When I was in 4th year, our Dean of Engineering gathered us and asked one question: "What is an Engineer." After almost an hour of listening to our responses he said "You've described what an engineer does but not what an engineer is." He then answered the question by stating that "an engineer is someone who does things just right." He was right. I've successfully lived by that motto for many decades.
I remember a story told once of someone given a tour of a Japanese factory and noticing a place where the part under assembly needed to be rotated 90 degrees. They observed that in an American factory there would likely be some camera guided robotic arm to pick up the part turn it and set it back down. In this factory it was just a bar sticking over the edge of the conveyor belt that would turn the part as it went past. My own favorite engineering principle is "there is NO free lunch."
I heard this can be an issue with engineers who graduated from some top universities like MIT. They get so use to working through complex problems they forget to look at the simple solutions right in front of them. I don’t know how true that is but it’s interesting to think about. My favorite principle though would be failure = learning. Going to school again later in life has me much less afraid of messing things up at first and keeps me from becoming overwhelmed and overly frustrated when I’m not grasping something right away or don’t meet the mark on anything. It makes school less stressful than it was 10 years ago… although it still gets to me sometimes
This interests me, I’m self trained and it’s very unlikely i will get a degree with only 10 working years left. I love the content posted, the book is good too. I brought it mainly, not because i am at school, but because i wanted to support the channel. But i do have 25 years of engineering behind me, so I’m not that worried about getting a job
I would put forth that defining the problem has been the most beneficial principle in my everyday engineering workday. It is amazing how quickly the production folks chase symptoms without analyzing the root cause.
I have a grade 10 education. … okay not quite I got my ged when I was 20, but we all know how useless that is. I’m looking to upgrade this year and start engineering next fall. I knew as soon as you started to talk about simplifying your design that your team was going to do well. I’m not surprised you won. As a 31 year old working in the construction and oil and gas industries my entire adult life, you learn things like this that are not exactly taught in school. Point of this rant, you can have all the education or experience in the world, but one without the other is cause for failure.
Hey Jake, Love your videos. Could you do a Laptop buying guide for the 2023 Fall Freshman please. Personally I am on the fence between Mac OS and Windows OS. Thanks
Hey! Great question. I am a bit biased on this one because my MacBook pro from 2009 still works like a champ. So in terms of hardware … I think Apple has everyone beat. But software is a preference thing. So if you’re ok with iOS, then I’d say go with Apple for sure.
Its a good way to present the kiss principle. Some companies make specialist products that are made a bit more complicated and then Patented, so they cant be copied easily, in large volume anyway. Albeit you can and should still apply the kiss of life.
Keep it Short and Simple Design is a homage to Occam's Razor. The father of engineering Quality Control and engineering reliability is often credited to a Dr W Edward Deming
The KISS principle has been for a while in engineering, for one in designing you don't want to add unnecessary cost or weight to the product. Take the example of London bridge with its Victorian style decorations and embelishments which contributed nothing to the efficiency of the machinery, except for show. In our times however, auto manufacturers seem to depart by over-engineering for some reason. Just have a look at some of the systems running eg. HVAC in modern vehicles with some 12-15 actuators just for controlling airflow. These actuators are controlled by the main computer for max efficiency of energy use and have plastic gears, which tend to fail and are a nightmare for technicians to replace because of inexcessability. On aircraft design, does the Airbus A380 really need to have onboard showers..?? Water having high density, do they want to tank that heavy water for the showers just to keep some passengers 'fresh'. Bad design idea, we all have a shower before boarding a flight..!!
When I was in 4th year, our Dean of Engineering gathered us and asked one question: "What is an Engineer." After almost an hour of listening to our responses he said "You've described what an engineer does but not what an engineer is." He then answered the question by stating that "an engineer is someone who does things just right." He was right. I've successfully lived by that motto for many decades.
If you design things to last exactly to the end of the warranty period, people will hate you.
@@declanfarberbut you will get a promotion if the company wants that
A good engineer is one who can do for fifty cents, what the average person can do for a dollar.
I remember a story told once of someone given a tour of a Japanese factory and noticing a place where the part under assembly needed to be rotated 90 degrees. They observed that in an American factory there would likely be some camera guided robotic arm to pick up the part turn it and set it back down. In this factory it was just a bar sticking over the edge of the conveyor belt that would turn the part as it went past.
My own favorite engineering principle is "there is NO free lunch."
Fantastic example of the KISS principle!
I heard this can be an issue with engineers who graduated from some top universities like MIT. They get so use to working through complex problems they forget to look at the simple solutions right in front of them. I don’t know how true that is but it’s interesting to think about.
My favorite principle though would be failure = learning. Going to school again later in life has me much less afraid of messing things up at first and keeps me from becoming overwhelmed and overly frustrated when I’m not grasping something right away or don’t meet the mark on anything. It makes school less stressful than it was 10 years ago… although it still gets to me sometimes
This interests me, I’m self trained and it’s very unlikely i will get a degree with only 10 working years left. I love the content posted, the book is good too. I brought it mainly, not because i am at school, but because i wanted to support the channel. But i do have 25 years of engineering behind me, so I’m not that worried about getting a job
I would put forth that defining the problem has been the most beneficial principle in my everyday engineering workday. It is amazing how quickly the production folks chase symptoms without analyzing the root cause.
This is a good one! There should be an entire course based around these types of principles.
This should have far more views, this was so helpful :))
Awesome! Glad to hear you liked it!
I have a grade 10 education. … okay not quite I got my ged when I was 20, but we all know how useless that is. I’m looking to upgrade this year and start engineering next fall.
I knew as soon as you started to talk about simplifying your design that your team was going to do well. I’m not surprised you won. As a 31 year old working in the construction and oil and gas industries my entire adult life, you learn things like this that are not exactly taught in school.
Point of this rant, you can have all the education or experience in the world, but one without the other is cause for failure.
Hey Jake, Love your videos.
Could you do a Laptop buying guide for the 2023 Fall Freshman please. Personally I am on the fence between Mac OS and Windows OS. Thanks
Hey! Great question. I am a bit biased on this one because my MacBook pro from 2009 still works like a champ. So in terms of hardware … I think Apple has everyone beat. But software is a preference thing. So if you’re ok with iOS, then I’d say go
with Apple for sure.
Its a good way to present the kiss principle. Some companies make specialist products that are made a bit more complicated and then Patented, so they cant be copied easily, in large volume anyway. Albeit you can and should still apply the kiss of life.
Keep it Short and Simple Design is a homage to Occam's Razor. The father of engineering Quality Control and engineering reliability is often credited to a Dr W Edward Deming
Great video Jake!!
Thanks Shot!!
I think the KISS principle was stated most elegantly by William of Ockham in the 14th Century.
Jake
Keep up the great work
A great principle to live by
Some so-called engineers make things too simple for themselves, which, in turn makes it hard for the end user. Be careful.
Can you get a mechanical engineering degree online? I want a ME degree, but my work hours are hard to work around. 🤔
You sure can! Several universities offer full programs online
The KISS principle has been for a while in engineering, for one in designing you don't want to add unnecessary cost or weight to the product. Take the example of London bridge with its Victorian style decorations and embelishments which contributed nothing to the efficiency of the machinery, except for show.
In our times however, auto manufacturers seem to depart by over-engineering for some reason. Just have a look at some of the systems running eg. HVAC in modern vehicles with some 12-15 actuators just for controlling airflow. These actuators are controlled by the main computer for max efficiency of energy use and have plastic gears, which tend to fail and are a nightmare for technicians to replace because of inexcessability. On aircraft design, does the Airbus A380 really need to have onboard showers..?? Water having high density, do they want to tank that heavy water for the showers just to keep some passengers 'fresh'. Bad design idea, we all have a shower before boarding a flight..!!
hlw sir can i get the drive of your time of mechanical engineering ... which might help us ...
Hey! I’m not sure i understand your question. Are you asking what my motivation was to study mechanical engineering?
@@becominganengineer2271I am asking for study material in Google drive if you have ....