Personal Blogs

Activity 3.1A.

Personal development planning.

I could relate to a few of the speeches from other engineers in regards to their PDP.

Chris Lowe.

Chris mention studying taught him “How to study and how to filter information.” I feel this is something I’m already starting to learn and is a useful skill to take back to the work place. You don’t need to know everything so being able to take bits of information and recognise them as being the most useful or productive parts can be really important.

Daniel Fraser.

Daniel spoke about how he was inspired by seeing someone more senior at his work place in an engineering role. This is how I have come to start at the OU due to inspiration of someone in a more senior position and realising that’s where I would like to be moreover I realised how the OU qualification will help me to progress and get closer to that goal.

Katy Brent.

Katy mentions the lack of females within the engineering industry. Again this a reason behind my motivation and wanting to achieve my degree more. In aviation especially at my work males out number females massively, I feel women don’t have as much of an interest within engineering and its nice to start to break that taboo and venture into the industry and be in a job role equal to that of male colleagues.

Luke Higham.

Luke comes from an aerospace background which is where my main interest is. It’s the industry I currently work in but also the one I would like to develop and grow in more in the future, it would be the main point of my personal development plan.

3.1 notes.

Standards and patents.

• ·      There are often failures along the way and it is important to learn from them.
  
• ·      “All this accumulated experience, success and failure , is brought together into a standard.” 
  
• ·      Standards are made to critique features of the designs, the construction methods and the use of safety testing of the product.
  
• ·       Standards govern the design and construction of nearly everything that carries any safety implications.
  
• ·       Standards don’t just apply to products but also places for example building sites.
  
• ·       Standards are one way that engineers ensure their knowledge about a particular product.
  
• ·       No one knows everything, engineers rely on previous failures to solve problems.
  
• ·       Standards are good practice and ensure products are safe and fit for purpose.
  
• ·       Authorities hold responsibility for making sure standards are kept up to date.
  
• ·       Standards are there to protect the client from bad engineering.
  
• ·       Not all standards are enforced some are simply codes of practice – These set guidelines rather than legal requirements.
  
• ·       All major engineering countries have their own engineering standard authority’s.
  
• ·       Patents provide a means to protect new designs and allow the inventor to profit from the work.
  
• ·       There are both national and international organisations for managing patents.
  

Scientific Methods.

• ·      “Much of what engineers understand derives from science, engineering is often thought of simply as the ‘appliance of science’.”
  
• ·       Scientific models, despite limitations are extremely helpful to engineers and allow them to understand the way in which forces interact and behave in the real world.
  

Quantitative – Information involves numbers and deals with the numerical measurements of something.

Qualitative – information refers to the nature of something, may be more subjective for example “If your pet cat is black and has mass 4.1kg then the colour , black is a qualitative description while the mass 4.1kg, gives a quantitative measurement.

Data – Is a collection of information on a particular topic which may be quantitative or qualitative. – For Engineering purposes you are usually most interested in technical data, much of which is quantitative.

Section 3.1 notes.

Communicating in teams.

·      “Communication skills are Vital, particularly in organisational structures where there is extensive team working.”

·      Team work is required for success.

·      Greater responsibility within a project normally increases an individual’s commitment.

·      Communication doesn’t just mean verbal or written it can include…

- Numerical material, Statistical , algebraic and graphical information.

- Scale Drawings or other pictorial communication.

Knowing what and knowing how.

·       “In order to do engineering you need to able to solve problems”.

·       Modelling cycle often used within engineering. – Model is a tool for thinking with – An abstraction which often helps to solve an engineering problem.

* See attached file for Modelling cycle diagram. *

·       The cycle starts with a problem – the problem being the item that needs to be created for example a bridge to cross water.

·       The second step is the model – This being the original concept or plan, in this case may be a scale drawing of a bridge or idea of material that will be required for the build.

·       The next arrow shows that you should use your model to plan a solution , this may be where your occur problems such as the material required may not be available to the amount of specialised craftsman etc.

·       The final step is the solution, this is where you will fix the problems or adapt the design sp that your earlier problems are identified and minimalised. This will then allow you to have another solution or final product, you can continue to break this down and test your solution until you happy with your final product.