Laina Colony

​President of UMBC SAE Snowmobile Club 

(Spring 2018 - Present)

(Gold Experience)

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The UMBC SAE Snowmobile Club is an interdisciplinary club that works to create a cleaner and more efficient Snowmobile. This is a challenge provided by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and there is an annual competition held in March to view University Organization's progress from the United States and Canada. The competition was created with National Parks in mind, one of the many places being affected by the changes in the Nitrogen Cycle. It is important that Rangers and people can get around the parks safely, but it is also important to leave the land and the air just as clean and quiet as it was found. With added emissions and noise from the snowmobile, the habitats can be altered and affected. The main goal of this challenge is to take an already existing snowmobile and alter to have cleaner emissions and less noise pollution, while still being effective and efficient. Please find the link for the competition here for more information. 

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Reflecting on this Experience

I was elected president of this interdisciplinary club in the Spring of 2018. In this club, there are many different majors working together to complete this goal. Some of these majors include Mechanical Engineers, Chemical Engineers, Computer Science, Biology, Information Systems, and even Spanish. It has been extremely rewarding to work with people from different majors and gain different points of view on the project. It is interesting to see how people go about solving a problem. For example, the Mechanical Engineers and the Chemical Engineers do not always see eye to eye, they normally have different ways of looking at a problem. It is then my job to remind everyone of the common goal, being cleaner for the environment (nitrogen cycle being kept in mind), while also bridging the way to a compromise. 

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   Interdisciplinary Learning Objectives

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• Identify the different disciplines that contribute to the solution of a complex problem.

  • This club would not be successive without people from different areas of study contributing to the main goal. We gain solutions that one group of people may not have ever thought of before just by working together collectively. ​

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• Describe and identify strategies for creating common ground between different disciplinary perspectives.

  • The best way that I have found for creating common ground is to remind everyone of the common goal. I have also found that it is important to make sure everyone works together and people do not split off into groups consisting of their own major. ​

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• Describe and apply bridging strategies that facilitate the conscious integration of different disciplines. 

  • Team bonding activities have helped bridge the gap between majors. People start making friends outside of their major and then can, consequently, work better together. ​

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Program Wide Objectives

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• Being a team member: Identify strengths and weaknesses of all members of a partnership or collaboration; empower group members to use their strengths, and support weaker team members. Both assign and accept duties and roles intelligently and flexibly.

  • Being the president of the club also means that I have to be an active team member. The only way the club succeeds is if everyone works together.  ​

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• Integrity: Identify and be able to elaborate on and justify core beliefs and values; act consistently in accordance with those beliefs and values across contexts; regard themselves as accountable for those actions.

  • There are many different majors working on this project, and therefore many different perspectives. It is important that even when there needs to be a compromise between ideas, no one feels that their idea was tossed out completely. Everyone's core beliefs are important in order to succeed.

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• Perspectivism: Seek out and fairly consider ethical perspectives and concepts other than own, and ensures these perspectives and concepts appropriately inform their own actions and views.

  • As president, I cannot be subjective to certain people. I have to look at everyone's point of view equally so that all remains fair. 

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• Realistic vision: Be imaginative in thinking about alternatives to the way things are, while being sensitive to the constraints of the real world.

  • This club works on a very ambitious goal. It is important that we keep in mind what is realistic in our time frame and budget; and it is my job to ensure this is always kept in mind.

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• Persistence: Confront difficulties resolutely, and persevere in trying to manage them. Reframe failures and mistakes as learning opportunities, and does not allow them to become disabling or discouraging. Follow through on commitments.

  • Not all ideas end up working once they are pursued. If one does not work, the club needs to move onto brainstorming new ideas so that the goal can still be met within the same time frame. 

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• Flexibility: Adapt quickly and thoughtfully to unexpected changes and developments and accommodate them fluidly in plans and projects. Incorporate new information to progress toward intended outcomes.

  • In a club such as this, changes happen all the time. As president, I have to be ready to work with the changes and not against them so the club can still continue to run smoothly.

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Personal Learning Objective

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• Delegation and Role Identification: Identify best roles for different people and delegate duties and tasks accordingly.

  • By working as the president of this organization, distributing the workload to people is important. It is also just as important to make sure the work going to someone fits their personality and strengths. ​

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“Grand Challenge Scholars Program.” Interdisciplinarity - Grand Challenge Scholars Program - UMBC, gcsp.umbc.edu/interdisciplinarity/.