Prompt:

A typed essay addressing topics A, B, and C. Include any information that you consider relevant. Answer fully enough to permit us to judge your ability to express reasoned thought. Successful applicants usually write 6-9 pages. Please put your name on each page.

A. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your formal education. In addition, if you wish, discuss the contribution to your education of any relevant experience outside of an academic setting.

B. Explain how you hope to benefit from the curriculum and from the mode of teaching and learning in the GraduateInstitute.

C. Select some book that has been important in shaping your thoughts and discuss a single aspect of it; or submit a paper you have already written on some aspect of a book.

The Garden Path
By John Paul Asija

I have valuable technological skills and experience applying those skills in engineering and education but my schooling has not prepared me to do the kind of transformative work I believe that my technological skills make possible. A St. John’s education will allow me to escape the walled garden in which my skills have been cultivated.

Garden Walls and Biodiversity

My formal education has allowed me to develop valuable technical skills but has only prepared me to use those skills within a walled garden. My formal education consists of two undergraduate degrees. An Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences Pre-Engineering Concentration and a Bachelor of Science in Modeling and Simulation Engineering. I will also discuss my enlistment in the United States Navy, my experiences as a mathematics tutor and my time as a research assistant which have influenced my educational decisions and allowed my proverbial walled garden to grow a more diverse biodome.

My Associate of Arts required 61 credits. 18 credits as a “liberal arts core” 6 credits in open electives and the remaining 37 credits in the Pre-engineering concentration. I split the elective credits into two groups: one was related to my concentration and one was an exploration of something new, which resulted in 21 credits or 34% of the degree in classes outside the concentration.

The best way for me to describe this degree is foundational. This degree as hinted by its name is only useful as a stepping stone to something else. I think of it as a sort of fertilizer. Merely pouring fertilizer on the ground will not produce flowers. The material on its own is not particularly useful, but it gave me a foundation from which to develop a healthy garden of knowledge and learning. That said the degree was incredibly enjoyable to earn. Every subject was new and exciting. I had never had exposure to calculus or psychology before, and while neither has made me rich, both have enriched my life. This degree gave me a hunger for more knowledge that my bachelor’s degree only partially satisfied.

My Bachelor of Science Degree required 127 credits of which 21 were devoted to general education requirements; however, for this degree those credits comprised only 16.5% of the total. It is interesting to me that my 4-year degree contained no more breadth than my two-year degree and that it may even be considered to contain less. I examined the structure seeking areas where a change would benefit the degree, but I struggled to make changes without severely impacting the collection of technical skills that the degree contained. The program did an excellent job of packing the variety of essential skills a modeling and simulation engineer needs into a limited number of credit hours.

My major, Modeling and Simulation Engineering, is offered only at Old Dominion University and is an emerging field with which some people may not be familiar. Modeling in the degree name refers to the development of mathematical and behavioral models for complex systems and not to the development of graphical computer models for animation or similar enterprises. Modeling and simulation engineering is a syncretism of systems and software engineering. My classes covered topics such as numerical methods, Markov chains, bond graphs, discrete event simulation, Bayesian nets, both random number and random variate generation, distribution fitting, state machines, object-oriented, event-based, and procedural programming. These skills are useful in the modern world for continuing the development of technology. My classmates are developing the next generation of war machines, self-driving cars, and medical breakthroughs and while these are worthy enterprises, I believe that they underutilize the most valuable part of an education in modeling and simulation: abstraction. The study of modeling and simulation teaches a student how to abstract reality into a useful model. This skill is foundational to the science and is transferable between many fields. Abstraction is essential because no simulation is a perfect replica of the system under study. A system modeler must decide which imperfections in the model are acceptable abstractions and which will invalidate the results of the simulation.

However, if my education were everything that I wanted, I would not be applying to the St. John’s College Graduate Institute. The fact remains that my education in modeling and simulation through no fault of its own lacks the breadth and variety of which I believe the subject is capable. Students were not encouraged to seek innovative uses for modeling and simulation. The curriculum confined students to a walled garden limiting the creativity with which we could use our technical skill set. Thankfully my work has always expanded my horizons and built on my education in thoughtful ways.

My work experience has profoundly influenced my educational choices. My work experience has taught me that in the real-world systems do not fit neatly into academic departments. I have learned the value of surrounding myself with passionate people from a variety of disciplines who have themselves shown me what potential is capable of when honed by a lifetime of dedication.

I served in the Navy as an Electricians mate on the USS Bataan (LHD 5). I worked in the electrical distribution plant performing maintenance on the steam turbine electrical generators and many of the motors and pumps in the engine room. These systems are both mechanical and electrical. Through my work, I learned about both the electrical and mechanical operation of the engine rooms. When I began to think seriously about what I would study after the Navy, I was dismayed to find that the field of engineering is heavily specialized. I could either be a mechanical engineer or an electrical engineer. This puzzled me because I was familiar with systems that were a hybrid of both electrical and mechanical subsystems. I believe that this disconnect was the seed that has become what is now my desire to use my engineering skills in an interdisciplinary manner.

While working with motors and generators in the Navy was the seed of my interdisciplinary desires, my work as a mathematics tutor has been the sunlight. I am unsure why I started working as a tutor; the GI Bill paid a generous living stipend and at the time I had no intentions of ever teaching. Whatever the reason, becoming a tutor has been one of the best decisions of my life. The office I worked in had not just mathematics tutors but also literature, science, composition and programming tutors. Working in this office introduced me to people who were so passionate about what they did that they were willing to share it with others for minimum wage. That kind of passion was infectious and caused me to read and learn about things that I would have otherwise never experienced. Working with such impassioned people has been the highlight of my life, and I count most of my close friends from this experience. The desire to be surrounded by passionate people is a significant factor in my decision to apply to the St. John’s College Graduate Institute.

A seed and sunlight, however, do not a garden make. Water is also necessary. My work as a research assistant has been that water. Seeing the in-depth knowledge that people can develop when they have dedicated their lives to the study of a specific phenomenon or class of phenomena was and is inspiring. The dedication I saw was like the passion I saw at the tutoring center, but it was as steel is to iron it has been tempered, hardened by arduous study. I also saw that this kind of commitment is not without cost. I watched graduate students lose their hobbies and relationships. I saw otherwise honest people engage in P hacking (Data dredging) and withhold negative results. I learned that a person must be sure that it was worth dedicating their life to the pursuit of knowledge before they commenced on that path.

I consider myself extremely lucky to have had my work expand on my education in such profound ways. I could have easily been just another engineer who never again read a book after graduation. Having interacted with passionate people across a variety of disciplines has changed not only my career goals, but it has changed me. I have become a more curious and passionate person. These changes, combined with the technical skills of my modeling and simulation degree, leave me no reason to despair at the walls around the garden of my learning. I will break through the walls and I believe that a St. John’s education is the ideal hammer for this task.

Gardening For Dummies

At every stage of my education, Navy Electrician’s Mate “A” school, Housatonic Community College and Old Dominion University, I gained modern practical skills in science, mathematics, computing, and engineering. However, along the way I have also been forced to grow and develop as a learner. This growth has prepared me to succeed in the discussion based pursuit of knowledge that the graduate institute demands.

In the technical school that the Navy sent me to students were required to take “notes”. I put the word notes in quotations because what we were required to do was copy every slide verbatim. I was a slow writer, and I struggled to reproduce the slides at the pace required. During classes, I would focus on copying the slides and not on understanding the material. This lack of focus had a predictable effect on my exam scores. Eventually one of the instructors took pity on me and against regulation would give me the slides the evening before so that I could copy them at my own pace. This allowed me to focus on the material in class, to listen to and think about the lecture. While I focused on writing, I was only a passive participant in my learning. When I started thinking I became an active participant in my learning.

In community college on my first attempt, I failed freshman composition. On my second attempt at the class, I earned an A. It turns out that writing like mathematics has mechanics and a set of core concepts. My composition courses covered mechanics such as how to use a semicolon and how to cite a reference in MLA style, but the class did not cover the core skill of communicating an idea. In between my two attempts at the course a friend gave me a copy of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus by Wittgenstein. From reading this book, I learned something of the essence of written communication. Wittgenstein laid out his premises and moved cleanly from one idea to the next supporting his conclusion. In all my writing since I have tried at some level to imitate his style.

My first semester at ODU I took a class called Mathematical Methods of Physics, PHYS 355 it was a challenging course. The course covered the practical application to physics of linear algebra, differential equations, and multivariable calculus. This course was one of my favorites. The professor asked us at the beginning of the course “Do you know why Maxwell, Einstein, etc., were better scientists than you? They were better because they had better textbooks. The textbooks they give you in the math department are only workbooks they might as well be cookbook by Julia Child. I will teach you from first principles so that you can be a good scientist too”. I learned more in this course than I did in differential equations or multivariable calculus. I later dropped linear algebra when I realized that the class focused entirely on mechanics and made no attempt to impart any knowledge about the principles involved. Mechanics are important, but without first principles, the joy of discovery is sapped from the learning. Once the principles are understood the mechanics are easier to understand.

In my last year at Old Dominion University, all the seniors in the modeling and simulation program participated in a two-semester group capstone experience in which we participated in the engineering process. The department finds a real-world problem, and we are expected to analyze the problem, propose a solution, and then design, build and document a prototype of that solution. In my year we worked in conjunction with NASA Langley to devise and develop for them a method of evaluating medical workstation designs for the Mars transit habitat. From this experience, I gained practical skills in designing and building digital simulations, but I have come to believe that the system analysis and coding skills I acquired were only half of the value of the project. I believe that the teamwork and communication skills I gained from the interactions with NASA and the other students are just as valuable.

Designing and building the prototype simulator for NASA was nothing like what I expected it to be. I had expected real engineering work to be similar to taking a test in an engineering class – why else would tests be the way they are? I expected the work to be solitary, repetitive and unimaginative. My expectations were wrong. Engineering is not a solitary act; it is a process in which experts come together to iteratively combine their knowledge until reality matches their imaginations.

This process presented many non-technical challenges that I had not expected to encounter. My team consisted solely of simulation engineers, and the NASA team was comprised exclusively of human factors engineers. To successfully simulate a system an engineer must either be an expert on how that system functions or the engineer must be able to communicate effectively with an expert on the system. My team for many months failed to achieve either of those objectives. My team would develop concepts internally and not stop to consider the perspective of the NASA team. I want an education that will make me an expert communicator. There is no way that I will be able to become an expert on every system I am asked to simulate. However, based on my experience observing a St. John’s seminar and tutorial, I believe that a St. John’s education will make it possible for me to communicate effectively with experts for every system which I am asked to simulate.

While observing a St John’s Seminar, I saw a class in which every member was an active participant. The format did not allow anyone sitting at the table to be a passive participant. I also saw people with different understandings of the reading work out their differences and come to a new understanding in the way I had to with the human factors engineers at NASA. At the after-seminar discussion, everyone remained engaged with the material and did not let the more casual atmosphere degrade the quality of the discourse in a joyous pursuit of wisdom.

To continue the garden metaphor each of these experiences has taught me something about how to nurture and grow the ideas in the garden of my learning. We must not be passive receivers of the sunlight but we must will ourselves to grow towards it and be active participants in our education. Just as plants require bees to cross-pollinate, our minds need constant exposure to new and differing ideas to stay sharp and healthy. A healthy garden starts not with seeds but with soil. The fundamentals come first, and I believe that a focus on original texts is a reflection of this value. Most importantly the best gardens are not grown overnight or even in a few seasons of hard work but just like intellectual mastery come from continual efforts year after year season after season to grow just a little bit more every single day.

In Which Everything Looks Like a Nail

I was happy living in my walled garden, but one day a strange notion decided to rest itself in my garden and life hasn’t been the same since. That notion was that I should read War and Peace. And while reading War and Peace changed my life, attempting to understand War and Peace taught me that for all my learning and work experience there are some things for which I am wholly unequipped.

I have read War and Peace twice. Once in 2016 when the idea struck me, and I reread it last month in preparation for this essay. Both times the essay’s in the latter half of the book have had a particularly strong influence on me. The first time I read the book the essays took me by surprise I wasn’t expecting them, and I thought of the first essay as a distraction from the characters that I had come to love. I had never considered that an author might stop the narrative and write directly to the reader about the themes of the book. However, the essays became more prevalent as the book went on and the essays eventually sparked two important realizations.

The first was that one of the central themes of the book is the question “To what extent if any are individuals responsible for the course of human events?” As a veteran myself, this question is of immense personal interest. I took part in Operation Unified Protector commonly known as the Libyan civil war. There are now slave markets in Libya. I am forced to ask myself “Am I responsible?”. War and Peace allowed me to grapple with this question in a general way that mitigated but did not eliminate my personal bias and fears on the topic.

The second realization was that it led me to postulate that War and Peace constitutes a primitive simulation. I know that every mathematician thinks the whole universe is just math or that writers see the world as a set of stories and that musicians believe that music can be found in all things. I admit that when I say, War and Peace might be a simulation I am falling into a common psychological trap. Nonetheless, I believe that with some stretching of the definition that War and Peace can be considered as a simulation.

War and Peace attempts to answer the questions it asks by replaying history. Tolstoy uses history which has a known sequence and outcome and makes minor changes: namely, the introduction of his characters and their families at the beginning of the story. Tolstoy then begins to supply the world he has built with historical data which simulates the passage of time. Tolstoy also allows his characters to grow and change as the world shapes them. This process culminates when his characters make the same decisions that their historical counterparts did. Tolstoy wanted to examine the possible outcomes of the events leading up to and through Napoleon’s invasion of Russia. The process he used constitutes, in my opinion, a single primitive iteration of a Monte Carlo simulation, a form of simulation commonly used in finance to examine the possible outcomes of a trading strategy. It then follows that the essays are a form of data analysis in which Tolstoy examines the impact or lack thereof that his changes have on the unfolding of history. Some essays go so far as to attempt to place the results in the context of his models for the behavior of society and individuals.

Because of this possibly imagined connection to simulation, I wanted a deeper understanding of the essays. I pursued that goal in the only way I knew how. I data-mined War and Peace. I wrote a computer program that analyzed the text to determine what percentage of the book, by word count, was contained in the essays. In this process, I also gathered data about the word count of the whole text, the sub-books and the chapters which allowed me to calculate the average word count per book and average chapter length throughout the text. I then sought out a copy of the text in Russian and performed the same analysis again so that I could compare between the English and Russian versions to investigate what role if any language plays. I could include the data from this process, but the simple fact of the matter is that the process while technologically successful, did not aid me in my goal of gaining a deeper understanding of the text.

The process may not have achieved its stated goals, but it did bring me to realize that I can apply my technical skills in a way that allows people to connect with art, literature, music, history or any idea in a modern, approachable way. Despite my lack of initial success, I was determined to accomplish this goal. I kept iterating the concept, and after a few more fruitless iterations I arrived at one that is beginning to be viable: Alice in ModSim World. I intend to someday use Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as an introductory textbook for modeling and simulation engineering.

I believe that Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a better introductory textbook to modeling and simulation than any actual textbook! Alice’s adventures in Wonderland are adventures in a world of abstraction. Alice, when she arrives in Wonderland, is disoriented because she holds on to a model of “reality” that is for whatever reason not useful in Wonderland. Many simulation engineers make the same mistake and use a model in a situation for which it is not relevant. Furthermore, Alice in Wonderland contains analogies for exploring modeling and simulation topics such as resolution which relates to the level of detail in a simulation and fidelity which explores how similar a simulation is to reality. I also see the potential to emphasize the often-overlooked topics of Verification and Validation which relate to the methods used to ensure that the simulation is behaving in the desired manner.

Even without my eventual arrival at the idea of Alice in ModSim world, I believe that my failure to discover anything interesting from data mining War and Peace is one of the best things to ever happen to me. War and Peace is famous for its portrayal of the human experience. I tried to analyze this beauty with a computer. This failure made it clear to me that my education has serious deficiencies.

Nothing about my education has prepared me to be a better citizen, or to be a better friend or father. Nothing about my schooling has prepared me to live with regret or to build hope in the hearts of those around me. War and Peace has made me a better friend and a better citizen. War and Peace gave me insights into how I might motivate those around me. War and Peace inspired me to have hope for the future. But War and Peace only taught me these things when I approached the book on its terms. Approaching the book on my terms was a failure.

If I had not failed and stopped to consider the root of that failure I would never have realized how much War and Peace taught me. My attempts to gain a deeper understanding of War and Peace have made it clear that I am unprepared to make the kind of contributions to society or be the type of person that I believe I am ultimately capable of. I don’t want to live life by reducing it to data points. I believe that a St. John’s education is the best way to move towards my personal and professional goals.

Conclusion

I hope that you will consider my perspective a strong addition to the St. John’s Graduate Institute. I believe that the St. John’s Graduate Institute can provide me with an education which will allow me to use my practical skills as a simulation engineer in conjunction with experts from every field. I am confident that such collaborations will result in exciting, educational and transformative simulations that allow experts, laypersons, and students to connect with new ideas and each other in ways they never imagined possible.