Engineering is the "E" of STEM. Engineering to the solving of problems by applying one's experiences and knowledge in order to improve and protect lives. It is a major part of the STEM field and includes many different types such as electrical, civil, chemical, and industrial. The role of an industrial engineer is to create/ come up with innovative and effective solutions to make items or people work more efficiently. The work to reduce errors and ineffective actions.
For this part of our industrial engineering project, we had to take our kitchens and redesign them so that they would become more efficient and easier to move around in. In the sketch for the original kitchen, we had to draw out the path to make 3 meals: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. My sketch only contained lunch and dinner though because I don't eat breakfast. The second sketch had to be the redesigned kitchen and the justification for the changes that we made to the kitchen.
For this project we were tasked with creating a cardboard structure using the given cardboard. We were not allowed to use adhesives, such as glue, to stick our pieces together and the structure had to be able to hold our weight for 30 seconds. Along with hold our weight for 30 seconds, it had to be able to be assembled in 45 seconds or less and it had to be at least 13 inches off the ground.
For this project we used Fusion 360 to create Autodesk 3D drawings of our projects. This allowed us to better see the dimensions and designs that we were trying to create. After creating the online designs, we went on the build a miniature model of our structure.
For this project it was recommend that we create a miniature scale model of what your final design was going to look like to see if you needed to make changes to the design before using your final pieces of cardboard because you would not be allowed to get more after cutting it. Because we weren't able to use anything to hold our structures together, I wanted to make it, so everything slid into each other nicely but held firmly. By creating inner columns in the middle of the square it helps to stabilize the structure.
For final product, I was mainly stuck to the same design as the miniature model. Although, I did wind up taking out two of the inner walls due to lack of cardboard. Also, for the top of the structure where I would stand on it, I just laid a piece of cardboard on it so that there was a stable place to stand.
During the testing of my design, I was successfully able to build the model in under 45 seconds and it could hold my weight for at least 30 seconds and broken as soon as I got off of it. Ultimately the design ended up just missing the 14" mark with it being 13.75". In the end the model did not break throughout the testing period, making it successful., though there are somethings that could have been changed such as making more precise cuts and measurements because that lack of precision seem to be one of the parts that really affected the outcome of the design.
This project was able to relate to math because of all the precise measuring and measurement that have to go into it. Measurements are a very important part of not only math but science, both of which are a major part in STEM (seeing as two of the letters in STEM, stand for math and science).
Out of all of our previous projects this has to be one of my least favorite. Though this project does represent industrial engineering, which is a part of the STEM work field. It shows how you have to try and improve and make solutions that are more efficient for the problem it was created for. In the end, I was happy with the results I got from the testing of this project and the result of my overall project. as the end result was overall successful.