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Welcome!

(Insert your name here.)

Hello! My name is Micah and I am a second year student at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH.

-International trips

-research

-camp experiences

—-taking kids on walks

—-color wars/maccabbia

 

Year in Review

I had a great first year at Ohio State and learned a lot about myself and my major. Two meaningful experiences from my first year include my first football game and the volunteering day with GES at a local protected wetland.

When I was in high school, I never went to football games, because I never connected with my school and classmates and I had little school pride. My parents made me get season tickets and I will never forget my first game. I never felt more connected to a group of people more than the moment J.T. Barrett took the field. Games are always exciting and the first game was no exception. I finally felt like I was a part of something greater and that I would love school.

On one of my first days at Ohio State, I went to a wetland with the Green Engineering Scholars. We removed an invasive species from a protected wetland and cleaned off pathways. This was my first GES event and my first chance to interact and spend time with a group of people that I would be living with for the year. I enjoyed the introductions and the way the event forced students who had not taken their first class to become part of a small and large family.

For more information on the importance of wetlands: https://www.epa.gov/wetlands

 

G.O.A.L.S.

Leadership: Leadership is an important skill for all engineers, because large engineering projects and challenges become chaotic and ultimately dysfunctional without leadership and good communication. Teams work on individual assignments and leaders make sure everyone is staying on task and the job is done on time, in addition to communicating progress with upper management and other teams working on the same project.  Before arriving at college, I worked as a camp counselor at an overnight camp. In high school, I did leadership work in my local youth movement and with an academic competition team.  In college, I am part of the Rocket team. I want to do more leadership work with the rocket team, maybe even managing a more technical team, such as avionics, in the future.

Academic Achievement: In order for me to properly demonstrate my understanding of engineering concepts to employers, I will have to have good grades and especially good grades in my engineering classes and other STEM related classes.  In order to get good grades, I had meetings with the Dennis Learning Center and I regularly attend office hours.

Reflection:

My first semester was easier than the second, because I was taking five credit hours that were not major courses and I already learned the material for physics during the AP physics course. During second semester, I had four credit hours of non-major coursework and I had to attend GES meetings. Chemistry was a very difficult subject for me in high school and college was no different. My grades were not as good during the second semester, because the material was a lot more difficult and it was challenging for me to find motivation in subjects that I was not very interested in.

Because I was a freshman, it was difficult for me to have a leadership position in clubs. Because of my regular and consistent dedication to the Rocket Team, I think that I will be able to have a substantial leadership role in my Junior Year and Senior Year.

In the future, I want to expand on my previous involvement in clubs and create better studying strategies. I learned from the Dennis Learning Center to give myself mental treats for long periods of hard work and consistent, short, and regular breaks are better than longer breaks. Adopting that strategy was vital to completing coursework and preparing for exams. I need to begin the next semester strong by adopting those strategies on day one. If that is not sufficient, I need to go to the Dennis Learning Center and ask for more advise.

 

Career

For two summers in a row, I worked as a camp counselor. One summer, I worked as a camp counselor at a summer camp in Wisconsin.  The camp was called Camp Young Judaea Midwest and I worked as a bike specialist and camp counselor. I enjoyed the experience and learned a lot from my boss, fellow counselors, and campers. One of my most memorable experiences as a camp counselor was

Artifacts

Compressed-gas-vs-non-renewable-energy-sources

The team researched compressed gas vs. non-renewable energy fuel sources. The compressed gas of interest was hydrogen. Hydrogen has a lot of potential in the energy industry, because energy can be stored without stable energy loss, the way a battery can lose power without being used. Also, hydrogen can be used as a combustion fuel, where the reaction is a longer and more powerful version of the chemistry experiment with a match and a hydrogen balloon. The team learned that hydrogen has been used as a fuel source for a long time and has the potential to be used as a combustion fuel or as a spark plug fuel. One possibility for hydrogen fuel generation is to use a “well-to-wheels” method, where the hydrogen fuel and a carbon fuel is created from power plant emissions. Using hydrogen reduces greenhouse emissions and hazardous chemical emissions.

About Me

 

10C

My name is Micah N. Ackerman.  I am a mechanical engineering pre-major in the College of Engineering at The Ohio State University and a Green Engineering Scholar.  I am interested in renewable energy, smart-grid technology, and allowing for people to leave a smaller carbon footprint.  Because I enjoy learning how things work and coming up with ways to make them better, mechanical engineering is the right major for me.

My hobbies include biking and reading.  I enjoy biking around my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA, biking around campus and the surrounding area, and single-track riding.  My favorite author is Michael Crichton, who famously wrote Jurassic Park and Timeline, two great books.

My dad is from the greater Pittsburgh area and has been working in the commercial nuclear industry his whole life, while my mom runs her own software consulting company with only one employee – herself.  I have a brother, who is a sophomore in high school and wants to study biomedical engineering or food science.

I am living at home during the summer and I will be back at Ohio State during the fall. The following is my contact information.

Name: Micah N. Ackerman

Cell Phone Number: 412-841-0270

School Address: 187 West Lane Avenue Room 743, Columbus, OH 43210

School Email: ackerman.231@osu.edu

Personal Email: mackerman77a@gmail.com