Whenever I think of what discipline I belong to or want to be a part of I always say to myself mechanical engineer. But what does that really mean? There are many different ways a person could define the role and any of those descriptions could be correct, but to me that discipline is any person who incorporates their innovation into any mechanical properties that leads to the benefit of others. These people could be out managing supply chains over at plants or designing crucial parts to mass manufactured products. But the one commonality is that they are applying their understandings in the sciences and mathematical fields and combining that with their creativity to come out with outcomes that will better the lives of others. When I think of the publications that come out of this discipline I usually think of academic journals, manuals, and reports all of which are very professional and technical in nature. The reason that this discipline can have such variation in the types writing is due to the context in which the publish works are used for. One might expect academic journals to be used for a mechanical engineer doing research work at university or working on a development project where you are venturing into the uncharted waters. Where as manuals and reports maybe used for an environment more suited for a business or manufacturing surrounding that will require constant update reports or manuals on producing a product.
So far for project 1, I’ve been trying to spitball some ideas on what are some things that are currently problems or could be improved upon, and to keep a stronger focal point on the subject I’ll probably stick to something in the Boston area. The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about problems in the Boston area is the transportation. If it be public transportation or the city’s infrastructure like its streets, bridges, or tunnels you really can’t go wrong. Let’s start with public transportation, more specifically the train/subway system. There are many aspects of this system that an average Bostonian would tell you needs some work. One would be the timeliness of which the trains arrive or reliability of the schedule which may be due to system failures or poor planning . Another would be the space and capacity of which these trains can hold up to especially during peak hours. Now with the infrastructure of the city there has been a long history with Boston and bad traffic. The root problem is that since it is an older city it does not follow the more practical and modern grid design most American cities use today. The only method of improvement so far have either been digging or building. What makes these problems relevant to my discipline is that they feature core problems that can be solved using mechanical or physical solutions. So the next step to take would be to find practical solutions to these existing problems.
