At the University of Illinois, there is a collective feeling of dread within the Engineering community towards our TAM curriculum as it's the first technical sequence for many. To combat this issue, I propose the addition of problems written around our rising basketball stars. With their eyes on the NBA draft we have to take advantage of their presence while we have them.

Watching these first two games of the 2020 season, I have seen plenty of opportunities to spice up the TAM curriculum and prove its connection to everyday life.  Previously we have seen examples of “70 Kg Bob slam dunks and hangs on the rim”, but why not the real life icon, 285 lb Kofi Cockburn? Just in this one instance I see opportunity for beam bending, distributed load and force body diagram galore.  Forget force body diagrams on a sliding box, I want to see FBDs under Andre Curbelo's foot as he races down the court. Rather than showing tragic building failures, lets see videos of our ballers breaking opponents' ankles instead. 

This is the perfect opportunity to energize students and inspire them to complete their assignments with a sense of urgency and newfound appreciation for TAM.  Now more than ever it is vital we work to unite the student body and instill a sense of school spirit. If you need help brainstorming these new problems I know plenty of students would jump at the opportunity.