TC 1 (individual) -- Introductory diagnostic essay

Worth: 5 points
Assigned: 7 January 2009
Due: 14 January 2009
Little Toy Blue
1 Varsity Drive
Suite 1973
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48108

To: All new hires
From: John von Neumann, Director of Personnel
Subject:   Staffing for new project
Date: 7 January 2009

Background

Little Toy Blue is an engineering company started by several University of Michigan engineering graduates in 2001. Little Toy Blue specializes in designing and developing inexpensive microprocessors for toys: talking greeting cards, singing toothbrushes, humming yo-yos, and similar products. After a shaky first few years, Little Toy Blue recently signed a large contract to develop toys for a major movie studio, Pixilated Studios. These toys will take different forms as merchandise based on the studio's next five animated films, but all will use a simple music synthesizer.

The project

Because of the size of this contract, the music synthesizer division must add additional engineers. They have expressed interest in the work you are doing with Professor Chen and believe the activities he has planned for the next few months will be excellent preparation for their project. Therefore, the memos, reports, and presentations you create this term will all be directed towards various departments within our company that are interested in tracking progress on this new project.

Your task

Your first assignment is to introduce yourself to the Little Toy Blue personnel director in a short two or three page letter. Little Toy Blue has hired you as a computer engineer who can potentially contribute to any of our projects, so, in your letter, focus on your background with computers and your goals for your engineering career. After reading your letter, the Little Toy Blue personnel director should have a pretty good sense of your computer skills and experience, as well as your ideas, energy, and enthusiasm about engineering as a career.

How to submit your work

Written documents in this class will be submitted as PDF files (oral presentations will be submitted as PowerPoint files). See Using computers in ENGR 100 for instructions on how to create PDF files. Submit your PDF file for this assignment here.