Week 10 Blog

As we come to the due date of Assessment 2, this is my final blog!
As such, it may well be quite a large one, so read on!
This week, John Dyson from Connell Wagner presented a guest lecture to us about Civil and Structural Engineering. This was actually very well done, and very well presented, possibly the best SEP lecture we've had so far this year.
He spoke firstly about what exactly Civil and Structural engineers do, and some of the projects he has worked on in the past, going into quite a bit of detail on one of the biggest projects he has tackled in the past, Education City in Qatar, a huge complex in the middle of the desert. He went through many aspects of his work there, from conception to construction, including all the various problems and things he ran into along the way and how he solved any issues.
Finally he spoke about the different prospects that future Civil and Structural engineers can look forwards to, possible projects that they may be working on, and gave us some good advice about the industry.

On the EWB side of things, we're all working on our finalised pieces, which will all be put together as one in our final report, and for our presentation which occurs in Week 11.
My specific report is on the removal of arsenic from the water and the possible ways to go about doing and working with this.

Also putting finishing touches to the online portfolio for Assignment 2, which is due very soon!

Week 8 Blog

David Hobbs, a Senior Rehabilitation Engineer from Novita Children's Services came to speak to us this week about Universal Design. According to him, Universal Design is "a process that yields products which are usable by, and useful to, the widest possible range of people". This means that the product or service is something that can be used and experienced by people of all ages and abilities, to the greatest extent possible, without adaptation.
He spoke about how Universal Design is not only useful to the elderly or disabled, and how we are all disabled, if only momentarily, in our day to day lives. For example, the same disadvantages of having a broken arm can apply to somebody with armful of shopping.
The principles of Universal Design were explained to us, along with many an example of something incorperating good universal design, such as a set of taps and faucet, with specially designed taps which only need to be nudged to the left or the right to turn them on or off, or an elevator control panel with the buttons in a horizontal row so as to not restrict those who are in a wheelchair or those who are vertically challenged from reaching the top floors.