As product design engineers studying the product design bit at art school and the engineering bit at university, it’s very easy to end up separating the two completely and forgetting the overlap. Ben highlighted this by having us apply very easy maths to simple product design problems, using only estimations. I’ll be the first to admit, maths is not my forte, and being so focused on the complex had led me to forgetting the fundamentals.
Ben highlighted how important it is to remember the basics through a design a student had come up with which involved a pull along oxygen generator to assist breathing. The energy produced by the wheels turning powered the whole machine. Well, in theory anyway. Through applying some very basic high school equations, it took less than 5 minutes to find that this idea would never actually work in real life. We then did the same to see if collecting rainwater on the roof of the Reid building and running it through a turbine would produce enough energy to power the art school (spoiler: it wouldn’t).
These exercises were utilised some very simple engineering we’ve encountered many times before, but somewhat naively never actually thought to apply to a design. Being able to immediately discover whether your plans hold any water (pardon the pun) is an excellent tool that is quite uniquely ours, and we should all be sure to utilise in the future.
Morven
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