Monkey Wisdom and other Stories: Lessons from Professor Singh

By Sukhmander Ph.D. P.E. Singh G.E.

These are fascinating stories in that each carries a pearl of wisdom. These stories are short but full of wit and contain life lessons that are applicable to most of us. Although originally intended to help his students become successful in their career, the book has become increasingly popular among people of all walks of life. Some of these st

• Language: English
• Publisher: LitFire Publishing
• Release date: Nov 7, 2019
• ISBN: 9781643984223

Sukhmander Ph.D. P.E. Singh G.E.

Dr. Sukmander Singh is the Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Santa Clara University in California and have been teaching for more than 32 years of which 15 years as Department Chairman. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1979 and started his teaching career in 1986. He has a total of 110 publications as professor. Before his teaching career, Dr. Singh was a project engineer and manager of Alyeska Pipeline Company, handling seismic slope stability and soil liquefaction studies for the 800-mile Trans Alaska pipeline. Later, he became the principal investigator of the San Pablo Clearwell Dam where his expertise in dam engineering was recognized nationally. He currently lives in the city of Fremont with his wife and two children.

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Monkey Wisdom and Other Stories:

Lessons from Professor Singh

Copyright © 2018 by Sukhmander Singh, Ph.D., P.E., G.E.

Edited by: Charles Cantoni, SCU Class of ‘57

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher or author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Although every precaution has been taken to verify the accuracy of the information contained herein, the author and publisher assume no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for damages that may result from the use of information contained within.

ISBN: 978-1-64398-422-3

Printed in the United States of America

LitFire LLC

1-800-511-9787

www.litfirepublishing.com

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Lessons from Professor Singh

Sukhmander Singh, Ph.D., P.E., G.E.

Santa Clara University

Santa Clara, CA

This book is dedicated to my students in Engineering at Santa Clara University.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I owe a deep sense of gratitude to Charles Cantoni for his efforts to edit and get this book published. I must acknowledge my wife Charan’s encouragement and guidance in the development of some of these stories. My thanks to Alison Wuerstle for her help in the typing and preparation of the manuscript for publication.

Help in the graphics for this booklet from Professor Katherine Aoki of the Art and Art History Department at Santa Clara, along with her student Julia Restin and engineering student Able Hsu, is deeply appreciated.

FOREWORD

During late March 2010 a small group of faculty and I traveled to India to visit six universities spread across northern India. Typically, each day we would visit a campus in the morning, have lunch with our hosts, then depart and spend five to six hours in a bus driving to our next destination; alternately we would fly to our next location during the