Week 10 Free Post

I found this really interesting article about engineering and perfume. It said perfume ingredients are being "regulated out of existence" and companies are trying to find new ingredients to replace the old ones. Oakmoss was the main ingredient talked about and used by many popular perfume industries. after finding out it was an allergen it was restricted and led to the engineering of perfume that smell closely to it.

I thought it was very interesting that companies would go to such lengths to create the oakmoss sent using different ingredients because the sent was so popular. I also feel as though the engineers have a hard task of trying to make the smell almost exact because of article saying how people who buy the perfume will be very hard to trick because they are so familiar with the sent.

In many of my posts engineers are trying to create solution to problems at hand. They try new ingredients and try to modify or in this case replicate a product. I find that really fascinating and interesting that that people can create something almost exact to the original but they use different ingredients.

If you want to read the article here's the link:
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/10/ff_perfume/

Courtney Humphries. "Engineering Replacements for Essential Perfume Ingredients.".21 Oct 2011 Wired. web. 30 Mar 2014.

Week 10 Prompted Post

For this weeks prompted post I had to find a source like a website or brochure that used information and presented it in a new/useful way. Then evaluate it based on the RAIDS method. RAIDS stand for:
Revision
Arrangement
Invention
Delivery
Style
I found this website that was made for college students and I went to the mechanical engineering part and it had a bunch of facts and tips about the practice. The website uses a bunch of information that they must have gotten from surveys and other resources. Then took the information and put it into a website.
The website revises college students perception of the occupation and change the beliefs of the students about engineering.
The arrangement of a website is very  smart and beneficial to the college student because they can easily navigate for specific information about engineering.
The makers of the website used a lot of invention to relate to college kids with the color scheme and the arrangement.
The website navigations and the short paragraphs help with the delivery of the remixed information. It make the information more appealing and more people will read it.
The style of the website popular and middle diction which reaches the most people.

Here's the link the website:
http://www.collegegrad.com/careers/proft17.shtml

Week 9 Free Post

So in my engineering class my professor showed us a three part video on a group from the company IDEO that had to re invent a shopping cart in five days. The video was a little older but it showed the steps and methods used to accomplish the task of creating  new shopping cart. The group made a really cool shopping cart and completed the task given in the allotted time frame.

I felt I learned quite a bit from the video. The group working on the new design consisted on other majors than just engineers. They had business majors, psychology majors, a linguist, marketing, biology major, and more. That makes sense because you want other perspectives recognized in the design rather than just one view. Also I like how the group had no hierarchy the positions were filled based on how well the people did their job and how they worked with others, for instance the project manager only worked their for six years. compared to some of the others. He was chosen because we worked well with groups. Also I learned that you have to do a lot of research on the problem/ item and go through many designs in order to make the best fitting designs.

Lastly I loved the work area of IDEO. The group was encouraged to be out of their desk and surround themselves in creative environment.

Week 9 Prompted Post

This week I had to find a news article about engineering and its importance. Engineering is liked to many different fields. Engineering is important because an engineer solves problems using different methods and materials. Like my last post I found an article about the recently hot topic of engineers creating a new tissue that can keep a pulse out of different materials and methods to solve the problem of restoring damaged cardiac tissue in patients.

 The article explained the medical advances the engineers created and how the new tissue is very beneficial to the medical field and to people in general. They created a starting block for tissue that mimics the pulsing action of cardiac tissue. The breakthrough of the new tissue will greatly modify how doctors handle cardiac patents and the prospect of new tissue helps give hope to a lot of people suffering with heart problems and potentially other problems involving skin, organs, and even bones.

Resources:
 American Chemical Society."Building heart tissue that beats: Engineered tissue closely mimics natural heart muscle.". 18 Mar 2014 ScienceDaily. web. 18 Mar 2014.

Here's the link to the article:
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140318154723.htm.

Week 8 Free Post

So this week I found an interesting video engineering tissue:

The video talks about how our modern way of finding cures for diseases are too slow, too costly, and tests on animals. then she showed a video of live cardiac tissue that they made in a lab. After the video talked about the benefits and possibilities of tissue engineering.

I thought it was very interesting how the engineers used a different skin cell instead of stem cell and were able to avoid the controversy of stem cells. I also liked how the organs grown for the patient are from the patients cells so there is little chance of the body not accepting the organ.
P.S. It also would reduce if not eliminate animal testing which I think is good.

The video makes tissue engineering sound very safe and effective. I think it would be a good Idea to look into tissue engineering further and maybe incorporate it into medical practices.

What do you think?

week 8 Prompted post

For this post I have to do a hands on activity pertaining to mechanical engineering. Today was actually the perfect day for this post because today in my engineering class we got to use the lab and go over all the skills needed for the lab and the safety rules along with getting our second project. In the lab all students had to complete hands on tasks as a quiz. We had to use various machines such the table saw, drill bit, and other equipment. these types of labs are used by other engineers students and professional engineers and for our second project will need to use the labs often. I feel as though I understood how to do the specific tasks better than if I would have by just reading about the machines in the lab. I feel it was more thorough and better explained the machines when they did the task and talked about it.

Week 7 Prompted Post

One topic in engineering that raises controversy is genetic engineering in humans. One side of the argument says its worth it because of the medical advantages possible because of the engineering. The other side says its unethical and people shouldn't alter with the complicated genetics and its not others choice on what people look like and alter their genetics. What do you think?

here's a link to an article about the topic:
http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/genetic-inequality-human-genetic-engineering-768