Tyrades! Have you hugged an engineer lately?

I’m sure the summer break will fly by faster than the drone my son Gideon has been maneuvering.

Gideon recently received his bachelor’s degree in mechatronics engineering and -- after a short breather -- will plunge into the graduate program in engineering management.

My wife and I are proud of his achievement, especially since our involvement grew to be more about food, lodging and grant applications and less about homework assistance. Yes, his oppressive courses in calculus, linear algebra and statistics were soon “above our pay grade.”

Sure, I was probably the fourth-best math student in my...