Episode 118 — Practical Engineering

October 17, 2016 Jeff Shelton

In this episode of The Engineering Commons podcast, we talk with civil engineer Grady Hillhouse, producer of YouTube’s Practical Engineering channel.

Carmen has been known to wield a reciprocating saw as he refines his woodworking skills.
Our guest for this episode is Grady Hillhouse, a professional civil engineer from Austin, Texas who runs the Practical Engineering channel on YouTube.
Grady spends much of his professional time working on dams and hydraulic structures.
Extending his early woodworking videos, Grady first dabbled in the area of engineering outreach with a YouTube video describing a dams and reservoirs exhibit that he built for a kindergarten class taught by his wife.
Another Career Day demonstration built by Grady was an exhibit explaining tuned mass dampers.
Grady reveals that his video narrations are almost completely scripted, and that it takes about a month for him to produce a new video.
In producing his videos, Grady makes use of the following software tools: Vegas, Audacity, Inkscape, and Gimp.
Grady’s video about mechanically stabilized earth has garnered over half a million views.
One of the more challenging projects undertaken by our guest has been a DIY Watt Balance.
The Hydraulic Press channel released a video of mechanically stabilized earth being crushed, with a hat tip to the Practical Engineering channel.
Grady mentions the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse as a topic he’d like to cover in a future video.
Our guest likes watching Ben Krasnow’s Applied Science channel, Destin Sandlin’s Smarter Every Day, Cody Reeder’s adventures on Cody’s Lab, Marc Spagnuolo’s Wood Whisperer, machining on Clickspring and This Old Tony, woodworking with Frank Howarth, John Heisz, Matthias Wandel, and Izzy Swan, and the AvE channel (NSFW). He also enjoys listening to the 99% Invisible podcast.
Listeners can go to 11foot8.com to see videos of trucks losing their battles with a low overpass bridge in Durham, North Carolina.
Carmen mentions an interview with Forrest Mims from The Amp Hour podcast.
Grady describes the River Analysis System software put out by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Listeners wishing to contact Grady can find an email address on his website: practical.engineering.

Thanks to Grady Hillhouse for use of the Practical Engineering logo. Opening music by John Trimble, and concluding theme by Paul Stevenson.

Podcast Episode

Episode 117 — Soft Skills

September 30, 2016 Jeff Shelton

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This episode of The Engineering Commons dives into the importance of “soft skills” to engineering professionals.

A fictional giant from the 1984 Ghostbusters movie, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man is the chosen form of Gozer the Gozerian.
We use the LinkedIn article “Top 5 Must-Have Soft Skills for Professional Engineers” as a framework for our conversation.
In a 2012 article by the Association for Talent Development, titled “Engineers and Soft Skills,” the soft skills of a mechanical engineer are equated with those of a caveman.
It is frequently noted that engineers need to improve their communication skills.
Expectation management seems to be an important part of an engineer’s communicative duties.
We discuss the expectations management associated with the wing loading test for Boeing’s 777 aircraft.
Email is a common form of written communication for engineers.
Among the members of our discussion group, nobody seems to be a heavy user of instant messaging applications.
A 2004 article in IEEE Spectrum notes that “engineers are often accused of being uncreative.”
As noted in the Harvard Business Review, it can be the case that “Managers Don’t Really Want to Innovate.”
The NSPE’s definition of leadership is evaluated.
Jeff recalls a recent television story about people being “lucky.”

Thanks to Nicholas Smale for use of the photo titled “Ghostbusters Piggybank.” Opening music by John Trimble, and concluding theme by Paul Stevenson.

Podcast Episode

Episode 116 — The Grid

September 8, 2016 Jeff Shelton 3 Comments

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Adam, Brian and Jeff discuss the electrical grid in this episode of The Engineering Commons.

The difference engine, conceived of by J. H. Müller in 1786, and designed by Charles Babbage in the 1820s, is often considered the world’s first computer.
Brian notes that electric furnaces are increasingly used in steel production.
Adam and Brian discuss “knob and tube” wiring, an early standard for electrifying residential buildings.
The first central power station in the United States was New York City’s Pearl Street Station, which began generating electricity in 1882.
DC electrical systems continued to operate in New York City until 2007.
Political and technological wrangling over whether the U.S. electrical system should use direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC) is known as the “War of the Currents.”
Three-phase induction motors were introduced into the marketplace by General Electric in 1891.
At one time, starting in the early 1900s, mercury-arc rectifiers were commonly used to convert high-voltage AC to DC. (YouTube)
A polyphase arrangement is often used for electric power transmission.
Once quite popular, synchronous electric clocks depend upon the AC power frequency to keep accurate time, requiring power utilities to maintain a precise average frequency.
Electrical power grids have to respond to sudden changes in electrical demands, which may occur when large populations simultaneously take similar action due to the end of a sporting event or television show.
A significant power outage, starting in Cleveland, Ohio, affected the Northeast United States in 2003.
T. Boone Pickens has been promoting wind power in recent years.

Thanks to rik-shaw (blekky) for use of the photo titled “Bridgeport, CT Dec. 2012.” Opening music by John Trimble, and concluding theme by Paul Stevenson.

The Engineering Commons Podcast

Episode 118 — Practical Engineering

Episode 117 — Soft Skills

Episode 116 — The Grid

Practical insights for the engineering crowd