A heavy concrete block with a ring on it
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Final Challenge
A heavy concrete block with a ring on it
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Friday, April 15, 2011
Glider Challenge
Friday, March 25, 2011
Egg Drop Challenge - Iteration #1
Create a sketch of three possible solutions (three achievements)
Material Prep:
- Generate a list of materials (1 achievement)
- Document a plan (1 achievment)
Build Achievements:
- Material fit inside a shoe box (two achievements) Materials fit inside but not after being built
Material Weight:
- Materials way less than 100 grams (5 achievements) It weighed 79 grams
Drop Accuracy:
- Hit inside the third ring (2 achievements) Second try
Egg Resilience:
- Egg didnt break in any way (3 achievements)
- Your egg cracked but was still together (1 achievement)
- The egg cracked but the yolk stayed intact and inside (1 avhievement)
- The egg broke but the yolk remained intact (1achievement)
Calculations achievements:
- Describe an aspect of the event using arithmetic (1 achievement)
- Describe an aspect of the event using geometry (1 achievement)
- Describe an aspect of the event using algebra (1 achievement)
Communicate Results:
- none
Thursday, March 10, 2011
TED pt I - Ideas worth Spreading?
- TED is a nonprofit organization that has talks about lots of different topics. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. TED also has conferences in the US every spring.
- The purpose of TED is to "spread ideas worth spreading". The site has lots of videos in different topics. The site is really functional because the videos are put into categories.
- I think the two most relevant topics to our class are technology and science. Both these topics have a lot to do with engineering. The other category that is kind of relevant to our class is design, because our class is called engineering design.
- The video "reengineering the brain" has a lot to do with engineering. The video "i built a toaster from scratch" has a lot to do with are class because a big part of engineering is building things. "Using nature's genius in architecture" has a lot to do with our visual design elements and principles.
- This talk is about reengineering the brain to do certain things. He shows how the brain works and how different things effect your decisions and the way you think.
- The fields that would have things to do with this talk are biotechnology and neurology. If i wanted to get into this field i would need to take a lot of biology and some psycology. I would probably have to major in neuro science in college if i wanted to pursue a job in this field.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Reverse Engineering: Mechanicnal Product - Functional Analysis
The primary function of the calculator is to do math.
2. Make an educated guess as to how this product operates. Use simple machines’ terminology to explain the object’s sequential operation.
When you press the buttons the corresponding character shows up on the screen. When you input an equation inot the computer the calculator uses guess and check to get the answer.
3. Identify the system inputs, intended product function, and outputs. Use power point to create a "black box" graphic like the toothbrush example discussed in class. Save the slide as a .jpg image and post it to answer this question.
4. What mechanical components are visible?
5. What is it about this device’s function that you cannot identify, because the mechanical components are hidden from plain view?
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Reverse Engineering: Mechanical Product - Visual Analysis
Friday, February 25, 2011
Carinival Splendor
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Graphic Design: What's Going On In This Design?
My advertisement came from a magazine called Fast Company. It is an ad for the Ford Tauros.
Connor:
- Message content- It has all the technical aspects on top in a kind of label cloud. I think that's a really good way to show everything. It has a picture of the car. On the bottom left there is one of those "sac tag" things, which allow you to learn more about the car on your phone if youre interested.
- Size and Shape- All the most interesting things are written in bigger font. All the restrictions and explanations for asterisks are written in eally small font at the bottom. The name of the car is written in really big font and it's in bold.
- Readability- Everything is in the same font, so it's very easy to read. It is written in san sarif font.
- Audience- Usually the Ford Tauros is just the basic sedan for Ford. This ad is advertising the Tauros SHO, which is more of a luxury car. Because of this the ad is more directed to young males.
- Design Principles and Elements- The colors are contrasting. The car is red, which is a warm color, but the background is grey, which is a cold color. It is really open, with not that much text. There is a lot of emphasis on the car, which is caused by the contrasting colors.
Conclusion:
1. What are trends? Why is it important to identify them prior to graphic design?
Trends are what people are into at the time. It is important to identify them because if you make your ad trendy more people will look at it.
2. How does human nature play a role in how a product is marketed to a specific demographic group?
It is human nature to want the best of everything. Ads always try to make their product seem like it's the best.
3. How is a potential audience identified?
Potential audiences are found out usually by surveys. The company tries to find out what kind of people want their product.
4. What must you dicover about the target audience prior to graphic design?
You must discover what they like and what they think is cool. If you do that and base your ad around thee ideas the target audience will really like it.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
- LINE
- COLOR
- FORM/SHAPE
- SPACE
- TEXTURE
- VALUE
Visual Design Principles
- BALANCE
- RHYTHM
- EMPHASIS
- PROPORTION AND SCALE
- UNITY
Skateboards use symmetry, color, lines, and usually emphasis
Friday, February 11, 2011
2.4.1 Desk Organizer
Friday, February 4, 2011
Challenger Disaster
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Content is King
Friday, January 28, 2011
Tennis Ball Game
For the first and second rounds of the game, my team did a kind of funnel with our hands. The only difference was we only used one hand for each person during the second round. For the round where we had to be arms length away, we tossed the ball to every other person, which worked out because we had an odd number of people. The last round we had to have our eyes closed. We had one person in the middle and spuna round touching everyone's hands.
We lost the first round, because our funnel took to long. During the second round the funnel idea worked, because we only used one hand per person and it really cut down on the time it took for the ball to touch every person. The third round we took to long and lost, so our idea didnt really work out. The last round was really close, but we lost. we lost by like a second.
If we did this again, I'd use the funnel idea a lot more, because it was really effective. It would work for almost evry round except for the eyes closed one. For the eyes closed round I'd do the same thing but put a faster person in the middle.
If we did this again I'd probably revise our strategy during the arms length apart round. It took really long and didnt work very well.
Survival at Sea Game
My team agreed that food and water should be the top two priorities for the same reasons. In addition to that, the team also put shark repellent as the very last item. One thing that my team and I ranked very differently was a sextant. I put it as the fourth highest, but my team ranked it tenth highest. A sextant is virtually useless without star charts, and i didn't think about that when i ranked it so i agreed with my team on it. Our group worked together by voting for things, and exchanging ideas.
A lot of the expert rankings were very different from what the whole class thought. They put the shaving mirror as number one on the list. Their list was more in favor of being rescued than surviving though, and most of the class was thinking of survival more. They ranked shark repellent far higher than my team did. Also they ranked the chocolate bars near the middle, and my team ranked them very near the bottom. I think the expert rankings were based on being rescued, and my teams ranking were based on survival, so we cant really compare them.