About

Hello, I’m Steven Biars. I tend to think my story is rather interesting and complex so grab some popcorn, you’re in for an adventure.

I was born on September 1, 1984 which is somewhat ironic, considering it happens to be exactly 9 months after New Years Day. Another interesting fact worth mentioning is that my birthday (9/1/84) can be rearranged to form 1984 (the year of my birth). Weird. Anyhow, onward with the life-story. I suppose you could say that I was born to be an engineer. My great-grandpa and several great-uncles worked in various aspects of union construction, typically as heavy equipment operators. My Grandpa, Jim McGue, worked for Detroit Steel in New Boston, Ohio until its closure in 1980. Unfortunately, I never got to meet him because he was stung to death by yellow jackets after his bushhog cut into an underground nest. However, Kenny McGue (my uncle) would become a great influence on my life. Kenny was killed by a drunk driver along with two of his co-workers on May 12, 1999 just outside of Maysville, KY. Before his death, Kenny worked as a union iron worker.

Kenny was very influential in that he encouraged me to go to college at a very early age. We worked together on several houses, usually reroofing and conducting repairs on the chimneys. All the while I became more and more interested in Civil and Mechanical Engineering. Several of my summers were spent doing little odd jobs like carrying nails, tool belts, etc. all while absorbing as much as I could about how things were constructed and what made them work. When I was 13, Kenny started rennovating his house (building on and expanding it). It was an interesting experience. Unfortunately, before the house was completed, Kenny was killed. One thing I’ll always remember about him was a conversation we had while feeding his horses where he told me that he would liked to have gone on to college for and that nothing was stopping me from going, no matter what.

As high school came along, I surrounded myself with engineering. I took two years of Wood Shop (Industrial Arts) and two years of Engineering & I.T. at Scioto County Career Technical Center (formerly the JVS) where I became even more interested in the fundamentals of engineering as well as surveying. After graduation in 2002, I received my A.A. in Business from Daymar College and went on to persue my love of engineering at Shawnee State University. When I arrived at Shawnee, I started taking courses in electro-mechanical engineering. While I quickly found that electro-mechanical engineering wasn’t where I wanted to be, it strenghtened my love for physics and civil engineering, mainly through additional coursework related to those areas.

Unfortunately, the unexpected was just around the corner. In February of 2006, I was involved in a serious automobile accident where another driver had ran a red light. I had to be extricated from the car by use of the “Jaws of Life” and I underwent 17 weeks of physical therapy afterwards. I began to notice a problem with memorization and numbers shortly after the accident. I was told that it could be a side effect of a concussion, but it never went away. I’ve fought tooth and nail since the accident to achieve my goals. I’ve watched a 3.7 GPA be destroyed thanks to dyscalculia and associated test anxiety, and yet here we are, several years later and I’m on the cusp of graduating with my B.S. in Mathematical Science with a concentration in Physics.

I’ll be taking my GRE on March 13th. Hopefully, I’ll be accepted into Ohio State or Ohio University so that I can start on my Masters of Science in Civil Engineering (MSCE) and hopefully, I will eventually be able to earn a Ph.D in Physics.