Discipline Report

WBS & Gantt Chart Food Lab - 10/20/16

Today was the day that our group had to come together and create the final WBS that we would follow to complete the assigned task at hand... To go and get food for everybody. First we started off by comparing WBS charts. At first it was just Carlos and I that had it completed. William had not shown up yet and Alex and Joel didn't complete theirs. Mine looked something like this...

Carlos had more of a in depth list of the whole project which he included the minutes of each step which I didn't. Mine was a lot broader chart form of the WBS that he made. At this point the group was having difficulties deciding which to focus on until William came in with his.

His was great because it was a great in-between of both Carlos and I's WBS. So we decided to focus on Williams. Before we completely finished finalizing the WBS we had already decided where we were going to go which was a big no-no to Mrs. Vestal. She had us decide another place to go. After the finalization of the WBS we went to work. We had to first decide where we were going to eat. After only 3 or 5 minutes of communication we had already planned to call up a pancake place called Andy's Pancake and Steak house. While Carlos had them on the phone getting them to list the order we were taking notes on the cost... We then decided that we wanted to get. Some of us including Joel and I only had cards, while some of us only had a larger for of currency other than 5 dollars. So it was settled that Carlos and William would throw in a 20 each and the rest would pay our cost. We decided them that William and I were going to go get the food and I would be driving.

It didn't take William and I but only 10 minutes maximum to get to the Pancake house and about 5 minutes to pay and collect the food. They were very nice people. But William and I forgot an important part of the order... the receipt. But it was a pretty hefty bill and when she said the cost it was stuck in my head, $32.50. After only about another 10 minute drive William and I were welcome by the rest of our hungry looking group. The area was nice and clean, I was impressed! We then all sat down and all enjoyed our delicious pancakes!

After that nice meal we all cleaned up and that ended our successful first of its kind EGR Breakfast! Later I Got to working on a more accurate WBS and the Gantt chart that goes with. I used the excel program to create the Gantt chart because I felt like it was the most effective and easy way to create it. Although I couldn't change the cell size for different time intervals I did however use a shading feature in the cell to make it look like it was taking up less time. So here is my refurbished WBS and my newly made Gantt Chart... Enjoy!

3-D Printing Lab - 10/17/16

Final

Today was the day that I finally got to print my design! I was very excited to see how it was going to turn out. After Calculus I got the chance to talk to Mrs. Vestal to see if I could print, she said yes and we were off to go turn on the printer and get it warmed up. We had some minor difficulties with getting the design to print, mainly because of the type of file that was associated with the design. I fixed the file type, put it onto a usb and then finally I was off to go print!

I would like to remind you of the design that was created.

I thought the design looked very pretty, and it certainly did look okay. But there was a problem that I first thought off in the beginning. The way the wings were suspended above the ground. It certainly was an issue....

When we pressed start the print was off. It looked very beautiful.

It was looking like amazing progress. Unfortunately I was right about the wings. I saw where the printer took the wrong turn and so I left so I could be surprised by the outcome and trust me... I was.

Even though it wasn't exactly like my final design, not even similar in fact, I'm still very proud of the first thing I have designed for the 3-D printer. If I were to do it again I would have done what Mrs. Vestal told me after my final print... To keep it simple. But we live and we learn :)

3-D Printing Lab - 10/6/16

During lab class today we discussed 3-D printing. The 3-D printer that the college has is a Maker-bot, so we all went to work learning how to use it. First I learned how the history of Maker-Bot and how the company started and how it expanded very quickly. Next I learned about Maker-Bot desktop and how to use that by reading an article and watching a quick video. Then I watched a quick video on the print settings, so far I was starting to get a basic idea of how 3-D printing works. The following things I learned were laying out your print job on the build plate, preparing design fides for 3-D printing, learned how to use thingiverse, how to export 3-D printing files, and finally how much filament is used/cost/time. Which was very interesting and a lot cheaper than I would have thought 3-D printing Filament would have cost! The next thing I did was go to Tinkercad which looks like this:

I then started to mess around with the shapes and seeing what I could put together. However it is my very first time using a 3-D printing building software, so I am not an expert.

So I made a neat little house! Although Tinkercad is a great software I wanted to be a little more specific when it came to building my design. So I researched some other programs and found a great one called Meshmixer. I messed around with it for awhile and brainstormed what I wanted to make. Then I thought, I could make my favorite fighter jet!

So I was messing around with mesh mixer and I was able to sketch an outline of the plane with the help of the picture.

This is my progress... Its a series of smoothing my outline while adding detail and depth... using multiple images of the F-22 I as able to get an okay amount of detail. I added the top fins later in the design process... I constructed one, then copy and pasted so I could tack it onto the design at the same angle. Finally I smoothed and added the last touches.... here is the timeline in images.

I cannot wait to print!

Chapter 4 Notes, Thinking Like an Engineer

Engineering Communication

I think I have heard it before... Engineers cannot construct a grammatically sentence. That is a common joke about engineers. Communication is very important to the engineer. Engineers to not have to be expert communicators but when the time comes they have to be able to convince someone to fund a project, meaning that you must be convincing and persuasive. It is good to practice these communication  skills to gain a better understanding.

Presentation skills are very important because engineers very often present their ideas to an audience. It is important to understand that the presenter is more important than the presentation. A presentation will not hold the audiences attention, the presenter will. Before making the presentation and presenting it is essential to Preplan and ask yourself these questions:

• Who is my audience?
• What is my Purpose?
• Where is all the equipment I need?
• When am I on the program agenda?
• Why am I giving this talk?
• How long should I talk?

It is always important to note the 5 W's and 1 H listed above. Also it is vital to make sure you look at the following:

• Shortness
• Simplicity
• Strength
• Sincerity

Introduction is the beginning of a speech and is essential to grabbing the attention of your audience.

Body is what makes up the majority of a speech and is important to keep your audience interested in the information being given. Conclusion is the end of a paper and is important to put it all together. In other words to summarize, showing appreciation, and allowing questions.

A well designed presentation is important because it need to be able to hold the audiences attention while at the same time being easy to understand.

In the book it shows the do's and do not's of some Sample Presentations.

There are some very important do's and don'ts to note:

DO:

• Relax.
• Speak slowly and clearly, making good eye contact.
• When your hands are not busy, drop them to your sides.
• Rehearse your presentation out loud multiple times. Get a friend to critique.
• Arrive early enough to make sure technology is working, and to resolve any problems.

DON'T:

• Lean on objects, turn your back to the audience, or cover your mouth.
• Read your presentation from the text.
• Tell inappropriate jokes.
• Stammer, overuse "I" or say "uh" or "um". silence is okay to recollect your thoughts.
• Chew gum, remove coins from pocket, crack knuckles.
• Shuffle feet or slouch, or sway, or pace.
• Play with notes.

The general guidelines of the Basic Technical Writing Skills goes as follows:

• Be clear, use precise language
• Ensure that finished copy logically and smoothly flows towards a conclusion. Check for Choppiness or discontinuity. avoid long sentences.
• If possible use 10 point font and 1.5 line spacing.
• Define any terms used that might be unfamiliar to the reader.
• Present facts or inferences rather than personal feelings.
• Maintain a professional tone
• Number and caption all titles, figures and appendices
• Proofread and edit several times - include headings, figures, tables, captions, and references.
• Read it twice - and edit accordingly.
• Spell out numbers that starts sentences.
• Keep the leading zero with a decimal.
• For long numbers do not spell out.
• Use dollar symbol.
• Watch for Sig Figs. Keep it reasonable.

When making your presentations or writing your reports make sure that you are Properly Using References. The following will help you avoid errors in the communication:

• Authority - Is it clear who is responsible for the work?
• Bias - Is the article free of any bias?
• Currency - When was the information updated?
• Use sources reviewed by experts.
• Secure a peer review.
• Compare the info found in your article or website with other content from other articles and/or websites.
• Corroborate the information.

Emailing is a vital part of professional technical communication. When you finish writing the email in question you have to ask yourself if you would mind the president of your university, CEO of your company, or even your parents to read the email, if not you should reword the email. Things to check while creating your email include:

• Use the correct address for the recipient.
• Use an appropriate subject line.
• Sign your full name and include contact information. Include your course day and time when referring about a class.
• Change your sending name to your full name.
• Keep it Brief.
• If you expect a response be sure your action items are clearly stated.
• Use correct capitalization and punctuation.
• Avoid putting something in an email that you would not say in person.
• To avoid accidently sending the email without looking it over fill the TO: and CC: lines last.
• When waiting for a response wait during a grace period of 48-72 hours. If you have not received a response, then you can resend the email inquiring politely if it was received.

All of the guidelines together make for an excellent and professional email.

Structural Success/Failure

Transportation Success:

Gateshead Millennium Bridge 

The Gateshead Millennium Bridge is located between Gateshead and Newcastle, England, and is built over the River Tynes.

The Construction began in 1998. The opening of the bridge to the public was on September 17th, 2001. The structure is made out of reinforced concrete and steel. The construction took about 3 years. The bridge itself was constructed on the bank of the river and it was raised by the worlds largest floating water crane at the time (Asian Hercules II) onto the platform to allow it to tilt.

The bridge is known as a Bowstring Arch bridge, meaning that the arch of the bridge is held by tension with wires attached to the base of the bridge. The arch is held by 18 tensioned wires.

The Gateshead Millennium Bridge is an innovation because of its unique "blinking eye" effect to allow cyclists and pedestrians to cross the Tyne river as well as to allow boats up to 82ft tall to pass underneath by tilting.

Gateshead isn't very big at only 26ft wide, 413ft long, and 164ft tall from the base to the highest point of the arch.

The cost of building this beautiful structure was about 22 million pounds or roughly $26,825,571.

Wilkinson Eyre and Gifford were the two company's responsible for designing and building the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. Both companies received an award for the design and building of the bridge. Wilkinson Eyre won the 2002 Royal Institute of British Architects Sterling Prize, and Gifford won the 2003 IstuctE Supreme award.

The Bridge itself won numerous awards such as the Outstanding Structure award from the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering, as well as the 2002 award of excellence. The bridge was also shown on the 1 pound coin in 2007.

Other awards listed here

This Bridge was very successful because of its unique design and mechanics. It is going to be a head turner for years to come!

Link to the Success Project

References:

• http://www.gateshead.gov.uk/Leisure%20and%20Culture/attractions/bridge/Home.aspx
• http://www.bristol.ac.uk/civilengineering/bridges/Pages/NotableBridges/GatesheadMillennium.html
• http://www.newcastlegateshead.com/things-to-do/gateshead-millennium-bridge-p23821

Structural Failure:

Banqiao Dam

The Banqiao Dam was located in Henan Province, China. The Dam was built over the Ru river because of massive flooding in the Huai River.

The construction began in April, 1951 and ended in June, 1952. The Structure was made out of clay and it was 79ft tall. The Dam crest (top) was 380ft above sea level. After construction was complete there was noted cracks In the structure and in the Sluice Gates. A team of engineers were assembled to address and fix the issue... The Dam was repaired and it was dubbed "The Iron Dam", even though its structure was made from clay.

I thought it was important to mention a Hydrologist that was on the design team for the Banqiao Dam, Chen Xing, who was against aspects of the dam. He thought 12 sluice gates would have been the correct amount but instead he was outvoted by the design team and there were only 5 sluice gates put onto the dam. This man was later removed from the design team.

The Dam was able to hold a whopping 492 million m^3 of water, with a flood water backup of about 375 million m^3 of water. It was said that the dam was able to withstand a once-in-a-1000-year flood. Which is a flood that would only likely occur once every 1000 years which is actually pretty good.

The main reason the Banqiao dam failed on the 8th of August, 1975, was because of the Typhoon Nina. This storm produced a once-in-2000-years flood which devastated the dam. The storm was producing 7.46in of rain an hour. After the abundance of water built up in the dam it finally gave away. One reason could have been because of the lacking amount of sluice gates. But regardless the dam was bound to fail because of the significant downpour. Why is the failure of the Banqiao dam important you ask? Because it was the cause of 171,000 casualties. Recently a new Dam was built in its place.

I couldn't find any cost or pictures before the dam collapsed.

Project link

References:

http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/aug1975.htm

https://www.britannica.com/event/Typhoon-Nina-Banqiao-dam-failure

https://www.internationalrivers.org/resources/the-forgotten-legacy-of-the-banqiao-dam-collapse-7821

Egg Drop Challenge Report

It's over and time to recap...

The objective of the naked egg drop was to successfully create a contraption using the budget of 100 bendy straws and tape. Different factors including how high the egg was dropped, and the weight of the contraption played a role in the scoring of the drops in the end as well. The math of the three egg drops is pictured below.

Joel and I approached the design and sketch with a list of certain criteria we had listed in the beginning of the project. The criteria that we had discussed included survivability of the egg, durability of the catching apparatus. We started to sketch a box design that would have a collapsible structure to absorb the energy from the egg. (9-15-16)




We were going to stick with design but Joel and I missed a lab (9-22-16) during flooding which left me at home able to redesign. I consulted with Joel and started brainstorming ideas that would better catch the egg. I thought that incorporating a funnel into a cube structure would be a bit more challenging than it needed to be. Therefore I sketched a taller rectangle catcher. I ended up liking it better than the original design.

(9-27-16) Joel and I received an extra team member, Rebekah. Since we missed the building day the three of us got right to building the catching apparatus. We built based off the taller catcher in the second sketch. By the end of class we got this far...

The only difference Between the sketch and the actual contraption is the base. It was a last minute design entry and it turned out to work very great! Actually our first design could successfully catch an egg, which was very exciting.














(9-29-16) This was the day that we had to test the catchers. Before we did the final three egg drops we wanted to do a few quick drops to see where we were at in terms of accuracy, and usefulness. We wanted to drop from a good 10 ft. The catcher successfully handled it... after a few tries because we missed two times. So we went back to redesign and added an increased opening for which the egg could fall in. Joel, Rebekah and I also added tape around the sides to ensure the egg doesn't fall through the sides during its free fall. The final design looked like this:

And showed that it was successful at catching an egg.





After we felt comfortable with our design we were ready to test. Joel weighed our 3 eggs. They ended weighing 59g, 59.8g, and 57.6g. Afterwards we weighed our catcher which came to around 69.5 g. I found it interesting that our catcher weighed only 10.5g more than our heaviest egg. The first two drops were from 8 ft. Unfortunately we didn't realize that dropping the egg through the hole on the ladder wouldn't work, therefore our first two drops the 59g, and 59.8g egg ended up breaking completely. We thought we should switch it up for the third drop so that we can ensure that we get some points on the board, so with very careful aiming with the plum bob we were able to successfully drop the egg from 7ft.

Overall even though the drop wasn't the most successful for Spain (A.K.A. Joel, Bekah, and I) it was an excellent team building exercise. We had obstacles such as the flooding to cut our time short, but overall we came together in the end to build a working contraption. If I could go back and redo the test I would ensure that we would be so much more careful on aiming, and use the plum bob more. But the egg drop taught me very excellent teamwork skills that ill be able to hold onto for years to come!

Here is a video of Spain's egg catcher from about 12ft. (After the final drops)

Chapter 2 Notes, Thinking Like an Engineer

Ethics

Ethical decision making is a part of everyday life. Most ethical decisions you make in a day are not considerably important but they might lead to consequences that are not desired. As an engineer decisions that you make could affect thousands and thousands of people. Practicing analyzing day to day decisions from an ethical standpoint is important to be able to make good decisions. The reasons people make ethical decisions are to make the world a better place and to avoid unpleasant consequences. Religions made brief codes that summarize how one should live their lives, like the Code of Ur Nammu.

Some Ethical Decisions are straight forward. Just like for the majority of people it is unethical to kill someone. There is no set of rules or algorithms that somebody can follow that ensures that the best ethical decision is being made. However, some people have made procedures that you can follow to consider certain ethical decisions.

A Four Step Procedure is listed for people to follow like mentioned above. (1) "Determine what the issues are and who (stakeholders) might be affected by the various alternative courses of action that might be implemented." Identifying issues is normally easy because problems normally stand out. For example... Using bio-fuel instead of Gasoline. The issues would be the price of gasoline, fossil fuel company business. The Stakeholders would be Fossil fuel company's, and the population of people who depend on gasoline. (2) "Consider the effects of alternative courses of action from different perspectives." The first perspective would be Consequences when you consider this perspective you have to ask yourself how the stakeholders are going to be affected. For example if bio-fuel was a big hit it would drive the fossil fuel company's out of business. The second Perspective would be Intent which is the reason why the person is doing the action. The third perspective would be Character and that is the attributes of the said person doing an action. (3) "Correlate perspectives" Consider the results from the 3 perspectives that were discussed. If the three perspectives do not agree then you should rethink the question. (4) "Act" This is usually the hardest step to take, since some ethical action takes courage. Take action to do what is right.

The three perspectives are discussed above but they are consequences, intent, and character.

Example 2-1, "Consider the question of whether to allow further drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). List several issues and stakeholders.

Issues:
Gas Prices
Sustainable Energy
Disruption of the Ecosystem
Disruption of Life for Local Residents
Stock Market

Stakeholders:
Oil Companies
Employees (Local and Foreign)
Ecosystem Organisms
Foreign Relations
Stockholders in Oil Companies

Local Residents

I think that it is not ethical at all, no matter what, to touch a wildlife refuge. Living by a wildlife refuge for the majority of my life has made me realize the true importance of them... to protect the wildlife, and it is completely unethical to drill for oil and risk the lives of the wildlife of Alaska.

Example 2-2, "Should all U.S. children be fingerprinted when entering kindergarten and again each third year of grade school (3, 6, 9, 12)? Identify the stakeholders and consequences."

Stakeholders:
Software Companies and Developers (Database Configuration)
U.S. Children and Their Families
U.S. Government
U.S. Law Enforcement Departments
Cyber Hackers
Ink Companies

Consequences:
Record of U.S. Children
Confidentiality Precautions
Risk of Cyber Hacking for Info

I honestly do not see a need for a kid to get finger printed every three years. I can see how it can help with finding criminals but not missing children... And for the criminal aspect... the children have to be old enough to do a crime. But it does raise a lot of questions about personal freedom.

Example 2-3, "Should you download music illegally over the Internet?"

Unless you want to get caught by the federal government, probably not...

Example 2-4, "Your friends are deriding another student behind her back because she comes from a poor family and does not have good clothes"

1. Join the criticism?

That would be extremely harsh.

     2. Ignore it, pretend it is not happening, or simply walk away?

What good would that do to the situation.

     3. Tell your friends that they are behaving badly and insist that they desist?

Yes it sounds like the most productive option to take.

Example 2-5, "Your company has been granted a contract to develop the next generation of electronic cigarette, also known as "nicotine delivery system," and you have been assigned to the design team. Can you in good conscience contribute your expertise to this project."

You might just ask yourself the same thing I ask myself... Is it healthier than cigarettes? Sometimes even though some ideas may not sound good they are better than others. If people can live healthier lives smoking E-Cigarettes instead of cigarettes, I could see myself supporting this project.

Plagiarism is when you claim someone else's work as your own. Sometimes it is easy to spot plagiarism and other times it can be much harder. We ourselves plagiarize sometimes because our brains bring up other peoples information disguising it as an original thought.

The Engineering Creed is a code of ethics known by the (NSPE). Its a pledge to give utmost performance, to participate, to live and work according to the laws of man, and to place service before profit.

Engineers have a big Social Responsibility because they have problem solving skill that could possibly affect the lives of many people. It is engineers responsibility to use their problem solving talents to solve problems.

Engineers have the ability to do and solve so many problems the world has today. An engineer has the chance to solve certain issues that can affect the public safety. Its how the engineer answers questions and how they make ethical decisions that can affect the public safety.

I found this online regarding "The Whole Life Concept". It is covering the topics of Passion, which is something that drives someone to make decisions in life. The Impact which how someone makes a difference in the world. This can be related back to making ethical decisions for the better. Finally, there is Knowledge which is mainly used for coming up with possible answers to some problems.