Engineering on the spot

Having jobs and personal projects really makes me think about engineering and it's fundamentals. Lots of my projects (whether at work, for a class, in a UROP, etc.) are often "(I want to) do this thing. I have no idea where to start. Let me learn some cool thing to make it work."

In general, engineers should be flexible: they should not only know their tools and know what they don't know, they should be able to learn whatever it is they need to know for a specific project, perfect it, maximize it, and use it in further projects.

It's interesting how many projects or ideas come out of not knowing a certain tool for a task. It is often easier to be the first one to make a tool or resource than edit or implement a better version of one. I suspect the reason for this is that when you make a tool for the first time, no one has any standards for what it should do. You hack something together to make it work for you, and probably slightly modify it to work for others. Whereas in the other scenario, you are trying to improve on a tool: you are intimately familiar with the venue in which the tool is used, and you are either trying to optimize the stream of that venue or trying to expand it. In either case, it is harder to do so, because others who are using your tool have certain expectations or suggestions for it's use.

Speed sensors

GrampsVanTruk is doing rather poorly, I'm afraid. He is a 1990 Honda Accord (automatic transmission), but he's been going strong until a few weeks ago. The speedometer doesn't read any useful information - meaning it's completely not registering any speed. Online research tells us that the speed sensors need to be cleaned, but NOT the VSS (vehicle speed sensor). Rather, the NM (mainshaft) and NC (countershaft) speed sensors need to be cleaned. Last night we spend a few hours trying to find where these darn things are. We ended up taking out the air filter system and the battery to get at the innards of the car, but couldn't find anything that vaguely resembles the NM and NC speed sensors. The next plan of attack is to raise the car on two jacks, get under there, and take a look around.

EDM

EDM stands for so many things, but recently for me in the non-technical world it's been standing for Electronic Dance Music. This post is going to be a conglomeration of songs/artists that I like that I can reference for later use.

Lise - Arno Cost
Feel So Close - Calvin Harris
Strange Condition - Morgan Page
Bangduck - Afrojack
Hello - Martin Solveig & Dragonette
Hypnotize You - N.E.R.D. & Daft Punk
Daylight - Dumme Jungs
Finally - CeCe Peniston
Love is Gone in 5 Seconds - David Guetta
The Way We See the World - Afrojack
Isle of Capri - James Egbert

Google: Be Creative.

Now that I'm working for an online advertising company, I appreciate articles like this.

http://professional.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304911104576444363668512764.html?mod=WSJPRO_hpp_LEFTTopStories

Google getting into the advertising business is an interesting concept. Although I think the main point of the article is for businesses to be willing to take risks. It's all about the risks that businesses take. If businesses don't take risks, they can't gain anything. Sure, they can gain something, but they don't have a chance of doing great things. Because Sergey Brin had ideas and wasn't afraid to see them through, Google was able to become the internet's superpower in search. Although, to be fair, no one knew that drawing little pictures on Google's logo was a good idea. That's why for business, if you have the company and the intuition, good spirits, and sense of humor to put yourself into your company, you will do great things.

What Engineering is All About

To be perfectly honest, during my high school career I had no idea what engineering really was. It was only when I got to my second year at MIT that I started touching the surface of what engineering really entails. Especially this summer, working at my job, doing my UROP, being chair of ESP, working on my own side projects, has taught me more about what engineering really is than any class at MIT.

And I think it can be summed into one sentence: Know your tools and know when to use them.

Of course, there is way more to engineering than this, but the statement serves as a springboard for what it's all about. When you have a project or a goal in mind, the first thing you do is brainstorm ways to accomplish that goal or project. But you can't do that without knowing what tools are available to you. How can you even have clear project goals without knowing what can physically be done? More importantly, good engineers know when to save time by knowing what tools can accomplish their goals as fast as possible.

I mentioned physical possibilities - naturally, we all want to build flying carpets. Maybe this is possible (but I sure don't know anything about flight, so I can't say), but you need to know the basic science behind the physical world to design something for it. You should know that materials undergo deformation when under stress. Engineering it's about "ideal" cases - it's about how the ideal cases from first-year classes can be applied to the real world effectively.

One of the biggest flaws any engineer can have is not knowing when to say "I don't know." You not only risk humiliation when you mess something up, but you risk the integrity of your project. If you don't know something or are unsure, ask someone who does. Go look it up. No one will be judging you for not knowing - in fact, they will respect you for making sure you have your facts straight. How can you be an engineer without good science? You can't. Make sure you know the science - ask the questions when you have the chance.

In short: know your science, know your limits, and know when you don't know something. Happy Engineering!