Toasting Design

Problem Identification cont. This is part 2 of a large series of episodes where a design is developed from scratch and starting at the problem identification phase. Episodes will not be released consequteively as time is needed to do some work in the background. Input and suggestions are welcome (toastingdesign@gmail.com) Hosted by M. Boer and S. Schekman on 20th May 2021

Been there. Done that. Got the marksheet. It's been done so why look back, design about looking to the future. Right? No? Well aren't you the smartass. Ok, well that's correct. While it is good to keep ideas expanding and not be stuck in ideas or approaches from the past, it is also important to be aware of ideas from the past. How many times have you seen documentaries where the presenter claims...

Problem Identification This is part 1 of a large series of episodes where a design is developed from scratch and starting at the problem identification phase. Episodes will not be released consequteively as time is needed to do some work in the background. Input and suggestions are welcome (toastingdesign@gmail.com) Hosted by M. Boer and S. Schekman on 7th May 2021

While we discuss the student issue of going into too much detail in a design, Jeremy's adventure continues.... He was done, putting down the candy cane pen, Jeremy sat back in the fruit cake chair and marvelled. This was it, the pun that would end all puns. The recipe for a single piece of toast that would finally have Boer look at him with respect instead of... well what was that look? Was it pit...

Having wandered through the wilderness for the past four nights, Jeremy stumbled upon the gingerbread house. Out of bread crumbs and with nothing but a photo of Burt, Jeremy knocked on the door. The muffled, thick sound of gingerbread against knuckles gave him pause for thought. Why had he not thought of this before? Assured of his purpose he burst in with an air of confidence and nary a thought o...

There is a clear distinction between guessing, estimating and specifying. It is, however, not always clear when to do what or what is good enough in a given situation. Its certainly not a case of choosing one and deciding thats what will be done but rather what is possible based on the information at hand/available and what accuracy is needed. This was going to be the topic today but instead we go...

That title may have made this seem very exciting. Possibly even a big topic. And from a certain point of view (thanks Obi), it is. But at the same time, it's about misuse within design and how to counter it. Again. We had fun. Hosted in a gingerbread house by M.Boer and S.Schekman on 13 April 2021.

While toothbrushes may be reasonably used in other applications (just don't brush your teeth with the same brush that cleaned the air filter) and seat belts or airbags should only be used in one way, toasters can feasibly be misused but maybe shouldn't always be. In another tangent (who saw that happening in this podcast) we discuss cooking methods and suggestions for you to probably avoid at home...

Engineers are great problem solvers, finding uses and applications for systems and products that may have been unforeseen or unintended. Other people are also good at doing the same but not necessarily with the same forethought or consideration to the consequences. The challenge for the designer, then is first accepting that this will happen and then deciding what to do about it. Resign to the ide...

After 100 episodes there is one clear point that regardless of everything else that we have covered, emphasized, taught, forgotten, argued over or dreamt up: No matter what you do to it toast is toast. Also concept 2 is going to win. Hosted fondly by M. Boer and S. Schekman on the 25th March 2021.

Design is about numbers. Concept 2 (or 5) for example. Today we talk about 7 steps (or skills or actions) of an engineer during design. Is there significance to this now that it is considering the podcast is being released just before that maths test? Is this us subtly hinting to you that the answer will be 7? No. Don't read too much into it (the answer is obviously the square root of two pi). Apo...

Design is about numbers. Concept 2 (or 5) for example. Today we talk about 7 steps (or skills or actions) of an engineer during design. Is there significance to this now that it is considering the podcast is being released just before that maths test? Is this us subtly hinting to you that the answer will be 7? No. Don't read too much into it (the answer is obviously the square root of two pi). Apo...

There are four characteristics of which the solution to a complex engineering problem must comply with at least one of the following. i)  are not obvious, require originality or analysis based on fundamentals; i)  are outside the scope of standards and codes; ii)  require information from variety of sources that is complex, abstract or incomplete; iii)  involve wide-ranging or...

There are three characteristics of which a complex engineering problem must comply with at least one of the following.  i)  are ill-posed, under- or over specified, or require identification and refinement; ii)  are high-level problems including component parts or sub-problems; iii)  are unfamiliar or involve infrequently encountered issues; These points tend to cause confusion...

To be clear please do not use a hot glue gun to stick together your thoughts. Pritt is much better.  Otherwise just listen to the podcast.  Hosted in a hotly debated discussion by M.Boer and S.Schekman on the 9th Feb 2021 Keys: Problems from products, different options for problems, glue guns, functional analysis

Is wanting something more convenient reason enough to invest in a new (possibly) expensive system? How do you rationlize or quantify convenience? Okay so you might be saying that it comes down to time committed (if not then please go back, and say it before reading this previous sentence - thanks). But how much time is inconvenient? That's dependent on who ever's time it is. Okay what if you said...

The consideration of design functions, properties and requirements is one of the more important aspects of design. It starts right when the problem is being identified and sometimes earlier in helping identify a problem to start with. It then goes on until the very end ensuring that the designer has accounted for the various functions that the problem solution needs to have. It is easily over look...

It is one of the more over looked or disregarded of report sections and yet one of the most important to examiners. This section details and specifies what the solution to the problem is. It is not about throwing out every number that was ever calculated during the design development. It is not about showing off your creative writing skills in how you imagine the system will be manufactured or how...

In this third installment on detailed design, we talk about detailed design. Not very controversial but that's what tends to happen with the end of a trilogy (a trilogy until we decide to make it a 5 parter that is). Detailed design in the context of a student project does not allow for the student to do EVERYTHING, there simply is not enough time. So it is important then to understand and determi...

The problem and the solution is not a "chicken and the egg" situation. It is quite clear which one comes first. There are times however when a current solution has inspired a problem in the sense that the problem has been identified based on an investigation into a product or system that happens to have been the current solution. This can lead to a whole lot of issues that designers need to be ver...

That there be where the devil is... at least so the saying goes. It also be where no student want to go (at least not correctly). Is it because it gives flashbacks to the other courses? Is it because it has a bad habit of showing that the preliminary design was really bad? Is it because? The response to your answers are the same regardless: shame.  Hosted purposefully in detail by M. Boer and...

Detailed design can be a noun or verb. The former implies that a large number of parameters about the design can be specified. The latter deals with how you get to that point (you have to do detailed design in order to have a detailed design). What does this matter? Almost nothing. Why am I then going into it? Because the important thing to understand is that definitions are not important. Detaile...

When it comes to going on a trip its the before, the destination and the after that is what people want. No one wants the middle stuff, specifically the packing. It takes forever and never seems to work as well on the return way back. While it is great to go minimalist this is not always an option so something needs to be done about it. If your first solution was "magic" then I don't think you und...

A design topic for 4th year needs to be based on a complex engineering problem. This is itself a challenge to some but the nature and relevance of the topic is focused on in this episode. Given the current state of things (as of Jan 2021) it is easy to get lost in current world events and determine problems that exist. Where care needs to be taken is that an design project will only be running in...

Cards on the table (a 5 of spades, 2 of clubs and pick up 4 uno card if curious), we had no idea what direction this episode would go in, even after having started it. That is sort of how design sometimes works and you need to roll with it. Note that it doesn't take 1 week of stumbling around though so as far as excuses go, "I took a bit of a tangent to a new idea" buys you about an hour; you stil...