Introduction

Hi everyone,
My name is Salman and I am an international student from Pakistan, entering the 3rd year of my engineering degree. Coming 10 times zones away from a hot country and starting a new life in different environment, (where zero degrees celsius feels really warm in February) was a huge challenge initially, and I really missed home. But with passage of time, I become acquainted with place, made new amazing friends, grew to love the snow and all the joys that came with it ( skiing, the never-ending snow ball fights, tubing, toboganning etc) and thus, found a 2nd-home for myself.

What I really like about the O.B. class is that it is breakaway from the traditional linear styled classes where quizzes, exams and grades are the only goals and creativity and life-long learning are (more or less) squeezed out of the class. This my experience having studied in an engineering curriculum that is very rigorous and "getting an A-/A seems to be the exclusive goal." While exam are important for evaluation of the students, at the same time, I feel there should be some room for innovation and creativity.

Like one of my colleagues pointed, we have people from all over the world within this class and it could in fact be a mini-global platform for exchange of innovative ideas/views/opionions. I am sure looking forward to this.