I’m guilty too. The AIAA club I advise sells pads of engineering paper purchased in bulk to raise funds for the club. It’s a great fundraiser because most engineering faculty around the country still require homework to be completed on engineering paper.

What’s engineering paper you may ask? To quote the wiki:

Engineering paper is traditionally printed on light green or tan translucent paper. The grid lines are printed on the back side of each page and show through faintly to the front side. Each page has an unprinted margin. When photocopied or scanned, the grid lines typically … » More …

What would happen if a professor forced students to write a report with a typewriter instead of a word processor?

If it were only once it might be an interesting experience. Like going back and trying to do math with a slide rule. If it happened all the time, the students would riot. Times have changed. We’ve evolved.

Calculators are the typewriters of math. Definitely an evolution from slide rules. Far inferior to math processors like Engineering Equation Solver (EES), Mathematica, Maple, or Matlab. We all carry laptops or tablets. Yet the vast majority of scientists and engineering students around the world are still forced … » More …

Jeremy Felt recently gave me a copy of “Show your work!: 10 ways to share your creativity and get discovered” by Austin Kleon. I sat down and read cover to cover, closed the book, and realized that it was likely the catalyst to take the lab’s website to the next level. We’ll see. I’m definitely paying the favor forward. Thanks Jeremy,,, and Austin!