A full semester_THE END

So this semester is at and an end I guess I'm going to take time out to reflect on what I learned from this class.

"Have no fear of perfection-you'll never reach it" -Salvador Dali

Reflection on MP3

Its over!! So many meeting and long hours doing research, contending ideas and narrowing down solutions. It was an effort well put forth. There were times were group members were not pulling there weight as they should have but we had deal with it and use the resources we had to finish it.


MP3 was the toughest and most time consuming mini project of them all. It required us to pull extensive research along with designing a solution using techniques we learned in class. For this we had to identify and design a section of urban infrastructure.

More details below:

Solving Problems

Engineers strongest trait is the ability to solve problems given to them. Throw in constraints, the problem, and resources and we can come up with what we feel the best solution is. Unfortunately the biggest issue is that there is no true correct solution. Theres trade off's that need to be made in reference to time and money and that can and will always affect the outcome of the solution. From a young engineers stand point I will delve into briefly how I've learned to solve problems.

Mini Project 3- Urban Infrastructure

Urban Infrastructure is the basic structures necessary for the operation of a society. This includes things from transportation, waste removal, streets, water distribution, sewers, electricity and other systems that  are governed by municipalities.

Our task is the same a MP1(problem) and MP2(design and choose solution) but with the added component of designing the choice we chose. So this involves a lot more extensive research into the infrastructure now and how it can be improved. We are to choose a component of urban infrastructure, design new, improve or replace a current infrastructure component, based on the embodiment concepts learned in class.

Design- From an Artistic Point off view

So Audi is releasing the A1 pretty soon and they are releasing a bunch of teaser videos, but there's one particular video which caught my interest.

Bad Design List

So things that people design, invent or engineer aren't always successful. But the number of those that make it to market and are terrible sometimes surprises me. It can be as small as a location of a pin to it missing something. If its missing that crucial thing its a bad design. At the end of the day it comes down to ergonomics and how they play a role in the usability of the item. (This of course is purely subjective and has no bearing on the amount of effort the company or firm put into designing the item.)

A reflection on MP2

Finally done MP2! I feel a lot more confident about this one. Worked a LOT harder and so did the rest of my group. A lot of challenges were faced but were overcome in the long term. I feel more confident in the grade we received and felt it was closely accurate to the effort we put in.

Remote Control Cars taken to the next level

Remote Controlled cars have been around for quite some time now and the use of RF is nothing new to anyone Recently a challenge was presented, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Urban Grand Challenge Competition. It is a challenge presented by DARPA to build an autonomous vehicle capable of driving in traffic, performing complex maneuvers such as merging, passing parking and negotiating intersections.
This is just one school car that they entered in the DARPA Urban Grand Challenge. The school is Freie Universität Berlin in Germany.

The possible future of magazines

This is honestly one of the coolest ideas I've seen in a while that I am truly excited about. Digital media are not new but the way we view has already been done, via a computer, cell phone or some sort of media device.

More Info after the jump.

Mini Project #2 _ Clean Water

This is Mini Project focuses on the clean water crisis that affect so many people across the world. It plays a detrimental role on the quality of living of those affected. It creates diseases, affects crops and increases fatatlity rate of the affected area. This out focus for MP2, choose an area affected by this, come up with alternatives, choose one and justify it.

Here's a more detailed description from the project itself after the jump

The speed demon inside us (Our "FAST")

As stated before the VW GTI is one of the pioneers of the sport compact, beginning with its first iteration VW GTI MK1 in the 80's.  With its 5th generation and a market full of new competitors, VW had to do somthing different, something new, unique and colorful. The marketing team behind the new generation of the MKV, came up with a soul for the car, and appealed to car enthusiasts everywhere. They came up with what they call a "fast." The hooligan inside of all, that loves driving and driving fast.

More info after the jump,

OH ISH! - Handles

The VW GTI is an icon in sport compacts, being the pioneer and one of the leaders in its class when it comes to cheap speed. The MKV (Mark 5... last generation) came with "cute" design ideas and implementations on why it deserves to be at the top.

Check it out after the jump

A reflection on MP1

At the end of mini project 1 after reflecting on our grade, we saw a need for a major improvement. Needless to say we had just another 4 weeks ahead of us and we had to add more to the new miniproject 2 than last attempted one. I personally felt what I did with the first mini project was not enough, and needed to voice my opinions more to help improve our grade.

More info after the jump:

Design- First Hand Experience & Interests

"[Archimedes] happened to go to the bath, and on getting into a tub observed that the more his body sank into it the more water ran out over the tub.  As this pointed out the way to explain the case in question, he jumped out of the tub and rushed home naked, crying with a loud voice that he had found what he was seeking; for he as he ran he shouted repeatedly in Greek, "Eureka, eureka." meaning "I have found (it), I have found (it)."

-Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

Back with vengeance

While i couldn't always actively attack the blog with my entries, i made notes throughout the semester, jotting down anything i thought was interesting. They winded unfortunately ended up being here in the end all in one day. They will touch on a few obscure topics of interest and more focused ones that are required in the portfolio. Enjoy

After a ill deserved hiatus

Its been a while since I've been on this thing and thats due to midterms and project and such. I'm back now and hopefully be on more consistently.

Anywayz I wanted to start back up with this comic strip from xkcd. Enjoy

End of Miniproject 1

With end of project one over, a lot has been learned about design processes, implementation of the HoQ. Its also a great opportunity to exercise our creativity skills and get away from the analytical side of engineering. A nice change.

Info and Video of mini project one after the jump.

Light Microscope Photography - 35 Years Worth of the Best Pictures

Image of the male sex organ of a flowering plant took first place in Nikon’s annual Small World photomicrography competition this year.

Dr. Heiti Paves

Tallinn University of Technology
Tallinn, Estonia

Arabidopsis thaliana (thale cress) anther (20x)

Light Microscopes have been around for almost 350+ years, and Nikon, known for there cameras, has made a competition out of the use of them, called The Nikon International Small World Competition. More info after the jump.

Innovation-Creativity Dimension

Creativity is a  process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts between existing ideas or concepts. Innovation is sparked by a creative nature and along with creativity, it is natural to some and taught  and learned by others. Creativity is measured, taught, and learned in different ways.

This is a small game that helps measure your creative side and your ability to see things that may not be readily obvious, but is easily seen once the right parts of the brain align. Obviously if you do bad or don't get any right this doesn't mean your not creative, it just may mean you might wanna stretch the imagination a bit.

The game after the jump:

An Interesting Class - Living Statues

9/25/09

This day's class was an interesting one. Not a lot of notes but more of an example of conceptual design and its relationship to customer requirements. Customers usually give their requirement in an intangible form that cannot be readily measured or quantified. A good designer can translate these requirements to a more measurable form and can alter properties, size weight, manufacturing process, or aesthetics to match the customers needs.

The example used in today's class draws on the idea of the customers linguistic nature to use words that are immeasurable quantitatively, that to be translated by engineers to match what they want.


Find out more about the game after the jump:

A Design Approach (QFD)

Quality Function Deployment transforms customer needs into engineering characteristics for a product or service.

Quality Function Deployment is created to help designer hone in on the characteristics of a new or existing products. This is  is from the viewpoints of market segments, coorporate or technology -development needs.
The House of Quality (HOQ) is one of the aspects of QFD and can be complex in nature but will allow designer to more accurately weigh risks of engineering characteristics vs customer requirements.

Mini Project 1

First mini project of the semester....

Mini.Project 1: Making solar energy economical  

Description
As a source of energy, nothing matches the sun. It out-powers anything that human technology could
ever produce. Only a small fraction of the sun’s power output strikes the Earth, but even that provides
10,000 times as much as all the commercial energy that humans use on the planet. However, while there
is adequate solar energy available, there are numerous technical and economic hurdles to making it
viable as a reliable and sustainable energy source.

Task

Your task is to identify a technical, economic, social, environmental, or other design problem related to
this grand challenge. This will take substantial research, dialogue, and thinking. Your report needs to
include the following:

Solar Power Freeways

The sun is giant ball of energy. In reference to the earth is giant ball of solar energy. Solar power is the utilization of the sun's natural energy as a source of electricity. It uses the solar energy from the sun and converts into electricity via photovoltaic cells which are usually made out of silicon.

Capturing this energy has been around for some time. Newer uses are developed often but few are implemented due to the high cost of material and manufacturing. None the less company's engineers, scientist are looking for more efficient ways to continue use of solar energy.