Whole Life Concept Project Report

Prepared for:
XLIX Engineering Design Firm
9201 University City Blvd
Charlotte, NC 28223
ENGR 1201-024

Prepared by: Aaron Tyler Sparks

1201 Student

Date Submitted:
11/7/2015

I have neither given nor received any unauthorized help on this assignment, nor witnessed any violation
of the UNC Charlotte Code of Academic Integrity.

Introduction

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Through the completion of this project, my intentions are to unveil my passion, what it is
and the meaning it has to me, and how I plan on using it to have an impact on society. Also, I
plan to display the steps I have to complete to be able to have an impact on society, such as
what would be the best education and career path for me. With the knowledge and skills that I
will soon obtain, I will be on the path to achieve my goal of becoming a Professional Systems
Engineer. Once the knowledge and abilities are cultivated, it is then my duty to apply them to my
career and the projects within it. For this project, I have researched various careers and the
disciplines within Engineering using the internet and by attending informational meetings
headed by professors. Through the research and the informational meetings, I have received a
better understanding for my passion of wanting to make a difference by creating more efficient
ways for business to be ran and operated so that it benefits the company and customers
involved.
Passion
In a general and broad perspective, my individual passion is making a difference. That
has always been my goal since I was a little kid. Whether it was just attempting to put a smile on
someones face or actually assisting someone, by doing something like helping my neighbor
mow their lawn. I dont know the actual time when this became my passion, but I do know that
when I was a kid I never wanted to be left out or to never have anyone to talk to. I am still that
way today. I have always admired those who would go out of their way to assist someone no
matter what. As I have gotten older and become more equipped for adulthood, my passion has
become more specific as well. My plan has developed into wanting to make things more
efficient and able to run smoother. In trying to make things more efficient, I can assist
companies and customers so that they can both benefit from transactions.
My number one supporters are obviously my parents and I know they always will be.
They have always tried to make things as smooth, for me, as possible. I can name an infinite
amount of actions they have done to make my life the best and smoothest it can be, but, the
one that is most reason was the move to college. My parents literally thought of everything,
such as the list of the various things I would need like que tips all the way to the best route to
take back and forth to college. They have just always tried to make everything simple. My
parents have also brought me up in church my whole life and I have been raised to have certain
values. I have always been taught to give assistance whenever someone needed it and to
always be the good Samaritan whenever a chance arrived. Through my passion of wanting to
assist technology and businesses in helping them run smoother and be more efficient.
Growing up for me wasnt the easiest thing to do. My parents got divorced when I was
just a baby and life wasnt smooth at all. Going back and forth throughout elementary school,
then middle school, and even the first two years of high school was very difficult. I never got
along with my real father, to be honest, he was just a jerk. I have been blessed and I am very
fortunate to have the best step-father imaginable. I dont and probably never will understand
how it was so easy for him to take me in and call me his own the way he did. Even though he
isnt my real father, I call him dad because he is the biggest father figure I have ever had and he
is a true inspiration to me. Even though my mother and I were going through a rough time, he
tried to make things as easy as possible for us and that made a worlds difference. My dad is the
one who first showed me what making a difference really was. That is one of the main
experiences that fuels my passion to want to make a difference and become a Systems
Engineer and design better products with a higher efficiency rating.
Impact

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As I stated in the previous paragraphs, I plan on using my passion to design new
products, but not only design them, I also want to make them more efficient and the process of
production smoother. In more specific terms, my career goal is to become a Systems Engineer
for a company, and within that company I plan to analyze processes, redesign operations, help
integrate better systems, and supervise various projects.
To complete the goal listed in the previous paragraph, I must first complete my college
education in this field. One of the first steps I had to take was to actually understand the job of a
Systems Engineer. Systems engineering is a lot different from the other disciplines of
engineering. If one is in civil or electrical, they are limited to either building bridges or roads or
working on technology such as phones or computer because that is mainly what they do. When
it comes to systems engineering, the outputs are broadened. Systems engineering is
engineering management, industrial engineering, and business administration combined. When
learning about Systems Engineering, I first had to understand what a system was. This then
made it easier to understand what Systems engineering was.
A system is a collection of different elements that together produce results not
obtainable by the elements alone. The elements, or parts, can include people,
hardware, software, facilities, policies and information. Systems engineering
looks at the big picture and how a variety of design challenges must me
integrated efficiently. Systems engineers create and manage processes to
ensure customer needs are satisfied on schedule and in a high-quality,
trustworthy, cost-efficient manner throughout a systems entire life cycle (SEEM).
Once you know what a system is, it is then easier to see everything that a systems
engineer in charge of.
The third goal that I have is to transform a company who has a bad reputation into the
leader of its field. I feel that it would be a great and exciting project to work on and to take
control of. I could definitely make a difference and utilize my passion to make things more
efficient by designing new processes for the company to use and by supervising the projects
and functions that are in progress.
One of the issues that affects Systems Engineers is the systems and processes that
work arent applied across all phases of the program and collaborative environments are
becoming inadequate for Systems engineering to be conducted affectively (NDIA and 2010).
Also, according to unemployment rates, industrial engineers, which is one of various titles given
to systems engineers, are said to the worst employment rate at 5.5 percent (Monaco and 2012).
With these issues looming, it makes me nervous that I wont be able to use my passion during
my career. The ability to collaborate with others and using the knowledge gained throughout
every phase of the program is the center piece of being able to make projects, processes, and
transactions more efficient.
Knowledge, Application, Skills and Abilities
To become a Professional Systems Engineer and be able to use my passion in that
career, I have to obtain good technical and non-technical skills. Most of the courses I will take
throughout my college career will be engineering specific courses but, I also need to have a
solid background in math and science. One of the most important skills is to be able to
communicate with team members also being able to write papers from lab reports to memos.
These skills will be very essential in displaying and sharing my passion.

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The educational major that I have chosen is systems engineering. At the beginning of
the year, I wasnt sure if engineering would be the major I would stick with throughout college.
The main reason I applied for the engineering college was because I was very good at math
and science throughout my primary education and those were topics that came easy to me. I
actually enjoyed my math and science classes. Once college started though, I knew that wasnt
a good deciding factor though, especially when I was introduced to the Whole Life Concept
Model. The Whole Life Concept Model gave me motivation to think deep down inside and
discover what it is that gives me the most enjoyment, and that is my passion, which is trying to
make a difference in the world by making everyday life more efficient and smoother for
everybody. Then, when I combined my passion with the areas I had the most knowledge in, it
lead me to the decision that systems engineering would be the best major for me. To major
Systems engineering, I will have to have a total of at least 123 credit hours. Out of those hours,
93 credit hours will be for my major, 18 will be for general education, and 12 will be for electives.
The three courses that I feel will be the most beneficial to me are Systems Design and
Deployment, Total Quality Systems, and Operations Research: Probabilistic Models. I think that
in these three I will learn essentials needed to design better systems like the assembly lines
process and how to model out operations.
Most of the non-technical, non-academic knowledge, skills, and abilities that I will need
to achieve the impact I desire will be obtained and developed through my college career and
early on the job training. Most of the engineering classes I will take in college will help me
develop and improve my writing skills as I write more reports, memos, and design packages. So
far this year, we have been introduced to everything in Engineering 1201. We have also started
doing team projects and I know there will be plenty more as my college education continues. I
will also have to give many presentations in front of my classmates and professors. So when its
time to graduate, I will have many developed and improved skills in all of the areas.
Reflection and Concentration
My passion is to make a difference for everyone in everyday activities by making things
more efficient and smoother to run. I have decided that my passion would be best used in the
field of System engineering. I plan on helping businesses and corporations by improving their
processes and the quality of their products so that the customers and company both benefit.
I think that the Whole Life Concept Model is extremely important when analyzing your
passion and making sure that you use your passion in your future career. The model also helps
you separate you passion from your interest, and while doing this, it also breaks everything to its
simplest form. The Whole Life Concept Model also makes it easier for me to establish future
actions now that I have a true passion.
For this project, I have devoted much of my time towards figuring out what my passion is
and the career it would best transition in to. I have researched several majors to find the one
that best suited me which Engineering. Once I figured out that Engineering would be the best
major and career choice for me to utilize my passion, I then had to decide which discipline within
engineering would be best for me. Now that I have confirmed which major is best for me, thanks
to this paper, I can now plan ahead my future such as: which courses I need to take in the
upcoming years, the knowledge I need to gain, and how I am going to apply the knowledge I
gain to help me create the impacts I want.
The commitment I have to engineering is a lot stronger now than it was before I started
researching for this paper. At first, the main reason I applied to engineering was because I was

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strong in the subjects of math and science, and I didnt enjoy writing and English classes. Now
that I have a good understanding of passion though, I am committed more than ever to
improving all of these areas so that I have a solid foundation in every one. The main reason my
commitment is stronger is because I know my passion will be best used through Systems
engineering and I am confident that I will be able to make the impacts I want.

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References

Systems Engineering and Engineering Management. Systems Engineering Bachelor of Science

Programs. Charlotte, North Carolina.

Top Systems Engineering Issues In US Defense Industry. September 1, 2010. Accessed

November6,2015.http://www.ndia.org/Divisions/Divisions/SystemsEngineering/Documen
ts/Studies/Top SE Issues 2010 Report v11 FINAL.pdf.

Monaco, Ania. "Are Engineers Really In Demand?" - IEEE. February 1, 2012. Accessed
November 5, 2015. http://theinstitute.ieee.org/ieee-roundup/opinions/ieee-roundup/areengineers-really-in-demand.