In a completely off-the-cuff discussion, Adam, Brian, Carmen and Jeff wander through subjects including finite state machines, power circuit wiring, and the economic implications of technological advances.
Jeff is busy preparing to teach a Software Carpentry course, as well as revising the Mechatronics course he taught the past two years.
Although there are certain conceptual advantages to having students automate their devices using an FPGA (field-programmable gate array) rather than an Arduino board, one downside is the need to teach a hardware description language (HDL), such as Verilog or VHDL.
On a past episode of The Amp Hour, Dave Vandenbout of XESS Corporation talked about MyHDL, a software package for programming FPGA devices using the Python language.
“The formal, mathematical definition of an FSM is such brain numbing, eye popping mumbo jumbo I feel certain that 9 out of 10 electronic engineering and IT students switch off in the first 5 minutes of the FSM lecture series, never to ever benefit from the power of FSMs in their work. This is not difficult stuff, it’s just made to look difficult by the academics!” — David Stonier-Gibson
Adam is working on a brewery control system, using Android and Bluetooth.
To bring water up to a boil, Adam uses a 2000 watt immersion heater running off a 120 VAC power outlet.
Without using the “singularity” term, Jeff hints at the coming intermingling of humans and machines.
Brian ponders future robots declaring that certain problems “do not compute.”
The group gets into an extended discussion about the economic effects of technology, especially with regard to the number of jobs being automated each year.
Jeff recounts the central plot to Fredrick Pohl’s short story from 1954, “The Midas Plague,” in which the rich consume less, while the poor are forced to consume the glut of goods and services produced by robots.
In a discussion about people resisting change, Jeff recalls the story of John Henry, a “steel-driving man” who raced a steam-powered hammer in tunneling through a mountain.
Jeff asks the group to consider the economic effect of Chris Gammell‘s hypothetical “chip printing machine.”
A relatively small firm in England, ARM Holdings, designs the instruction set architecture used in the popular ARM processors.
Carmen points out that small companies and advanced hobbyists can fabricate their own chip designs using the MOSIS foundry service, which is operated by the University of Southern California.
In this episode of The Engineering Commons, we discuss engineering skills and duties learned in the workplace, rather than from a textbook.
Brian tells young engineers that an engineering degree is a “learner’s permit.” Once in the workplace, engineers have to teach themselves to solve an entirely new class of problems.
A gold-fish shaped retention pond, first mentioned by Adam in our episode on engineering pranks, is referenced once again, although your dutiful scribe is still looking for hard evidence of such a structure.
An extended discussion related to beer production and consumption breaks out amongst the discussion panel.
Jeff describes how the bricks that once covered the entire racing surface at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway are now found only at the start/finish line, in what is known as the Yard of Bricks.
Lateral loading on racing surfaces, due to the massive grip exerted by race car tires, requires the use of specialized asphalt mixtures.
“Engineering is the art of organizing and directing men, and of controlling the forces and materials of nature for the benefit of the human race.” — Henry Gordon Stott (1907)
“”The ideal engineer is a composite … He is not a scientist, he is not a mathematician, he is not a sociologist or a writer; but he may use the knowledge and techniques of any or all of these disciplines in solving engineering problems.” — N. W. Dougherty (1955)
“Engineering is not merely knowing and being knowledgeable, like a walking encyclopedia; engineering is not merely analysis; engineering is not merely the possession of the capacity to get elegant solutions to non-existent engineering problems; engineering is practicing the art of the organized forcing of technological change… Engineers operate at the interface between science and society…” — Gordon Stanley Brown (1962)
“Scientists study the world as it is, engineers create the world that never has been.” — Theodore von Kármán
Engineers break complex problems into smaller solvable pieces. The “art” of engineering is knowing how big those pieces can be.
Whereas textbook problems usually have a definite answer, problems from the workplace are often ill-defined, and may sometimes offer no practicable solution.
Problem constraints in industry may seem at times arbitrary, being controlled by economic, political, and organizational powers beyond the engineer’s realm of influence. Additionally, these constraints are not fixed, but vary with time.
We reveal our high-tech method of aligning audio tracks in Audacity, the audio editing software used to create this podcast.
Obsolescence issues are increasingly important for design engineers as commercially-available components are being manufactured for shorter periods of time.
Engineers must avoid the natural urge to over-design products, even when dealing with complex constraints.
Making a prototype work once in the lab is far different than making thousands of mass-produced products work reliably in the field.
An important part of an engineer’s job is prioritizing where one’s time should be spent.
Many times it’s more important to be on the “proper” side of the equation than to be right; that is, one has to make certain assumptions that may be incorrect, but those assumptions need to be made such that the product or service will not fail, even if the assumptions are not perfectly accurate.
Jeff’s example of a 500 ksi stress load would have been more realistic at 50 ksi or 500 MPa, at least for steel parts.
In examining the meltdown of nuclear reactors at Japan’s Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant, recent reports have suggested that a contributing factor was the lowering of a seawall back in 1967.
It’s important for engineers to keep track of the small details, even though the process of doing so may be quite tedious.
In his autobiography, test pilot Chuck Yeager recalls the tragic outcome of a line worker’s decision to install bolts “right side up” while assembling a jet plane aileron, even thought the blueprints indicated otherwise.
Engineering designs need to account for human factors, as well as technical constraints and specifications.
As an engineer, skepticism is prudent in evaluating information and methods. However, too much skepticism can lead to one being labeled “not a team player.”
Engineers are often asked to be “fortune tellers,” predicting future outcomes for processes and designs that have never before been realized.
Adam emphasizes the importance of understanding safety factors, and their proper application in the design process.
Production and maintenance costs are crucial factors in industry, while such cost issues are often overlooked in textbook problems.
Although he started off as a mechanical engineer working at GM, Todd returned to school to get his master’s degree in electrical engineering.
Leveraging his prior work experience, our guest landed a marketing job covering the automotive industry for National Semiconductor. He eventually worked in the marketing, design and applications groups at Linear Technology.
A business that fabricates integrated circuits for other companies is known as a “foundry.”
Linear Technology is still selling the LT1001 op-amp that it designed in the early 1980s.
Semiconductor manufacturing equipment is often classified by the diameter of the silicon wafer it can handle.
Todd was motivated to start his blog about the history of analog electronics, Analog Footsteps, after the untimely death of legendary analog circuit designers Jim Williams and Bob Pease.
Bob Widlar was amazingly prolific as a designer, and also incredibly difficult to manage as an employee.
Carmen mentions the story of Bob Widlar and Bob Dobkin building a circuit to steal cycles from the wall outlet of National Semiconductor executive Pierre Lamond, thus causing his synchronous clock to lose time each day.
Todd describes the ability of young engineers to change entire industries in his post, When 30 Was Old.
Bob Swanson was the “business guy” who figured out how to make Linear Technology profitable in its early years, serving as the company’s president from 1981 to 1999, and its CEO from 1999 to 2005.
In a completely off-the-cuff discussion, Adam, Brian, Carmen and Jeff wander through subjects including finite state machines, power circuit wiring, and the economic implications of technological advances.
