Tag: ShaanD-Engineering

My last day at Forthright Engineering involved creating three more parts in CAD software and then learning how to put them together along with another part I made yesterday. The parts were put together in what is called an assembly. In an assembly, I learned how to add constraints to the parts, which are basically rules to how they should be placed in relation to one another. This work brought all my CAD learning together and helped me begin to imagine the vast possibilities of what I could actually create in this software. Another interesting thing that I did today was presenting the findings of my research to the engineers in an internal development meeting. After I explained everything, they deliberated how and on which project to move forward and it was really cool to be able to sit in on a meeting where they talked about the specifics of creating new inventions, especially ones that I had helped them start work on. Over the past two weeks at Forthright I’ve been able to see firsthand the work that mechanical engineers do and make meaningful contributions to some of their projects, learning a lot about how such a engineering firm operates along the way. It’s been an invaluable experience and one that I’m extremely thankful for.

The highlight of today’s work was my introduction to computer aided design. The engineers at Forthright use CAD software to design all of their products in every stage of the development process, from the initial thoughts and brainstorming to production. It’s an integral part to the work that they do and it was really interesting to be able to try it myself. I started with learning the basics of creating individual parts. This included learning new vocabulary, what the different tools and functions did, how to manipulate the view with the mouse, and I began to develop an understanding of knowing how to do what I wanted to make certain objects, like a sphere or a part from a drawing related to one of Forthright’s projects. I was also shown much more complicated work, which was an actual device that they were creating at the time, and I look forward to learning more about assemblies and how to make these individual parts work together tomorrow.

Over the past few days I’ve done market research on three different projects, but the third one, which I began today, brought a new factor into perspective: safety regulations. My research began with looking to see if there were any other products being sold like the one Forthright was thinking about creating. I found one almost immediately, but there was a problem. It wasn’t UL listed. UL stands for Underwriters Laboratories, a safety certification company. They make standard safety regulations that products need to abide by to be sold in large quantities in the US. The product I had found was sold by a company based in China and didn’t have the certification needed for what it does. As Bryan explained to me, it could be bought by individual consumers for personal use, but, for example, Forthright would not be able to buy many of them and incorporate it into the production of one of their own products. What followed was a lot of searching through safety standards and trying to figure out why I couldn’t find what I wanted with the correct safety listing. The safety aspect introduced a whole new piece to the puzzle that is learning about a new product area, and it’s one that’s filled with hundreds of pages of information to understand, showing just how involved the task of developing a new product can be.

Today I was able to help one of the engineers by calibrating some equipment they needed to use to design a product. This work ended up being conducted very similarly to how we do labs in the physics class I took this year and in previous years’ science classes. I had to identify independent and dependent variables and needed to have a control case. I collected data points and compared their relationship, like when we would graph data to create equations in physics. I liked being to be able apply concepts that I had learned in class to a real work environment while also learning new things, like the product that would result from this work and the instruments that I used to collect data. This event also emphasized once again the importance in engineering of gathering information before the actual creating and designing of a project, because knowing as much as you can beforehand makes later work so much smoother.

The most interesting part about my time at Forthright today came after lunch, when Steve, Bryan, and another engineer named Graydon met together to talk about new internal projects. A lot of the work that the company does comes from clients, people who have this idea that they need someone else to create for them. However, they also occasionally meet to discuss ideas the engineers have thought of for new products they could create. The meeting consisted of the engineers creating a list of concepts they had brainstormed and explaining the rationale behind each idea and what the market for that product is like now. They then ranked their top three ideas and the ones with the most votes were noted to be researched later and followed up on. During this ideation process, I saw many aspects of group brainstorming that I’ve been taught in robotics and art and design. No concepts were rejected or thought of as bad ideas, and everyone was open each other’s thoughts, instead of being close-minded and only focusing on what they had thought of. This type of objective conversation helped the engineers reach an agreement of which products they thought were best to pursue efficiently and without overlooking anyone’s thoughts.

Today I met with an engineer at Forthright named Bryan to check in on the progress I’ve made in my research and give me some guidance by helping with focusing the research and organizing it all. He helped me break the project down into multiple chunks and identify core questions that needed to be answered for each portion of the research. These sections were patents on related technology, studies done by specific professors, market research, and how effective an existing product would work with the one I’m researching about. Bryan also showed me a picture that outlined the product development process and where this work belonged on it. I saw how many steps go into creating a new product and the phases that I’m doing now – the feasibility part of phase 1 and concept development from phase 2. This work has taught me the emphasis that engineers put on learning about a product that they might put more work into. When you think of something you would want to invent, often the first thoughts are: has anyone else done it, what is already out there that’s like it, what’s the state of the art, and has anyone done any studies on the topic that would help me gain information and reach my own conclusions. Being a company that needs to be sure about these things, that initial learning and discovery process is extremely critical to the success of both the product and the company in the long run.

Shortly after the beginning of my second day at Forthright Engineering, we were visited by an executive from a much larger engineering company whose headquarters is in Raleigh. They met with Steve Worm, the head of Forthright. Later in the day, I sat in on a call between Steve and another engineer at Forthright and people from other companies who were working on project with them. These two events highlight an aspect of engineering that, while not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking of engineering, is still vitally important – communication. There were five individuals in the conference call, each with their own ideas, worries, and questions. During the call, they had to discuss new information, decide how to move further with the project, allay concerns, and discuss the best course of action. Though it may not always be easy, it’s essential for these engineers to be able to effectively communicate with others, especially when there are timelines they need to adhere to. The importance of communication is also seen amongst the engineers at Forthright through the teamwork they display: teamwork that they need to get projects done. There are only four engineers at the company, so I’ve been able to observe how they need to work as a team on projects to ensure both efficiency and quality for the customer.

I’m looking forward to it!