follow up of my technical description but gave me freeway into changing my topic and attempting to apply it to the real world. Lastly, the group project was a joint focus on presenting the issue and your research. However, the requirements for each assignment made it different in its own way. One of the primary key components was its purpose. Both reports were similar to a research topic, they required some sort of formal research to be done in the real world and use it to make a point. But the topics were related to the topic of engineering, which is something I am mildly familiar with. I have an interest in the engineering area and would love to learn more about the specifics.

For the Technical Description and Technical Report, they both were a pretty standard research project outlining a topic and explaining real life tests and practices made about that specific topic. Both assignments pushed me further into looking for sources outside of the classroom environment. Going to the library for a research project was something I’ve never done before and felt interesting to do. I received a lot of help from the library and they guided me into my research.

Technical Description:

For the Technical Description, there were multiple aspects that I had to change. The main goal of the assignment was for me to describe the general structure of an LED bulb and teach someone who might not understand or be relatively new to the topic about LED light bulbs specifically. One of my faults came with the organization of my work. I was suggested to include a description of the LED structure itself and then follow up with the circuit needed to accomplish turning the bulb on. This was something I eventually changed however I did make a mistake in my final paper as I forgot to rename one of the labels for the images which I did not connect with the image link I did change.

[Technical Description Final]

Figure 2: This diagram shows the general structure of an LED. This include the cathode, anode, reflective cavity, LED chip, epoxy lens, bond wire and the anvil and post. (Not labeled)

LED’s are composed of multiple small sections that complete a circuit starting from the anodes and cathodes. (Figure 2) Basic electron bonding will be needed, and chemical processes will need to be noted. The light LED’s emit is solely based on the heat produced as a byproduct to the electron bonding. This would include a proton and electron binding to create a neutral charge which would then emit heat as a result of the combination. However, the color will rely on the material that the anvil section is made from (in other words, the semiconductor). The color can also be changed by modifying the epoxy lens with the normal light, this will cause some imperfections in the spectrum of the yellow the consumer ends up seeing. Light color is strongly dependent on its material rather than the bulb color. This is very similar to fluorescent lights, where color is dependent on the material of the material rather than the color of the bulb itself. Each LED bulb needs to have a complete circuit to be able to light up. If the circuit or any component is damaged, then the light will not appear.

How and why it works

Figure 3: This is a diagram of a standard circuit that includes an LED bulb, a battery labeled with its positive and negative ends, and a resistor.

For LED’s, the energy emitted starts at the power source, which usually would be a battery. (Figure 3) The power will direct to the energy to a small circuit inside the lens. While the electrons go to the LED, the resistor shown will act as a monitor on the amount of energy heading to the LED to avoid any damage. This will chemically charge particles inside the anvil that will emit light as a result of heat generated from the bonded electrons. The electrical processes in the anode and cathode consists of ions bonding in the battery. As each cation and anion bond, energy is released. (Figure 4) The reflective cup would focus the light coming out of the chip. Then, that light is shown through the epoxy lens which will further enhance the strength in brightness of the light originally being emitted.

Another major change I made in my Technical Description was completely changing the focus of the goal of the last paragraph for the paper. Originally, I wanted to write about the impact of modern-day technology. After some feedback I realized that a lot of my focus was on the structure of LED’s in of themselves. In my draft I focused on the circuits that come to play while working with LED’s. Because I did not mention circuits as much as I did structure, it did not make sense for me to end with circuits and their uses in the modern-day than talk about how LED’s have evolved which is more relevant to my paper. This change resulted in my last paragraph being written as shown below:

[Technical Description Final]

Impact

LED’s can seem very simple, but their uses can be very complex. Its structure is very similar to that of a lightbulb. They are generally used on electronic devices to signal status of a device. You’ll see a lot of light indicators on multiple objects like toys and remotes. For example, the green/red light indicators on toys that tell the user whether something is ready for use. This has been used on some modern home appliances. There are multiple projects a person can create using these diodes and some code. You can create colorful patterns of light that might attract people. In fact, this has led to the creation and use of smart LED’s. You might have seen them around, especially in smart homes. They look like standard light bulbs with the ability to change colors and controllable through an application on a smartphone rather than on a switch.

This same LED technology has allowed for some to create and sell desktop computers with shiny and colorful cases. The use of RGB lighting involves the use of LED light strips that connect to your computer. Related to computer use, a lot of screens and monitors are LCD, which are LED based monitors. These are much more complicated than just a couple diodes behind a panel, but LED’s have provided a basis for future technology in much more compact items.

Technical Report:

For the Technical Report, a lot of aspects of my writing needed to be changed based on feedback I received from my professor. One of the specifics I had to rewrite focused on being detailed. My draft reads: 

[Technical Report Draft]

“5G data is important and crucial to all people who use any electronic device. It is important that mobile data companies create and advertise strong internet connections to appeal to more users. Wit the implementation of stronger signal potentials like 5G it is also important to be able to provide coverage to everyone, so these changes are necessary for the success of any mobile data company”

After reading the suggestions from my professor, I decided to include a lot more details and expand on what specifically should be done in terms of the transition between 4G and LTE to 5G. I decided to include more information about my sources throughout my paper. In addition to this, I included a general opinion on advertisement and suggestion to how this would be best done to appeal to more users.

[Technical Report Final]

“5G data is important and crucial to all people who use any electronic device. Mobile data is something that has become part of most people’s lives. There are a lot of current issues with the way that 5G might be implemented and how it would work especially in larger cities like New York. All companies should move forward by attempting to spend their resources to add new towers and to change the position of some to allow for the new 5G millimeter wave data. This transition would appeal to all current users and the transfer from 4G and LTE to 5G. Alkhateeb and Lota explain the issues with the current systems of data and potential ways to deal with this issue in their papers which involve change in data waves and positioning of data towers. These mobile companies should. It is important that mobile data companies create and advertise strong internet connections to appeal to more users. Almost every person will need to have some mobile data provider. With the implementation of stronger signal potentials like 5G it is also important to be able to provide coverage to everyone. Changing the tower setup to a polygon format coverage is most effective to provide strong and fast speeds to their consumers. These changes would specifically benefit New York because the density of people means that there is constant demand for multiple connections per tower with multiple amounts of packets of content. The nature of having a better system of networks would allow these mobile companies to advertise their networks to be better than the competition so it would benefit these companies in the long run as well.”

I believe these changes did end up in a stronger paper and helped me explain and state my point for the paper. I also made multiple more changes rewording the structure of my whole paper and I believe it did further help me with trying to get my point across. Something I did end up deciding on changing was the format of the paper. Originally, I wanted to have a two-column setup which was based on the model I had. After experiencing a vast amount of technical issues, it was extremely hard to have to format images into my writing. Word was not being very helpful for me and it was not something I would prefer to spend my time on.

Group Project (RFP): 

The group project was also like something I’ve done before. One of the main differences obviously was the online environment included when projecting the idea to our classmates. Again, the purpose of it was different. We wanted to persuade someone to follow and agree to our RFP, which is something we were not used to. The group project included a lot of preparation for presenting that involved research. In the end I felt like we did do well and learned a lot about reformatting and attempting to make it as feasible to our audience as possible but there was still room for improvement in the future. While working on the written aspect of the RFP, we received a lot of feedback on a couple of sections of our work. One of the sections within my areas included the main section of the project overview. 

[RFP Draft]

“The state will offer a non-profit organization monetary reward valued for up to $400,000 to the company who can create a sophisticated and secure network. This monetary award will come as a grant to the organization allowing them to hire experts”

This was then changed to: 

[RFP Final]

“The state will offer a non-profit organization specialized in cybersecurity a monetary reward valued for up to $400,000 to determine if the selected client companies are following the NIST SP 800-171.” 

This was one example of a larger rewording done to make the sentence and paragraph more understandable. In addition to making it more understandable, a lot of my peer reviewers had a lot of doubts when it came to the breakdown of the costs. This was something the group addressed as a whole and was the rationale to include the breakdowns at the end of the RFP.

Assessments: 0< employees<50	Original Cost	ExpectedNumber	Original Total	Grand Funded Share of Cost
Assessments:50<employees<500	$10.00	2	$20.00
Implementation Projects	$10.00	2	$20.00
Travel for each assessment/implementation	$10.00	2	$20.00
Workshops/Training	$10.00	2	$20.00

I was also given feedback on the process of subcontracting and the specifics when it came to being “approved”. There was an uncertainty for the section in subcontracting because primarily, it was to be assumed that the company that would be accepting and agreeing to the project have staff to handle the project. In addition to this, there was uncertainty on who was subcontracting. I realized that I needed to explain the use of “you” when addressing the reader.

[RFP Draft]

“The subcontractors will seek people from local communities. You may look for the subcontractors or areas where people are being hired on the state’s site. Once certified, you may then send your certification from the subcontractor to the states firm through email.”

[RFP Final]

“These subcontractors are being hired on the state’s site. They will then seek certification through the states firm by email.”

A much shorter example of changes I had to make was, “Proof of ownership must be proved to receive the funds stated above” with the suggestion to specify what specifically was needed in order to prove ownership and which documents would legitimately declare someone as the owner. This was then changed to “Proof of ownership in any form must be proved to receive the funds stated above.” This change was much more subtle but I did not want to overcomplicate any requirements for the proof of ownership.

As I finalized my works, I have experienced a lot of difficulties when attempting to complete these assignments. It is important to note that this course was much unlike any other due to a lot of outside circumstances going on around the world. A lot of my works were made online and came with a lot of common issues when working with it online. While working on the group assignment, it became much more difficult to communicate with one another and stay on track with what was going on. A lot of people would have to experience this. One way I was able to deal with this issue was by constantly trying to message my group members and have some deadlines for when we wanted to have work done. We often tried to prioritize earlier dates to have some headroom to work on other work ahead of time. I believe it worked in our favor and helped us create a strong RFP and presentation. As I work on this reflection, I have encountered another issue related to technology. I did have a lot of issues when it came to formatting the whole site and ended up having unnecessary duplicates of tabs I already had. I ended up solving this issue by manually deleting them but it comes to show some problems I had all throughout my experience with this course.

As a potential engineer, I have also learned a lot about the engineering world. After learning about the multiple other versions of engineering, I found the engineering subject to be very vast with a lot of opportunities to focus on things that might not fit into the general idea of general engineers.I enjoyed exploring these areas and doing in-depth research on them. I believed this strongly helped me prepare for the writing and presentation aspects of any engineering subject. There are still a lot of things I would have to improve on in order to become better at it but I think I have a strong enough basis to start doing some of my own projects if I were to give the time and dedication to that task. I would like to continue on the engineering task and perhaps do more than writing in the subject and potentially major in it.

As a note to myself in the future, I would like to improve my writing. I would like to take more time to practice and improve my writing. I would like to do this by asking for any peer reviewed feedback and suggestions for improving my writing by using the college’s writing center or any general writing assistance.