The rise of 3-D printing

3D printing, or additive manufacturing has been gaining a lot of grounds recently. There are even people that are comparing 3D printing to the next industrial revolution. True or not, we can not ignore the fact that it is becoming more prevalent and also more affordable to the general public.

3D printing is not a new invention, according to 3ders the first 3-D printer came around 1984. However, the fast decreasing cost for resins and printer cost is what is making it caught on. The vision is that soon, general consumers will be bale to customize products exactly to their needs Merchandise like this toothbrush that are made customized to anyone's teeth is no longer matter of possibility but matter of price.

There are also a large community out there for building 3 D printers, since the current cost range for a commercial one range from $2000 to $15000.  Take a look at this recent kick starter project that are promoting homemade 3D printers as low as $100.

The good news are not just for general consumers too, big companys have also started eyeing on 3D printing, most likely due to the possbibilities of complex shape and the ease it may have transfering from design to manufacturing. A while ago, GE just announced that they have used  3-D printed nozzle parts for their LEAP-1A engine. This raises some good possibilities as it is easy to see if part of a jet engine will be using parts that are 3D printed, they obviously meet the stringent requirement of the traditional manufactured part.

Maybe 3D printer will bring the the  new wave of change like the PC did back in the 90s.

Time in EPICS

 

EPICS is probably the best preparation for students who are looking to get real experiences while still having the "bullet proof jacket" of being a student, i.e. making mistakes will not result in catastrophic results.

I have only been involved with my current team since the beginning of this semester. Our team, Global Alternative Power Solutions (GAPS) focuses on designing low cost, sustainable solar systems for areas with low power infrastructure. The team is quite new, with young members who have very good drive and are still very creative with designs. Comparatively, this means the team is lacking some technical expertise and the background to deliver final solutions.

As I am one of the senior member in the team, my focus this semester is to complete the final detail engineering for an off grid solar panel system that is capable of providing power for a day to an elementary school at a remote site in Colombia. The system has been reviewed and feasibility has been tested, however, the previous, younger team has not specified any information regarding the quantity of exact components, commissioning, and delivery of the solution.
With my process modeling background from one of my co-op assignments, I was able to pull the old materials together and through some programing, automated the system components selection process. This way, if any changes from the partners are communicated, changes can be made quickly. This also helped the rest of the team as they start a design for a similar system specified for a chicken coop in Haiti.

The most rewarding experience out of this course though, is not the contribution I was able to make, but perhaps the opportunity I get from interacting with the other members. Since I am working with students outside of mechanical engineering, a lot of materials need to be quickly covered in a crash course manner. New graphs, figures need to be made as they have different level of familiarity. This process really put what I have learned in the past to test, it also shines lights on a lot of the visual aspects I have not been paying attention to in the past. Most importantly, when the explanations pay off after the other party nod with a “big cheese” on their faces, it is just incomparable to any other courses I have taken at Purdue.

GAPS Team Website: http://epics.ecn.purdue.edu/gaps/

Culture Context Amongst us

http://www.thinknpc.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/lostintranslation.jpg?w=300

We often hear of the phrase “lost in translation”, and surely, all of us have encountered this in some form.

Take the word “you” for example, “You” in English is used to address the second person and it’s definitely translatable to any other language. However, while I was learning English, I have always had problems addressing my teachers with “you”. For anyone that has ever tried to learn another language, more than likely they have encountered “you” in different forms: The formal one, “Sie” in German, or “Vous” in French which can also be used as plural forms, the other, “du” or “tu”, typically to be used in an intimate or informal situation.

Unlike French or German, “you” only comes in one form in English. I on the other hand, being raised in a traditional Taiwanese family with a Confucian background, calling my teacher “you” indicates an informal setting. Having been taught to respect my elders, especially teachers, it just seemed wrong to me.

My non Taiwanese peers though, never seemed to have problems with this. They are fine addressing the teacher as “you”, and they have no hesitation in saying “I don’t understand”, which with the Confucian mind set, translates to “your explanation is bad, do it again”.
Of course, that is probably not their intention and I eventually learned that these mental conflicts stem from the differences in a culture’s context. A high context culture tend to have very specific meanings for words in specific situations while a low context culture has less emphasis on specific messages from words to words.

High context culture embeds tradition and history within the language which sometimes adds specific cues and calls for different reactions in situations. For lower context cultures, messages are passed much more explicitly and no further interpretation are needed during communication.
As my English proficiency has improved, I have adapted to these culture context cues and I am no longer bothered by the conflicts between languages. In fact, the more I learn about culture context in different languages, the more I enjoy distinguishing them. With the internet being used by users of all background, it is now easy to search for words that cannot be directly translated into English, which somehow, makes “lost in translation” almost an obsolete term as countless users continues to thrive on explaining each terms, in different languages.