Engineering – Page 2 – CA Work Experience Program

Day 5

I’m now working in the DPR office in Morrisville, instead of EIG. At about 8:00 this morning, I met with Mark Dailey, an electrical estimator who works at DPR. Unfortunately, he had a lot of boring meetings, which meant that I also had a lot of boring meetings. After his meetings were done, he helped me set up On-Screen Takeoff, a software used to estimate the cost of construction projects. He showed me how to use the “count” tool to determine the number of several different types of electrical devices in the plans. Then, he took me to lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant that he frequents. I worked on the electrical count for the rest of the day.

Day 4

Today was my last day at EIG Electrical Systems. The first couple of hours was taken up by a presentation given by some EIG employees to DPR employees. The objective of the presentation was to demonstrate the capabilities and operations of EIG and to illustrate the difficulties of electrical work to non-electrical tradesmen. The first hour and a half or so was taken up by an exceedingly boring PowerPoint presentation. The rest of the presentation was a demonstration of the difficulty of fishing wire through long conduits with more than 360 degrees of bend. After the presentation, I helped to clean up the office. Jonathan showed me some electrical plans, and then we ordered lunch. After lunch, I built a prefabricated electrical device that is UL listed. EIG prefabricates devices like these to reduce the amount of work at the job site, which reduces labor cost. Since the devices are UL listed and sealed with a UL label, the devices also don’t have to be inspected, which saves even more time. After I helped put away tools, it was time to leave.

Presentation attendees getting ready to fish wire through the demonstration table that I helped construct

A prefab electrical device partway through assembly

The finished prefab device, complete with UL seal

Obinna’s WEP: Day 4 (Autonomous Control)

Today I met an NC State student named Michael. He and some other students were working in the Control & Optimization for Renewables & Energy Efficiency Lab. Their focus is creating systems that can precisely control autonomous movement. This can apply to self-driving automobiles, coordinating ships, stabilizing flying objects, and maximizing fuel efficiency. Michael and the other students often use simulations to work on their control systems, but when they need to test physical models, they have a water channel to experiment with. I also got to visit the Unsteady Fluid Mechanics Lab, where the water channel resides. The water channel is a very cool machine. It pumps water in an oval loop so that there is a constant flow of water through the testing chamber. This is very useful for testing the aerodynamics of objects and controlling their movement mid-flight. I really enjoyed learning about autonomous control and optimization in moving systems with Michael today.

Pictures of the water channel:

Day 3

I arrived at the shop at 8 AM, like normal. Johnathan continued to teach me how to bend and attach conduit. After an hour or two of working on the demonstration table they’re working on for a class tomorrow, he showed me some electrical plans for a project EIG is working on. I then traveled to a work site with Sean. He needed to drop off an arc flash-resistant suit at the site so that he and another worker could check that a 3-phase circuit breaker panel was disconnected. On the trip over, we had an interesting conversation about acceptable risks that provided some insight into his job as a safety manager. Having checked that the panel was truly disconnected, we took the suit back to the office. Johnathan then explained the shop’s prefabrication capability. By fabricating electrical assemblies in the shop, EIG is able to reduce time and cost associated with their projects. Additionally, after going through an intense inspection process for each device they fabricate, EIG is one of the few companies that can print UL labels for their assemblies. This means that the assemblies don’t have to be inspected when they are installed at the site. Tomorrow, I’ll get to make one of these UL-listed assemblies.

Tomorrow’s my last day in the EIG shop. Next week, I’ll be back at DPR’s office to work with the electrical estimators and planners.

Terry the electrician suiting up to check the panel box

A Lock-out Tag-out lock in place over a breaker for a circuit that someone is working on.

Obinna’s WEP: Day 3 (Spray, Structures, and Systems)

My third day started with a tour of the Spray and Engine Diagnostics Lab. In this lab, students were experimenting with diesel and finding ways to increase efficiency in engines. Fujun and Kaushik explained the process behind spraying diesel and how it was used in an experiment. They had ways to record the spray distance, pressure, and speed within the span of a few milliseconds. Using their experimental setup, students could observe how diesel behaves at extremely high injection speeds. I was also able to visit the High-Pressure Combustion and Laser Diagnostics Lab. In this lab, lighter gases can be injected into special chambers and ignited. I was able to see the setup used for this process, as well as footage from previous combustions. In these experiments, many variables are closely monitored and controlled, including pressure, temperature, injection speed, and the components of the air in the lab room. Something as small as 2% more oxygen in the combustion chamber can drastically alter the resultant temperature, so students have to be very careful. I was also lucky enough to observe an experimental setup that could record the temperature of a flame using lasers. Later in the day, I visited the Intelligent Structures and Systems Research Lab. There I learned about artificial muscles, drone flight, and aeroelasticity. Something that was being studied in this lab was the small fluttering motions that plane wings sometimes made during flight. There were several ideas for turning that motion into a source of energy.

An “artificial muscle” using air and a meticulously woven fabric

A presentation about the injection of diesel at high pressure.

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a video of gases combusting in a small chamber

Day 2

Today I worked at EIG Electrical Systems, an electrical subcontractor owned by DPR Construction. My day began with an hour long meeting about workplace safety with Sean (TL;DR: always follow the procedures, lest you be boiled to death by a jet of steam). We then went to a couple of active construction sites, where I saw the types of electrical work that EIG does. After a quick lunch break, we went back to the EIG shop, where we played ping-pong for about 20 minutes. After spending a few minutes rearranging some of the office, Sean and another employee began to show me how to measure and bend conduit when making runs for electrical cable. It takes a surprising amount of thought and planning to run the conduit, and bending the conduit well takes an enormous amount of effort and skill. Tomorrow (and Friday) I’ll be back at EIG for more conduit bending and shop work.

Tables set up with practice conduit runs

An electrical panel set up to demonstrate proper Lock-out Tag-out procedures. It’s set up to be confusing, and the switches don’t do what you think they do.

Obinna’s WEP: Day 2 (Making Models)

Today I continued learning how to work with OpenVSP. Dr. Gopalarathnam suggested that I use a 3 view drawing to create my next model. A 3 view drawing shows an airplane from three different angles: the top view, the side view, and the front view. I found a 3 view drawing for the Yak 54 and based my model off of it. The Yak 54 is a small airplane with a relatively simple design, so I thought that it would be a good starting point. I combined wings, wheels, a fuselage, and other plane parts in order to create the model shown below. It took a while for me to figure out how to give each part the right size and shape, but I think I’ve made good progress.

Citation for 3 view drawing:

“RCU Forums.” RCU Forums, 2005, www.rcuniverse.com/forum/giant-scale-aircraft-3d-aerobatic-110/2754267-3-view-drawing-edge-540t.html.

Day 1 at Apex Tool Group

I began my first day shadowing at Apex Tool Group with enthusiastic zeal. Not so much because I thought I should, but rather because tool making has always seemed like the job for me. There’s designing, CAD’ing, measuring, arguing with the marketing team, CNC milling, and even 3d printing; what’s not to like! As I would come to find, these were, indeed, many of the tasks a mechanical engineer at Apex Tool handles daily.

Leonora and I began our day with a tour around ATG’s distribution and design facility, located unsurprisingly in Apex, NC. We got to see the sizable development team, consisting of mechanical, electrical, and packaging engineers who all work hand-in-hand to create new tools: most recently, a tape measure. Mr. Wilson (Cecil), a mechanical engineer, led our tour and hosted me for most of the morning. He led me through the meticulous design process each product must go through when being developed, from initial artist’s renderings, to CAD mock ups, to prototypes, and eventually final products. What was most surprising to me was how much time is taken to both research current patents, and file original patents to protect the specific design of a tool. Although Cecil’s chief duty is creating 3d “CAD” models of tools, he also has to consider the technologies and patents which are involved in successfully capturing market share.

After my morning with Cecil, we went to lunch with Mr. Welch, the Sr. Director of R&D, and Leonora and her mentor Heather.

Following Lunch, I was brought to the Modeling Shop by Mr. Guillou, an Engineering Manager for ATG. The Modeling Shop is a machine shop which houses 3d printers, lathes, CNC mills, and much more. It is mainly used to produce rapid prototypes of the tools which the development team has created. Brett, a machinist in the shop, began to walk me through the process of creating a nut from scratch. While we didn’t end up machining it, we did go through the steps of precisely centering a piece of metal stock in the CNC mill, a task which is much more difficult than I would have thought. With some help from Brett, I even had the chance to move the machine around, using a dial indicator to fine tune the position. One thing that makes the task so difficult is the 0.0005″ tolerance that CNC mills posses; that’s smaller than a human hair. Hopefully, no one breathes on the machine before we get a chance to machine the nut tomorrow.

After we finished centering the metal, I got a chance to work with Scott from the testing lab. His job is to ensure that all the finished tools-which aren’t actually manufactured at this ATG location-are within tolerance. The lab has to test numerous factors for each tool, including its strength, hardness, dimensions, scratch-resistance, durability, corrosion-resistance, and even chemical composition. I was quite impressed by how thoroughly the company had to test their products. In fact, they weren’t only testing the products for their own brand reputation, but also because of standards by the ASME, a regulatory body for machine manufacturers. Tool making, as I learned today, is a meticulous process and involves many different people with many different skills.

Thank you Cecil, Mr. Welch, Mr. Guillou, Brett, and Scott, I learned a lot today! I can’t wait to see what I’ll learn tomorrow.

Obinna’s WEP: Day 1 (First in Flight)

Today was my first day with Dr. Gopalarathnam at the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Dr. Gopalarathnam spends his time researching aerodynamics and experimenting with aircraft design. My day started with a program that Dr. Gopalarathnam uses for his research. The program is called OpenVSP, and it is an open-source modelling software where different types of aircraft can be created. Dr. Gopalarathnam had me download this program onto my computer and showed me how to create models. With help from some tutorial videos and reference images, I was able to create the airplane shown below, as well as a very rudimentary helicopter design. I also met Pranav, a PhD. student at NC State. He showed me two wind tunnels that NC State students could use to research aerodynamics, and explained how the wind tunnels could be used to collect data on the force, pressure, and moments acting on a flying body.

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Day 1

Today was my first day at DPR Construction. I began my day at 7:30 this morning when I met Mike Svirsko, my contact at DPR, for breakfast. We discussed school at Cary Academy and our plans for the next two weeks. We then traveled to One Glenwood Avenue, an office complex that DPR is building. There, I attended a meeting regarding the status of the project and got to meet many other employees. I also got to see the building drawings and check the status of several items on the “punch list,” a list of last minute things to do before the customer inspects the project. After eating lunch at the store, we went to the DPR office where I received a laptop and met Mark, an electrical estimator who I will be working with next week. Finally, we visited EIG Electrical Systems, an electrical subcontractor owned by DPR. I’ll be helping fabricate electrical systems there the rest of this week.