You are browsing the archive for September 2011.
When my first son was old enough to show off his mad math skillz, I was sure he was going to be a scientist or engineer. After all, he loved working with Legos. Isn’t that the sure sign of a soon-to-be technical something or other??? With my younger son, however, I’ve seen something different. Not only is he good at math and loves Legos, but he has shown me why his older brother is unlikely to be an engineer: his older brother never took things apart. The younger boy likes to go with his dad to places like Fleet Farm and the hardware store because his dad will buy him toys…but these toys are actually tools. The night he came home with a brand new screw driver set, my hand rail nearly disappeared from the stairway and an old laptop almost had its warranty voided for the first time (despite [...]
What do you do in your free time when not designing that next big thing? Or are you a 24/7 geek and engineer? Do you have a way out to relax? This week I’ll tell you what I like doing; the things that sharpen the axe. Finding a way to relax is one thing but switching off from engineering is another. The phrase ‘sharpening the axe’ refers to taking time out. The story goes that two wood cutters worked hard each day felling wood but one generated more than the other. He would stop and take time each day to sharpen his axe. The other saw this as wasting time and worked through — with a blunt axe. During the working day I find the best way is to pop off and make some tea, or walk down to reception and goods in to see if there are any parcels. [...]
Last week I learned to use a new machine – a goniometer. One of the things a goniometer does is measure the contact angle of droplets on surfaces. You can dispense some liquid out of the dropper onto a flat surface, the vision system captures data, and the software analyzes what angle is formed between the droplet and the surface. Why is this useful? For my research, I needed to learn more about the surface properties of some materials I was interested in. If you know the contact angles of various known liquids on an unknown material, you can calculate things like the surface energy of the material. Then you can make some progress toward figuring out the work of adhesion on that surface, or the fracture energy between two surfaces. So I thought this would be easy. Put drop on surface, measure contact angle. But the key here is [...]
I spent the past week recruiting for my company at a top tier engineering school in the northeast. It was a great time, both getting to tour the area and getting to experience the culture on campus. However, I was particularly struck with how things differ from a top tier school and a lesser known school. First off, if you haven’t heard, we’re still in the grips of the Great Recession. Some even say that the conditions of the economy point to a second dip and we’ll see more layoffs from the recent pick up in economic activity seen in the past year. But you know what? None of that matters at a top tier school. The action at a career fair in these less-than-stellar times would convince just about anyone coming in off the streets that we’re rocking in the fast times of the late 90s. But no, that’s [...]
When finishing up my MS, I went to talk to my advisor to discuss the possibility of doing a PhD. He told me that, unless I had a very good reason, he never recommended going for a PhD. In engineering, someone with a master’s is usually considered a bit more experienced and knowledgeable than someone with a bachelor’s…but a PhD has just plain had too much schooling (or they’re too expensive…maybe both!). In the past, I’ve had students ask me about grad school, and I’ve generally responded favorably. However, my thoughts on it have been changing based on my advisor’s advice: don’t go for a PhD unless you have a good reason. Why? There’s a good chance you won’t finish…especially in electrical engineering. Your chance of completing a PhD in ECE is about the same as flipping a coin and getting heads. Granted that the data is a bit old, [...]
The big event that happened last week for me was the Open Source Hardware (OSHW) Summit 2011 (OHS). So this week I want to review the interesting talks that took place and what it means to me as a electronics design engineer. I’m guessing I am not the first or last to review the event, Jeremy Blum was at the event and you can check out his review on element14. So keep an eye out for other reviews too. I was unfortunately not at the summit physically, but like thousands of others, I watched online via uStream. Not the greatest way to watch as the slides were all blurred but free. There was some 20+ talks given by people with a range of experience in OSHW, all with equal interest; however, my favourites were as follows: The team (Jurgen and Alison) from OHANDA were the first to catch my eye [...]
…when you have a lot of other stuff to do. It’s not that blogging is difficult, although I think I’m running low on relevant topics. Rather, it’s more of a time crunch that’s killing me. I started blogging last February over at GEARS (not that I’m trying to self promote…) thinking that 30 minutes per day writing about some of my experiences with the tenure track process will be good for me. I’ll be able to clear my head, vent occasionally, maybe get good advice from more senior readers, and possible help someone else that’s in my shoes. Plus, blogging makes me keep up with other bloggers. I particularly like following Dr. Becca (@doc_becca, Fumbling Towards Tenure Track Tenure) even though she’s a scientist because we’re both at the same stage in the game. When she posted about being paraded around like a new puppy, I totally understand what it means to go [...]
This is my wedding weekend. As such, I’m short on time and long on things to do. I apologize and hope you’ll understand. But I was wondering about engineers and their mates. I’ve written before about Engineers’ Significant Others and the various things they must put up with. I’ve also written about some of my own shortcomings as a natural cheapskate (and I posit that other engineers follow the same path). So there has been some writing on the topic before. But the other day on The Amp Hour, I mentioned my impending nuptuals to Joe Grand and he mentioned that he prefers a partner that doesn’t do the same thing he does. He said it’d be exhausting to come home at night and start working on projects, now with the added strain of the relationship. On the flip side of the coin, I’ve talked to Cherish before about how [...]
I know that I’m late with my blog post this week and I apologize for that. Proposal writing, lectures, and whatnot. Today, I have my first faculty meeting in one department and I’m debating whether I want to bring up suggestions to change the course I teach which would make it link better with another course. I’ve inquired with several of the people that would be most affected by this transition and everyone thinks it’s decent idea (at least on the surface). Also, I’ve polled several students to hear their thoughts and most, to my surprise, are on board with it. In talking with students, I’ve also come across three common themes that they wish were different for their curriculum. One is the change to my course, which I won’t discuss here for obvious reasons. The other two, however, directly fall in line with what I would call (oddly enough) [...]
We all know there are plenty of issues with meetings in the workplace. And Allison Green over at Ask a Manager even did a piece on making sure your meetings are productive. But lately I’ve been thinking about another kind of work meeting: the training seminar. Whenever a procedure’s being changed ever poor engineer, planner, and specialist often has to sit through an hour of training to learn what the new process is. One of my major beefs is that often training is not customized. Sometimes you end up in the same room with individuals who use the software for hours every day to its full capabilities and others who are not familiar with it at all. The way a designer looks at software can be very different from the way someone in configuration or manufacturing might use that same software. One might be overly familiarized with a certain side [...]
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