Taibros.net

So this post has been a long time coming. And since its spring break of my final semester at school, I thought it would be a good chance to post it. I will reek of arrogance, but the Dream Team has to live up to its name.
So here goes nothing, my tribute to the ‘06 ChemE Dream Team:

So what is the “Dream Team”?
The self-proclaimed “Dream Team” is a group of 5 Chemical Engineers in my class. Like the Original Basketball “Dream Team” of ‘92, it was a team “generally regarded as the greatest collection of talent on one competitive basketball team.” But this time we don’t play basketball, we do school work (specifically presentations).

Our team is so dominant that some groups try to avoid us and other groups try to mimic us. We have impressed virtually every teacher that we have worked with, even to the point that they give us extra class units (see history). We get unprecedented scores when it comes to presentations, and there is no denying that we live up to our name.

PROFILES

Sunil - “Sir Aman” - The veritable smooth talker of the group. He can charm and wow any faculty into letting us do whatever we want. He promotes our “Dream Team” like no other, and often it becomes the issue of the rest of us living up to the claims. Somehow we do it though. He puts the competitive edge on the group and has gotten us to the status we are today.

Marcus “Jae Go Ma” - The multimedia guy. After convincing the Singaporean army that he can do powerpoint presentations rather than shoot a gun, Marcus has mastered the art of presentation. Whether you want animated slides, tricked out designs, smooth transitions or high quality photos (he’s an amateur photographer too), Marcus is your man.

Hanish - “Hanishi-san” - The Resident Guru. This guy knows and remembers everything he comes across, and is able to repeat it back like the waiter at Mallorca announcing the specials. He covers all the fields of background knowledge and underlying fundamentals for all of our group needs.

Mitchell - “Dr. Tai’ir” - The Data Cruncher. If there is a lot of data that needs to be analyzed, he is your man. With a ridiculous sense of efficiency and data management, he can draw relevant results out of anything you throw at him. Whether its sifting through hundreds of data points, or making an Aspen simulation, he’ll do it expertly.

Jordan - “Jay Ru Bjorn Ydstie” - The Athletic workhorse of the group. Works out a lot to compliment his athletic build and svelt body. Once known as the Sexually Confident Man, he is the closer of our group who finishes all the work that we start.

HISTORY
- So the group was originally formed in the Spring of Sophomore Year, in Walker’s Fluid Mechanics Class. The group project was a research paper done on any fluid mechanic problem. We did it on a novel fluid called ClearFRAC. “Coincidentally” this fluid was part of our professors consulting research, and she loved it. The previous year, the highest grade she ever gave for this project was a 92. We got a 98.

- Next was Chem Lab I, for our final group project, we studied PCB content in farm-raised salmon. The project wasn’t anything special, except the presentation was hands-down ridiculous. Marcus lead the way with a professional powerpoint presentation. We wore suits, and had a perfect presentation lined up. Other groups were so scared that they specifically requested not to go after us.

- Our next tour de force was in Transport Processes Lab. Notorious for giving the smartest kids the lowest grades, we established with Prof. Powers that we were going to come out on top. Our final project for this class was amazing. Where the project was supposed to be experimental lab work, we convinced the professor to support an idea in modeling and conceptual design of microfluidic chips. For this lab we pulled out all the stops. I modeled in FEMLAB, Marcus used a professional report maker to make the tutorials and templates. Our report ended up being twice the allowable length, with no data, on a subject that we only conceptually investigated. Yet we still got an A.

- Our final step on the road to glory was Unit Operations Lab. This was a full class project, with all 50 students working as one ‘company’. Sunil became project leader of the entire operations and promoted the rest of us to “Executive Team” to administrate and guide the class’ efforts. The class culminated in a final presentation given to professors and industrial people alike. We probably gave one of the most impressive, well put-together 2 hour presentations I have ever seen. 150 slides done in Keynote, produced after living in the lab (literally) for 5 days straight. It was so well done and we worked so hard on it, we convinced our professor to give us an extra 9 units of credit for the class.

EPILOGUE
These guys have been the best teammates I have ever had, and probably ever will. We compliment each other so well and our work output is so high quality that it is really a shame that we all will be parting ways in the coming year. But here’s hoping to our dream of meeting back together in 5 years and starting up our own Hedge Fund. Cuz in the eternal words of Hanish, “You gotta hedge yourself!”