The Magic of Engineering for the Customer
Creating a schedule for the first time can be a daunting task, especially for a first year engineering student. There are so many aspects to consider…
Senior year is weird. Not only do I have a new photograph for the Admissions Blog (dork status achieved) but I’ve also transitioned from spending my life doing problem sets to assignments that require solutions to everyday engineering challenges.
For example, during freshman fall I had six or seven different problem sets due each week, ranging from a six problem DiffEq set to a 15 problem physics beast. This year, I walked into Senior Design and each student was told to find “20 Ways to Keep Grandpa from Falling Over” (or Jumbo... see below.) for our first weekly assignment. My shocked brain, so set in its problem set ways, began to struggle after idea six or seven. Once I was at idea fifteen, the brainstorming got bizarre (Hint: anti-gravity machines are a must).
Also, I felt the need to add in this video since we're talking about falling over...
Here’s a few of the ideas that my classmates and I were able to come up with to combat grandpa's (and Jumbo's) problem:
1.) Airbag Belt – gyros and g-sensors detect the fall and then deploy airbags to prevent injury
2.) Jet belt – this idea slowly morphed its way into a jet pack, but the basic idea is that the belt detects a fall and fires one of four jet engines to counter grandpa’s stumble
3.) Awareness Glasses – a simple app that can be applied to a product such as Google Glass. The app identifies potential objects that could cause a trip and notifies the user of the obstacle
4.) Legislation – convince Congress to pass legislation that bans all walking and forces everyone to crawl on hands and knees – welcome back to The Rugrats
5.) Ground Pounder – A large contraption, much like a road paver, that drives in front of you flattening all objects that you could possibly trip over. The cat may not like this one
6.) A simple cane – don’t break what works
7.) Handrails EVERYWHERE
Also, if anyone else is feeling nerdy and is a fan of cats, see the link below.
An Engineer’s Guide to Cats:
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