Your mention of descriptive geometry texts takes me back. My father was a draftsman and finally got an associates degree. I still have all his textbooks in descriptive geometry. It can be a useful skill. My brother and I were lucky in that our high school had a great pre-engineering/architecture program. The first two years were common. It was in the last year that you specialized. We had a great teacher and we did some very interesting projects. I went the pre-engineering route and my brother the architecture route. When he was in architecture school I used to help him with his projects. He would often ask me to help with some of the more complex perspectives. I was working full time and would go to his place and work on this. I really found it challenging and enjoyable.
Our engineering schools today challenge students with one or more group project. These have to be unique and the students have to come up with solutions to new problems. Some of these are significant. I truly believe that working with objects and solving real problems helps engineers to really understand. This obviously helped Calder.
When I lived in New Orleans, there was an incredible collection of moving sculptures in an unlikely place: the headquarters of the K&B drugstore chain.
K&B Plaza, on St. Charles Avenue, was home to over 40 "kinetic sculptures," including this one by local artist Lin Emery. Some are still there, but many of the sculptures have since been moved to a sculpture garden in City Park. I highly recommend it to anyone visiting New Orleans.
I've often thought that studying the kinematics of these sculptures would make a good project for an introductory dynamics class.
By experimenting with the photovoltaic reaction in solar cells, researchers at MIT have made a breakthrough in energy efficiency that significantly pushes the boundaries of current commercial cells on the market.
In a world that's going green, industrial operations have a problem: Their processes involve materials that are potentially toxic, flammable, corrosive, or reactive. If improperly managed, this can precipitate dangerous health and environmental consequences.
With LEDs dropping in price virtually every year, automakers have begun employing them, not only on luxury vehicles, but on entry-level models, as well.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 3
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
3 
