This past weekend, Baltimore once again hosted the annual Artscape Festival, the self-professed largest free art festival in America. It’s an amazing festival, with 3 days packed full of more art than you can shake a stick at. A few Key Techers, including myself, were...
As part of the V&V test procedure, we designed a gravimetric means to characterize the volumetric and flow-rate accuracy of a couple of precision injection instruments. With this setup, we're able to achieve measurement resolution of just 0.1 milligram and reduced the error due to...
I don't learn anything new from examining a design for the 23rd time. I've checked for mistakes, but it's all based on what I already know and a few educated guesses. The only way I can learn more is by building....
Making progress feels good, but when progress slows or I’ve hit a roadblock, it can be frustrating. When I need some fresh ideas, it’s time for a distraction....
Whether to build a custom product or go with something off the shelf can be a tough decision. There are several factors to consider when shopping for off-the-shelf solutions, and cost is only one of them....
Prototypes are essential to testing system performance. However, due to the current technological constraints of creating microscale prototypes, compromises in the characteristics of the prototype usually must be made, which can lead to unforeseen, expensive problems on the production line. Fortunately, basic, fundamental models of...
Is asking the right questions something that can be taught, or do you have to be born with this twisted skill?...
Without robust design processes, it is all too easy to lose track of critical design issues - the consequence of which is usually schedule delays, added costs, and/or undesirable design compromises....
Creating a detailed Product Specification is one of the most important steps one can take at the beginning of new product development. If the spec defines the entire sphere of possibilities, what needs to be included (and excluded) here?...
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...
