Activities

Day 1

Intro to engineering

Allen Sam

6-11-18

Activity 1.3 Concept Sketching

Sketches for #1

Sketches for #2

Sketch for #3

Sketch for #4

Conclusion

1. Proportion is a ratio of a model object to a real life one. Proportions help us recreate accurately sized objects, and sketching is one way to create a proportion, or at least a somewhat accurate ratio.

2. The ability to sketch helps a designer by letting the designer explore not only the outline of a model object, but also some of the texture and shading. And, the sketch will keep a designer's ideas written on paper instead of just in the mind.

3. A bar graph or pie chart can have more impact than information text because they can directly compare the results.

4. I think that the most important part to know in order to sketch is to get the outline. The shading and little details can come later, but the sketch represents the idea.

Activity 1.4 Product Improvement

list of enhancements for the coffee cup (brainstormed and not limited ideas)

Focusing in on the automatic stirring feature. 

Conclusion

1.    What factors must be considered when changing or enhancing a design?

 The limitations of the products, the practicality, and the cost of enhancing the design are important things to consider when changing a design.

2.    Why it is important to document the brainstorming process?

 It is important to document the brainstorming process because you need to get every single idea possible before choosing some features of a a new product. Plus, any single idea from the brainstorming process can the a golden nugget to success.

3.    What is the purpose of sketching your ideas?

 Sketching helps put one's idea into a visual representation and the sketch generalizes how practical the new product is.

4.    What effective or ineffective techniques did the group speaker use to communicate your idea to the class?

 We wrote down out brainstorming ideas and everyone talked in the group, but we did not speak very clearly to each other.

Activity 1.5 Deep Dive Questions

1.    “From the buildings in which we live and work, to the cars we drive, or the knives and forks with which we eat, everything we use was designed to create some sort of marriage between _______form__________ and ___function______________.”

2.    The folks at IDEO state that they are not experts in any given area. But they do claim to be experts on the _____process to design stuff_______________, which they apply to the innovation of consumer products.

3.    After the team of designers is brought together, introduced to the problem, and informed they have five days to “pull it off,” what phase of the design process do they immediately engage in?

The team splits into brainstorming groups.

4.    Give two examples of what the team members did during this phase.

a.    ___split into groups and took pictures of shopping carts__________________________________________________

b.    ____They asked questions with experts and users of shopping carts and the builders of them for details.________________________________________________

5.    List five rules-of-thumb that IDEO employees follow when they share ideas during the brainstorming phase:

a.    _____1 conversation at a time________________________________________________

b.    ________stay focused on the topic_____________________________________________

c.    ______encourage wild ideas_______________________________________________

d.    _________defer judgement____________________________________________

e.    _______encourage ideas of others______________________________________________

6.    Why should wild (and sometimes crazy) ideas be entertained during the brainstorming phase?

 It could give other thinkers new idea or the wild idea could be a working idea.

7.    After the brainstorming phase was over, the team narrowed down the hundreds of ideas by ____using sticky notes_________ for those ideas that were not only “cool” but also _______buildable__________ in a short period of time. Which phase of the design process includes brainstorming and narrowing ideas?

8.    IDEO believes that the ideas and efforts of a _____group_________ will always be more successful than the planning of a lone genius.

9.    Once the ideas were narrowed down and divided into categories, the group was split into four smaller teams. For which phase(s) of the design process was each of these groups responsible?

They were responsible for modeling and building a prototype. 

10. The leaders at IDEO believe that _______playful_________ behavior and a ______fun________ environment are two important reasons why their employees are able to think quickly and creatively to produce innovative results.

11. Sometimes, people come up with great solutions that work by trying their ideas first and asking for _____opinions____________ later.

12. Design is often a process of going too far and having to take a few steps back. What phase(s) of the design process would the critique of the four mock-ups come under?

 The critique goes under refining and communicating results.

13. Upon critique of the four teams’ models, it was obvious that none of the teams had developed an optimum solution. However, the people at IDEO believe that it is important to ________fail_____ often in order to _____succeed________ sooner.

14. What percentage of the entire week’s time did it take to fabricate the final prototype?

 It took around 14 percent of the week's time.

15. Instead of showering his design team with a tremendous amount of praise, what did the boss require his employees to do with their new design?

 The boss still wanted to make his employees improve the cart.

16. Of all the things that we are surrounded by every day, what has not been placed through the design process?

 The design process does not have nature incorporated into it.

Day 2

Intro to Engineering

Allen Sam

6-12-18

Activity 1.6 Discover Engineering

1.    What is engineering? Based on your current perception, in a few sentences define the term “engineering”.

 I think that engineering is a field of making and building. Ideas from creative people are brought into reality and people try to solve problems with these ideas whether they are crazy ones or not. The effectiveness of something built is the most important part of engineering because the engineers want to address a certain problem. Might I say that engineering is the field of problem solving as well.

2.     Describe the four major disciplines of engineering and identify problems or projects that an engineer in each discipline might encounter.

·         Chemical engineering

 Chemical engineers use science and math to work in manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, design and construction, pulp and paper, food processing, biotechnology, safety, and environmental health. Chemical engineers test certain chemicals, plan and test production methods, and direct facility operations.

·         Civil engineering

 Civil engineers create roadways, buildings, airports, tunnels, dams, bridges, and more. Some problems they address include disaster management, reducing traffic, managing groundwater, and building energy efficiency.

·         Electrical engineering

 Electrical engineers research, design, and oversee the development of electronic systems. Problems they address are creating new technology, designing automobiles, testing equipment, and test systems like broadcast and communication systems. Some electrical engineers work around computer hardware.

·         Mechanical engineering

 Mechanical Engineering is one of the oldest and broadest engineering disciplines. Mechanical engineers use the principles of energy, materials, and mechanics to design and manufacture machines and devices. They make the processes and systems that drive technology and industries.

3.    Choose a discipline of engineering (other than chemical, civil, electrical and mechanical) that is of interest to you. Describe this engineering field and explain how it is an extension of, specialization within, or combination of one or more of the four major engineering disciplines. (Optional – create a PowerPoint slide to describe your chosen engineering discipline.)

 I am interested in environmental engineering because I do care about the wildlife and nature that surrounds us. Environmental engineers use biology and chemistry to make solutions to environmental problems. They are involved in regulating water and air pollution, recycling, waste disposal, and public heath issues. Environmental science could be considered under mechanical engineering or civil engineering because these engineers can create new structures to address conflict between humans and nature, or create new process to help mitigate or reduce the impact of water and air pollution.

4.    Describe your selected achievement in a few sentences.

 I chose electrification, and it the the connecting and usage of electricity from multiple sources. The electrification process includes mining coal, digging into oil reservoirs, and using renewable energy sources. All of these energy sources need its energy to be converted to electrical energy (mostly through turning the energy source into mechanical energy then electrical)

5.    Which major discipline of engineering do you think was most involved in the development of this achievement? Justify your answer.

 Electrification could under the mechanical engineering or mostly electrical engineering because the electrification includes creating new processes to convert the sources of energy and creating systems for electricity to be used.

6.    If you were an engineer within the discipline that you chose in number 3, which engineering grand challenge would you like to work on?

 I would like to work on making solar energy economical.

7.    Describe your selected grand challenge.

 Because fossil fuels are nonrenewable sources, there could be a demand for other sources of energy in the near future. The challenge here is to make solar solar energy commercially used. Currently, solar energy is only one percent of the total consumption of energy, most of them being fossil fuel. 

8.    Why is a solution to this challenge important to the world?

 If there was more usage of solar energy, we would not have to rely on nonrenewable sources for energy. The sun is sustainable and does not harm the environment as much as mining for fossil fuels and oil does.

9.    How could you, as an engineer in your chosen discipline, contribute to a solution to this challenge?

I could make an impact on this discipline by coming up new ways to integrate more solar energy into more electrical systems, and I could make a new solar panel that would be cheaper than normal solar panels today.

Conclusion

1.    What is it about “engineering” that is common to all disciplines of engineering?  That is, what makes an “engineer” an “engineer” regardless of the work one does?

 The main thing about all engineers is that they want to solve problems. Whether it be global or minor problems, every single engineer has the intention of providing solutions and creating ideas to help the world and its people.

2.    Why do you think engineering has been called the stealth profession? (Hint: there are many internet resources that address this question.)

 Engineering is called a stealth profession because so many people are clueless about what engineers do.

3.    How is an engineer different from a scientist?

 Usually, science studies the physical world while engineering apples knowledge to create processes, structures, or equipment. Thus, the job of a scientist is different from that of an engineer because engineering does not take influence from the natural world.

4.    What interpersonal characteristics do you think are important to the success of an engineer of any discipline?

I think that creativity is the most important aspect of an engineer's success because ideas need to be put out there so they can be tested.