One of the major lessons I took away from my experience in the Grand Challenge Scholars program is the importance of ian nterdisciplinary focus in engineering. Throughout my engineering studies, I have found that the students get an in depth understanding of the technical aspects of engineering, but GCSP taught me that it is essential for engineers to also understand the other apsects that influence the issues that design solutions for. In GCSP, we are learning to tackle the biggest challenges that our society faces, and the complexity of these issues makes interdisciplinary study even more important. The classes that I took for the interdisciplinary section allowed me to learn more about the forces that influence the themes, the history behind the themes, and potential developments in those areas. 

During my first semester at ASU, I took FSE 150: Grand Challenges for Engineering. At this point, I was very new to the Grand Challenge Scholars Program and had a vague understanding of the challenges and the requirements of the program. In this class, we delved deeper into each Grand Challenge theme in order to better understand the issues involved and advancements in each one. Before taking the class I wasn't majorly invested in any of the themes, and was unsure about which one to focus on. However, when we had our unit on security, I learned more about what was under the umbrella of security and got excited about the work being done in that area. With this knowledge, I was able to confidently make my decision to focus on security as a Grand Challenge Scholar. This class also encouraged the students find a research project that interested us and get involved. It is common for most students to have the impression that they can't get involved with a research lab until their junior year, but FSE 150 taught me that this doest not have to be the case. This gave me the confidence to get involved with a security-related project in a computer science research lab during my first semester. 

I also took SOC 334: Technology and Society for the interdisciplinary portion of GCSP. I orignally wanted to this this class because until that point I had only viewed technology from he perspective of an engineer, and I believe that in order to be successful in the profession I need to understand technology from multiple perspectives. Not only did the class deliver on this but it also helped me understand how technology affects society and vice versa. For the first time, I considered in depth how our work as engineers can make a difference. I believe that this is an understand that every engineer should have, especially those who intend to deal with the Grand Challenges. These issues are majorly impacting society so it would make sense that any challenges made would also influence significantly. During this class, we also analyzed some advancements made in the Grand Challenge themes. For instance, I commented how mobility was revolutionizing education and making it more accessible; however, I also considered the possible negative affects. After taking these classes, I believe that that I have gained a more complete knowledge of the Grand Challenge themes engineering and grew into a more well-rounded engineer.