Do you know how an atomic force microscope works? You can satiate your curiosity and impress your friends with all kinds of intellectual knowledge by watching just one of the many open-courses freely available online. Educate yourself....
Here we have a sign that is confusing to at least one group of users. the water taxi sign-makers get kudos for going out of their way to create a pictorial sign in an attempt to bypass any language barriers for international tourists. Unfortunately, the...
Say you want to be a veterinarian. You've got to get to know a lot of animals in school, both inside and out. That requires a lot of time in the library, but eventually you have to get your hands dirty and actually touch some...
Recently, I published an article in MicroManufacturing Magazine about the challenges of designing microparts for manufacture. Not unlike any collaborative process, good communication is the key to a successful project....
A good designer must often think like a manufacturer. The question, “Can this be made?” is asked over and over again during the design process. Shortly thereafter, the question also becomes, “Can this be made cheaply?”...
Designing medical devices can be an expensive undertaking. It can cost thousands of dollars for a traditional setup to make microfluidic chips or a centrifuge to isolate the components of a multi-constituent sample. Luckily, the creative minds that are focused on solving complex, technical problems...
If a product is not being used correctly, most often we blame the user. But, how much of the blame comes to rest on the designers? Now, a Swedish initiative has shown that road and intersection designs significantly affect how cars, bicycles, and people are...
Mechanical Engineering Magazine has a good article for designers about significantly lowering the overall energy impact of our products, based on the vision of Saul Griffith, a mechanical engineer and serial inventor. The good news is that we don’t have to start creating medical devices...
You’ve been in this situation before. The output from your test set up or analytical model is garbage. You’ve looked at all the inputs and they appear to be ok. So…what do you do now?...
When you’re trying to solve a problem, it’s easy to just attack it with a bunch of ideas and hope something sticks. This might even work, but which idea was the real winner?...
