Presentation Reflection

My presentation was on ‘The Use of computers in Design and Manufacturing’. My opinion of my performance on the day is not good. I completely blanked and forgot what I wanted to say, despite weeks of preparation, practice and creation of, what I feel was, a great piece of media presentation. I know this subject inside out as well I should, I have been in the industry for 11 years.

In fairness to myself I did settle down after the first couple of slides and present a semi-understandable talk that ran through the whole process of engineering design and manufacture showing how computers are used and are in fact vital to every step. I also postulated that computers would become more vital as manufacturing becomes more reliant on automation.

Questions raised were, firstly, who the buyers of products would be because if all the manufacturing was automated no one would have a job or money and, secondly, how 3D printers work. In response to the first I pointed out that manufacturing was not the only industry and people would never be fully removed from the process anyway. The second was trickier as I have only ever seen a ZCorp machine in action despite having handled a number of 3D printed units. I feel my description of the way the ZCorp machine worked satisfied most but not the questioner as he had seen a machine which used another method.

Mentor Reflection

Over the last few months I have had the pleasure of being mentored by my good friend and colleague Machin Wrubinski. Machin is a qualified engineer from Poland, which means that he spent not three years studying for a degree in engineering but seven years. While his verbal English is astoundingly good, his written English is less so. Therefore he agreed to act as my mentor on the condition that he was not required to write anything in English. This is why there are no entries on my blog from him.

It has been very rewarding, being able to speak to somebody about engineering. I love talking about all the amazing things I have learned, but my wife (an artist) just nods and smiles. Machin therefore has been a blessed relief, providing feedback on my understanding of subjects and correcting me when I have missed the point.

Perhaps my best discussion with him was on the subject of a mountain bike design I came up with when I was a teenager. I even went as far as applying for a patent on it, but never followed through with final designs and a prototype. This is something I have regretted for a long time. I no longer care if the design has potential in the market place, I want to complete it for my own personal satisfaction. Machin understood my design straight away and has offered to help me build a prototype when I have finished the final designs. Who knows maybe it would make a good final year project.

Personal Tutoring Session

I had a one to one tutoring session with John regarding my academic paper. Before the meeting I was quite confident that my work was of a good standard, having rewritten it about five times already. John found a significant number of floors in the work and gave what he called constructive criticism. In other words he tore it limb from limb and, even though it pained me to do so, I had to concede that he knew what he was talking about. I noted all of his points and rewrote it again accordingly. Initial feedback from John on the final draft is far more favourable. Thank You.

Research Methodology

I will use a quantitative approach to comparing the environmental impacts of Li-ion battery powered cars and Hydrogen fuel cell powered cars. I feel this is the only real way to gain a definitive answer, as qualitative research would only reveal peoples opinions on the subject, which in turn would only show how much they now about the quantitative answers.

VARK Questionnaire Reflection

My results from the VARK questionnaire were 5, 4, 3 and 8 respectively.

The VARK questionnaire revealed that I prefer to see things demonstrated and then do it myself. I already knew this was the way I like to lean, but was surprised by how much more I lean towards the do it myself part.

I feel it is important to play to my strengths so a I will gain a greater understanding of subjects by paying attention to practical learning methods. Within the academic environment the practical learning will probably have take the form of increased revision while in the workplace I am learning by doing every day.

However as subjects are taught using all of these methods so it is also important to pay attention to my weaknesses. The Aural and Read/write methods are mostly employed in the classroom, so improvement of my note taking skills is a must.

Literature Review

When in 2008 Top Gear (series 12 Episode 7) reviewed the Tesla Roadster Li-ion powered car, they concluded that it was not nearly as efficient as it was supposed to be, the batteries wear out, it takes ages to charge and the electricity comes from un-environmentally friendly sources. In the same episode they also reviewed the Honda FCX Clarity Hydrogen fuel cell car and concluded that it was the car of the future and it’s only problem was obtaining hydrogen.
The Tesla website which contains Straubel, J.B. (2008) ‘Roadster Efficiency and Range’, seems to be quite open with its information, but there are small vital pieces of information left out such as the data is gained from constant speed tests instead of the urban and extra urban standard tests used to compare current cars on the market. Other information is misleading such as the range figures being based on a 100% charge to an unknown discharge level when Straubel, J.B. (2006) ‘A bit about Batteries’ states that the Tesla will not charge beyond 95% to prevent battery life reduction. The Honda website featuring the FCX Clarity simply lacks any technical information. It turns out there is no direct scientific comparison of these two technologies.
Buchi, F.N., Inaba, I. and Schmidt, T.J. (2009) ‘Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cell Durability’ reveals the problems of degradation of the polymer dividers within Hydrogen fuel cells. Pilavachi P.A., Chatzipangi, A.I. and Spyropoulou, A.I (2009) ‘Evaluation of Hydrogen Production Methods Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process’ investigates Hydrogen production methods, their efficiencies and costs. Chan, C.K., Peng, H., Lui, G., Mcilwrath, K., Zhang, X.F., Huggins, R.A. and Cui, Y. (2007) ‘High-performance Lithium Battery anodes using Silicone Nanowires’ discusses using Silicone Nanowires as the anode instead of carbon or block silicone and the durability and capacity benefits of doing so.

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