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...
Flash memory is becoming increasingly popular in portable devices as the main storage medium. Flash memory offers advantages such as a serial interface, fast access time (compared to hard drives), and low power consumption, making them a popular choice for embedded medical devices....
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...
I recently published a short article in the IEEEGOLDrush newsletter (June 2009, p. 15) about what differentiates successful projects from those that struggle for attention. The defining characteristic is market need....
Engineering isn’t limited to CAD modeling in front of two widescreen monitors. Designers need to step away from their desks to interact with the product stakeholders before putting something out there. So, who are your stakeholders and how do you meet them?...
I was recently interviewed for an article regarding the state of rapid prototyping as it pertains to micro-scale manufacturing and product development. From what I’ve seen, the prototyping processes are just not down to the micro-scale, yet. Granted, the micromanufacturing industry is still pretty young,...
Ok, it’s time to get a little technical (very little). We’ve talked to a lot of companies with award-winning products, great ideas, and good sense, but when we try to nail down some of the details, they get a little flustered. Although the constant questions...
By now, most mechanical design engineers are used to sending off a solid model and having plastic parts show up in less than a week. While this technique is perfectly suitable and cost-effective for rapid prototyping, it doesn’t quite make the grade for production....
There will always be companies professing to offer competitive products or services that are “just as good” as yours. You know they’re not, but can your prospective customers tell the difference between you and your competition? Maybe they’re cheaper or have better looking product images,...
