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Do "media scholars" ever also have a working background in media itself? It's a bit unfair to expect in some ways, but also not entirely unreasonable. If you study virality maybe you should have one viral tweet before you get your PhD
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I was mechE undergrad and we had to design/build a few things. Aero undergrads had to do a glider flight. Grad, I was aero and taught a lab that included stuff like wind tunnel tests. There were a couple of drone projects but they were super expensive then.
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Today if I were running an aero program I’d definitely have a drone requirement. They’re so cheap to build now. Rockets are cheaper to do but run into regulatory shit for the truly cool stuff like remote guidance. Most engineering except chemical has cheap hobby/ed versions.
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Was talking to chemE clients if mine in fact about designing an “Arduino for chemE” type student program to market their tech. The problem is almost any level of chemE capability quickly enabled stuff like bomb making.
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I am not a pilot, but for eg core pieces of the command and control models I came up with for my postdoc research were the result of conversations with a USAF veteran friend who flew missions in 1991 Iraq and was starting his PhD around the time I was leaving for postdoc
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Engineering PhD programs produce their share of “spherical cows in a vacuum” work too but the redeeming feature is if they don’t talk to practitioners/industry at least they produce mathematically cute results that are pretty even if useless
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