The A,B,C Course - General Electric's In-House Engineering Course
My reason for taking it on - get a more intuitive feel for how the various branches of physics fit together so I can improve my systems-thinking - solve more real-world problems. I recently finished Ivar Giaever's interesting auto-biography, "I Am the Smartest Man I Know" and got a feel for how much he gained from GE's in-house education. Gone are the days.. One gem he leaves you with : if you work in groups, you don't really learn because you end up copying the solution of the smartest person. No pain, no gain. The other inspiration comes from the tale of the Talpiots - told in Israel's Edge, by Jason Gewirtz. Students in the Talpiot program in study Math, Physics and Computer Science while interning in various branches of the Israeli military, trying to solve problems faced by the armed forces by applying science and engineering. Gil Schwed - founder of Checkpoint Software - is a graduate.