For Monday, read the two pieces below. In this class, everyone will be a member of a three person cell. (Your can find your other cell members here.). Sometime before Monday, make arrangements to meet with the other members of your cell Monday at 1:30 somewhere near our classroom (Rm 243 111 Lampe Dr.) . Since the Brickyard is pretty torn up, maybe near the Court of Carolina would be good. Let’s say that the person whose name appears first among members of your cell should take the initiative in getting in touch and arranging the meeting. Then Monday at 1:30. Meet up! Introduce yourselves!   Besides the usual (hometown, major, etc),  consider these questions as well:  Why are you interested in being an engineer?  Why are you in the Franklin program?  Is there a technology that particularly interests you?  What did you do this summer?  (What was the most interesting/fun thing you did this summer?)   Then talk about the two readings that you did. Plan to be in our classroom Rm 243 111 Lampe Dr. by 2:00.

Megan Molteni, “The 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill,” Wired, May 2021
What does this story tell us about engineering? If we stipulate that Linsey Marr is a “good engineer”, what do you think the specific elements of being a “good engineer” are that we can identify from this story? Are there forces at work that might make it hard to be a “good engineer”? In what ways are these purely technical elements and in what ways are they more than technical? Is there a gendered element to this story, either in the essence of the story or in the way it is told?

Read this excerpt from a poem. (And please don’t look it up online!)
What topics do you usually think about as the subjects of poems?  What is this poem about?  How does the author feel about his/her subject?  In plain English, what is the author saying?  What does s/he mean by “Genoese”? Do you think the author is a perceptive observer of the technological world around him/her?  Is there a theory (implicit or explicit) of technology’s role in the world here?  What is it?  When do you think this poem was written?  (Why?) How do you think the author sees the future?  How well do you think this poem stands up today?  Why?  Challenge the author!  Do you think he or she was wrong or naive about anything?  Why?