Introduction To Engineering Camera Lab - 0 Introduction to the Design Process

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Introduction To EngineeringCamera Lab - 0
Introduction to the Design Process

• Agenda
• Presentation on reverse engineering

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Lets begin with a simple question

• What is engineering??

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One possible answer, from the Oxford English
Dictionary

• Engineering is
• i) the application of science for directly
  useful purposes
• ii) the action of working artfully to bring
  something about

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Which raises some other questions

• Is engineering just applied science?
• Is the engineers job the same as the
  scientists? Engineers and scientists both solve
  problems, right?
• If thats the case, why are we in separate
  colleges at OSU?

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More Questions

• If engineers are just problem solvers, then how
  are we different from physicists, stock brokers,
  or mathematicians?
• And while were on the subject, arent engineers
  famous for creating as many problems as they
  solve?

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The Real Question

• Is there anything essential about what engineers
  do that would clearly separate us from every
  other profession?

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An Answer

• Yes, there is engineers generally are
  interested in creating something new and
  different, based on what we know (or think we
  know) to be true about the physical world.
• The word that gets used a lot in this context is
  design.

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A working definition of engineering

• Engineering is design performed in the presence
  of limiting factors and conditions.
• Design is the key as engineers, were about
  creating new things, based on our understanding
  of the physical world.

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What kinds of things do we design?

• A new bridge (CE, WE)
• A racing bicycle (ME, MSE, ISE, ChemE)
• A fuel cell for NASA (Aero, ChemE, EE)
• A new operating system (EE, CSE)
• The key point in every case, its new and
  somehow different than what came before.

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What does NEW mean?

• However, its almost never the case that our
  ideas are totally new. Almost every engineered
  object is an improvement or a refinement of
  someone elses bright idea.
• A few for instances

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Smart Car
A two-passenger car for over-populated cities
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Planetary Explorer
How about a robot explorer for a neighboring
planet?
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An improved exercise watch...
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A new look at PCs

• A totally new take on a venerable product

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An Initial Step

• Good engineers and designers constantly look
  around to see what other smart folks have done,
  before they begin to work.
• This avoids the problem of reinventing the
  wheel. (This technique is called reverse
  engineering.)

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Analysis

• When we talk about figuring out how the world
  works, we use the word, analysis.
• Engineers spend a lot of time learning to analyze
  problems, situations, designs, and ideas.

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More on Analysis

• Analysis is crucial to engineering without our
  tools for doing analysis, were not really
  engineering. Were just guessing.
• One thing that sets engineers apart from other
  people is our penchant for attaching numbers to
  things and we have a lot of ways to do that

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What is analysis without design?

• However, analysis all by itself isnt
  engineering. Its science usually physics or
  chemistry.
• (Warning this is one professors view.)
• Its when we use analysis to help us create
  something new, that were actually engaged in the
  other side of engineering, synthesis.

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Synthesis

• A five-dollar professor-word for design.
• Its what we do when we put our analytic skills
  and our ideas to work creating something new.
• Its what sets us apart from most of the rest of
  the world...

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How about limiting factors?

• Usually we think of natural laws, but often the
  really severe limits are imposed by our fellow
  humans.
• We call these limiting factors constraints,
  because they constrain our designs in some way.
• Sometimes we see them ahead of time, sometimes we
  dont

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A famous example the Hubble Space Telescope
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Some typical kinds of constraints

• Performance
• weight
• speed
• rigidity
• Cost
• Material
• Manufacturing

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Aluminum Cans
A design constrained by manufacturing
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Some questions to ask about any design

• What were the constraints?
• How well did the designers deal with them?
• Did they overlook any?
• What tradeoffs did they make?
• How could we design it better?

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Kodak Single Use Camera

• What constrains this design?
• Performance
• Economics
• Materials
• Manufacturing
• ???

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How does the design constrain the manufacturing
process?

• The camera has to be
• Lightweight
• Rugged
• Light-tight
• The parts themselves must be
• Cheap to produce
• Easy to assemble
• Very complex

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This means we need a production process that can

• Make complex parts
• Use strong, lightweight materials
• Can produce lots of components very quickly and
  cheaply
• This leads us to injection molding which youll
  get to see in a few weeks (Lab 5)

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But first, we need to get a sense of how the
camera works, and how its used.

• First well take some photos.
• Well use the photos to estimate the shutter
  speed.
• The well use the photos to look at the optics of
  the camera.
• Youll learn how the flash circuit works.
• Finally, youll see how the camera is
  manufactured.