EGG DROP CHALLENGE – Iteration #1

Total # of Achievements Earned: “15”

Our Egg Drop Solution

List and Explanation of Achievements:

Idea Generation [4 Achievements earned]

Brainstorming: Sketched 3 solutions for Egg Drop

Material Prep: Generated a list of the 9 materials required for build day

Building achievements [1 Achievement earned]

Material Size: The materials used fit inside a printer paper box.

Drop Achievements [10 Achievements earned]

Drop Accuracy: We hit the BULL’s – Eye! We ran a string through a plastic straw taped to the side of the box and attached it to a rock to guide our box to the Bull’s – eye.

Egg Resilience: Our egg did NOT crack at all! The marshmallows and peanut butter were sufficient enough to protect the egg’s shell.

Calculation Achievements: Using a physics equation –

v=x/t

[[velocity = distance/time]]

For all of our products that had little wind resistance the time of the fall was fast. However, if there was some kind of mechanism inside like a rubber band or a marshmallow, the time of the impact slowed down considerably.

Therefore, the velocity slows down with an increase of time, resulting in less fore on the egg, protecting the shell from cracking

Other Achievements: A clever name for Egg Resilience would be: DPF – Drop Protection Factor

What designs did well?

Trent Shulte's design worked extremely well. His design was very creative, simple and effective. He made a card board box, surrounded an egg with tin foil and suspended the egg in the middle of the box.

No matter what way the box fell the rubber bands would slow down the egg to a safe speed. This was unlike other designs, because most of the other designs could only fall one way.

How would you redesign your project to obtain a better score?

I would change my design to use rubber band suspension instead of peanut butter to lesson the weight of my design. If money was no problem I would have put 20 helium balloons on the top of my box.

COMPUTER CRUNCH

Brain-Storming “Rules”:

• Encourage wild seeming unrealistic ideas
• Don’t judge others’ ideas
• Build on ideas put forward by others
• Every group member and every idea has equal worth
• Get as many ideas as possible

Issue:

Engineering class of 27 students have only 25 computers. How can all 27 students have equal access to computers?

Ideas:

• Ask class to donate $$$ for additional computers
• Ask for school funding / scholarships
• Find kids with parents that work with computer companies willing to donate computers
• Make computer assignments take half a class periods time
• See if other computer classes (math, biology, etc) have extra computers
• Duct-tape 2 freshman to the High School Sr Rock... (just kidding)
• All engineering students pool together to raise money to buy 2 more computers
• Shift 2 students to a smaller sized (23 or less) Intro to Engineering class
• Allow students to use their own personal computers (need to download software onto their computers)

TED pt 1 – Ideas worth Spreading?

1) What is the TED organization about?

The TED organization is all about sharing information with the world through their website.

2) What is the purpose of their website and how does the functionality of their site support that?

The purpose of the website is to spread new ideas/ways of thinking. It was originally meant to bring 3 groups of people together, the technologically inclined, the entertainers and the designers. The function of their site supports this by containing short informative videos, usually no longer than 20 minutes.

3) As Engineers and Problem Solvers, which topic areas (the choices from the “Show talks related to:” section on the sidebar) are of most interest to us? Justify your answer

TECHNOLOGY – Because as engineers we would be inventing the technology that moves the world forward.

DESIGN – Because engineers are not only focused on the function of something they also focus on the visual aspects.

SCIENCE – Because an engineer needs to know the physics/biology behind whatever they are engineering.

4) Based on your previous answer, what are 3 talks (videos) on the site that appear like they would be of most interest to you as an Engineer/Problem solver? Justify your answer.

ALI CARR: GAMING TO RE-ENGAGE BOYS IN LEARNING – Because they are trying to use technology to get male students interested in learning. By using video games that are both educational and entertaining boys will be more inclined to learn.

MICHAEL PAWLYN: USING NATURE’S GENIUS IN ARCHITECTURE – Because it uses aspects from nature to create environments that are “green”. For example using solar energy instead of energy produced from oil that is NOT reusable.

DANNY HILLIS: UNDERSTANDING CANCER THROUGH PROTEOMICS – Because it will be informative about how cancer behaves and puts us on step closer to engineering a cure.

Follow this link to Danny Hillis' video:

http://www.ted.com/talks/danny_hillis_two_frontiers_of_cancer_treatment.html

Or view Danny Hillis' video here:

5) Each student will watch a unique video. Select a video to watch and inform Mr. Olson of your choice. If no one else has “claimed” the talk, you will be allowed to proceed with it. If someone else has already chosen the talk, you will be asked to pick another one. Watch the video. Create and post a bulletized outline of the key issues presented in the talk.

• Genomics shows a list of ingredients (genes) of the body, we can identify those genes with a predisposition for cancer – a supply list without instructions
• Proteomics is the study of proteins. It is the instructions for the “supply list”. The instructions of life.
• How you understand what’s going on in your body
• Conversation between cells, with cancer something is going wrong. Cells tell each other to live, function and die.
• Building robots to measure the body’s proteins through blood samples.
• Proteins responses to various diseases are studied.
• The beginning of how we will treat cancer.
• Hillis says we are treating cancer like an infectious disease, as if it has invaded your body.
• Cancer is a failure in the human cell system. A malfunction of our body.
• Proteomics gives us the ability to build a predictable model for cancer. Find solutions by identifying what’s happening and then giving the patient treatment based on their specific DNA sequence.

6) How could you get involved in the field/technology/issue you chose to hear about? What experience/skills/training/education would you need to learn to get involved with this field?

To get involved I could contact Danny Hill and his team via eMail for more information. Search the web for more information and people to contact about the field. The education you would need would be at least college level biology and experience working in hospitals or research labs.

Reverse Engineering: Functional Analysis – ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

1) What is the purpose of reverse engineering?

Reverse engineering’s purpose is to get your mind in an Engineering mode. To be an engineer you have to think like an engineer. It’s also important to visualize and understand the mechanics of things, break them down and see how they fit and work together.

2) What is the difference between a product’s visual and functional qualities?

Visual qualities are simply the appearance of a product and functional qualities are what make a product work.

Reverse Engineering: Visual Design – ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

1) What is meant by the phrase The Language of Design?

The Language of Design is the elements and principles of design. These are the way designers communicate through the use of visual language, with pictures, graphs, colors, and more.

2) What are visual design elements?

Visual design elements are the themes of visual design, for example, line, color, form/shape, space, texture and value.

3) What are visual design principles?

Visual design principles are 5 design techniques that are related to making things look good:

• Balance
• Rhythm
• Emphasis
• Proportion/Scale
• Unity

4) What makes a designed object aesthetically pleasing or eye catching?

The visual design elements and principles including things like vibrant colors, flashing lights and emphasis on shape.

5) Why do people associate a design’s aesthetic value with its functional efficiency and structural resilience?

When something “looks” good people assume that it “works” good. Although when something is made good it is generally made to look good too. For example, a Ferrari is built great on the inside and looks spectacular on the outside.

6) How does the gestalt principle explain the way in which the human mind perceives visual patterns?

The gestalt principle says that the human mind tends to organize visual elements into groups. The mind perceives visual patterns as a group. For example, when several objects look similar to each other we see it as one object, this is similarity.

Although there are 11 distinct objects in the design below, it appears as a single unit because all of the shapes have similarity.

7) What is graphic design and how is it different from product design?

Graphic design is more on the artistic side and produces things like printed items and signs. Product design still uses the fundamentals of art but is more focused on things to build like infrastructure and cars.

8) What information can be gained from demographic research and why is it used in marketing?

Demographic research collects information on a particular group of people and their behavior. Data collected can include gender, age, income, race, education and more.

This is important in marketing because you can focus on a target audience when designing a product.

9) Why must a graphic designer understand the demographics of the intended audience?

If you don’t have knowledge of your audience, how will you know if any one wants to buy your product? It is essential to the sale of a design.

10) How are visual design principles and elements used to capture a consumer’s attention?

When a design is visually appealing it captures your attention. The principles and elements are put together or organized in a clever way that attracts your attention.

Reverse Engineering: Mechanicnal Product - Functional Analysis

1) Primary Function

• The primary function of the ratchet wrench is to loosen or tighten bolts.

2) How I Think It Works

• The textured inner ring on the wrench twists and locks to allow the user to grip a bolt to loosen or tighten it.
• The gear-like object on the back (concealed by metal frame) allows the wrench to turn in only one direction.
• There is a metal arm that resists turning in either a clockwise or counter-clockwise motion, which bumps over the ridges on the gear like object and locks the textured ring into place.
• There is a switch that move to select direction the wrench can turn.

To learn more about how the ratchet wrench really works visit: http://www.ehow.com/how-does_5002372_socket-wrench-work.html

3) My Black Box Schema

4) Visible Mechanical Components

• The only mechanical components visible are the directional lever and the textured inner ring.

5) A Function That Cannot Be Identified

• I cannot identify exactly how moving the lever changes the locking direction, because this mechanism is hidden by the metal wrench frame.