Tuesday 28 April 2015

#IAmAnEngineerBecause ...



What happened when Engineer's Australia challenged professionals to say why they chose to be an Engineer in 140 characters or less?


Students like me get inspired. We also laugh, because apparently engineers can be funny just like everyone else. Especially Chomical Engineers (hehe, see @ChomicalEng for more giggles).


The most common responses to the hashtag? Because... "I love solving problems", "I love knowing how things work" and "I want to improve the world".


They're some pretty big but unsurprising ideas coming from engineers.


For some, it's a problem.


"#IAmAnEngineerBecause I get to be creative with physics. And I love to build things. Seriously, I can't stop...Help!" @labjg

For others, it's a fashion statement.


"#IAmAnEngineerBecause I prefer overalls to a lab coat" @EngineerMinions
(Picture included...hehe)


"although I'm still a dirty overalls rather than clean white lab coat kinda guy" @ChomicalEngineer


For Bukayo, it's because she was given the opportunity to be whatever she could be.


"#IAmAnEngineerBecause nobody in my sphere of influence ever limited my potential or told me I couldn't. (Or, at least I will be very soon )" @HeyBukayomi

And Kristy just makes it sound damn cool.


"#IAmAnEngineerBecause an artificial heart isn't just going to grow itself. Or is it... :o" @KristyGarrick

If I had to adhere to 140 characters, I'd say:


"#IAmAnEngineer(ingStudent)Because... Engineering is unlimited. It gives you the skills to approach any problem that seems important to you. It empowers"

(That's 150, but lucky for me, this isn't twitter. I get to have a whole blog about it.)


I have friends working on projects in physics, mental health, sports, government efficiency, energy usage, water storage...and lots more. It's endless!


And now (thanks to the hashtag) we all have something to come back to if we need to be reminded about why we're working so hard. Oh, and also some funny people to follow on twitter (my favourites: @ChomicalEng and @EngineerMinions).


Love,

Emily

P.S. While we're talking social media, my dog Frank recently launched his own Instagram account. Find @frank_lets_cavoodle for insight into the life of a 2 year old cavoodle!




Friday 10 April 2015

Emily's DIY

"Hey, you do Engineering! Can you fix this for me?"
- Everyone, ever.

I'm here to eliminate any preconceptions you might have about me and my ability to fix things.

This is mainly directed at my mum.

"Emily can you make the internet go faster!?"

"Emily, can you fix the barracuda?"

"Emily, can you clean the pool while you're at it?"

They always morph into questions about household chores. Apparently I'm more qualified for those too!

The truth is, I'm no more able to fix the barracuda than my older brothers. My mechanics lecturers have never taken a barracuda apart in front of the class. Perhaps I could understand the theory behind a few of the mechanisms better than most people, but really the only thing that separates me from my brothers is curiosity.

I chose to study Engineering because I'm curious about how systems work. Systems like barracudas, buildings and power plants of course, but also systems made up of humans. I like learning about new systems and I'm definitely more willing than my brothers to start taking something apart and investigating. I just can't guarantee that I can actually make it start working again...

So mum, next time you have something you want me to fix for you, please don't expect me to have some sort of special knowledge. I'll probably be able to figure it out for you, just don't look at me like I have super powers.

I'll leave you with a picture of a fix my housemates and I have inflicted on our house. Our fixes generally consist of hair ribbons holding things together because we're resourceful and fashionable like that!

Here is a ribbon helping our washing machine drain water.



See, Engineering can be pretty!

Love, 
Em

Friday 3 April 2015

Touch Football and Electron Density.

Have you ever missed out on selection in a sports team you think you deserved? Have you ever wondered how someone could possibly have made the cut? How many times have you thought the whole process was biased, unfair or vague?

Bec Beath is a touch football superstar and Systems Engineering student at ANU. This year she's out to create a better system for the selection of wingers on a touch football team. Yep, that's engineering. She's using technical tools like a House of Quality, Functional Block Diagrams & Evaluation Matrices, and she'll analyse the requirements, generate TPMs and examine the whole life-cycle of the system.


At this stage, it's hard to tell if she's concerned about the integrity of sports team selection or ensuring that she's the most obvious candidate for the winger position (I'm on to her), but either way it's an awesome example of how applicable Systems Eng is to everything we do and everything we love.

On the other end of the spectrum, my friend Alex is a physics nerd. We all know them. Sometimes I wish I was one, just because geeking out about physics things looks super impressive to everyone else. However, reading his project description reminded me why I don't study physics...

"I'll be measuring the electron density in the ionosphere to calibrate radio astronomical measurements against Faraday rotation by sending radio waves of known polarisation from a 1U cubist through the ionosphere to the MWF in Western Australia".

Hopefully you're all as lost as I am.

When I asked for simple terms, he said: "measuring stuff in the atmosphere from space".

I still don't understand, but hey at least he seems interested in it.

Another friend is looking at ways to solve common engineering problems on a phone or tablet. (I'm definitely annoyed he didn't make an app for this before I started first year). Other projects include the efficiencies of a video store, home water systems, keyboards or an online tutoring system...

Nothing is off limits for us and it will be really cool to see what comes out of all these projects!

Love, 
Emily



Thursday 2 April 2015

Choosing a Project

Do a project on anything. Literally anything! Just make sure you apply what you've learnt. Oh and it's worth 40% of your grade. Good luck!
- ANU Lecturer

It may not be exactly what my Systems Engineering Lecturer said, but it's a pretty great summary of how it sounded. My first response went something along the lines of: "OMG how can I possibly choose something when my options are everything in the world!?" 

It completely changed the way I looked at everything for a week. I walked around finding all the things that could be improved, processes in my life that were inefficient and technologies that didn't suit their purpose. My friend and I got as far as creating a logical flow diagram describing the process by which my dog Frank could successfully eat his dinner (my other dog always steals it). By the end of the week, I was extremely dissatisfied with the quality of everything in my life, but I had a project idea! (No, it wasn't designing a more efficient dinner process for Frank). 

I've worked in a medical practice for 3 years, and for anyone that has experience in the profession, you'll know that the connections between medical providers and services around Australia is a complex web of incompatible processes, competing interests and outdated systems. You could pick just about any process or system used in patient care and it would make an awesome assignment because there's such a need for new streamlined systems. I'm going to be looking at referral methods for GPs to specialists over the next few months and assessing their suitability in Australia.

To be able to work on a project that's relevant to your job or your personal life is really exciting. After I selected my topic, I was really disappointed that I wouldn't then be able to investigate all these other things around me that seemed to be falling apart!

Here's a photo of Frank having his dinner stolen by my other dog, Mini. Just in case someone else would like to do a project on preventing that. Thanks!



Love, 
Emily

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