You are browsing the archive for July 2011.
I’m not there yet. I’m not burned out beyond repair, nor do I plan to get to the point where I throw my hands in the air and say, “That’s it!” and walk away from engineering. No, haven’t gotten to that point yet. But I have been getting close. I have been very lucky lately to have picked up a part time consulting gig. I work full time during the day at a company that allows me to work in a non-related, non-competitor field at night, so there’s no conflict of interest. I really appreciate that. So at night after I get off of work for the day I drive home, eat dinner and start working on my consulting work for the evening. I am lucky enough to be working on a fun challenge, that happens to be design work. It’s also slightly outside of my main expertise, so I [...]
Images of an airship might evoke some long past 1920s phenomenon deemed too dangerous or too impractical and brushed aside for different flight technologies. But no technology should ever be considered down and out. The distinctive spire on the Empire State Building, originally intended as a mooring mast for dirigibles, is now copied on many other skyscrapers as a matter of course and style. It was only a year and a half ago that I talked about an Army request for proposals for an airship drone. Lockheed Martin just flew their HALE-D (that’s high altitude long endurance) a little earlier this week on July 27th, 2011. It only flew to 32,000 ft before coming down in Pennsylvania unexpectedly but should be capable of achieving 60,000 ft altitude. I talked about Boeing’s Phantom Eye UAV which supposedly can hang out at 65,000 ft. Neither aircraft is making any major promises on [...]
Today, I was discussing a dilemma I’ve been struggling with. When funding gets tight, you constantly have to evaluate whether certain equipment or services are really worth the cost. When money is specifically laid out for some purpose, it’s a very easy decision to make. If you have to spend the money on a widget, and money not spent on that widget must be returned to the funding agency, the question is a no-brainer. You buy the best thing that you can get. However, when the money is coming out of a general use fund and could potentially be used for a lot of things, it becomes the kind of question that leaves you in mental gridlock. I was discussing the problem with a couple colleagues, and one surprised me by saying, “I’m a died-in-the-wool engineer. I believe that you should get the best equipment you can possibly afford.” I’m [...]
As engineers, we like to talk about the latest gadget or, more importantly, about our latest designs. I personally get very passionate about my designs and the stuff I have done. For example, I enjoyed talking about my involvement with Formula Engine Control units in a recent blog. I also talked about ways in which I have used differing technologies like I2C. However, there are time when we can’t talk about things, things that cover Intellectual Property (IP). Over a year ago, I attended an RS Components sales show ( or known better as Allied Electronics in the US). This is where I and my company get to sell and introduce our new products to the RS sales force. In the evening, I got talking to a number of RS internal people about the lack of engineering communities and how this IP stuff, in my view, is a road block. IP [...]
Chris Gammell and I were chatting the other day (well, five minutes ago) about the hours that a professor works. And in that discussion, I was reminded of a post by GMP a few months ago, basically describing how no one cares about your work life balance. Now, I’ll pause for a minute for you to read her post. … Pause for effect… … Ok, so first I’ll hit the hours question and then tie in my little figure in above. The hours that I’ve worked so far haven’t been crazy. That’s probably because it is the middle of the summer and because I’m only supervising one student. My daily schedule is roughly: up at 5:45 am, leave house at 7:15-7:30 (Myself, DrWife, and NanoGEARS), get on campus ~8, work until 5, NanoGEARS in bed by 7, sleep sometime between 10 and 11. Most days, I drop NanoGEARS off and [...]
One of the beautiful things about engineering is that there are many, many solutions to each problem. In school, it was comforting to realize that there was a correct answer to every homework problem. I think engineers are stereotypically wired to like a precise, logical, correct answer. A SINGLE answer. But then, I got to graduate school. And suddenly, the problems that I encountered didn’t HAVE an answer. (Yet, at least.) That was scary in itself. And even scarier, was the notion that even if I did find AN answer – it might not be the only one. Which means, my answer might not be the best one. Yowza! Eventually I learned that in the real world, it’s not always about having the best answer. You can almost never prove which answer is best, and even if you could, it’s usually not worth the time it takes. It’s about having [...]
One benefit to being part of a large(ish) corporation is purchasing power (not super large, but big enough to turn a head or two). You get lower part costs, you get more guarantees of delivery and you get better support. And sometimes as part of support, you get to talk to some very smart people (hardly exclusive to when you’re an important customer). Well, let me back up a little bit. Sometimes you get to talk. And sometimes you only get to listen. My issue comes up when vendors come in and say they want to talk. That they want to have a ‘conversation with their valued customer’…and then proceed to plow through slides that you have no interest in. This happens all the time and I dutifully sit through them, especially if they’ve bought me lunch (I can be bought with food, doubly so for good food). My problem [...]
A couple of days ago my colleague GEARS covered some STEM Employment Data that the US Department of Commerce recently released titled STEM: Good Jobs Now and for the Future. Regular readers of mine know I tend to be overly critical of these sorts of assessments. I tend to see them as optimistic and naive. On my own blog a couple weeks ago I talked about engineering jobs by discipline, then I looked at engineering employment over time and engineering pay, and then I broke down engineering employment and pay for mechanical, civil, and electrical engineers. One of the favorite myths the powers that be like to toss around is that a bunch of engineers and technical workers are going to suddenly retire and STEM jobs will be in demand. So in my eyes this report isn’t a whole lot different. Their two major claims: that a STEM degree leads [...]
Do you have any moral issues about your work? I have, off and on. I consider myself a pacifist, and yet I’ve found myself working through the years for projects that were funded by the Department of Defense. About a decade ago, I would’ve said it would never happened…but things change. The first project didn’t strike me as anything to be concerned about: we were studying magnetic fields originating in the ionosphere. While the defense wing we were working with needed this information, it was fundamental science that could be used for a lot of things. Lately, a lot of the work I’ve done has involved sensors or communication devices. While I initially worried that working on these items was hypocritical, I have realized that it isn’t. Much of what we work on is also being developed for commercial markets. Maybe working on RFID, for example, enables item tracking for the military, but [...]
Over the last few weeks I’ve been talking about the Schools Contest held by Chelmsford Engineering Society (CES). The first week I explained the basic background of the contest and then how I take part in the judging process. Well this week its awards time and we get to see who has won! Once again our hosts are Anglia Ruskin University who help out lots with this and other CES events. There was also lots of support from the sponsors including my company ebm-papst UK Ltd who also supply one of the trophies (full list of sponsors at end). The award winners came along and one again put on a great show of the work they have done. For me like some of the other judges it was our first opportunity to see some of them or have a long chat about the work. Its hard to take in 50 [...]
Subscribe By Email
Subscribe By Reader
Recent Comments