Monthly Archives: December 2013

Designing processes — 245 Comments
01
Dec 13

The Design Processes- Engineering

We all know that all the things are designed to meet human needs. even our plastic water bottles are designed in such a way that it could withstand huge amount of force and pressure. We know that designing may seems easy but when we really do hands on designing, it starts to get tedious, stressful and takes huge amount of time. That is the reason why designing is not done by one person but many designers working together. Some may disagree with the preveious sentence but if you look at the efficiency and most of the areas of designing processes, we can easily announce the winner.

So how does engineers design something? The picture below shows basic designing processes that are used by engineers commonly.

design_flow

To begin with, we first have to identify the main problem. What do we want to change and why do we need something to be designed. If we do not have the basic things done, we may eventually give up designing when we face a challenging problem.

Then, it comes to the researching for the needs or problem. We may think that we know everything but we are not Einstein and even he do not know everything. Through this process, we are able to know basic concepts, history, background and details that we never heard through  researching and reading up on other people’s ideas and stories. Hopefully, we may have some kind of inspiration through some catalysts.

Thirdly, it comes to the process that develops solutions for the problem. This is the point where it may literally takes loads of time depending of the situations but mostly because of the brainstorming. No matter how long it takes, one of the most important thing is that we have to let all the ideas flow smoothly even though you may think they are ridiculous. Every ideas may combine to form an engineering masterpiece. For example, it was a ridiculous idea for someone to design a phone without the number pad. However, nowadays we all carry a phone with only couple of buttons.

The next step is when you start striking off or rejecting the ridiculous ideas after looking at the feasibility– Dermining which solutions are best. This is one of the most important processes because we have to analyze and put all our heads together to determine the most suitable solutions. Sometimes, we may have to mix some of the ideas generated previously to make it more suitable.

The next two steps are basically construction and testing the solutions’ prototypes. Through this process, we are able to evaluate our design then, finalize the design. Because our brains are not that great to visualize or simulate possible situations accounting different vairables.

The last process is communicating the solutions. Most of the engineers work for others. That is to design and meet the main purpose of the customers. One of the most criteria is to meet the problems but also satisfy them. That could be done through communications. After going through all these processes, we are now ready to start building things!

In a nutshell, this is like a guideline. It is one of the easiest way to design something for both beginning engineers or even professional designers. However, in my opinion, we should not be constricted and stuck at this narrow minded that other designing process should not be done and they are wrong. This is just a guideline to make the designing process easier, not a law. And hopefully design something that is sustainable and last the longest!

Reference:

http://www.themetroschool.org/assets/images/centers/design_flow.png

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design_engineer

Social impact — 18 Comments
01
Dec 13

Meeting Human needs through compromisation

 Short cut means another way that shortens the distance one has to travel. One of the most important factors determining economical efficiency is time. As the phrase says, “Time is Gold” it is one of the most important things in our life. We have couple of ways to reduce the time that we waste but one of the ways is by making a short cut, like what Panama did.

385px-Acpfigure1

Being one of the largest canal made, Panama Canal is famous for making the sea route shorter. In fact, it is the shortest short cut human ever made. It is a canal that connects Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean.by doing so, it helps the ship crossing by cutting down the time taken by 2weeks for the same destination.

How Does It Work?

It is in fact a simple logic that greatly improved the way we transport the goods. Ship floats on water so by adding more water, ship rises at the same time. With this concepts, engineers were able to raise a gigantic cargo ships up to 85ft above the sea level without using tonnes of energy. By using 3 locks of doors, it prevents the sea water mixing with lake’s fresh water. The reason behind such inconvenience is that it creates a current when salinated water and unsalinated water mix. In a nutshell, it is a water elavator!

Since the canal takes about 30% of the Panama’s economy, they are expanding by making another canal that is wider so that larger ships can pass through and allows more ships to pass through at the same time. Hoping that it would bring more money, the Government has invested about $5Billion on the project.

This project is one of the engineer’s great work done that are designed to meet the Human and Social needs. As the world develops and globalisation expands, it is true that time is one of the most important factors. Indeed, this engineering marvel met our needs to make the world moves faster, cost efficient and less time consuming. Furthermore, common sense tells me that it would naturally bring more money and hence build stronger economy for the country. However, I have rather different opinion. As an engineering student, I personally go against the idea of such canal on this planet and the project of making another wider canal side by side because it destroys the natural habitat and the environment. We have to first priotized what is really important and rethink about what really benefit us!

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal

http://www.pancanal.com/eng/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal_expansion_project

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-09-19/panama-canal-has-to-accommodate-megaships-and-compete-with-climate-change

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